Blockbuster died last week.
The company announced the closure of its 300 remaining stores in the US on Monday, an ignoble end for the one-time home rental behemoth. Hundreds of film bloggers churned out eulogies in response to the news, send-offs filled with contempt for the chain and, yet, sentimentality for its role in their lives. For many film writers, myself included, Blockbuster played a pivotal role in the discovery of their passions. I know Blockbuster's Palmerston North store helped kickstart my love of film; I was drawn in by an animatronic baby velociraptor and sent out with Disney films, Will Smith blockbusters, and Mel Gibson's The Patriot.
But there was a fear in these obituaries, too - a fear of what this meant for the independent video stores left struggling in an American market eroded by various externalities. If the biggest name in home entertainment can't survive, the story went, what about the little guys?
It's infectious, this anxiety, the kind that characterises pieces like Matt Singer's excellent call to arms at The Dissolve. But I don't think it transfers to New Zealand - at least, not yet. A number of things that made it so hard for Blockbuster to survive don't exist in the New Zealand market or exist in a fairly nascent form (legal online streaming, for example, or the 'HBO-ification' of cable television). Besides, some of our independents are doing pretty well, all things considered - Christchurch's Alice in Videoland recently opened a two-screen cinetheque, not exactly the sign of hard times.
That said, stores like Alice in Videoland are anomalies in the current landscape, and the pressures working on independent stores now - bizarre release windows for home video; the as yet-unquantified impact of piracy and legal streaming sites – will only get worse as the conditions here start to mirror those in the US. We're likely to see fewer examples like Alice in Videoland and more like Aro Video, whose solid adaptation to the whims of e-commerce hasn't made them immune to austerity measures.
Adapting is difficult – for instance, it's hard to see Aro Video acquiring the capital necessary to set up a streaming service in the near future - and is often only achieved by making rentals a secondary concern. Take Williamsburg rental store Videology, highlighted in Singer's article, which adapted by installing a bar and screening venue and offering DVD rental as just another service.
It'd be a travesty to see our independent video libraries forced to choose between going the way of Videology or going the way of Blockbuster, though, stuck between compromising their main purpose and dying out altogether. Stores like Aro Video and Alice in Videoland are vital in their current form. Being able to access hard-to-find films legally in the city you live in is great for those with a passion for cinema and even better for younger people discovering that passion, and having knowledgeable clerks on hand to make recommendations is far better than relying on algorithms.
At some point in the near future, though, the stores will be forced to make that choice. As such, it's important that we support these stores now. It'd be better if they were able to make a successful compromise when that time comes, for them and for us.
