Blockbuster Video - Revision history

RobSmith: /* Super Bowl */

2020-10-12T21:04:53Z

Super Bowl

Technotronical at 03:59, January 16, 2020

2020-01-16T03:59:56Z

Technotronical: Added uploaded images to caption boxes for page completion

2020-01-16T01:44:40Z

Added uploaded images to caption boxes for page completion

Technotronical: Added uploaded images to caption boxes for page completion

2020-01-16T01:25:42Z

Added uploaded images to caption boxes for page completion

DavidB4: improving

2020-01-09T22:35:31Z

improving

Show changes

Technotronical: Updated rewrites in CEO history and rewards programs original writing and two new external links added

2020-01-04T06:30:35Z

Updated rewrites in CEO history and rewards programs original writing and two new external links added

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Technotronical: Updated section with a more robust written explanation of the 198 stores, acquisitions and Sunshine bowl advertising as Blockbuster bowl

2020-01-03T06:25:22Z

Updated section with a more robust written explanation of the 198 stores, acquisitions and Sunshine bowl advertising as Blockbuster bowl

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Technotronical: /* History */

2019-12-17T03:15:13Z

History

Technotronical: Added Blockbuster Pop-up SoHo Neighborhood NY section and updated New Zealand section formatting edits

2019-12-17T03:13:23Z

Added Blockbuster Pop-up SoHo Neighborhood NY section and updated New Zealand section formatting edits

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Technotronical: Created page Blockbuster Video, new updated sections including The Christian boycott of films and last location and documentary film

2019-12-14T06:35:57Z

Created page Blockbuster Video, new updated sections including The Christian boycott of films and last location and documentary film

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@@ Line 288: / Line 288: @@
 ===Super Bowl===
-One of Blockbuster's most well-known [[advertising]] campaigns was launched during the Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002. It starred the voices of Jim Belushi and James Woods as Carl and Ray, a rabbit and a [[guinea pig]] in a pet shop located across the road from a Blockbuster store. The first campaign ended in 2003. The Carl and Ray campaign started again in 2007 starting with a high dollar thirty second commercial slot during the first quarter of Super Bowl XLI. The 2007 ad again had the same voices from actors James Woods and Jim Belushi along with the addition of Alec Baldwin in the voice-over promotion piece of the business. Primarily this Superbowl commercial promoted movies through the mail under the official name "Blockbuster total access" with an offer for a free trial.
+One of Blockbuster's most well-known [[advertising]] campaigns was launched during the Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002. It starred the voices of Jim Belushi and [[James Woods]] as Carl and Ray, a rabbit and a [[guinea pig]] in a pet shop located across the road from a Blockbuster store. The first campaign ended in 2003. The Carl and Ray campaign started again in 2007 starting with a high dollar thirty second commercial slot during the first quarter of Super Bowl XLI. The 2007 ad again had the same voices from actors James Woods and Jim Belushi along with the addition of Alec Baldwin in the voice-over promotion piece of the business. Primarily this Superbowl commercial promoted movies through the mail under the official name "Blockbuster total access" with an offer for a free trial.
 ===Misleading advertising===

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 Founded in 1985 by David Cook, Blockbuster began to expand domestically and eventually on an international level into the the 1990s. When Blockbuster was experiencing "peak performance" of employees and profitability according to their public records, Fall 2004 was this time period. During this time Blockbuster employed 84K people worldwide, 31 percent of those employees were in the [[United States]], for a total of 9,094 stores.
-Competition from the mail-order video services, easily accessible automated kiosks, video on demand services were the publicly known reasons for the downfall of the video empire. Based upon new research more evidence shows the  single biggest mistakes is when Blockbuster spun off of [[Viacom]] taking an insurmountable $905 million loan to pay a special dividend to Viacom shareholders for the privilege, were major factors leading up to Blockbuster's eventual demise. Progressively, Blockbuster began to lose significant revenue during the 2000s. Blockbuster officially filed for bankruptcy protection in early 2010. In 2011, Blockbuster's remaining 1,700 stores were bought by satellite television provider Dish Network, eventually selling off its last corporate-owned Blockbuster stores in 2014 leaving a handful of franchise-owned stores and as of 2020, only 1 store left.
+Competition from the mail-order video services, easily accessible automated kiosks, video on demand services were the publicly known reasons for the downfall of the video empire. Based upon new research more evidence shows the  single biggest mistakes is when Blockbuster spun off of [[Viacom]] taking an insurmountable $905 million loan to pay a special dividend to Viacom shareholders for the privilege, were major factors leading up to Blockbuster's eventual demise. Progressively, Blockbuster began to lose significant revenue during the 2000s. Blockbuster officially filed for bankruptcy protection in early 2010. In 2011, Blockbuster's remaining 1,700 stores were bought by satellite television provider Dish Network, eventually selling off its last corporate-owned Blockbuster stores in 2014 leaving a handful of franchise-owned stores and as of 2020, only 1 U.S. based store left and 2 international stores left.
 ==Slogans==

