Blockbuster: Streaming Killed the Video Store with Lauren Lapkus and Laura Ramoso | 54

The Big Flop

Wondery

Society & Culture, Comedy, Business

4.6 • 884 Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At the turn of the millenium, Blockbuster Video, with its ubiquitous blue-and-yellow stores, was the reigning champion of movie rentals. But early on, when presented with the chance to buy a little company called Netflix... Blockbuster made the wrong choice. Despite attempts to launch online rental services, the quaint allure of browsing store aisles couldn't compete with the instant gratification of streaming. In the end, boardroom squabbling and Blockbuster's stubborn adherence to nostalgia led to its own unraveling.

Lauren Lapkus (Newcomers, The Last Blockbuster) and Laura Ramoso (Sit Up Straight) join Misha to be kind and rewind all the way back to the heyday of Blockbuster.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wonderie Plus subscribers can listen to the Big Flop early and ad-free.
0:05.3	Join Wonderly Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:19.1	Blockbuster's CEO John Antioco rocks back and forth in his custom office chair, killing a few minutes before his meeting.
0:27.7	These guys better show up, and they better not waste my time, he thinks.
0:32.9	Meanwhile, Reed Hastings and Mark Randolph, the CEOs of an up-and-coming video rental company,
0:40.0	rush over to Blockbuster HQ.
0:43.0	For months, they have been trying to nab a meeting with Blockbuster,
0:47.8	the biggest movie rental company in the game.
0:51.7	And suddenly, with 12 hours of lead time, the two Californians are granted an appointment
0:57.8	with Antioch. In Texas, without hesitation, they charter Vanna White's private jet to try to make it in time,
1:07.8	blowing $20,000 on the trip. Now that they have a meeting, they can sell their business
1:14.5	to Blockbuster and can reinvest their profits into something more stable. Antioco scans the two as they
1:24.2	enter his office. He listens half-heartedly as they give him a grand presentation
1:29.9	about taking entertainment into a new millennium or whatnot. He smiles a swindle. This dot-com
1:37.4	hysteria is completely overblown, he tells them. The lawyers ask how much they want. Hastings and Randolph check in with each other before
1:46.2	blurting out a figure, $50 million. Antioco struggles to keep himself from laughing. There's no way
1:55.5	their little company is worth even half that much. But sending Hastings and Randolph packing
2:01.2	will be the biggest mistake of Antioch's career
2:04.2	because their little company,
2:06.8	Netflix, won't stay little for long.
2:15.5	Once a giant in the entertainment industry, Blockbuster is a brand that's been slowly dying for the last few years.
2:21.3	In 2004, Blockbuster had 9,000 locations, but then Netflix.
	...

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