Free Republic

It's lonely at the top. That's what the Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon, discovered when the only other store in the world -- located in Australia -- announced it was closing. Although Sandi Harding, the general manager of the Oregon Blockbuster, is excited that hers is the last Blockbuster on the planet, she expressed her condolences for friends at the Australia store. "We all have a kinship with the other Blockbusters," Harding told CNN. The Oregon location has been open for more than 20 years. It offers customers the newest movie releases, but Harding says the classic older titles are the...

The satellite-TV company will likely close a majority of the 1,751 stores currently operating in the U.S. Dish Network, which will soon become the official owner of the Blockbuster video-rental chain, filed documents with Bankruptcy Court Saturday stating that it intends to keep some 600 Blockbuster stores open after its purchase is finalized. Earlier this month, Dish won a bidding war for the struggling rental company with an offer of roughly $320 million. According to the Los Angeles Times, Blockbuster currently operates 1,751 stores in the U.S., which means that the new owners will likely be closing more than 1,000...

The $1 movie rentals available through DVD kiosks like Redbox could spell "disaster" for the film and video industries—or at least, that's the argument of representatives for video stores and Hollywood unions, who want movie lovers to dump Redbox and return to their corner "mom-and-pop" DVD rental outlets. Video Business reports that the Video Buyers Group, a trade organization for some 1,700 independent brick-and-mortar video stores, is prepping an ad campaign that'll paint Redbox as a threat to the film industry as we know it. Why? Because its $1-a-night rental rate is "generating less revenue" for Hollywood studios than the...