Blockbuster Inc.
| Blockbuster Inc.
|
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1985 |
| Seat | Englewood , Colorado |
| management | Michael Kelly ( President ) |
| sales | 5.28 billion (January 2009) |
| Branch | Rental and sales of DVDs , Blu-Ray and video games |
Blockbuster Inc. was a DVD and Blu-ray rental and sales franchise chain headquartered in Englewood , Colorado .
history
David Cook opened the first video store under the name Blockbuster in Dallas in 1985 . He sold his rights to Wayne Huizenga and John Melk, a former Waste Management executive . After promoting the Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation brand nationwide and opening a large number of new branches, they sold their rights to Viacom for $ 8.4 billion . In 1996 the company name was changed to Blockbuster, Inc. In 2004 it separated from Viacom. After heavy losses in the following years, James W. Keyes, the former CEO of 7-Eleven , was installed as the new head of the company in 2007 .
Analysts for the US News & World Report assumed early on that Blockbuster 2009 could face severe financial distress. Blockbuster finally had to file for bankruptcy in September 2010. Dish Network finally took over Blockbuster in April 2011.
In January 2013, Blockbuster's UK subsidiary also had to file for bankruptcy. The British chain had 528 stores and around 4,200 employees in the UK.
Blockbuster had over 5,000 branches in the United States at its peak. Outside the US, Blockbuster had over 3,000 other branches (some under different names), including in Canada , Brazil , Great Britain , Denmark , Ireland and Australia . A special feature of Blockbuster was that no pornographic films were shown in the US branches .
In November 2013 it was announced that the last 300 US branches will also be closed in January 2014 and 2,800 employees will be laid off. The dispatch of videos and DVDs has also been discontinued. However, the streaming service should continue to be offered. On March 8, 2019, the penultimate blockbuster video store in Perth, Australia, closed. Of what was once 9,094 branches, only one remains in Bend , Oregon.
Germany
In Germany, Blockbuster initially opened 20 branches and announced that it would expand to a total of 250 video stores by the turn of the millennium. However, this did not happen: the end of 1997 followed.
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards
Between 1994 and 2001, Blockbuster presented the Blockbuster Entertainment Award , most recently in 37 categories. Among other things, this included the “most popular actor” category in the various film genres. The 2001 winners included Mel Gibson , Ben Affleck , Nicolas Cage , Gwyneth Paltrow , Julia Roberts and Helen Hunt .
Web links
- Blockbuster site (English)
- Map of the remaining stores in the United States (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ New York Stock Exchange ( Memento of May 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Companies that might not survive 2009 (English)
- ↑ Wirtschaftswoche
- ↑ Forbes (English)
- ↑ British video chain Blockbuster insolvent. In: Heise online . January 16, 2013, accessed January 17, 2013 .
- ↑ Close the last blockbuster video library . Article dated November 7, 2013, accessed November 8, 2013
- ↑ The Blockbuster Fan Page. Retrieved January 10, 2018 .
- ↑ Largest video rental chain worldwide: of 9,094 blockbuster branches there will soon be only one left! March 7, 2019, accessed March 7, 2019 .
- ↑ Wirtschaftswoche