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 Nintendo of America, Inc. v. Blockbuster Entertainment. (1987) When home console video games from the likes of Atari, Nintendo Coleco-vision, etc. boomed in popularity in the 1980s, Blockbuster rented specifically Nintendo games out to their customers, too. Gaining ground as the largest Video game manufacturer, Nintendo, sued Blockbuster for copyright infringement over copies of their video game manual booklets that came with each video game cartridge. Nintendo claimed Blockbuster was doing unauthorized rentals of Nintendo video games as a was a violation of federal law. Ultimately the two parties would eventually settle the matter out of court, with Blockbuster retaining the legal right to continue the practice. Nintendo won the case, based on the fact that Blockbuster had included photocopies of the original instruction manuals with its rental NES carts. Blockbuster unsuccessfully argued that it was only protecting its investment in the original manuals, as it would cost more to replace the originals than it would to photocopy replacements. In this particular part of the case, the courts found in favor of Nintendo, therefore Blockbuster was required to start providing the original manuals with its rental games. Blockbuster still wouldn't be forced into doing this practice so thy would only provide the manuals if a customer specifically asked for one form the back of the store or if one was available in a drawer. Still early on there were only 19 Blockbuster stores, and the upward potential attracted Wayne Huizenga's associate John Melk. Gaining Melk's attention due to Blockbuster's efficiency, business model, family-friendly image and he convinced Huizenga to have a look at it. Huizenga and Melk utilized techniques from their waste business and Ray Kroc's model of expansion to rapidly expand Blockbuster, and soon they were opening a new store every 24 hours. In 1987, Huzienga and the two partners purchased a controlling interest in Blockbuster Entertainment for $18.5 million and began setting out to acquiring video store competitors like the Las Vegas video-superstore chain Major Video and Movies to Go, a 29-store chain based in [[St. Louis]]. They took over many of the existing Blockbuster franchise stores as well, and Huizenga even spent much of the late 1980s acquiring several of Blockbuster's rivals.
-[[File:Blockbuster video storefront.jpg|thumb|right|The exterior store front of a Blockbuster location in Alaska]]]]
+[[File:Blockbuster video storefront.jpg|thumb|right|The exterior store front of a Blockbuster location in Alaska]]
 In 1990, Blockbuster bought Erol Video Club's mostly on the East coast totaling 250 stores from owner Erol Onaran. Shortly thereafter, Blockbuster acquired the Music Plus music retail chains and created Blockbuster Music in 1992. The same year Blockbuster acquired Sound Warehouse.
 *1993, Blockbuster acquired control of Spelling Entertainment Group Inc. in a $141.5 million stock swap, expanding its reach in home entertainment programming. took a controlling interest in Spelling Television-Entertainment Group, The Spelling TV Group also owned 35% of Republic Pictures; that company merged with Spelling in April 1994.
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 [[File:Interior of last Blockbuster Video.jpg|thumb|Blockbuster in [[Bend, Oregon]]]]
-Blockbuster store closures aroused considerable nostalgia and "would draw crowds of more than 100, as customers came to buy movies in the store’s inventory they couldn’t find anywhere else and revisited memories of shopping at Blockbuster". Originally reported by the Blockbuster Fan Page, just one store was left open as of March 2019 in [[Bend, Oregon]]. The store houses [[Russell Crowe]] movie props which John Oliver had donated to an Alaska store. A documentary that was still currently in production by two Bend filmmakers, had a goal to get their film "on the shelf at Blockbuster while there still is one." The Bend store has attracted visitors from around the world as a "living history museum" as the video rental store was "once a mundane feature of everyday life [but] is now a retro novelty experience".
+Blockbuster store closures aroused considerable nostalgia and "would draw crowds of more than 100, as customers came to buy movies in the store’s inventory they couldn’t find anywhere else and revisited memories of shopping at Blockbuster". Originally reported by the Blockbuster Fan Page, just one store was left open as of March 2019 in [[Bend, Oregon]], notably there's two stores still open in the country Italy. This last United States store houses [[Russell Crowe]] movie props which John Oliver had donated to an Alaska store. A documentary that was still currently in production by two Bend filmmakers, had a goal to get their film "on the shelf at Blockbuster while there still is one." The Bend store has attracted visitors from around the world as a "living history museum" as the video rental store was "once a mundane feature of everyday life [but] is now a retro novelty experience".
 ===The Last Blockbuster===
-To this day there is still one stand alone Blockbuster Video store in business. The store for all intensive purposes looks like the real classic stores and has much of the same merchandise and of course movie, television, and video game rentals, but is privately owned, franchised.
+To this day there is still one stand alone Blockbuster Video store in business in the United States, there's still two Blockbuster Video stores open in the country Italy as of today as well. The store for all intensive purposes looks like the real classic stores and has much of the same merchandise and of course movie, television, and video game rentals, but is privately owned, franchised.
 A documentary on the last remaining Blockbuster Video in Bend, Oregon was released by Production Companies Popmotion Pictures and September Club on July 7, 2019.
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 ==International operations==
-[[File:Blockbuster Italy.jpg|right|thumb|Checkout counter showing the store exit that displayed a media layout for the interior of a Blockbuster location in Italy]]
+[[File:Blockbuster Italy.jpg|right|thumb|Checkout counter showing the store exit that displays a media layout for the interior of a Blockbuster location in Italy. Italy has two Blockbuster stores still in operation today]]
 ===Australia===
 [[Image:Flag of Australia.png|left|75px]]
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 *[https://campingworldbowl.com/history/ Camping World Bowl History of the Orgignal Sunshine classic college football]
 *[https://www.chiefmarketer.com/blockbuster-canada-launches-loyalty-program/ Canada Loyalty rewards program]
 [[Category:Business]]
 [[Category:Television]]
 [[Category:Movies]]

