Outside of the fact that Blockbuster was often not a very nice company: did it really have to turn out this way? I think it didn't have to end in bankruptcy. Someone will eventually write a whole screed about missed opportunities (e.g. expanding beyond movies, early strong internet presence) and the reasons BB management missed them (stuck in the '80s?). But I'm sure a smarter team would have capitalized on the futur…
Well it hasn't ended, they can still come out of this but they will never be the pre-Netflix BB.
That's like asking how many times you can read the same damn book.
I don't get it when people find it weird that I will reread some books multiple times. I've read some books once every year or so and even my wife thinks I'm weird. She's a serial book reader (150 books as of now for the year, almost one a day) and will sell them as soon as she reads them, I don't work that way even after she tries to push me into selling some books I just can't.
It's interesting sometimes, how the book seems to change after another reading. But it's probably you that's changed.
Not to dance on someone's grave but to me this is fantastic news. When Blockbuster was the dominate player, they were quite the nasty bully. Ridiculously high late fees that were very hard to avoid. Half the time you'd return the DVD on time, but the employees wouldn't inventory it until it was too late and still hit you with a fee. A fee which they were extremely reluctant to remove. Their customer service was downr…
I never understood the concept of buying movies. How many times can you watch the same damn thing?
Buying a DVD (especially used) is barely more expensive than renting, and there are all kinds of benefits to owning it, including the ability to watch it over a long period of time, lending it to friends, watching a really good movie multiple times or a second time with friends, etc. Plus you can buy any movie; you're not limited to the crappy mainstream selection of the video store/kiosk. Plus they have value (some of my films are worth more than when I purchased them) so that has to be factored in as well.
Note: I live in an area which doesn't have Netflix, so I'm comparing to renting from a store/kiosk.
Not to dance on someone's grave but to me this is fantastic news. When Blockbuster was the dominate player, they were quite the nasty bully. Ridiculously high late fees that were very hard to avoid. Half the time you'd return the DVD on time, but the employees wouldn't inventory it until it was too late and still hit you with a fee. A fee which they were extremely reluctant to remove. Their customer service was downr…
I never understood the concept of buying movies. How many times can you watch the same damn thing?
If it has any real depth, you'll see things the second time that you didn't see the first. If it's actually good, the same will hold true over and over. There are folks out there who watch "The Usual Suspects" in groups, regularly, picking up on details they'd missed the first fifteen times. I could watch "Ergo Proxy", "Eerie Indiana", TV-form of "Avatar: The Last Airbender", "Ghost in the Shell: Stand-alone Complex", "The Usual Suspects" or "Cypher" a dozen more times, and be suprised each time by picking up on new pieces of detail or references.
I never understood the concept of buying movies. How many times can you watch the same damn thing?
I am starting to learn, with our 2 and a half year old daughter, that you can watch the same damn thing many, many times . Beyond that, I completely agree with you though.
I had to endure The Sound Of Music at least 20 times with my 3-year old son. Now that he is a little older he has moved on to more entertaining fare such as Cars and Shrek. I am dreading the transition to Transformers however.
What's funny is that they just recently entered into a partnership agreement with NCR to buy up DVDplay and replaced all the newer, more compact, and better designed DVDplay boxes with crappier, buggier, and bulkier Blockbuster boxes.
So their copycat of Redbox sucked. Their copycat of GameStop in-store video game sections sucked. Their copycat of Netflix sucked. It's like watching a kid trying too hard to become an adult. We're post-Sharper Image now, B&Ms: do something meaningful.
Not to dance on someone's grave but to me this is fantastic news. When Blockbuster was the dominate player, they were quite the nasty bully. Ridiculously high late fees that were very hard to avoid. Half the time you'd return the DVD on time, but the employees wouldn't inventory it until it was too late and still hit you with a fee. A fee which they were extremely reluctant to remove. Their customer service was downr…
I never understood the concept of buying movies. How many times can you watch the same damn thing?
I have an extremely small movie collection, having been a Netflix subscriber for years, but I collect movies that I would want to share with other people.
I barely ever watch a movie twice, but I can watch it an indefinite number of times as long as there's at least one person in the group who hasn't seen it.
I never understood the concept of buying movies. How many times can you watch the same damn thing?
That's like asking how many times you can read the same damn book.
No it's not. Even for fiction, the plot depth of the books I've read multiple times is incomparable to the plot depth of the movies on the all time best selling DVD lists. That is, unless you think that Avatar and Twilight had really deep plots.
I don't get it when people find it weird that I will reread some books multiple times. I've read some books once every year or so and even my wife thinks I'm weird. She's a serial book reader (150 books as of now for the year, almost one a day) and will sell them as soon as she reads them, I don't work that way even after she tries to push me into selling some books I just can't.
It's interesting sometimes, how the book seems to change after another reading. But it's probably you that's changed.
Partly, sure. Also, knowing what happens makes it a different experience. No sense of wonder or mystery, more focus on the prose, storytelling ability, etc.
I wouldn't go long on Barnes & Noble or Borders either.
It would be a sad day if you couldn't go to a local bookstore and randomly browse/ buy books. Not that I'm against ebooks or online purchasing of physical books as well as bookshops.
I'm really going to miss them. My closest Borders has looked like it's either about to remodel or close since January, with big empty spaces of damaged carpet.
I wish someone would start a chain of places to just sit and work. Sure, stick in a small selection of books, gadgets, and I guess some light food and drinks if you need to, but make the place primarily about comfortable tables and chairs plus wifi and I'd gladly pay for it.