Blockbuster Inc.

Blockbuster's Death Spiral Continues With Plan to Close 300 Stores

Right now, there are three remaining Blockbuster stores in Dallas proper. That's down considerably from the gazillions that once crowned street corners during the heady days of VHS, before movies could be conveniently dispensed from a red box or instantaneously zapped onto your telephone, and that n ... More >>

Bloomberg Series Reveals How Netflix Needed Blockbuster ... Until It Killed Blockbuster

Former Blockbuster CEO John Antioco and Netflix founder Reed Hastings​Blockbuster, says a new 30-minute doc, was once "900 times the size of Netflix." Now, it's...well, you know the story. It's barely anything at all, except something owned by Dish Network, which hopes to use Blockbuster's by-mail ... More >>

Even Landlords Don't Want Blockbuster

The McKinney Ave. landlord figures it can do better than a Blockbuster.​Later this morning in a New York courtroom, Dish Network will turn in its final final list of Blockbuster leases it wants to keep -- some 600 total out of close to 1,600 remaining. For now, of course, Dish has said that when i ... More >>

Dish Network Gets Blockbuster For Around $230 Mil in Cash and a Pallet of Junior Mints

​The question "Why does Dish Network want Blockbuster?" was asked and answered late last week, though one Friend of Unfair Park suggested, "Twizzlers." Turns out, the Colorado-based Dish wanted it plenty bad -- more than Carl Icahn and the lenders who turned up to take the Renaissance Tower-based ... More >>

And Why Does Dish Network Want Blockbuster?

​No, seriously, it's been a long while since we've mentioned the fate of Renaissance Tower-based Blockbuster, which has been in Chapter 11 since September and been shutting stores ever since. (Per a recent filing, the store at 6760 Abrams Road had its lease rejected effective yesterday.) But that' ... More >>

On-the-Auction-Block Blockbuster Thinks Amazon, Best Buy, CVS Are Interested

​Home Media Magazine directs our attention to this Friday filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, where Renaissance Tower-based Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11 back in September. As we noted last week, Blockbuster's up for sale now, with Monarch Alternative Capital among the interested parti ... More >>

Downtown-Based Blockbuster to Go on Auction Block. The Opening Bid? A Whole $290 Million.

​Blockbuster, which went into voluntary Chapter 11 in September, said in a statement released moments ago that it has agreed to sell to a group of noteholders -- one of whom happened to be named Monarch Alternative Capital, the very same creditors to whom Tom Hicks owed all those hundreds of milli ... More >>

Lower Greenville to Lose Its Blockbuster

​Avi Adelman's just posted over on Barking Dogs that Lower Greenville's losing its longtime Blockbuster on Richmond Avenue -- which probably comes as no surprise, given the state of the bankrupt downtown-based videos-n-such rentalist that could be in the hands of new owners as early as next week. ... More >>

WSJ: So Much For Blockbuster's Hopes of Reorganizing Under Ch. 11. It's For Sale.

​Back in September, beleaguered Blockbuster finally made it official: The downtown Dallas-based company was bankrupt. Hence, the voluntary, "prepackaged" Chapter 11 filing, which the company insisted would "substantially reduce" the amount of debt it owed -- from $1.46 billion to around $125 mill ... More >>

Lots of Folks Object to Blockbuster's Store Closure Plan. Like Dallas County, For Starters.

The Blockbuster outlet at Lovers and Inwood closed shortly before the end of 2010.​As you'll recall, Blockbuster ended the year by announcing it's looking over all its leases and planning on breaking many of them, after which it'll shutter stores, dump inventory for pennies on the dollar and turn ... More >>

Once More, Blockbuster to Close Out Year By Closing a Couple Hundred Stores

​It's been exactly a year now since our last extensive sit-down with Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes, who, at the time, referred to the downtown-based videotailer as "a football team that's rebuilding." At the very same time, Blockbuster was shuttering dozens of stores, including the location at Royal L ... More >>

It's Official: Blockbuster Goes Chapter 11. Leader of Shareholders Demands CEO Resign.

