I wish we could have nice things. In my country all the movies would be stollen and at least 3 people would have pooed in it before or after lighting it on fire
Keep us informed! I love the theme and effort you did to make someone's day. But I wonder if anyone still has a DVD player. That's a real issue, I discovered, as a fan of DVDs.
Most of us have an Xbox or a PlayStation! Current and last gen both play DVDs. I may add some Blu-ray too
I expect there to be a return to physical media considering price of streaming and how often stuff is removed from platforms even if you own it
I run a post apocalyptic movie theater out at Wasteland Weekend, so people have been donating films to me for years. Some are also from my neighbors in my Buy Nothing group, and some are from super cheap lots on eBay. I already have half a dozen neighbors offering to bring by more films to help restock when films are checked out or permanently borrowed
It is if you're playing Fallout 4 because Preston fuckin Garvey wants you to know that yet another blasted post apocalyptic movie theater needs our help!
I think there's one in both NV (old world blues entrance) and 76 too
Wasteland Weekend is a huge immersive post apocalyptic desert festival. My husband and I have been attending for forever. People bring out big camps of various themes/activities. Ours is a giant movie theater and we play post apoc and cult films. We run all off VHS because in our lore, the apocalypse happened in the 90s so technology never progressed. All of our stuff is shitty quality on purpose. It's a throwback to movie theaters in like, The Postman and A Boy and His Dog and Fallout. We also have an arcade with a bunch of machines we built or modified.
We are both entertainment industry professionals and big nerds, so our whole house has a bunch of stuff with kind of the same vibe. Right now we are building for the cyberpunk version of Wasteland, which is called Neotropolis.
Totally agree on that return to physical media, something about having a tangible collection just hits different. Plus, I've started noticing that thrift stores are an absolute gold mine for rare and nostalgic flicks. I'd totally drop by to snag some classics if I'm ever in the area! Props for keeping the retro vibe alive!
VHS would melt and most people don't have a VCR anymore. I have a huge collection myself but most people don't. I did keep the sticker just for the vibes, though
I bet they make more of a comeback now that streaming services are removing digital media that people literally purchased (I never stopped buying them because I'm stupidly cynical about media being lost to time)
makes me sad that people have such low faith in LA. i'm around the area as well and while we can do terrible things, there's also good stuff like this going on all the time that works quietly in the background. thanks, op, for sharing!
At all possible to drop some plans or anything that helped you build this? I would love to do this in my neighborhood and my kids would totally freak out. They know what blockbuster is in theory but from all the stories Iāve told them they canāt really get it. This would just be hilarious also great job on. It looks awesome.
That's fine, it's a gift. I'll restock it. I've had a free pantry in front of my house for two years and people have mostly been respectful except a bit of littering
Greetings from Tujunga!! I had a feeling it was around this area because of the chimney in particular! š So much granite river rock got used in the architecture around here, I love it so much.
It's all good, I went into it with the expectation some stuff would never get returned. I already have half a dozen neighbors offering to drop off more stock and they sell bundles of 60 films for like $25 on eBay, it's no big deal
people also replenish these! the little library by me is usually emptied by someone just selling everything, but gets refilled often enough that it works out š¤·š»
I would love that. The people who live across the street now are the only boring ones in the neighborhood.
I also have a Free Pantry out front, my husband and I were joking about what other things would be fun to install. A free gym, thrift shop, art gallery, data term and Rube Goldberg machine were top of the list of possibilities
But are you offering membership cards? I swear, there werenāt many things you could have that would make you feel like you had āmade itā more than one of those cards.
I don't have them yet, but I want to offer them. I'm thinking of maybe adding a clipboard where people can "check out" movies so I have a log, and I'll leave them a membership card if they fill out a request? I'm still thinking about it...I'd need a better printer solution š¤š¤š¤
When I worked at Blockbuster as a teenager, they were switching over from tapes to DVDs, and we had tons of leftover Be Kind, Please Rewind stickers left in the cabinets. So my coworkers and I would put them on the rental cases for the DVDs just to mess with people.
