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Ding Dong. The bell tolls for Blockbuster, which declared bankruptcy this morning, reports CNBC. The stock had already been at 15 cents, so this was widely expected. Click here to see which big companies are likely to be next...

After dominating the home video rental business for more than a decade and struggling to survive in recent years against upstarts Netflix and Redbox, Blockbuster Inc. is preparing to file for bankruptcy next month, according to people who have been briefed on the matter. Executives from Blockbuster and its senior debt holders last week held meetings with the six major movie studios to discuss their intention to enter a “pre-planned” bankruptcy in mid-September, said several people familiar with the situation who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of ongoing talks. Blockbuster is hoping to use its time in Chapter...

Deteriorating quarterly results forced Blockbuster Inc. to repeat its warning Friday that it might have to liquidate if it can't arrange new debt financing. The dire warning came as the Dallas-based movie rental chain reported a wider than expected three-month loss on a 20 percent drop in revenue. That was after persuading debt holders late Thursday to give it more time on a $42 million interest payment that was due. Debt holders either see improvements worth waiting for in Blockbuster's attempted turnaround or remain at a standstill about what to do next, analysts said. Meanwhile, the struggling company is running...

The movie that changed Hollywood more than any other in its hundred-year history opened 35 years ago this week. Jaws was the second film made by a 28-year-old named Steven Spielberg. During the distended production period of his adaptation of Peter Benchley’s enormous bestseller about a shark attack on a beach resort, Spielberg had reason to fear he might never work again. The design team had built a mechanical shark that malfunctioned; costs ballooned; everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

If you check Obama's last trip over seas, his wife left just after their visit to France as stated below. She has yet to accompany him to any Arab country. Think about it. This email was sent to me from a very good and reliable friend. The pieces of the puzzle just keep on coming together! Interesting - Read On..... Travel for Obama I was at a Blockbusters renting videos, and as I was going along the wall, there was a video called "Obama". There were two men next to me. We talked about Obama. These guys were Arabs and...

Five years after Blockbuster announced in a massive marketing campaign that it was getting rid of late fees, they're back. MSN Entertainment: Academy Awards coverage In an effort to to compete with rival Coinstar's (CSTR) Redbox vending machines and mail delivery service Netflix (NFLX), the video rental company is returning to charging customers for returning movie rentals late. As of March, Blockbuster is charging $1 per day for up to 10 days after a rental is overdue. If the rental is 15 days late, the customer will be charged for the full price, which could be as much as $29.99...

Convenience, choice drawing consumers to other movie options On a recent weekday, Ken Moore browsed the new release wall at Hollywood Video but he couldn’t avoid the “Store Closing’’ banners that draped the inside and outside of the Quincy store. “I’m like a dinosaur,’’ said the father of two from Milton. “People tell me ‘You’re still going to the video store?’ and I’m like ‘Yeah.’ ’’ Moore is a part of a growing minority of movie renters who shun the convenience of instantly uploading moves online or grabbing a DVD at supermarket kiosks in favor of roaming the aisles of...

Blockbuster Inc. has launched a service that delivers movies to your home via the Internet, as the DVD rental giant looks to expand ways it provides movies to customers. The service is "Blockbuster on Demand" and requires a box made by 2Wire Inc. At least initially, the box is included free if customers rent 25 movies in advance for $99. . . . Blockbuster on Demand is pay as you go, with movies costing between $1.99 and $3.99, Keyes said. You have 30 days to watch the movie, but only 24 hours to finish watching once you start. With Netflix,...

WASHINGTON, July 8, 2008 – Movies and games have always been popular among deployed troops, providing a break from the intense daily realities of their duties and a way to fill downtime while away from their loved ones. With that in mind, Blockbuster stores nationwide, in partnership with United Service Organizations, are making it easy for Americans to donate video games and DVDs to deployed forces. “The DVD and game drive is a way for Blockbuster stores and the American public to make life a little better for U.S. servicemen and women when they’re so far away from home,”...

Blockbuster Inc, the No. 1 U.S. movie rental chain, said on Monday it has offered to buy electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc in an all-cash offer in the range of $6 per share to $8 per share Blockbuster said it made the offer in a February 17 letter to Circuit City's Chief Executive Philip Schoonover on behalf of Blockbuster's board, but that Circuit City had so far failed to provide due diligence. Blockbuster said it was making its proposal public, "because it believes the shareholders of Circuit City should have the opportunity to participate in determining the destiny of...

