Blockbuster Goes Blu-ray at All Locations

Posted April 10, 2008 11:24 AM by Josh Dreuth


Blockbuster, the popular video rental chain, has announced that starting this week, they will offer Blu-ray rentals and sales in all of their corporate locations, in both the US and Canada. Previously, Blockbuster only offered Blu-ray in about 1,700 stores nationwide, but with this new announcement, that number will increase to nearly 5,000 retail outlets. At each of the locations, Blockbuster will install a Blu-ray kiosks that feature a 42 inch high definition TV displaying Blu-ray movies via a Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3). This will help drive the fact that if a consumer owns a PS3, they also own a very capable (in some instance, the most capable) Blu-ray player. David Podeschi, Blockbuster Senior Vice President, Merchandising, Distribution and Logistics commented, "Blockbuster was the first national retailer to accurately recognize and react to consumers' preference for this format when we added Blu-ray discs to a large percentage of our stores last summer. Now, with this national rollout, we believe Blockbuster is perfectly positioned to drive consumer adoption of this next generation DVD format and to become the customer's headquarters when it comes to renting or buying Blu-ray movies, whether in-store or online." Blockbuster will also support their local franchises by offering up support for adding Blu-ray to their locations.
Source: Blu-ray.com \| Permalink \| [Country settings]

News comments (49 comments)

TOOLhead08

Apr 10, 2008

Cool! Just signed up for the free trial. Traded a movie earlier this week. Now I don't have to travel too far.

About a year ago I got the riot-act from a very ill-informed blockbuster employee, who told me that blu-ray would die and all PS3's were being recalled (turned out that he bit on a major april fools day joke, see link below:

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/13148/Sony-Announces-PlayStation-3-Global-Recall/

Anyway, I wonder if he still works there, 'cause now he'll have blu-rays AND a PS3 in his store. Ha!

TruBlu2

Apr 10, 2008

Finally!!!! Damn that took awhile

johnnymech

Apr 10, 2008

The headline should be, "Blockbuster Goes Blu-ray at Its Still-Standing Locations".

Top reviewer

haushausman

Apr 10, 2008

Very nice. But they charge around 7 bucks at the B&M Blockbusters... part of the reason I decided to start buying more movies.

Average BD Movie is around $18 - $7 Rental Charge = $11. Any used BD goes for $14 average on Ebay. So you make money ($3) by not renting and get to keep it as long as you want.

DerrickDS

Apr 10, 2008

Its about time Blockbuster. None of the stores here rented Blu-Ray movies, so it will be a nice treat once they finally arrive.

Sonny

Apr 10, 2008

Its about time !!!!

blueforte

Apr 10, 2008

Nice treat for us.

DarthVibbert

Apr 10, 2008

I work at a blockbuster and we've had blu-rays in out store since last summer, I usually use my 5 free
rentals all on blu-rays as well if I can, at one point we were selling a ps3 bundle that came with an
hdmi cable, surf's up on blu-ray and the bundle pack of the ps3 with motorsotrm, plus it came with a
20 week rental card for a free blu-ray rental or ps3 rental a week for 20 weeks, so that's when i
bought my ps3/blu-ray player

sardaukar1977

Apr 10, 2008

most excellent.

shankmanmonster

Apr 10, 2008

sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

savage1984

Apr 10, 2008

PERFECT! I can't wait for my local blockbuster to carry Blu-rays!!!!!!

jlawc

Apr 10, 2008

We have had BD at the Local Blockbuster for a while know, and HDDUD

, hopefully they will get more copies of BD movies because I am having trouble renting them, especially new releases

111111

Apr 10, 2008

Very cool...I was in my local Block Buster the other day and their BD selection has grown and I even saw some for sale.

Rainman208

Apr 10, 2008

Nice. Hope they also increase their stockpile numbers for online rentals to cut down on wait times. Great news.

TauHeel05

Apr 10, 2008

The rentals will definitely go for $9.99. I guess we'll see.

natedog543

Apr 10, 2008

im at Blockbuster RITE NOW in front of their Blu selection and was checking the new Blu Movies on my iPhone and I get this news for both BLOCKBUSTER AND IPHONE!!! this is the best day of my LIFE!!!

Top reviewer

Top contributor

that1guystudios

Apr 10, 2008

I work for Blockbuster. My store's rentals are $2.99 for old titles, $4.49 for New.
But then again I guess it depends on the area that you live in.
If you are on the rewards program, you get a free rental of a Catalog title BR
with every new BR rental on Mon, Tue and Wed.

Our PS3/BR Kiosk is set for installation on April 27th, and we just got in our first BR sale titles.
Water Horse, Dewey Cox, Juno, AVP, Fan.4SS, Unbreakable, Hidalgo, DieH4, & Coyote Ugly.

Finally, MOST Blockbusters WON'T have the BR's this week as it says here above.
The shipments are supposed to come in this Thursday and next Thursday and
are mandatory for installment by April 27th. Look for them to go up around then...
most Blockbuster employees are pretty lazy, and also the stores have to be shifted to make room. So don't go looking for them this Saturday, or you'll probably be disappointed.