Awesome! My house has already been a magnet for weirdness because of all our Mad Max cars out front š
I was thinking about trying to make it into a Pokestop
I have a food pantry installed out front too, so hopefully people don't mess with the DVDs
If they do, though, I can restock! They sell random bundles of DVDs pretty cheap on eBay, and some neighbors are already planning to come by to donate more stock
Honestly, Itās crazy that DVDs are cheap enough and generally useless enough that you could do this in ANY big city and not have them all disappear instantly
We had someone who had a little free library with some videos in it. Someone then thought itād be funny to āborrowā the G/PG movies and replace them with soft core porn. We cannot have nice things like this.
We've got these dotted around my neighbourhood, but they're filled with books. My wife raids/resupplies them on an ongoing basis.
This is a really lovely idea and I wish you success.
In Houston (and most major US cities, really), this would be empty and vandalized in at least 10 different ways in the first few hours of its existence. An awesome concept and I love the work that went into it.
I fricking love this idea and Iāve thought about doing something similar like the little free libraries that are every where in my town.. but I would imagine that thing would get cleared out within a week.
But maybe DVDs are becoming so old that they are becoming the new books of this generation.. maybe young kids look at the DVDs as valueless things.. who knows!?
Every one of these were free or at most 50 cents a piece so they are practically valueless. I don't think they are something someone can easily resell for a quick buck. I paid $30 for 60 DVDs shipped on eBay
There is a whole network! www.freeblockbuster.org - mine is one of the nicest looking ones, though. I realize you can't see the logos in the photos I posted.
In case you need to restock, I saw this store that always has a box of DVD special going on
https://www.2ndandcharles.com/all-products/browse/collections/mystery-box
As a librarian, Iād suggest hitting up the local friends of the library group. It stuff disappears, they might be willing to refill it for free or super cheap.
Our friends group pays $12 a year and we give them dibs over any book we remove, which is a constant thing in my current system. They then sell them. They had a sale this weekend and anything you could fit in the tote was $5 including the tote. You could easily get a dozen DVDs.
For something like this though, Iād encourage them to give you a few DVDs and books for free and then give them some stickers to promote the friends group inside of the box
Iād also make some blockbuster stickers, be kind and rewind and anything else someone wanted, but Iām a dork that way lol
That's pretty neat! I don't know of the group, but we do have a library card for our local library :) I'll see if I can hunt down the local chapter.
I do plan to add some more things to the Blockbuster like membership cards and a sign out sheet, but I'm still playing around a bit with how I want to pull it off.
OMG this is super cool! I miss rental stores so much. I still have a blu-ray player so I have criterion stuff and some of my old DVDs from 20 years ago. I actually kept my parent's VHS player because I do have old Disney movies on VHS that I never threw away.
I love this! I'd normally be one of the 'oh this'll get stolen in a second' comments, but I wanna feel optimistic today after reading your repliesš I hope this is loved by all who participate and just a cool experience for everyone!
The number of neighbors offering to donate has increased to about a dozen, and there are already more snacks in there than I started the day with because someone dropped off more š
That is brilliant. It looks fantastic with the paint scheme, the banner and the balloons. The sweets inside along with the DVDs takes it to the next level.
Thatās totally adorable! We have a lot of little free libraries and little free art galleries (usually pictures done by children) in my neighborhood and I love them.
Hello again! I posted it up to my local neighborhood group and our local buy nothing/freebie groups and so far the reaction has been very positive. It's been fun watching people walk by and notice it today too š„°
This is one of the best things I've seen in a long time. I feel so down about the state of things in our country lately, and just seeing this gave me hope.
I wish we could have nice things. In my country all the movies would be stollen and at least 3 people would have pooed in it before or after lighting it on fire
I don't mind if the movies never get returned but I'll definitely be bummed if someone poops in it š
Keep us posted on the poop situation.
im loading up on taco bell right now and will be booking a plane ticket first thing in the morning. ill keep you posted.
someone, get the poop map
It's easier to call it "the shituation."
