Blockbuster’s Shocking Rise and Epic Fall: What Streaming Giants Fear Most

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Look around online, and you’ll notice an increasing number of conversations about the common flaws that define Generation Y.

It seems that many people are accepting a revised definition of Millennials, pushing its start date back to 1979 or even earlier. However, when you’re criticizing individuals who fondly reminisce about Saturday morning cartoons, Street Fighter 2, or Guns N’ Roses, you’re referring to people whose significant life experiences occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s, not those who grew up at the turn of the millennium.

Without getting into labels, genuine longing for the past among Generation Y is indeed tangible. Therefore, as more individuals become aware of the pop-culture-like aspects of this generation, and label them appropriately, it’s a progressive step forward.

Since iconic franchises that reigned supreme in pop culture during the 80s and 90s have all fallen victim to the Corporate Intellectual Property Death Cycle, these once-beloved childhood brands are now primarily used to extract money from Generation Y or, worse yet, to influence everyone, including themselves.

However, with such a substantial amount of capital being invested in these dormant or outdated brand names, the growing counterculture movement may struggle to gain ground until consumers choose to cease supporting companies perceived as antagonistic towards them.

Which it’s in everyone’s best interests to do, if only to help beat inflation.

Among the various expressions of Generation Y’s nostalgia, none quite match the melancholic longing they harbor for the days of Blockbuster Video stores.

Just a reminder: Blockbuster Entertainment was once a colossal company that dominated the market, striking advantageous agreements with distributors and adopting questionable business tactics to drive smaller video rental shops out of existence.

Among the elements of the video rental market that can stir up a sense of nostalgia are the independent stores tucked away in shopping strips, the family-run businesses on Main Street, and the smaller retailers who set aside a section of their store to rent out cassettes and NES games back in the 1980s. Unlike the impersonal big corporations.

Perhaps you could contend that the entity which overthrew and superseded Blockbuster can be considered more malevolent. And indeed, your assertion holds merit. However, despite Blockbuster symbolizing the 80s’ greed-driven evil (Mammon), as opposed to today’s all-consuming evil (Moloch), it’s undeniably a good thing they are gone. Ideally, both Blockbuster and Netflix would disappear together, leaving us with a cleaner entertainment landscape.

That said, the odious rise and belated fall of Blockbuster does serve a useful purpose.

It tracks almost exactly with the flowering and withering of late 20th century pop culture.

Watch this pictorial trip down memory lane:

Wait just a moment,” it seems you’re stating. “Despite Cultural Ground Zero happening in the late ’90s, Blockbuster continued to expand until as late as 2005!

Indeed, at that point, the overall count of Blockbuster stores across the country began to decrease noticeably. However, this decline was merely a manifestation of a downward trend that had already been established for quite some time prior.

As usual, Danny DeVito explains …

The “Increasing dominance in a progressively diminishing market” phase, as depicted in the video about Blockbuster Video, represents their struggle from 1998 to 2005.

After that, it’s down the tubes – slow at first, then all at once.

Is the fall of Blockbuster a bellwether for the fate awaiting its Death Cult streaming successors?

Only time will tell.

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2025-04-20 20:47