Blockbuster Sends Retro-Fans Into A Frenzy With Cryptic Website Note

For most, defunct video chain Blockbuster is little more than a nostalgic memory of pre-streaming times since the company shuttered all bar one of its locations.

But fans of the famed video rental chain giant, synonymous with all things 1990s, have spotted something change on the company’s official website and quickly took to social media to reveal their discovery.

Upon visiting Blockbuster.com, a screen with the company’s logo appears with the tantalizing promise “We are working on rewinding your movie.”

Though the chain has declined to offer any explanation as to why it has chosen to reactivate its previously dormant website with the cryptic message (which echoes its ‘be kind and rewind’ request to customers), Blockbuster did joke about making a comeback.

It tweeted: New business idea: “We’re going to come back as a bank and use VHS and DVDs as currency. Time to go visit your mom.”

Gallows humour was quickly and inevitably followed by social media blowing up, as users took to social channels to express their conspiracy theories for the deeper reason behind the video rental chain’s message.

Blockbuster has since been responding to thousands of Tweets asking about what is going on with a multitude of movie gifs.

The Multi-Billion Dollar Empire

Lest we forget, Blockbuster once operated over 9,000 stores, had 60,000 employees and generated more than $5.9 billion in annual revenue, with a presence in more than a dozen countries around the world, all of which operated as different business holdings.

It’s rise was meteoric. Founded in 1985 by David Cook, Blockbuster debuted in Dallas, Tx. and within two years had been sold to Wayne Huizenga for $18.5 million. Just seven years later, he sold the company to Viacom for an eye-watering $8.4 billion and the corporation took it public in 1999.

But it’s demise was as dramatic as any, ahem, blockbuster. Upstart Netflix
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and a host of other streaming services had been eating away at Blockbuster’s market share and although Viacom parted ways with Blockbuster in 2004 and the company launched Blockbuster Online, it was too little, too late.

In an attempt to wipe out $1 billion of debt, in 2010 Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy and was delisted with revenues of just $120 million from its depleted U.S. store estate.

Dish Network bought the company out of bankruptcy for $320 million in 2011 but despite grand plans, in particular that it might attempt to rival Netflix, the last remaining stores shuttered in 2014 bar one, in Bend, Oregon.

The Last Blockbuster

That store remains trading, and was bolstered by a viral commercial that ran on social media during the recent Super Bowl which, according to store manager Sandi Harding, helped boost sales by 200%.

She believes that nostalgia for the once ubiquitous brand is the driving force behind her store’s financial health and in 2020, Netflix (ironically) aired a documentary about the Bend location called The Last Blockbuster, which highlighted the droves of tourists that visit each year.

Harding says superfans send her vintage memorabilia to decorate her store and they can even stay there, after the store partnered with Airbnb to offer sleepovers.

And that, until the mysterious web message, was that. Now Blockbuster fans are waiting to see whether there really could be a Hollywood ending.