Hello my friends. This week we journey back to 1997. The film Titanic was set to make its home video release and it was a massive launch and l had just started my first day at my new job.
This job l would have for the next 10 years and it would allow me to see the pivotal transition from VHS to DVD and the huge advancements in home console video gaming.
Welcome back…to memories of Blockbuster Video ☺️
Let me just “be kind and rewind” for a moment and take you back to just before l began working at Blockbuster Video that Autumn in 1997.
I had been working for the commercial stationers and art company l spoke about in my previous blog entry, “Focused Filming” from August of this year.
Unfortunately, in 1997 the company was going under and l was made redundant and I was seeing out my final few weeks with boxing up and selling stock and helping my boss tying up all the loose ends.
That Friday would be my last day and l had been working there for 7 years. Wednesday night of that final week l was due to pop some videos back to Blockbuster and it was literally just down the high street from where l worked.
I don’t know why, but on that particular night instead of just dropping the videos I had rented into the famous and convenient “24 hour external quik drop boxes” outside, l went to the front desk in the store.
The store manager, let’s call her “Cathy”, thanked me for returning the videos with a pleasant smile and l asked on the off chance if they had any positions open for employment.
They did but, it was for an assistant manager for the store. I told her my story of the commercial stationers closing down and l had been the manager there.
She seemed very interested and gave me an application form and asked for it to be filled in and returned the next day with a curriculum vitae as she wanted to do interviews as soon as possible.
The next day l had returned the paperwork and l got a call that same evening at home asking me to pop into the store that Friday evening. The same Friday that was my last day at the stationers.
It was an interview that l wouldn’t forget. All went well and l got on with Cathy nicely and l would be one of three people on the management team, (two assistant managers and her being the store manager), if l got the job.
Now, because Blockbuster Video was an American company l had to do two things other than just the interview. I had to fill in a psychological screening questionnaire and give a sample of my hair for drug analysis!
It was like applying to work at Mi5 rather than just a video rental store but l completed what l was asked and waited to hear back from her either way.
The next day l got a call in the afternoon, (this would be the Saturday), and was offered the position. I went in later and gave Cathy more detailed particulars and collected the iconic uniform (at the time).
To be honest, this shirt shown above l would have but the first shirt l got was the classic light blue denim shirt which you had to wear stone coloured chinos or light coloured trousers as well but l can’t find a picture of that anywhere online except from a video l will show in a moment.
My first shift would be that Monday and she hoped l was a quick learner as l would be the closing manager that coming Saturday night and it was expected to be extremely busy weekend with Titanic coming out that Monday.
What did a Blockbuster Video in the 1990’s look like? Well this wonderful little TV advert pretty much nails it on the head for the time period. But how did Blockbuster Video come to the U.K?
Blockbuster’s first U.K. store opened in March of 1989 in Camberwell, London. It wouldn’t be until February of 1992 that the American company would make its first huge U.K acquisition.
That company would be Citivision PLC which at the time was the U.K’s biggest home video tape rental company with close to 800 stores in the country.
You might remember these stores if you grew up in the mid to late 1980’s as “Ritz Video” with their bright yellow shop fronts as shown below.
The cost of taking over Citivision PLC, which of course included their Ritz retail video rental store chain was estimated to be around $81 million dollars in 1992 which would be $178 million dollars in today’s money.
With the attitude of “why compete when you can purchase”, Blockbuster took over the U.K. video and game rental market in one fell swoop and Ritz stores rapidly changed into Blockbuster Video’s up and down the country.
Instead of walking into a video rental store with a few titles, there were now thousands and the big films would have a minimum of 100 copies depending on the store size and layout.
This was possible because of the company’s deep connections in America with the film and media entertainment industry and its buying power to get the latest releases and in huge volumes.
The only way that was achieved was with some of the biggest mergers and buy outs of media conglomerates ever seen in that sector during the 1990’s.
In 1994, Blockbuster Video was bought by Viacom for $8.4 billion dollars in America which would be $18.6 billion dollars in today’s money.
Viacom already had American mass television media giant CBS and Hollywood’s Paramount Stuidos in their portfolio and now Blockbuster Video was added to that.
At one point during the 1990’s and into the early 2000’s the Viacom “family” was the second largest entertainment company in the world with only the Disney Corporation being even bigger.
l believe l started working in the golden times of Blockbuster Video and to be honest it was exciting as you felt you was bringing a little slice of that Hollywood “razzle dazzle” to the customers.
But at that time in the late 1990’s we did more than just video rental. We also rented out video games, video game consoles and all the accessories.
Retail wise we sold video tapes, music CD’s, video games, video game consoles, game controllers and miscellaneous film merchandise.
Of course one of the biggest sellers in all the stores was confectionery, drinks, ice creams, snacks, (eventually even alcohol), and the must have bags of sweet, salt, toffee and microwaveable popcorn.
I remember once in late 1999 when l went to visit the Blockbuster U.K. head of operations complex in Uxbridge as part of a “get to know the business” scheme, l was amazed at the sheer scale of the money being made.
One of the managing directors told us at a meeting that we made so much profit just off the sales of popcorn at that time that the company could be solvent on just their sales alone for at least 3 years! Crazy right?
Let’s get back to 1997. What video games and consoles were we selling and renting out at that time? Well, we were in the 5th generation of video game consoles and it was amazing.
The original Sony PlayStation was our biggest seller and renter with games like the legendary Final Fantasy 7 being release that Autumn of 1997.
As l mentioned before, we also rented out the consoles and the original PlayStation along with the Sega Saturn and our other top seller and rental console the Nintendo 64, would be rented out in plastic hard cases like this example shown below.
Just before l stated that year, the big game for the Nintendo 64 in August was the well renowned FPS James Bond 007 game “Golden Eye” and that sold and rented in huge numbers.
The Sega Saturn wasn’t as popular and many see the Saturn as the inevitable start of the decline of Sega and to be honest it’s a shame looking back.
Most of the really good bespoke Sega Saturn only titles that showed what the console could do never made it out of Japan and didn’t even see a North America release let alone an European one.
Christmas of 1997 was a huge success for the company with retail and rental sales smashing all records. Just before that Christmas run up, we started to get through via internal memo’s what the company was planning for 1998.
Rumours of the new 6th generation of video games consoles and a new format called DVD was mentioned and that further details would be sent in the next few months of the new year.
That 1998-to-2001 period would see some of the biggest changes to Blockbuster Video since it came to the U.K. in 1989 and that’s where we are heading to next time.
As we head into December next week, l know that people will be busy during the run up to and during the festive season. My blog will be on a break until the start of new year.
As always, thank you so much for reading today’s entry, your likes, comments, shares and general interest in the blog.
Let’s explore together again in 2024☺️
We don’t tape the top 40 
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