What Josh didn't mention is the fact that all existing Blu-Ray stores are also expanding their selection. We moved our entire store around this week to make way for about 50 new titles.

And we are finally getting more than 1-2 copies of every new release. 6 of Juno and AVP last week, 8 of Michael Clayton and Dewey Cox. This is awesome...Blockbuster will really help Blu-Ray go mainstream in my opinion.

TK421

Apr 10, 2008

Never been a big fan of renting, maybe by this the high COST of blu-ray movies will start to go DOWN !!!

Nevertheless, more people will now get the chance to see the BLU in it's PRIME form.

Petra

Apr 10, 2008

Blu-ray is awesome like the Rock Chalk Jayhawks!!!! 2008 National Champions Baby!!!!

blu-canuck

Apr 10, 2008

Sweet! Now they will have to work on their selection...

horrorfreak889

Apr 10, 2008

Its about time! I asked the people at my blockbuster and one guy went "What is bluray?" I then said to him "Maybe I should be the one working here...."

RickD

Apr 10, 2008

Good news! I hope they start stocking more copies of each title too.

never$$hort

Apr 10, 2008

6 months ago my Blockbuster people didn't even know what a Blu Ray was... I had to explain it to them, now this!! Haha... things change fast in 6 months!

TechJunkie

Apr 10, 2008

I had been planning on dumping Netflix at the end of my current cycle and this just put a nail in the coffin of that decision for me!

Top reviewer

owa

Apr 10, 2008

Great news! It even seems like the "downsized" Blockbuster closest to me should be getting blu-rays. If so, that's even better.

EvolutionCherry

Apr 10, 2008

Awesome! Now the second closest BB to my house will now sell BDs.

Grisle

Apr 10, 2008

This is great news! Now I should be able to see more new releases I wasn't planning on buying...unless everyone else has the same idea of course.

Top reviewer

Moefiz

Apr 10, 2008

This is good news for me.The Blockbuster that's 5 min from me didn't carry Blu-ray the one that was 30 min from me carried them.

This one will se me often now gain.

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DAMNSAM77

Apr 10, 2008

It would be nice if there was a blockbuster store near my house. The nearest one is about 8 miles away, which is not worth the drive for me. Thats why I dumped Blockbuster Online for Netflix....more availability of titles on BD, not as many "Long Wait" and "Extra Long Waits" on new and hot titles, plus it takes them EXACTLY ONE business day to send you your new selection, you get an email about the next movie being sent off from yoru queue and low and behold its in your mailbox the following day! It would take me almost as long to download the dang thing!!! hehe!

RCO

Apr 10, 2008

BEAUTIFUL---about frickin' time!!! The closest one to my house has been telling me September.

PS3-Playb3yond

Apr 10, 2008

That's great. No need for HD DVD now anyways.

bkbluray

Apr 10, 2008

I've rented BD at Blockbuster before. It was $4.99 per rental (whether new or older release). Not too bad if you ask me.

Top contributor

MrVorhees

Apr 10, 2008

LOOOL at those saying "awesome" what were you guys thinking? ROFL! that was just a matter of time since there are no more HD DVD produced in future!!

damn this site has some extreme fanboys at the worst.

Calling to "news" like this, AWESOME! *rolleyes*

tricky

Apr 10, 2008

This is indeed excellent news for Blu-ray, though I hate BlockBuster with a passion.

elmo

Apr 10, 2008

hopefully now xtra visoin (its our big rental store here in northern ireland and its owned by blockbuster) will have a wider selection of blu's too

JT_Designer

Apr 10, 2008

Awesome news!! I'm sure soon they will start phasing out VHS.

Does anyone know anything about this rumored Blockbuster Apple TV competitor?

frenchglen

Apr 10, 2008

good good good good good!

Vlad44

Apr 10, 2008

yeah, both BB near me are allready blu. good.

dakshdar

Apr 10, 2008

I consistently bring my Blockbuster Online rentals in to a Blockbuster a few miles away to exchange for Blu-Rays at their store. Now the one a half mile away will have them as well.

For the $20 monthly fee (for me it includes all tax at that rate) I get two free PS3 (or 360) rentals (valued at $15 in store), and usually watch around 4 movies a month in the mail and 4 more from the store.

I love Blockbuster online.

Excalibur-king

Apr 10, 2008

Blu-ray FTW !!!!!!!!!!!!

saljr

Apr 10, 2008

Go Block Buster and thank you for taking it to the next level.

hezapp267

Apr 11, 2008

best way to get ur money's worth is to get a movie pass. those rentals are pretty expensive. glad bb got bd...selection is really growing

lilboostedscooby

Apr 11, 2008

Hope they have more than one copy on new release days

Uberfy

Apr 11, 2008

The store near me just started offering Blu this week, and their selection is very minimal for now, but
at least they have 2 copies of the most recent releases. They say they will have the full selection by
May 5 or 6, which was enough to get me to start renting with them again and sign up for the "one
out at a time" deal.

U4K61

Apr 12, 2008

Good news. Blu needs another shot in the arm to build up the momentium. DUD is gone one week and then suddenly is back in the picture the next week. 64:36 for the week of 6/4/08???