Affairs at the Jupiter hotel − Blockbuster May Close Us Stores As Dvd Rental Chains Struggle

Blockbuster May Close Us Stores As Dvd Rental Chains Struggle

Posted September 18th, 2009 by

Blockbuster may close US stores as DVD rental chains struggle

DVD rental chain Blockbuster may close 960 of its US stores as competition from download and postal services increases

Its plan to defend itself against the onward march of movie rental websites by focusing on movie memorabilia from the likes of Top Gun and Men in Black was met with derision earlier this year. And yesterday Blockbuster announced it may close 960 of its 4,400 US stores in a move that looks likely to signal the beginning of the end for the DVD rental store as we know it.

In a regulatory filing, the company said it could close as many as 685 stores this year and 275 the following, according to the Hollywood Reporter. That would save about $30m a year for a company which has been struggling in the States in the face of competition from Netflix, a DVD rental service which operates via the post, and Redbox, which operates an automated kiosk-based rental service. Increasingly advanced movie download services from iTunes and other providers look set to make life even harder in the future and the company was named by usnews.com in February as one of the 15 firms that might not see out the year.

Blockbuster’s latest masterplan seem to be to ape Redbox by launching its own kiosk-based service: it is due to expand from 500 units to 10,000 over the course of the next year.

Ben Child

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