Streaming services have modified the way in which we watch movies and TV, leaving us isolated on our couches and subject to the suggestions of an algorithm. But a small group of movie buffs with a penchant for physical media are hoping to lure people back to the true world – one abandoned newspaper box at a time.
The A free blockbuster the project began in 2019 when Brian Morrison, a Los Angeles film and tv producer and former Blockbuster worker, painted the corporate’s blue and yellow logo on an old box and filled it with DVDs. For many, the brand evokes memories of going to a video store with friends or family to browse the shelves and grab a movie and a bag of popcorn.
“There’s a nostalgia attached to it that resonates with an entire generation,” he said of the nearly obsolete Blockbuster chain, which at its height within the early 2000s operated 1000’s of video rental stores around the globe. “It means something to a lot of people.”
The Free Blockbuster movement slowly gained popularity, and eventually greater than 200 other community boxes were opened from Louisiana to Canada and even the United Kingdom – even though it is unclear what number of of them are still in operation.
“We are social animals; we want to go out into the world and connect with each other,” said Mr. Morrison, who runs a rental business out of his home. He often supplements it with DVDs and VHS tapes, including TV series and horror movies, and sometimes signs indie movies, which he says has encouraged interaction along with his neighbors.
Andrew Kevin Walker, a Los Angeles-based screenwriter, said he frequented thrift stores, especially on the lookout for movies he could leave in boxes – including two sealed James Bond sets and a duplicate of 1986’s “Cobra,” the script of which he wrote Sylvester Stallone. “It’s a chance for people to really share their love of cinema, whether it’s their favorite guilty pleasure or their favorite movie of all time,” he said.
Viewers from jet fatigue they are saying they’re drained of chasing content that moves across increasingly more platforms and even disappears completelyand a few miss the physical media that dominated until streaming took over.
“I think it’s great that people are doing this — keeping the spirit of DVDs alive, circulating movies and sharing them,” said Joe Pichirallo, a movie producer and professor at New York University.
Shortly after the launch of Free Blockbuster, a lawyer for DISH Network, which now owns the Blockbuster brand, sent Mr. Morrison a letter asking him to stop using the corporate’s logo and name.
A DISH spokeswoman didn’t reply to questions on the letter, but in an email she said the corporate was “aware” of the Free Blockbuster initiative. “DISH continues to explore and evaluate various opportunities that best suit this iconic brand,” she said.
Blockbuster opened in Dallas in 1985, and by 2004 it had grown to greater than 9,000 stores worldwide. In 2000, the corporate he rejected the offer buy Netflix, currently value about $265 billion, for $50 million.
Netflix last 12 months has ended its DVD serviceand Best Buy recently announced it could stop selling records. You can still rent physical media from most media outlets public libraries.
“Consumers have found it much more convenient to watch something wherever they want, whenever they want,” Professor Pichirallo said.
Award-winning director Ava DuVernay called the Free Blockbuster movement vital and refreshing. “It’s something I really enjoy,” she said in a telephone interview.
When it involves art, “there’s nothing better than holding it in your hand,” Ms. DuVernay said.
“This tangible intimacy of touch may seem frivolous and inconsequential, but touch is a sense,” she said. “This it is part of the experience of consuming and experiencing art.”
Ms. DuVernay lamented the loss of director’s cuts and commentaries that were often included with DVDs and at the moment are largely absent from movies on streaming services. “That’s how I learned to create content,” she said. “At the age of 32, I picked up a camera and listened to directors discuss their movies.”
After blockbuster movies open free across the country, the latest blockbuster movie theater in Bend, Oregon continues to rent movies on DVD and Blu-ray. But Sandi Harding, who has managed the store for the past two decades, doesn’t see them in competition: The more people who engage with the Blockbuster brand and physical media, the better, she said.
The store that became the last on this planet after franchising in Alaska AND Australia closed its doors, it now attracts largely summer tourists in addition to some regular customers, Ms. Harding said, noting that about 80 percent of the store’s revenue now comes from merchandise and the remainder from movie rentals. However, it was becoming increasingly challenging to find new DVD and Blu-ray releases online or in local department stores, she added.
“I don’t think it will ever go back to the way it was before. But I think it’s “kind of like vinyl records” coming back into the market, she said.
Alfonso Castillo, who co-founded Free Blockbuster on Long Island with his son, said the rental company sees regular turnover, both in people renting and returning movies, including older people. “I have the impression that for them it’s not so much a cool novelty or irony, but more that there is finally a place where you can buy DVDs,” he said.
In the free blockbuster w Sun Valley, California.customers included an Amazon driver, passersby on horseback and those who came from far away after hearing about the rental service on social media, said Alyssa Kollgaard, 37, who opened a library outside her home earlier this year and stocks it with movies seasonal, subversive books and free sweets. She said she hopes it will give people the “experience of browsing and holding things in their hand.”
Further south in Hollywood, two other free blockbusters turned up empty last Sunday, and the original, located in front of a Los Feliz grocery store, was removed by the city. But the one in front of Mr. Morrison’s house in a quiet Los Feliz neighborhood was filled with DVDs including the movie “Pay it Forward,” several seasons of “Burn Notice” and the early 2000s sitcom “How I Met Your “Mother”.
Two men in their 20s noticed the box as they were walking by but said they didn’t realize it contained DVDs. They said neither of them watches movies on physical media anymore, preferring subscription services or YouTube. “It’s definitely a bit of a nostalgia thing,” 23-year-old Sevag Halajian said of the box, recalling visiting a video rental store with friends as a toddler.
“It was a nice time,” he added. “It inspired me to go back to the old Tom and Jerry DVDs I have and watch them.”
