If you were born in the 90s or before, you probably remember going to blockbuster to rent movies.

But that massive company fell apart for one reason.

I'm Patty Steele, how one idea changed the way we consume entertainment.

That's next on The Backstory.

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One of my favorite memories is heading to Blockbuster to rent a movie.

We'd buy some popcorn and giant boxes of movie candy.

But the thrill was being able to see movies that had cycled out of theaters and only

occasionally showed up on TV. Now I could rent a slew of flicks, huge films from the 1930s,

right through to the very most recent ones, a few months after they were in theaters, movie night

at home, or at a pal's house. blockbuster was the king of home entertainment what could be

better hmm what could be better well picture of this it's 1997 you rent VHS tapes to watch movies

you rewind them or you forget to rewind them sometimes you forget forget to return them. And when that happens,

Blockbuster charges late fees that add up faster than parking tickets in New York City. In those days,

the average American household paid 40 bucks a year in late fees. That was a lot of money. It was

annoying, but for Blockbuster, it was an $800 million

revenue stream. But then, somebody with a better idea comes along. Enter Reed Hastings,

a software entrepreneur. The story goes that he racked up a $40 late fee for one movie that he forgot

to return, Apollo 13.

Reed got frustrated and thought, there's got to be a better way.

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