They were competitive enough to wipe-out the mom and pop movie rental places that were common before them, but that was about it. They created a monopoly of sorts and then they milked it. The market was hungry for replacement.
It was a long time ago so some of the details are out of focus in my mind, but the one constant I can remember throughout the 6-9 year time span where by my family and I patronized Blockbuster video (wow, like 20 years ago) was that it was quite a bit more pricey than the independent stores we went to before BB crushed them. I know for fact that the local grocer has a video section and charged $1 a video, I want to say Blockbuster charged $4-$5, like in 1992 to 1995, very nearly as much as a movie ticket of the day cost. I'm sure people can tell tons of stories about how terrible they were but it wasn't a great experience and they charged a lot for it.
If you were a real cinemaphile type too, they had what looked like a large collection, but it wasn't as large as it looked, they sometimes had censored versions of movies.
They were competitive enough to wipe-out the mom and pop movie rental places that were common before them, but that was about it. They created a monopoly of sorts and then they milked it. The market was hungry for replacement.
It was a long time ago so some of the details are out of focus in my mind, but the one constant I can remember throughout the 6-9 year time span where by my family and I patronized Blockbuster video (wow, like 20 years ago) was that it was quite a bit more pricey than the independent stores we went to before BB crushed them. I know for fact that the local grocer has a video section and charged $1 a video, I want to say Blockbuster charged $4-$5, like in 1992 to 1995, very nearly as much as a movie ticket of the day cost. I'm sure people can tell tons of stories about how terrible they were but it wasn't a great experience and they charged a lot for it.
If you were a real cinemaphile type too, they had what looked like a large collection, but it wasn't as large as it looked, they sometimes had censored versions of movies.