Streaming services have transformed the way we watch movies and TV, leaving us isolated on our couches to an algorithm’s recommendations. But a small group of movie buffs who love the physical medium are hoping to lure people back into the real world — one abandoned newspaper box at a time.
The Free Blockbuster project began in 2019 when Brian Morrison, a film and television producer in Los Angeles and former Blockbuster employee, painted the company’s blue and yellow logo on an old box and filled it with DVDs. For many, the brand evokes memories of trips to the video store with friends or family to browse the shelves and pick up a movie and a bag of popcorn.
“There’s a nostalgia that resonates with an entire generation,” he said of the nearly obsolete Blockbuster chain, which operated thousands of video rental stores around the world at its peak in the early 2000s. “It means something to a lot of people.”
The Free Blockbuster movement slowly gained traction, and eventually, more than 200 other community boxes opened from Louisiana to Canada and even Britain — though it’s unclear how many remain in operation.
“We are social animals. we want to go out into the world and engage with each other,” said Mr Morrison, who runs a lending library out of his home. He often refills it with DVDs and VHS tapes, including TV series, horror movies and, occasionally, signed independent films, and said it has encouraged interaction with his neighbors.
Andrew Kevin Walker, a screenwriter from Los Angeles, said he had visited thrift stores specifically to look for movies to put in the boxes — including two sealed James Bond boxes and a copy of “Cobra,” a 1986 film written by Sylvester Stallone. . “It’s an opportunity 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.
Stream-weary viewers say they’re tired of chasing content that moves to an ever-expanding array of platforms or even disappears altogether, and some long for the physical media that was dominant until streaming took over.
“I think it’s great that people are doing this — keeping the DVD spirit alive, releasing movies and trading,” said Joe Pichirallo, a film producer and professor at New York University.
Shortly after Free Blockbuster launched, a lawyer for DISH Network, which now owns the Blockbuster trademark, sent Mr. Morrison a letter asking him to stop using the company’s logo and name.
A DISH spokeswoman did not respond to questions about the letter, but said in an email that the company was aware of the Free Blockbuster initiative. “DISH continues to explore and evaluate different opportunities that would best fit the iconic brand,” he said.
Blockbuster opened in Dallas in 1985 and by 2004 had grown to more than 9,000 stores worldwide. In 2000, the company rejected an offer to buy Netflix, valued at about $265 billion, for $50 million.
Last year, Netflix ended its DVD service, and Best Buy recently announced it would stop selling discs. Physical media can still be borrowed from most public libraries.
“Consumers have found it much more convenient to watch something wherever, whenever and whenever they want,” Professor Pichirallo said.
Award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay called the recent renewed interest in DVDs vital and refreshing. “It’s something I really embrace,” he said in a phone interview.
When it comes to art, “nothing beats holding it in your hands,” Ms. DuVernay said.
“That tactile intimacy of touch is something that sounds kind of corny and trivial, but touch is a sensation,” he said. “The it is part of the experience of consumption and the experience of art.”
Ms. DuVernay lamented the loss of the director’s cuts and commentaries that often came with DVDs but are now largely absent from movies on streaming services. “That’s how I learned to make content,” he said. “I picked up a camera at 32, listening to directors talk about their movies on film.”
As Free Blockbusters opened across the country, the latest Blockbuster in Bend, Ore., continues to rent movies on DVD and Blu-ray. But Sandi Harding, who has run the store for the past two decades, doesn’t see them as competitors: The more people involved with the Blockbuster brand and physical media, the better, she said.
The store, which became the last in the world after franchises in Alaska and Australia closed their doors, now draws largely summer tourists in addition to some regular customers, Ms. Harding said, noting that about 80 percent of of the store’s revenue now comes from merchandise and the rest from movie rentals. But it has become increasingly difficult to get new releases on DVD and Blu-ray online or in local department stores, he said.
“I don’t think it will ever go back to where it was before. But I think it’s kind of like vinyl records,” which have had a resurgence, he said.
Alfonso Castillo, who founded a Free Blockbuster in Long Island with his son, said the lending library has a regular turnover of people picking up and dropping off movies, including the elderly. “My sense is that for them, it’s less ironic and more like, finally, there’s a place to get DVDs again,” he said.
At a Free Blockbuster in Sun Valley, Calif., customers have included an Amazon guide, passersby on horseback and those who ventured in from afar after hearing about the lending library on social media, said Alyssa Kollgaard, 37, who opened the library. outside her home earlier this year and stocks it with seasonal movies, subversive books and free candy. He said he hopes to give people the “experience of browsing and holding things in your hand.”
Further south, in Hollywood, two other Free Blockbusters appeared empty on a recent Sunday, and the original, outside a convenience store in Los Feliz, was removed from the city. But the one outside Mr. Morrison’s home in the quiet Los Feliz neighborhood was filled with DVDs, including the movie “Pay it Forward,” several seasons of “Burn Notice” and the 2000 sitcom “How I Met Your Mother ».
Two men in their 20s noticed the box as they walked past, but said they didn’t realize it had DVDs in it. No one watched movies on physical media anymore, they said, preferring subscription services or YouTube. “It’s kind of the nostalgia factor, for sure,” Sevag Halajian, 23, said of the box, recalling how as a child he would visit the video store with his friends.
“It was a fun time,” he added. “That inspired me to go back to my old ‘Tom and Jerry’ DVDs and watch them.”