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 [[File:Blockbuster membership card.jpg|right|thumb|Blockbuster membership card (c. 1990)]]
 '''Blockbuster Videos Inc.''', formerly '''Blockbuster Entertainment, Inc.''', (also known as '''Blockbuster Video''' and '''Blockbuster, LLC''') is an [[American]]-based rental service for movies and video games. Traditionally, they offered rented out this media on magnetic tapes (8-track & VHS) and optical disks (DVD & Blu-ray) from brick-and-mortar stores, as well as a DVD-by-mail service and a cinema theater. Later on, they also began offering media streaming and in-name-only on-demand video service.
@@ Line 48: / Line 49: @@
 Nintendo of America, Inc. v. Blockbuster Entertainment. (1987) When home console video games from the likes of Atari, Nintendo Coleco-vision, etc. boomed in popularity in the 1980s, Blockbuster rented specifically Nintendo games out to their customers, too. Gaining ground as the largest Video game manufacturer, Nintendo, sued Blockbuster for copyright infringement over copies of their video game manual booklets that came with each video game cartridge. Nintendo claimed Blockbuster was doing unauthorized rentals of Nintendo video games as a was a violation of federal law. Ultimately the two parties would eventually settle the matter out of court, with Blockbuster retaining the legal right to continue the practice. Nintendo won the case, based on the fact that Blockbuster had included photocopies of the original instruction manuals with its rental NES carts. Blockbuster unsuccessfully argued that it was only protecting its investment in the original manuals, as it would cost more to replace the originals than it would to photocopy replacements. In this particular part of the case, the courts found in favor of Nintendo, therefore Blockbuster was required to start providing the original manuals with its rental games. Blockbuster still wouldn't be forced into doing this practice so thy would only provide the manuals if a customer specifically asked for one form the back of the store or if one was available in a drawer. Still early on there were only 19 Blockbuster stores, and the upward potential attracted Wayne Huizenga's associate John Melk. Gaining Melk's attention due to Blockbuster's efficiency, business model, family-friendly image and he convinced Huizenga to have a look at it. Huizenga and Melk utilized techniques from their waste business and Ray Kroc's model of expansion to rapidly expand Blockbuster, and soon they were opening a new store every 24 hours. In 1987, Huzienga and the two partners purchased a controlling interest in Blockbuster Entertainment for $18.5 million and began setting out to acquiring video store competitors like the Las Vegas video-superstore chain Major Video and Movies to Go, a 29-store chain based in [[St. Louis]]. They took over many of the existing Blockbuster franchise stores as well, and Huizenga even spent much of the late 1980s acquiring several of Blockbuster's rivals.
-[[File:Blockbuster-Store-Exterior-.jpg|thumb|right|The exterior of a Blockbuster store in Mankato, [[Minnesota]]]]
+[[File:Blockbuster video storefront.jpg|thumb|right|The exterior store front of a Blockbuster location in Alaska]]]]
 In 1990, Blockbuster bought Erol Video Club's mostly on the East coast totaling 250 stores from owner Erol Onaran. Shortly thereafter, Blockbuster acquired the Music Plus music retail chains and created Blockbuster Music in 1992. The same year Blockbuster acquired Sound Warehouse.
 *1993, Blockbuster acquired control of Spelling Entertainment Group Inc. in a $141.5 million stock swap, expanding its reach in home entertainment programming. took a controlling interest in Spelling Television-Entertainment Group, The Spelling TV Group also owned 35% of Republic Pictures; that company merged with Spelling in April 1994.
@@ Line 155: / Line 156: @@
 ==International operations==
 ===Australia===
 [[Image:Flag of Australia.png|left|75px]]