​Woke up this morning to find an in-box full of Blockbuster releases, chief among them the downtown-based video-rentalist's announcement that, sure enough, this morning it filed for bankruptcy in a federal court in New York. Says the company, the voluntary, "prepackaged" Chapter 11 filing is the r ... More >>

Wall Street Journal: Blockbuster's Chapter 11 Filing Could Come "In Next Few Days"

​Today could be the day Blockbuster officially files for bankruptcy. So reports The Wall Street Journal, echoing that earlier Los Angeles Times piece that said CEO Jim Keyes had been in Hollywood at August's end briefing studio heads on the inevitable next chapter in the beleaguered Renaissance To ... More >>

News & Notes & A Picture

Dallas Independent School District's Facebook page​That photo above? Comes from DISD's Facebook page, from Saturday's launch of "Operation Comeback," during which Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa went out looking dropouts. The twosome ... More >>

Blockbuster Shareholders "Prepare our Legal Representation" Following Chapter 11 Report

​On the other side is the now-famous(ish) CNBC piece from June, in which Julia Boorstin asks Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes: "Will you file for bankruptcy?" -- to which he responds with a smile and an elusive answer about how this has been a rumor for the last 18 months and how "we've been doing our be ... More >>

L.A. Times: Blockbuster CEO Keyes Briefed Studios on Pending Prepackaged Bankruptcy

​Fifteen days ago, Blockbuster spokesperson Patty Sullivan told Unfair Park: The company's delay in releasing its what turned out to be dismal second-quarter stats had absolutely nothing to do with a pending prepackaged bankruptcy. "There will be no news announcing that," she said. Not until late ... More >>

Blockbuster's Head of Digital Strategy Isn't Afraid of Apple, Netflix or Bankruptcy

​The only person more obsessed with the fate of downtown-based Blockbuster than I is Fast Company's Austin Carr, who's spent the last two days posting an extended Q&A with the company's head of digital strategy, Kevin Lewis. Yesterday's interview was the more provocative of the two parts: Lewi ... More >>

Blockbuster's Financials Worse Than Expected. But It Does Get Debt Repayment Extension.

Jim Keyes​Now we know why Blockbuster put off announcing its second-quarter financials last night: Says the downtown-based video-and-game-rental giant (well, once), it was getting its noteholders to sign off on a deal allows the company to keep $42.4 mil in debt payments for another few weeks. Tha ... More >>

Blockbuster Says Delay in Releasing Second-Quarter Results Not Tied to Bankruptcy News

​At the close of business today, Blockbuster was supposed to release its second-quarter financials. It did not. And, till moments ago, it was impossible to get anyone from the company on the phone to explain why it failed to release the figures -- which has prompted widespread speculation that ban ... More >>

As Blockbuster Gets a Brief Reprieve From Creditors, Shareholders Demand An Answer

​It's been close to radio silence from Renaissance Tower for several weeks as Blockbuster tries to find "strategic partners" to keep the close-to-broke video giant-at-one-time out of the bankruptcy courts. But on Friday, Bloomberg reported that Jim Keyes and Co. will announce this week that they'v ... More >>

News & Notes: "Please Keep Oak Cliff Dry," A Blockbuster Battle and ... Moody Flashback!

​A few very random notes while trying to wash the Magic Time Machine out of my clothes after last night ...Saw first thing this morning that Barry Kooda is admin-ing a brand-new Facebook page: "Please Keep Oak Cliff Dry." Left and sent the Nervebreaker a few messages to discuss and will follow wit ... More >>

Shareholders Make Peace With Blockbuster and Hope for the Best. And: Another TV Ad!

​Last Friday, Blockbuster's higher-ups told Bronx bomber Niko Celentano and his ever-expanding band of shareholders that, well, sorry, but despite their demands for an emergency meeting, that ain't gonna happen. One week later, the shareholders respond to the response. And for the most part, the m ... More >>

As Netflix Tries to Fry Blockbuster's Canadian Bacon, a Former Observer-er Pens An Adios

​Blockbuster continues to insist it ain't going nowhere -- even as 24/7 Wall Street puts the downtown-based company on its death-watch list (one of three locals to make the list, actually, and not the first time someone has predicted Blockbuster's inevitable demise). But just in case it goes, my l ... More >>

Yo, Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes. Niko Celentano of the Bronx Would Like a Word. And An Emergency Shareholders Meeting.

