At 11 p.m. on November 9, at a now-closed Hawaiian store, the last Blockbuster movie was rented — and the customers found a thematically appropriate way to mark the occasion:
Blockbuster shared the picture of the last rental on Tuesday after a series of tweets thanking employees and customers for their time and patronage over the years.
What happens now? The recently shuttered Blockbuster stores may be done renting movies, but they'll reopen on Thursday for a liquidation sale, giving patrons a chance to acquire one of their 75 scratched copies of A Good Day to Die Hard. In December, Blockbuster will end its movies-by-mail service, which was originally designed to compete with Netflix, and which allowed subscribers to return a movie received by mail to any Blockbuster store. Not as useful anymore.
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(Related: A eulogy for Blockbuster)
But the Blockbuster name won't totally fade. DISH Networks, which acquired Blockbuster in 2011, has announced that it will continue to carry Blockbuster-branded video streaming channels Blockbuster@Home and Blockbuster on Demand. DISH also plans to continue supporting Blockbuster's 50 remaining franchised locations in the United States, so you may still drive past the occasional Blockbuster retail store — but they're really independently operated stores still using the Blockbuster name, not the Blockbuster chain we've known for years and years.
But other than that, yes, this really is the end. As we all pour out a 2-liter bottle of Dr. Pepper for the once-proud retail chain, allow Seth Rogen to play you out:
