Blockbuster Creates DVD Rental “ATM.” For Use in Blockbuster Stores. Jeez.

Say this for Dallas-based Blockbuster: It’s willing to throw anything and everything against the wall in the hopes that something, anything, will stick. Because only a few days after taking its new downloading kiosk to the Comic-Con International, the video rental company announced this afternoon that it’s teaming up with NCR Corporation — yes, the maker of ATMs — to create “vending kiosks in a pilot program that could be the first step of a national rollout of thousands of units.” About 50 should be in place by year’s end, and they’ll only handle DVD rentals; dunno where, precisely, only that the first two will be in Dallas stores by summer’s end. Once more, a question: Why do you want to go to a Blockbuster store to rent DVDs from a Blockbuster-branded ATM-like machine? Jim Keyes, we need to talk. –Robert Wilonsky