The highly reputable video sale and rental store filed for bankruptcy today, and will be forced to close some of their 3000 stores in the United States. This is due largely in part of costumers more willing to use the online service of Netflix, or the grocery store’s Red Box.
For those unfamiliar, Red Box is a movie renting vending machine in which customers can rent movies using a credit and/or debit card for 1$/night. It focuses mainly on new releases, except for movies put out by 20th Century, Warner Bros, and Universal. The full details can be read by clicking this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redbox
Although it looks gloomy for Blockbuster, all hope is not lost. Companies mentioned early (20th Century, Warner Bros, and Universal) are preferring that they rent their movies through Blockbuster. This is because they make more revenue through a rent at Blockbuster($1.45) than a rent through Red Box(1$, this is based on the average nights that a Red Box movie is kept is 2 nights). With Netflix and Red Box having a stranglehold on the movie renting industry, Blockbuster will have to make some “Blockbuster” decisions to stay a float.