BlockBusted

Blockbusters fatal flaws in the evolving entertainment industry

Kerri Grier
Sep 1, 2018 · 3 min read
Andrew H. Walker / Stringer / Getty; Twitter

Before the rise of Redbox and Netflix, there was Blockbuster. Blockbuster was a video rental chain that rose in the 90’s and then shut down in 2013.

Blockbuster was the place to go if you didn’t want to watch a movie at the theater, but rather, in the comfort of your own home. Similar to a library, you could amble through the rows of movies that you’ve seen several times and have never seen. The options were tangible and there before you. When you finally selected your evening’s entertainment, there would be a small array of snacks waiting for you near the register — a perfect pairing for an evening in. Now if you were to walk by a Blockbusters (if it’s even still there), you’ll see a faded sign and boarded up drop slot. What happened to Blockbuster?

Videos > DVDs > ISOs

Let’s start with the original problem that Blockbuster sought to solve: people didn’t have a way to temporarily own videos in their own homes. To watch a movie, you needed to make sure to catch it while it was in theaters. If you didn’t watch it while it was in theaters, then you needed to buy it. But what if you didn’t want to own something that you had never watched?

Blockbusters way of addressing this problem was to create stores around the country that would allow people to rent videos for a set amount of time, similar to a library, but with more options than a library (and not for free). This was a viable solution whenever the main medium of movies was video cassette’s or DVD’s. However, whenever movies became more portable via ISO’s and streams, Blockbuster’s product started to become less convenient.

Convenience is Key

Blockbuster didn’t have too much competition in the beginning: movie theaters were a competitor, but since they were sufficiently different, they could both coexist. The real problem began to surface when the internet became a hub for watching videos.

Services such as Netflix, Hulu, and HBO were beginning to enter the internet scene. Before these sites, people were beholden to their TV companies and buying videos to have the convenience of watching movies at home. But now with Netflix, you could search for your movie and either watch it right away or ask to rent it (and get it delivered to you in a day or two) all from your home. These sites were seeking to solve the same problem as Blockbuster but took it a step further. Now you could search and rent a movie without ever leaving your home.

Why didn’t Blockbuster follow suit and evolve? Perhaps they assumed that people would still want to have the experience of physically looking for movies. Maybe they assumed that they still had more of a movie selection than the sites in the earlier stages. Maybe they forgot to assume that people’s needs constantly evolve with the landscape they’re in. Maybe they didn’t re-evaluate their assumptions until it was too late.

Nature, after all, will tend towards the easiest and most convenient path. Renting videos in person had become an inconvenience rather than a sought solution.

Failure to Evolve

Ultimately, Blockbuster’s ruin came due to a failure to evolve in an ever changing landscape. It’s not enough to solve today’s needs today — you need to constantly evaluate needs and options going forward to remain relevant.

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