40 Fun Facts About Video Rental Shops

Which future streaming giant did Blockbuster turn down the chance to buy for $50 million in 2000?

Netflix was then a fledgling DVD-by-mail firm, just three years old. A decade after saying no, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy protection.

In which city did a franchise outlive every other branch to become the world's last Blockbuster store in 2019?

Bend, Oregon kept its franchise open after the company-owned stores shut in 2014. By 2024 about 80% of its income came from selling merchandise, not from rentals.

Which future film director spent five years behind the counter at Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, California?

Quentin Tarantino bought the shop's entire stock of tapes when it closed in 1995 and rebuilt the store inside his own home.

Which Sony tape format did most video rental shops drop in the 1980s after VHS won the format war?

Betamax did not vanish entirely: its cassette shape lived on as Betacam, a professional format used by broadcasters long after shops went all-VHS.

Which 1994 Kevin Smith comedy has Randal Graves working at RST Video in Leonardo, New Jersey?

Clerks was filmed in the real New Jersey stores where Smith himself worked, and its initial shoot cost just $27,575.

Which real rental chain hires Steve Harrington and Robin in Stranger Things after their mall is destroyed?

Family Video outlasted its bigger rivals partly because it owned the buildings its stores sat in. It closed its last rental shops in 2021.

Which color scheme, vetoed by his franchisor Video Works, did David Cook choose for the first Blockbuster store?

Blue and yellow mattered so much to Cook that he walked away from the Video Works franchise and launched his own brand in 1985.

Which 1995 film did Reed Hastings say he returned six weeks late, a tale he used to explain DVD-by-mail?

Apollo 13 is the tape in the tale, which ends with a $40 late fee. His co-founder later said the story was invented, and Blockbuster reportedly found no record of it.

Which DVD kiosk firm, first tested inside McDonald's restaurants in 2004, passed Blockbuster in US locations by 2007?

Redbox grew out of a McDonald's project whose kiosks first sold everyday goods, not films. At its peak it had kiosks at more than 34,000 locations.

Which country banned video game rentals in 1984 after shops were caught making pirated copies of games?

Japan changed its copyright law after lobbying by game makers and the record industry. Elsewhere, some companies made games harder so they could not be beaten in one rental.

In which Texas city did David Cook open the very first Blockbuster store in October 1985?

Dallas got the first store, stocked with 10,000 tapes. Under later owners the chain grew so fast that it was opening a new store every 24 hours.

Which actor plays Jerry, the friend who accidentally wipes every tape in the shop, in Be Kind Rewind?

Jack Black's Jerry erases the tapes after an electric shock leaves him magnetized, so he and the shop's lone employee reshoot the films themselves.

Which pay-TV company won the 2011 bankruptcy auction for Blockbuster and its remaining 1,700 stores?

Dish Network paid $320 million, then closed the last 300 company-owned stores by 2014. It kept the trademark, licensing it to the one surviving franchise.

Which Houston company signed a 20-year deal in 2000 to stream Blockbuster films, then went bankrupt the following year?

Enron planned to send films on demand down its fiber-optic network, but ended the deal in March 2001, fearing Blockbuster could not supply enough titles.

In which 1996 Wes Craven horror film does movie geek Randy Meeks work at Bradley Video?

Scream found its audience on tape as well as in theaters: it was the second most rented film of 1997 in the United States.

Which 1986 Tom Cruise hit became the best-selling VHS on pre-orders alone after launching at just $26.95?

Top Gun drew more than 1.9 million advance orders, helped by an $8 million campaign that included a tie-in Diet Pepsi commercial.

Which booking platform listed the world's last Blockbuster store for overnight sleepovers in September 2020?

Airbnb's listing was open only to residents of the store's own county, with a limit of four guests from a single household.

Which actor's film memorabilia, first donated to an Alaska Blockbuster by John Oliver, now hangs in the last store?

Russell Crowe's hood from Robin Hood and his robe from Cinderella Man moved on when the Anchorage store closed in July 2018.

Despite its name, West Coast Video was founded in 1983 in which East Coast city?

Philadelphia is where Elliot Stone opened the first store, in the city's northeast. The chain later reached 660 stores, then the most of any video rental chain in the world.

Which Toshiba-backed disc format lost out when Blockbuster backed Blu-ray in 2007 after a 250-store rental test?

HD DVD drew under 30 percent of high-definition rentals in that test. Toshiba stopped developing its players in February 2008, ending the format war.

In which city did George Atkinson open Video Station, the first professionally managed US video rental store, in 1977?