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 ==History==
 ===1985–1997: David Cook era===
-Blockbuster's early beginnings can be traced back to another company, Cook Data Services, that was founded by David Cook in 1978. The company's primary goal was to supply software services to the oil and gas industries throughout [[Texas]], but it was not very successful.<ref name="Cook Data"/> Sandy Cook, David's wife, wanted to get into the video business, and her husband would soon study the industry and future prospects. Using profit he made from the sale of David P. Cook & Associates, the subsidiary of his company, he decided to buy into a video store franchise in Dallas known as Video Works. When Video Works would not allow him to decorate the interior of his store with a blue-and-yellow design, he departed the franchise and opened the first Blockbuster Video in 1985 under his own company Blockbuster Video Inc.
+Blockbuster's early beginnings can be traced back to another company, Cook Data Services, that was founded by David Cook in 1978. The company's primary goal was to supply software services to the oil and gas industries throughout [[Texas]], but it was not very successful. Sandy Cook, David's wife, wanted to get into the video business, and her husband would soon study the industry and future prospects. Using profit he made from the sale of David P. Cook & Associates, the subsidiary of his company, he decided to buy into a video store franchise in Dallas known as Video Works. When Video Works would not allow him to decorate the interior of his store with a blue-and-yellow design, he departed the franchise and opened the first Blockbuster Video in 1985 under his own company Blockbuster Video Inc.
 The first Blockbuster store opened October 19, 1985, in [[Dallas]], Texas, with an inventory of 8,000 VHS and 2,000 Beta tapes. Cook's experience with managing huge databases proved helpful in driving innovation within the industry. Following early success from the company's first stores, Cook built a $6-million warehouse in [[Garland, Texas]], to help sustain and support future growth that allowed new stores to open quickly.
-In 1987, the company won a court case against [[Nintendo]], which paved the way for video game rental. Also that year, [[Waste Management, Inc co-founder Wayne Huizenga, who originally had reservations about entering the video rental industry, agreed to acquire several Blockbuster stores. At that point the number of stores counted 19, and attracted Huizenga's associate John Melk's attention due to its efficiency, family-friendly image and business model, and convinced Huizenga to have a look at it. Huizenga and Melk utilized techniques from their waste business and Ray Kroc's model of expansion to rapidly expand Blockbuster, and soon they were opening a new store every 24 hours. They took over many of the existing Blockbuster franchise stores as well, and Huizenga even spent much of the late 1980s acquiring several of Blockbuster's rivals, including Major Video.
+In 1987, the company won a court case against [[Nintendo]], which paved the way for video game rental. Also that year, Waste Management, Inc co-founder Wayne Huizenga, who originally had reservations about entering the video rental industry, agreed to acquire several Blockbuster stores. At that point the number of stores counted 19, and attracted Huizenga's associate John Melk's attention due to its efficiency, family-friendly image and business model, and convinced Huizenga to have a look at it. Huizenga and Melk utilized techniques from their waste business and Ray Kroc's model of expansion to rapidly expand Blockbuster, and soon they were opening a new store every 24 hours. They took over many of the existing Blockbuster franchise stores as well, and Huizenga even spent much of the late 1980s acquiring several of Blockbuster's rivals, including Major Video.
 [[File:Blockbuster-Store-Exterior-.jpg|thumb|right|The exterior of a Blockbuster store in Mankato, [[Minnesota]]]]