- Free Blockbuster uses repurposed newspaper dispensers to create free movie libraries
- Bingebrowse replicates old-school video stores for your streaming subscriptions
- There's only one actual Blockbuster still operating
We've got good news for fans of the long-gone Blockbuster video stores: they're back! Back! BACK!
Well, kinda.
Two very different Blockbuster homages are delighting movie lovers in the US. One's physical, with VHS, DVD and Blu-ray. And one's virtual, with a Blockbuster-esque virtual space connecting to movie streaming services.
Let's start with the discs and VHS tapes. In the US, an unnamed former Blockbuster employee began the Free Blockbuster project in 2019. They began with a single Los Angeles Times newspaper dispenser, packed it with movies, and attracted the attention of Seven screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, who was the first person to check out a movie and return it to its original dispenser.
Word spread and Free Blockbuster boxes have recently started multiplying all over America. You can set up your own Free Blockbuster dispenser or find one near you in the US: the details are online at freeblockbuster.org.
Visit Blockbuster virtually
If you'd rather combine the convenience of streaming with the aesthetics of a video store, BingeBrowse — formerly Bingebuster — creates a 3D virtual video store based on the catalogs of services including Disney+, Netflix and Prime Video.
Dragging the screen with your mouse or finger changes the view, and you can get a closer look at the covers by zooming in. Clicking on a title gives you some more information and the option to stream it from the appropriate service or find its trailer on YouTube. You can also visit on your Oculus Quest by going to the BingeBrowse site in the browser.
Although the Free Blockbuster boxes have been around for a few years now, they're new to many people on the UpliftingNews subreddit – and several of those people are amused by the nostalgia we have for a retail chain that was routinely mocked in its heyday and sometimes hated for its late fees.
"A lot of people have fond memories revolving around movies and they were the supplier of the movies," one Redditor explains, while another notes that "it was so much fun to hope they had a copy of the movie you were really excited to see, only to have to settle for something else because all the copies were taken." That made me laugh: I grew up in a small town where the only video rentals were in a gas station that stocked about twenty different tapes. Blockbuster seemed like movie heaven by comparison.
Nostalgists should certainly check out the BingeBrowse website. "It seemed easier and quicker standing in the Blockbuster store and making a decision about what to watch than spending an hour on the sofa trawling through the online warehouse that is my watchlist," says another mist-eyed Redditor. Browsing the same services through a virtual store feels weirdly different to using the services' own browsing pages.
As for the original Blockbuster, it hasn't been gone as long as you might think: while most of the stores were shuttered in 2013-2014, the world's last Blockbuster is still open in Bend, Oregon, although it makes far more money from selling merchandise than it does from movies. There's a film about it, which you can stream on Tubi or rent on Apple TV. I've included the trailer above.
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