Take a Movie, Leave a Movie
Bay Area Free Blockbuster kiosks encourage users to ‘take a movie, leave a movie’
The Blockbuster logo is displayed on the side of a store in San Francisco in 2010. The Free Blockbuster project seeks to revive the brand through a network of community lending libraries.
Several locations in the Bay Area now host Free Blockbuster kiosks, miniature versions of the traditional video store.
These small lending libraries, often made from repurposed newspaper boxes and handmade stands, are filled with physical media like VHS tapes and DVDs. They operate on a simple principle: “Take a movie, leave a movie.”
The project is not new. It was started in 2019 by a group of film enthusiasts in Los Angeles, with the first Bay Area location opening that year in Oakland. But it is seeing renewed interest thanks to a recent New York Times article and a current wave of nostalgia for the early 2000s when video stores reigned supreme. The boxes evoke fond memories of a simpler time and provide an alternative to the endless scrolling through thousands of titles on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Max and other streaming services.
Brian Morrison, a former Blockbuster employee and current film and television producer in Los Angeles, was the first to paint the iconic blue-and-yellow logo of the once-ubiquitous chain onto an old box and fill it with DVDs. The concept quickly gained traction. Now more than 200 community boxes have been registered worldwide, according to the Free Blockbuster website. This includes five “franchises” in Northern California, including the spot in Oakland (420 40th St.) and locations in San Jose (124 E. Santa Clara St.), Davis (622 G St.), Modesto (616 Stoddard Ave.) and Rohnert Park (1376 Garmont Court), which opened earlier this year.
However, not all Free Blockbuster kiosk operators register their location on the official site’s map. The website provides detailed instructions on how to build a movie lending library for anyone interested, including downloadable stencils and guidelines for refurbishing abandoned newspaper boxes. The term “abandoned” is emphasized, with signs such as a pile of trash inside the box and a quick call to the publication’s offices for confirmation.
“We always encourage anyone who is interested to start their own franchise,” Morrison told the Chronicle by email on Monday, March 25. “It is completely free to participate in Free Blockbuster.”
If DIY is not your thing, the Free Blockbuster website also sells pre-painted, free-standing metal boxes for $349 for those aspiring to curate their personal kiosk. Each box can hold about 50 DVD cases or 25 VHS tapes, offering a good selection of titles without overwhelming browsers.
A pedestrian walks past a Blockbuster store in San Francisco in 2010.
Volunteers have become quite passionate about the project, actively seeking out forgotten DVDs and VHS tapes at thrift stores, street corners and flea markets to stock their boxes. They often share their discoveries with the Free Blockbuster community on social media.
Organizers also encourage donations of video games, CDs, cassette tapes, film reels and even playback devices like VCRs and DVD players. Like the free libraries, everything operates on the honor system.
The organization has received a cease-and-desist letter from Blockbuster LLC. In response, they have submitted a licensing request, which is still pending.
The Free Blockbuster project took inspiration from the Little Free Library kiosks.
In 2004, Blockbuster operated more than 9,000 stores worldwide. But the company was blindsided by the streaming revolution, having declined an offer to buy Netflix for $50 million. Just one Blockbuster store remains open in the U.S., in Bend, Ore.