Netflix’s Kind Rewind on 'Blockbuster'

To be sure, the Blockbuster versus Netflix saga of the early 2000s is a fascinating tale of woe. Having declined, 22 years ago, to purchase its online competitor for a trivial $50 million, Blockbuster soon discovered that its brick-and-mortar model was unsustainable in the digital age. As I write these words, Netflix’s market capitalization is a cool $116 billion, while Blockbuster LLC endures mostly as a memory. There is, to nostalgists’ delight, a true last-remaining Blockbuster location in Bend, Oregon — the home, presumably, of an army of internet refuseniks. A documentary chronicling that store’s fight for survival is currently streaming on (you guessed it) Netflix.