Blockbuster

1985-2010

Blockbuster was a chain of home movie and video game rental shops. In 2004, it was an enormous company with over 9,000 stores. Much of Blockbuster’s profits came from fining customers for returning films late.

A small competitor started a DVD-by-mail service in 1997, with the ad campaign “The end of late fees.” Customers could keep a video for as long as they wanted and then return it for a new film. This switch from renting videos to subscribing meant no more annoying late fees.

Blockbuster briefly invested in digital but didn’t continue because it threatened their profits from the late fees. That little start-up that was initially ignored now has more than 270 million subscribers. Netflix killed Blockbuster.

 Additional info:

Wikipedia - decent sized article

Businessinsider - Blockbuster: The rise and fall of the movie rental store, and what happened to the brand

Fastcompany - story of the rise and fall of Blockbuster