I’m not what anyone could call a financial commentator by any stretch of the imagination, but Blockbuster was a big part of how pretty much all of us saw our movies for a big chunk of our lives, so I’ve been following it’s business woes with some interest lately. Here’s the long and short of it: Their business strategy started failing, bankruptcy was filed, it was decided that they would be auctioned off as a whole rather than dissolved and sold piecemeal, and now that auction has happened. When all was said and done, the big winner of the day was Dish Network. It’s reported that they will be spending $320 million for the acquisition with around $228 million being in cash. The purchase includes more than 1700 stores that are still in existence.

Perhaps the final step in the humiliation of the once monolithic Blockbuster Inc. has been taken. First it was plummeting revenue, then it was filing for bankruptcy, and now the entire company is up for auction. The company’s top four creditors have joined forces to create a limited liability company that has set the initial bid at $290 million. Either another interested party will swoop in and bid more, or if no other bids are placed ownership of the company will go into the hands of its creditors. I think somebody rich should scoop up this and MySpace and start a pop culture museum. Blockbuster was once an unstoppable giant whose franchises swept across the country putting mom and pop video stores out of business left and right by offering a larger selection of new releases, pricing them at a lower point due to the volume they worked in, and streamlining the once arduous rental process with computerized records keeping. Gone were the fragmented, independently owned shops that were often unorganized treasure troves of VHS discoveries. In their place were walls of new releases: hundreds of copies of a small handful of films. Everyone watching the same thing, everyone developing the same limited set of expectations. In my eyes Blockbuster did quite a bit to homogenize the film industry. They put focus entirely on what was new rather than on discovering film history, they supplied far more pan and scan films in lieu of stocking movies with their original aspect [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

While driving around your neighborhood in two weeks or so, you might be drawn in by the allure of a poster board sign pointing you in the direction of a nearby garage sale where you can get a bag of clothes for $1, a VHS of Zeus and Roxanne for $1, and MGM for a negotiable price.

Canada’s last domestically owned music chain has filed for bankruptcy. Damn you iTunes!