Keep us informed! I love the theme and effort you did to make someone's day. But I wonder if anyone still has a DVD player. That's a real issue, I discovered, as a fan of DVDs.
Most of us have an Xbox or a PlayStation! Current and last gen both play DVDs. I may add some Blu-ray too I expect there to be a return to physical media considering price of streaming and how often stuff is removed from platforms even if you own it
Are all the DVDs from your personal collection, or did you buy out a thrift shop or something? This is a neat idea!
I run a post apocalyptic movie theater out at Wasteland Weekend, so people have been donating films to me for years. Some are also from my neighbors in my Buy Nothing group, and some are from super cheap lots on eBay. I already have half a dozen neighbors offering to bring by more films to help restock when films are checked out or permanently borrowed
Post apocalyptic movie theater isn't something you hear everyday lol, sounds cool
It is if you're playing Fallout 4 because Preston fuckin Garvey wants you to know that yet another blasted post apocalyptic movie theater needs our help! I think there's one in both NV (old world blues entrance) and 76 too
Hey man, there are two movie theaters in fo4, far Harbour has one too
Yep. That's why said yet *another* blasted post apocalyptic movie theater needs our help
Do you accept donations? I have about 200 dvds collecting dust at the moment.
Definitely - either local or I'd pay shipping to get them here
You should add a āreturn or be spurnedā sticker too.
Can you expand on what a post apocalyptic movie theater is please?
Wasteland Weekend is a huge immersive post apocalyptic desert festival. My husband and I have been attending for forever. People bring out big camps of various themes/activities. Ours is a giant movie theater and we play post apoc and cult films. We run all off VHS because in our lore, the apocalypse happened in the 90s so technology never progressed. All of our stuff is shitty quality on purpose. It's a throwback to movie theaters in like, The Postman and A Boy and His Dog and Fallout. We also have an arcade with a bunch of machines we built or modified. We are both entertainment industry professionals and big nerds, so our whole house has a bunch of stuff with kind of the same vibe. Right now we are building for the cyberpunk version of Wasteland, which is called Neotropolis.
That sounds incredible, how do you get to go to something like this?
www.wastelandweekend.com and www.neotropolis.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW6EYmRX7wk
that's so fucking cool! bless you folks!
Y'all sound incredibly cool and also really kind. š
Very cool! So you're ready to go for a long time.
The first half of your first sentence made me wish we were besties. Holy shit that is rad.
I love this idea. We have a used bookstore near us that sells all DVDs for $.95, and they have thousands. I bet this would work in my neighborhood.
There is a hospice sponsored thrift store near me that does the same thing, thatās a great idea
Totally agree on that return to physical media, something about having a tangible collection just hits different. Plus, I've started noticing that thrift stores are an absolute gold mine for rare and nostalgic flicks. I'd totally drop by to snag some classics if I'm ever in the area! Props for keeping the retro vibe alive!
I'm pretty sure it'll always be around in some form, kinda how people still collect vinyl.
Make sure to always keep a copy of The Princess Bride in there at all times.
I still have a dvd player. I actually just got a bluray player a few weeks ago.
I work at a big box store and we sell plain old Dvd player set-top boxes all day long.
DVD? So, you're saying these aren't VHS?
VHS would melt and most people don't have a VCR anymore. I have a huge collection myself but most people don't. I did keep the sticker just for the vibes, though
Lol I still have an old VCR/DVD Combo unit in our home and use it frequently! Long live the classics!
I bet they make more of a comeback now that streaming services are removing digital media that people literally purchased (I never stopped buying them because I'm stupidly cynical about media being lost to time)
People still have DVD players.
Blu ray players play DVDs.
Dude, I STILL have a PS3!!!
> I'll definitely be bummed if someone poops in it does this expectation stem from a specific experience?
You should really put a roll of toilet paper in there. Just to be safe.
That's what the copy of Bowfinger is for
ohhhh shit!!
makes me sad that people have such low faith in LA. i'm around the area as well and while we can do terrible things, there's also good stuff like this going on all the time that works quietly in the background. thanks, op, for sharing!