Blockbuster Plans to Take $1 Billion-Plus Cash Takeover Bid to Circuit City Shareholders DALLAS (AP) -- Blockbuster Inc. said Monday it will take an unsolicited $1 billion-plus bid for Circuit City Stores Inc. directly to the consumer electronics chain's shareholders, saying Circuit City has not responded to repeated offers.......

Which websites are best for viewing/downloading movies with the most bang for the buck?

Rentals of DVDs from companies such as Netflix cost the U.S. Postal Service tens of millions of dollars each year because its sorting machines can't process millions of return envelopes, government inspectors say. The postal service incurs more than $20 million per year in labor costs to hand-sort DVDs. And costs are expected to total as much as $30 million per year by 2009. "Because these mail pieces are not machinable, the Postal Service pays significant additional labor costs to manually process them," auditors wrote in a recent report issued by Tammy L. Whitcomb, the deputy assistant inspector general for...

I recieved the following email yesterday afternoon and I am steaming mad. The video chain Blockbuster video has been aggressively advertising thier alternative to the growing success of Netflix. I was pressured by the folks who work at the video stored for months to join Blockbuster Unlimited. They touted the ability to rent movies online just like Netflix but with the added bonus of being able to take a movie back into any store and exchange it free for another title, along with being able to also just rent from the store. This sounded like a great deal and sold...

I have a Blockbuster online plan where I have 3 movies at a time, unlimited for the month. For this I pay $18/month. After I'm through with the movies I take them back to my local blockbuster store and rent three more out of the store, for free, while I'm waiting for my next online selections. Blockbuster recently informed my that they're raising my rate $7/month to $25/month. I'm wondering if they did this across the board or if they're numbers crunchers said I was watching too many movies for it to be profitable for them at the $18 rate....

In another blow to HD DVD, the giant Blockbuster video rental chain has thrown its weight behind Blu-ray in the fight to see which format is the high definition successor to the humble DVD. After renting Blu-ray and HD DVD titles in 250 stores since late last year, Blockbuster has decide to stock only Blu-ray in its other 1250 US stores. Customers were choosing Blu-ray titles more than 70 percent of the time, reports Associated Press via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The release of Sony's Blu-ray-enabled PlayStation 3 games console was also a factor in the decision, said Blockbuster senior...

Internet video rental company Netflix's legal claims against rival Blockbuster are based on "unenforceable patents," Blockbuster said in a counterclaim filed on Tuesday. In a bid to shut down its online service, Netflix had sued Blockbuster, the leading movie and game rental company. But Dallas-based Blockbuster on Tuesday said the lawsuit is based on patents that Netflix obtained deceptively in a bid to monopolize online rentals. In an April lawsuit, Netflix accused Blockbuster of starting its online service in 2004 despite knowing that the service infringed a Netflix patent. "There is nothing original about renting movies or subscription rental programs,"...

Online DVD rental company Netflix on Tuesday sued rival Blockbuster for patent infringement, asking a federal judge in Northern California to shut down Blockbuster's 18-month-old online rental service and award Netflix damages, according to a copy of the filing. Blockbuster declined to comment, saying it had not received a copy of the lawsuit. Netflix, which was founded in 1999, holds two U.S. patents for its business methodology, which calls for subscribers to pay a monthly fee to select and rent DVDs from the company's Web site and to maintain a list of titles telling Netflix in which order to ship...

Updated: 03:15 AM ESTNetflix Presses Pause for Heavy DVD Renters 'Throttling' Practice Delays Shipments, Gives Preference to Infrequent RentersBy MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP SAN FRANCISCO (Feb. 11) - Manuel Villanueva realizes he has been getting a pretty good deal since he signed up for Netflix Inc.'s online DVD rental service 2 1/2 years ago, but he still feels shortchanged. That's because the $17.99 monthly fee that he pays to rent up to three DVDs at a time would amount to an even bigger bargain if the company didn't penalize him for returning his movies so quickly. Carlos Osorio, AP Netflix subscriber...

Netflix Service Complaints Some of the complaints I've received about Netflix recently: Jack writes: My problem is that 98% of the DVD's I receive on a Friday or Saturday go back to a location VERY far from my local center. The movies I receive during the rest of the week go back to my local center nearly 100% of the time. The only times I have received a DVD, at the beginning of the week, that does not go back to my local center is when a movie that I was supposed to have received that previous Friday or Saturday...