​One week ago today I received an e-mail from a "large stockholder" in Blockbuster -- a gentleman high on the movie-studio food chain, as a matter of fact. He copied me on a missive he sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission in which he asked what in the wide, wide world of sports he could ... More >>

On Day Debt Payment's Due, New York Stock Exchange Halts Trading of Blockbuster's Stock

​At this very moment, beleaguered Blockbuster's PR peeps are preparing a statement to explain why, moments ago, its stock stopped being traded on the New York Stock Exchange. At present, it's stuck at a whopping 23 cents. NYSE spokesperson Mirtha Medina sends this brief note: "BBI was halted today ... More >>

The First of Two Blockbuster Blockbuster Announcements: NYSE Is Delisting Its Stock

​In about an hour, Blockbuster will release a second press release concerning, well, what we're not quite sure -- more than likely, though, it will deal with the fate of CEO Jim Keyes, whose contract with the company expires today. And, perhaps, it will address whether or not the downtown-based co ... More >>

Blockbuster Needs Cash in a Hurry. And So, Introducing at Lovers and Inwood, the Outlet!

​If you'll recall it was Bloomberg News, not The Wall Street Journal, that broke the news last week that downtown-based Blockbuster was talking to bondholders about extending the video-rental company $150 million in loans should the debt-ridden company have to file for Chapter 11. But as soon as T ... More >>

Is Blockbuster Headed for Prepackaged Bankruptcy? One Analyst Thinks So.

Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes​A few weeks ago, L.A.-based analyst Stan Manoukian told Bloomberg News that downtown-based Blockbuster "will cease to exist by 2013 for sure," for the most part because its bondholders think the debt-ridden company's worth pennies on the dollar. Now, according to Manoukia ... More >>

An Interview With the Shareholder Who Will Fight to Save Blockbuster, an "American Icon"

Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes at one of the prototype extreme makeovers debuted in Dallas in 2008​Had a long talk with Greg Meyer last night. He's the guy who owns 645,000 shares of Blockbuster -- more than any exec at Blockbuster, save for CEO Jim Keyes, whose stock comes with the title, and more tha ... More >>

Bloomberg, Yet Again, Comes Bearing Grim News About What Lies Ahead For Blockbuster

​A little more than one year ago, Bloomberg News sent Blockbuster's stock price tumbling, from 77 cents to 22 cents, with a report that the Renaissance Tower-based company had hired outside counsel to "explore a possible bankruptcy filing," which Blockbuster quickly dismissed. This morning, Bloomb ... More >>

Inside the "Blockbuster Museum," And One Man's Plan to Save the Former Rental Giant

Historic 'Blockbuster' Store Offers Glimpse Of How Movies Were Rented In The PastGood Friend of Unfair Park "Spectator" forwards along this piece from the Onion News Network, sure to play like a Betamax at Renaissance Tower HQ. It's a look inside the, ahem, Blockbuster Video museum -- "a historicall ... More >>

Slowly But Surely, Blockbuster's Stock is Rising. Why? The Little Things Count.

​A few days ago, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Renaissance Tower-based Blockbuster sent word: It's pushing back its shareholders meeting one month, to June 24. Said Tom Casey, the video-rental company's exec veep and CFO, "We believe the additional time will provide us w ... More >>

Going Postal: Is Blockbuster Now Going After Gamefly? Sure Sounds It.

​A Friend of Unfair Park who fears my unhealthy obsession with all things Blockbuster nevertheless sends along this item from The Consumerist, which appeared Friday: "Blockbuster Considering Adding Games-By-Mail Service." Now, that's not official -- far from it. Rather, that information was relaye ... More >>

Twentieth Century Fox and Sony Are Really in the Blockbuster Biz With First Lien on Dallas Co.'s Canadian Assets

AfriGadgetFor now, at least, hold off turning those Blockbuster drop-off boxes into ovens, as this woman's done in Liberia.​Late Tuesday, Blockbuster announced two items of interest -- one of which, at least, has prompted a early-trading jump of 15 percent in the Renaissance Tower-based company's ... More >>

The Reverse Splits: Blockbuster Has 45 Days to Get Back in NYSE's Good Graces

​A couple of weeks back, we read the entirety of Blockbuster's annual report and discovered one significant bit of bad news that had gone unnoticed elsewhere: The New York Stock Exchange sent the downtown Dallas-based company a warning that if it didn't get its stock price back above one dollar pr ... More >>

T-Mobile's Sold-Out-Everywhere HTC HD2 Just Might Make You a Blockbuster Customer All Over Again