Los Angeles renters paid $50 a year to join Video Station, then $10 a day per film. Atkinson had spent about $3,000 buying two copies each of 50 titles.

Which media conglomerate bought Blockbuster for $8.4 billion in 1994 to help finance its bid for Paramount?

Viacom was fighting the shopping channel QVC for the film studio at the time. It kept Blockbuster for a decade, then spun the chain off in 2004.

Which chain, Blockbuster's biggest urban rival, sold itself to Movie Gallery in 2005 to escape a hostile takeover?

Hollywood Video was fleeing a bid from Blockbuster itself. The debt from the rescue deal helped push both chains into liquidation in 2010.

Which Waste Management co-founder and Miami Dolphins owner grew Blockbuster from 19 stores into a global chain?

Wayne Huizenga had doubts about video rental at first. He then expanded the chain with tactics from his garbage business and from Ray Kroc's fast-food playbook.

Which Supreme Court nominee's leaked video rental list in 1987 led Congress to pass the Video Privacy Protection Act?

Robert Bork's list proved harmless, with titles such as A Day at the Races and Ruthless People, but the leak alarmed lawmakers enough to act the next year.

Which film studio joined Disney in suing Sony over home video recorders, a case the Supreme Court decided in 1984?

Universal lost 5–4, the Court ruling that taping a show to watch later is fair use. A studio win could have banned recorders and, with them, the rental trade.

Which studio licensed 50 films, including Patton and M*A*S*H, to Magnetic Video for home tapes in 1977?

20th Century Fox was the only studio to take up Andre Blay's offer. The tapes did so well that it bought his company outright in 1979 for $7.2 million.

Which electronics company introduced the VHS format in 1976, the tape that came to fill video rental shelves?

JVC went its own way after Sony showed a prototype recorder to rival manufacturers in 1974, hoping they would all back a single format.

Which actor plays Timmy Yoon, manager of the last Blockbuster on Earth, in the 2022 sitcom Blockbuster?

Randall Park's sitcom moved the last store to Michigan. It was cancelled after one season by the streaming service that was once the chain's mail-order rival.

Which comedian won three prizes at the first Blockbuster Entertainment Awards in 1995, a show decided by renters' votes?

Jim Carrey joked on stage that people rented his tapes to prove to the cashier that they watched more than adult videos. Over 1.5 million votes were cast in stores.

In which city is Scarecrow Video, a non-profit shop with one of the largest rental libraries in the United States?

Seattle's Scarecrow Video opened in 1988 with just 600 titles. Some of its rarest films now need a deposit of up to $1,000 before they leave the building.

To which Italian island was the 55,000-title collection of New York's Mondo Kim's shipped after the shop closed?

Sicily's town of Salemi won the collection by promising to keep it open to members. The films then all but vanished from view until they came back to New York in 2022.

In which European country did film collector Eckhard Baum open the world's oldest movie rental business in 1975?

Germany's Baum began by lending Super 8 film reels from his own collection to friends in Kassel, then added tapes and discs as each format arrived.

Video Ezy, which took over Blockbuster's local stores to hold 40% of the rental market, was founded in which country?

Australia's first Video Ezy opened in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville in 1983. By 2020 the brand survived only as automated rental kiosks.

Which activist investor won a seat on Blockbuster's board in 2005 and later called it his worst investment?

Carl Icahn fought the chief executive over pay and strategy, and blocked further spending on the chain's DVD-by-mail service. He left the board in 2010.

Which struggling electronics retailer did Blockbuster offer to buy in 2008, months before that retailer went bankrupt?

Circuit City never got its rescue: Blockbuster withdrew the offer that July after reviewing the retailer's books. The electronics chain shut for good in March 2009.

What word do the characters in Be Kind Rewind use for their homemade remakes of the erased films?

Sweded comes from the cover story: the staff claim the tapes are imported from Sweden, which excuses the long waits and a $20 rental price.

Which British campaigner led the early-1980s crusade against the uncensored horror rental tapes dubbed video nasties?

Mary Whitehouse is often credited with coining the nickname. One distributor had written to her anonymously to complain about its own film, a publicity stunt that backfired.

Which film industry lobbyist told Congress in 1982 that the VCR was as dangerous to producers as the Boston Strangler?

Jack Valenti's fear proved unfounded: home video became a mainstay of studio revenues, and by 1987 it was bringing in more money than the box office.

Which Peaky Blinders star plays the film-geek owner of Gumshoe Video in the 2007 comedy Watching the Detectives?

Cillian Murphy's shop owner, Neil, has his quiet life upended when a thrill-seeking stranger played by Lucy Liu walks into the store.