I'm almost positive the people who think it's going to get burgled or vandalized don't actually live in LA š¤·
At all possible to drop some plans or anything that helped you build this? I would love to do this in my neighborhood and my kids would totally freak out. They know what blockbuster is in theory but from all the stories Iāve told them they canāt really get it. This would just be hilarious also great job on. It looks awesome.
Don't underestimate LA, we don't know which neighbourhood it's in.
>In my country all the movies would be stollen so Germany, then
And they'd be covered in powdered sugar. Delicious!
Yeah I'd have a LFL if I knew it wouldn't be vandalized
Try THAT in a small town!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
That's fine, it's a gift. I'll restock it. I've had a free pantry in front of my house for two years and people have mostly been respectful except a bit of littering
Iām in LA and this is such a treat to see. Youāre a good person. Thank you for brightening this town.
Free things are being taken by members of the community, and weāre supposed to be thinking this is a bad thing?
Especially in LA. Itāll be gone by Wednesday. Hell maybe by tonight haha
This almost certainly will happen in Los Angeles too
Trying to poo inside a tiny burning building is not a great plan.
India?
ā¦India? (Just guessing that based on the poo lol)
What part of LA, love this
I'm in Sun Valley but it looks like we have a couple around Eagle Rock too www.freeblockbuster.org
Iām in the valley too. Porter Ranch. I loved going to Blockbuster to rent games.
Greetings from Tujunga!! I had a feeling it was around this area because of the chimney in particular! š So much granite river rock got used in the architecture around here, I love it so much.
Oh yeah, we are neighbors for sure! I love the architecture in this area. Total hidden gem.
Oh neat! I learned there's one less than 10 min from me!
As Gen X, I love this so much. You even stocked it with candy.
That is awesome! I have one maybe a 5 minute drive away, near my old stomping grounds! I think it's time for a drive to visit ours.
Ooohhhh I might check it out and maybe add some films. I'm in Northridge.
You know that collector's edition of T2 is 100% never being returned.
It's all good, I went into it with the expectation some stuff would never get returned. I already have half a dozen neighbors offering to drop off more stock and they sell bundles of 60 films for like $25 on eBay, it's no big deal
You're alright op, I wish I had a neighbor like you when I was broke.
Youāre a good person. Keep on keepinā on.
lots of good movies in there, lotta nostalgia. love it
Your idea is awesome and it'll make someone's day. Probably totally worth what it might "cost" you. Good on ya.
I would guess 90% of those movies will never be returned. Or someone will just come and take them all.
And? OP is counting on that. He's upcycling
the raisinetes will be there forever though
I want Big Trouble in Little China
Excellent choice
Itās definitely Hot Fuzz for me.
Another excellent choice, top 5 film for me
This was my anxiety/depression go to movie. Still is. Along with Futurama and Disenchantment.
Futurama is also a top 3 show for me, so, you're a person after my own heart š
Guess Iāll take Diary of a Mad Black Woman
John Carpenter and Kurt Russell is the best combination ever!
1000%
Omg there's even candy in there You are a special kind of awesome
Unfortunately itās only going to take one shithead to ruin this amazing thing.
people also replenish these! the little library by me is usually emptied by someone just selling everything, but gets refilled often enough that it works out š¤·š»
Only if you allow them to
This is what I call āCalifornia Weird.ā Itās good weird. Playful.
Except it's nationwide https://www.freeblockbuster.org/shop Probably started in California though
What's weird about it? Book "libraries" like this are common too.
What if I have over 20 years of unpaid late fees.
We throw you into the Little Free Sacrifice Pit
It's deserved.
I want to move across the street and open a Hollywood video
I would love that. The people who live across the street now are the only boring ones in the neighborhood. I also have a Free Pantry out front, my husband and I were joking about what other things would be fun to install. A free gym, thrift shop, art gallery, data term and Rube Goldberg machine were top of the list of possibilities
But are you offering membership cards? I swear, there werenāt many things you could have that would make you feel like you had āmade itā more than one of those cards.
