The Last Blockbuster (2020) on Netflix

Name: The Last Blockbuster
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2020-12-15
Duration: 86 min
Rating: 6.7
Cast: Sandi Harding, Lauren Lapkus, Kevin Smith, Samm Levine, Ione Skye

NR20201h 26mDocumentary

Sandi Harding manages the last Blockbuster store still open, in Bend, Oregon. The documentary follows her and the shop while telling the history of the video rental chain.

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Netflix3.4/5
IMDb6.7/106,378 votes
Rotten Tomatoes68%

Trailer

Plot summary

Blockbuster Video grew into a popular rental chain during the 1990s, and the documentary examines how it pushed independent video stores out of business by arranging revenue-share deals with film studios, trading lower prices for a share of the rental fees. Mismanagement, along with the financial crisis of 2008, brought the chain down, leaving a single store in Bend, Oregon, where Sandi Harding is the general manager. Filming runs across several years and shows how the shop operates and how its business model keeps the store going. Performers and filmmakers also appear as interviewees, and one of them talks about the businesses the chain forced to close and how they fed into his first movie.