{"id":256435,"date":"2025-12-29T16:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T16:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/256435\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T16:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T16:29:08","slug":"free-blockbuster-keeps-dvds-alive-counters-streaming-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/256435\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Blockbuster keeps DVDs alive, counters streaming costs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This story <a class=\"externallink\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kuer.org\/business-economy\/2025-12-23\/salt-lake-citys-1st-free-blockbuster-is-a-fun-antidote-to-streaming-sticker-shock\">was originally published by KUER<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Move over \u201cBe Kind, Rewind.\u201d The new slogan is \u201cTake A Movie, Leave A Movie.\u201d That\u2019s right: A Blockbuster nostalgia trip could be coming to a yard near you.<\/p>\n<p>Salt Lake City just got its very first Free Blockbuster \u2014 like a lending library but for movies (mostly DVDs). Local libraries also rent out DVDs to patrons.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"externallink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.katekowalczik.com\/\">Kate Kowalczik<\/a> is the little blue and yellow box\u2019s owner.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can see it&#8217;s painted with our free blockbuster logo. It says, \u2018Take a movie, Leave a movie,\u2019 which is the whole premise,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Right now, it\u2019s stocked with seasonal favorites like \u201cHow the Grinch Stole Christmas\u201d and \u201cElf.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople definitely stop and ask me about it. I got to witness, like, a young preschooler learn what DVDs were, and that was incredible to be a part of,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>There are <a class=\"externallink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.freeblockbuster.org\/\">hundreds of Free Blockbusters across the country<\/a>, and recapturing the feeling of a Friday night video store run is only part of the appeal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Between price hikes and crackdowns on password-sharing, customers are being forced to consider how much they\u2019re willing to spend on entertainment subscriptions.<\/p>\n<p>Consumers are squeezed, noted David Tinsley, senior economist with the <a class=\"externallink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/institute.bankofamerica.com\/about.html\">Bank of America<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey&#8217;re still under pressure from things like higher motor insurance, higher housing costs, higher child care costs. So in a way, streaming is one of the areas they can look at and take a fresh look at,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, Tinsley said, our economy has changed. Things that used to be goods have now become services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo we used to go and buy DVDs, and now we subscribe. We used to buy CDs and now we stream,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>For Kate Kowalczik, watching free movies from the box is great \u2014 but it\u2019s really about community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think joy is contagious, and so it&#8217;s been so fun and joyful for me to just witness \u2014 even when people don&#8217;t take something from the box, to see that smile has just brought a lot of joy into my life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>And joy? That\u2019s free, too.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s get physical (media)Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by KUER. Move over \u201cBe Kind, Rewind.\u201d The new slogan is \u201cTake A&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[7731,106254,132790,18,19,17,132792,327,132791,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-256435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-analog","9":"tag-blockbuster","10":"tag-dvds","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-little-free-library","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-physical-media","17":"tag-technology"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115803807074724254","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}