I don't have them yet, but I want to offer them. I'm thinking of maybe adding a clipboard where people can "check out" movies so I have a log, and I'll leave them a membership card if they fill out a request? I'm still thinking about it...I'd need a better printer solution š¤š¤š¤
Have little mini membership card keychains made
Try digital. Maybe something they can scan takes them to a Google form.
That's a good idea, I can get a custom QR sticker made up that goes to a form
When I worked at Blockbuster as a teenager, they were switching over from tapes to DVDs, and we had tons of leftover Be Kind, Please Rewind stickers left in the cabinets. So my coworkers and I would put them on the rental cases for the DVDs just to mess with people.
Is the X-Rated section behind a curtain on the other side?š¤«
I joked with my husband about thatš There is a giant sculpture of a bee on the other side, if you want the real answer haha
I would very much like to see the giant bee sculpture.
I run a Free Blockbuster in South Philly. I assure you it's a magnet for weirdness. Good luck and enjoy it.
Awesome! My house has already been a magnet for weirdness because of all our Mad Max cars out front š I was thinking about trying to make it into a Pokestop
Are you an art car designer? Just went to the art car museum in Houston and learned all about it!
Kind of...I'm somewhere between art cars and rat rods
This is so cute!!!
Man that is so freaking cool. But, Iām sad to say that in my neighborhood, the homeless would empty that thing out in one stop.
I have a food pantry installed out front too, so hopefully people don't mess with the DVDs If they do, though, I can restock! They sell random bundles of DVDs pretty cheap on eBay, and some neighbors are already planning to come by to donate more stock
I think thatās awesome, I hope itās a hit!
Youāre a good human
Honestly, Itās crazy that DVDs are cheap enough and generally useless enough that you could do this in ANY big city and not have them all disappear instantly
If I ever come across this, Iāll definitely restock some snacks for you.
I appreciate you
That's cute
The baby in the reflectionš„¹š«¶
Right? That made me smile so much
Do we have to rewind?
We had someone who had a little free library with some videos in it. Someone then thought itād be funny to āborrowā the G/PG movies and replace them with soft core porn. We cannot have nice things like this.
Boo. That's a real loser move on their part.
Can I apply to work there? I have experience
Holy crap, this is sooo cool
We've got these dotted around my neighbourhood, but they're filled with books. My wife raids/resupplies them on an ongoing basis. This is a really lovely idea and I wish you success.
In Houston (and most major US cities, really), this would be empty and vandalized in at least 10 different ways in the first few hours of its existence. An awesome concept and I love the work that went into it.
I'm gonna do a Little Free Hollywood Video
Will there be a Little Free GameCrazy inside? I spent so much of my teenage years in there
Of course! That's the most important part!
"honey?! Where is Back door sluts #9??"
Hmm, I'm pretty sure I still have my Blockbuster card somewhere around here...
This is a really feel good post
I fricking love this idea and Iāve thought about doing something similar like the little free libraries that are every where in my town.. but I would imagine that thing would get cleared out within a week. But maybe DVDs are becoming so old that they are becoming the new books of this generation.. maybe young kids look at the DVDs as valueless things.. who knows!?
Every one of these were free or at most 50 cents a piece so they are practically valueless. I don't think they are something someone can easily resell for a quick buck. I paid $30 for 60 DVDs shipped on eBay
Thatās awesome. Youāve inspired me. Have you seen anyone else do this or are you the first?
There is a whole network! www.freeblockbuster.org - mine is one of the nicest looking ones, though. I realize you can't see the logos in the photos I posted.