​As I cast about for a new cellphone and provider, I am considering the generally well-regarded HTC HD2 from T-Mobile, despite having once vowed never to return to T-Mobile after it dropped the call during which my wife informed me she was going into labor. The phone went on sale today, and I prob ... More >>

Despite SEC Filing Warning of Possible Chapter 11, Blockbuster Remains Defiant

​At this late date, is there even any need to recount Blockbuster's myriad woes? They are innumerable, but to the list add this one: the possibility of having to file for Chapter 11. CEO Jim Keyes says that's so much nonsense, the doing of attorneys who have to give fair warning. But in the 148-pa ... More >>

A Blockbuster Free-Fall

​Near the close of business Wednesday, we posted Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes's admission that the Christmas season delivered little more than a lump of coal for the Dallas-based videotailer, as in: "Our performance during the holidays was well below expectations." When I spoke with Keyes at great le ... More >>

For A Former Video Store Giant, Blockbuster Is Not Having Such A Blockbuster Decade

A Blockbuster Sale In Time for Christmas

​NCR, the same company responsible for those SD-card kiosks Blockbuster recently debuted at a couple of local locations, sent word this morning that it acquired DVDPlay, which has about 1,300 DVD-rental kiosks scattered about the U.S. and Canada. Said the note, NCR's going to rebrand the stations ... More >>

Blockbuster, The Final Frontier

Gloria LevarioThis was so not logical: Mr. Spock's actually a Blockbuster marketing guy.​Blockbuster's torn: Stores or kiosks? Kiosks or stores? Says one analyst this week, Not stores, no friggin' way. But how else will the Dallas-based videotailer host a release party? Our Gloria Levario was out ... More >>

Blockbuster Has Seen the Future (Again): Renting Movies Via Kiosk for $2 On an SD Card

​Yesterday word started circulating that Elm Street-based Blockbuster had found yet another way to combat RedBox: by offering downloads via SD cards, which users can stick into a kiosk that's loaded with about 1,000 titles from which to choose. It's the second time in a little more than a year tha ... More >>

Farewell to the Loneliest Blockbuster

View Larger MapMaybe you recall that back on September 15, Elm Street-based Blockbuster filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission a little heads-up that, oh, just maybe it would shutter by the end of 2010 somewhere between 810 and 1,560 stores -- it all depends on how you define "shutter." ( ... More >>

Is Blockbuster Selling Off Its European Division to Pay Off Big Debt? Maybe.

​After trading today, Elm Street-based Blockbuster will released its second-quarter financials -- "and the numbers are expected to be ugly," notes Investor's Business Daily in this pre-game warm-up that also wonders if the video-rental business's days aren't, gulp, "numbered." The cause for alarm? ... More >>

For Some Reason, Blockbuster's Getting Into the Computer-Selling Business

Just one more item you can pick up at a BlockbusterEver gone to rent a movie when, suddenly, the urge to buy what some consider a so-so netbook just, you know, hit you? If so you'll be tickled with Blockbuster's morning announcement that beginning whenever, the Dallas-based videotailer is stocking t ... More >>

Kind of Blu-Ray: Blockbuster Teams Up with Samsung for Yet More OnDemand Delivery

Late last year, Blockbuster introduced its first on-demand delivery system: the 2Wire MediaPoint Digital Media Player, about which critics weren't wild but oh well better than nothing and well at least the company's trying. Then came the TiVo deal in March, which did nothing to stop the company's s ... More >>

In 31 Pages, the Future of Blockbuster

Is this smaller-sized store the future of Blockbuster?Blockbuster held is annual shareholders meeting yesterday, and the presentation was chock-a-block with sneak peeks at the Dallas company's future -- or, at the very least, its plans for the future. After the jump you'll find the complete 31-page ... More >>

You Know Who's Going to Save Blockbuster? Captain Kirk, the Watchmen and Paul Blart.

Elm Street-based Blockbuster's stock is tanking this morning -- down more than 27 percent before the sun's even warm, to about 83 cents. It was bound to happen following yesterday's quarterly report, which noted a 20-percent drop in total revenues over the same period in '08. But, fear not, CEO Jim ... More >>

Blockbuster Reports Drop in Total Revenue and, Worse, Same-Store Sales

All week, Wall Street has been anxiously anticipating Blockbuster's first-quarter results, which were released moments ago. Analysts didn't expect good news from the Dallas-based company, whose efforts to reinvent itself we've documented at great length in recent months. And the news is indeed mixed ... More >>