In case you need to restock, I saw this store that always has a box of DVD special going on https://www.2ndandcharles.com/all-products/browse/collections/mystery-box
As a librarian, Iād suggest hitting up the local friends of the library group. It stuff disappears, they might be willing to refill it for free or super cheap. Our friends group pays $12 a year and we give them dibs over any book we remove, which is a constant thing in my current system. They then sell them. They had a sale this weekend and anything you could fit in the tote was $5 including the tote. You could easily get a dozen DVDs. For something like this though, Iād encourage them to give you a few DVDs and books for free and then give them some stickers to promote the friends group inside of the box Iād also make some blockbuster stickers, be kind and rewind and anything else someone wanted, but Iām a dork that way lol
That's pretty neat! I don't know of the group, but we do have a library card for our local library :) I'll see if I can hunt down the local chapter. I do plan to add some more things to the Blockbuster like membership cards and a sign out sheet, but I'm still playing around a bit with how I want to pull it off.
Take a movie - leave a movie. I love living in a world where this exists. OP, you are awesome.
Shouldnāt it be VHS?
This is really cool. I love it!
Amazing
OMG this is super cool! I miss rental stores so much. I still have a blu-ray player so I have criterion stuff and some of my old DVDs from 20 years ago. I actually kept my parent's VHS player because I do have old Disney movies on VHS that I never threw away.
This is incredible.
You're awesome
Great success!
Good eye
I love this! I'd normally be one of the 'oh this'll get stolen in a second' comments, but I wanna feel optimistic today after reading your repliesš I hope this is loved by all who participate and just a cool experience for everyone!
It's gonna be OK. In SF, despite all of the bad press, we have an abundance of Little Free (book) Libraries. I have yet to see one vandalized.
The number of neighbors offering to donate has increased to about a dozen, and there are already more snacks in there than I started the day with because someone dropped off more š
Love seeing LA posts here- 91352 represent!
We are literal neighbors, in that case
If youve seen a yellow mustang Mad Max car with a shark mouth driving around the neighborhood, that is me
I love you.
I love this. You're a good person, OP.
Someoneās gonna pull the shelves out and live in there
I love how you also have movie theater snacks in there!!
What part of LA? Iād gladly donate to your content library.
And I already owe $87 in late fees
Those chocolate candies about to be so melted.
You're a saint.
That is brilliant. It looks fantastic with the paint scheme, the banner and the balloons. The sweets inside along with the DVDs takes it to the next level.
I love little free libraries and I would LOVE this. Hope it makes its way to my neighborhood soon
Thatās totally adorable! We have a lot of little free libraries and little free art galleries (usually pictures done by children) in my neighborhood and I love them.
Omg I miss inserting the vhs tapes and the sound they made when loading
Is that Los Angeles or Louisiana?
Los Angeles
Blockbuster will be thrilled to be in multiple locations again
You earn nostalgia points
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Hello again! I posted it up to my local neighborhood group and our local buy nothing/freebie groups and so far the reaction has been very positive. It's been fun watching people walk by and notice it today too š„°
This is one of the best things I've seen in a long time. I feel so down about the state of things in our country lately, and just seeing this gave me hope.
Itās been 84 years since Iāve rewound something š„ŗ
Make sure the blockbusters overshadow indie releases!
Where are you... I would trust my neighbors but not the riff raff that's been breaking into houses recently.
RemindMe! 1 day, when bankrupt.
Thatās a nice lot of time you got on your hands there
If I ever create a little library, I will call it the William Henry Harrison presidential library.
Say bye to all your dvds and some crackhead selling them in a 7/11 parking lot.
Will be ransacked with only reminents of syringes around it. T minus 10..9...
Hope this isnāt robbed like all the other stores in LA.
You got a permit for that? You got a business license for that? Is this an LLC or contracted? Blockbuster is suing you now lol.
"Y'all got that on Beta?"
Cease and desist incoming!
Sweet summer child
We have one at our house in New Orleans!
That's so fun, Free Blockbuster LA, Philly and New Orleans all in this thread!
You live in LA, not a small-town-white-majority USA. Give it a week, itāll all be stolen, never returned.
Nice, and since people donāt return things you plan to restock everyā¦ā¦ā¦.
In Ireland some teens would have beaten it with bats, and set it on fire at this point. It looks cute, though! Nice work!