The District’s cinephiles have been deprived of nearby physical media locales after the last stores standing shuttered their doors over a decade ago amid a rise of streaming services. Free Blockbuster is working to change that.

Inspired by Little Free Libraries, public boxes and mini-houses where people can donate or borrow books, Free Blockbuster allows residents to exchange films in a similar spirit. The organization — which was founded in Los Angeles in 2019 by Brian Morrison, a former Blockbuster employee and film producer who sought to give old media collections new life within local communities — has made it’s way to the nation’s capitol, with three locations sprouting up in the last six years.

Allowing anybody to “franchise” locations free of charge, the organization expanded internationally, starting with a Canadian box in 2021 — before landing D.C.’s Petworth and Lincoln Park neighborhoods, along with an unregistered Logan Circle location. 

Graphic designer Ryan Daley franchised the Lincoln Park location in 2021, along with two others in Arlington, in an attempt to honor his interests in cinema and fond memories of visiting the Eastern Market area Blockbuster location as a child, the Washington Post reported at the time.

With its interior walls covered in mini movie posters from films like “Jaws” and “Pulp Fiction,” the Logan Circle box’s blue-and-yellow exterior is adorned with the Blockbuster logo and the business’ famous motto “Be Kind, Please Rewind.” Inside, it houses a rotating collection of titles, including the 1964 action film, “The Train,” and “Hitch,” the 2005 rom-com starring Will Smith and Eva Mendes. 

While the creator of the Logan Circle location is not publicly known, the free film hub has gained community traction on the blog PoPville, Instagram and Reddit since last March. Online users have flocked to social media to express their nostalgic feelings toward the now-defunct, sans one Oregonian location, Blockbuster corporation.

“My first job ever was at a Blockbuster. I love this,” tinyopalvintage commented on wethepeopledc’s Instagram post. 

Morrison, LA-based president and secretary of Free Blockbuster, said he created the very first Free Blockbuster box after noticing that people were doing away with their DVD and physical media collections. They said some people donated them to Goodwill, but they would end up in dumpsters because the organization did not see them as valuable. 

“The overarching thought was, ‘Instead of throwing these things away, how can we share them?’” he said. 

Morrison said he came across an abandoned LA Weekly newspaper box after the news organization terminated their printing and distribution program, which prompted him to think about repurposing the boxes to to benefit the community.

After some press buzz about the box, other film fanatics began creating their own locations, with the first East Coast franchise in Richmond, Virginia, cropping up in 2020. Now, well over 200 Free Blockbuster boxes can be found across the world, including locations in Canada and the United Kingdom. 

“When I built the first one, I certainly hoped that people would see it and be inspired to create their own,” Morrison said. “I think anytime you start a thing that’s a crazy, silly idea, and you hope that it will resonate with other people. There’s always the chance that you’re just, you know, being crazy. But in this case, it worked, and I’m happy that it did.”

He said anyone can create a new location by finding an old newspaper box, cabinet or vessel of one’s choosing, placing VHS tapes or DVDs inside of it, decorating the box however they’d like, making it available for the community and informing the Free Blockbuster organization of its creation via their website. 

“This is not a job,” Morrison said. “This is a gift you’re giving to your community.”

Morrison said comedy shows and opening events with live music performances have taken place at Free Blockbusters, emulating the communal value that came with gathering at video stores. They said the boxes act as an outlet for people to interact with their neighbors and community members in-person. He said the Detroit location became an outdoor hub for masked community members to gather during the COVID pandemic. 

“I never realized that people would gather around a Free Blockbuster to discuss cinema with each other, the way you used to hang out in the video store and talk about movies with the people who work there,” they said. 

Morrison said they were recently in D.C., staying in Logan Circle, and noticed the box — but wasn’t aware of its existence prior, as it wasn’t registered with the organization — which he said was an “exciting” discovery.

“I was just in D.C. for my girlfriend’s brother’s wedding,” he said. “We stayed on Logan Circle, and there it is. I didn’t make it, I didn’t put it there.”

Morrison said he hopes the boxes allow children growing up in the digital age to experience the feeling of finding a movie they want to watch and being able to physically hold it in their hands. 

“Scrolling through Netflix does not compare. Going to the video store was an experience unto itself,” they said. “My dad, when I was young, didn’t bring me to the video store just to pick out a movie to watch. He brought us there as something to do.”

Matt McNevin, director of live production at Performedia and former general manager of Potomac Video — one of the District’s last video stores — said working there until its disbandment in 2014 thrusted him into a community of movie buffs in Northwest D.C. He said he was able to provide patrons with personalized recommendations based on their tastes and life experiences, something that cannot be replicated by algorithms — despite Little Blockbusters lacking that element, he said the movement is a “great idea.”

He said the nostalgia associated with Blockbuster is not due to the corporation itself — which he said was “terrible” for consumers and filmmakers because it was not “curated” and negatively impacted local video stores — but rather the act of going to a video rental store. 

“You’d see the same people come in over and over again and get to know their taste,” he said. “Say they would just walk in, and I’d go, ‘Hey, Mr. Pearson, there’s something that just came in you’d love. It’s right over there on the new release wall.’”

McNevin said watching physical media means consumers are not at the “mercy” of streaming services, where content can be taken down or altered, instead having ownership of the films themselves. He said Free Blockbuster is helping to reintroduce the value of seeing a physical movie and its box art by having that “visual and tactile” experience.

“I’m glad that this many people are waking up to physical media,” he said. 

David Wilt, a professor of film studies at GW, said the rise of video stores marked the first time people had greater access to what movies they could watch, versus being constrained to the offerings at theaters. He said the stores allowed film connoisseurs to have a hub to advance their interests, like a library for readers, contributing to the sentimentality associated with Blockbuster. 

He said video stores in D.C., as a largely international city, housed a variety of foreign films, allowing for cinephiles to browse through diverse selections. 

He said despite the rise of streaming, there are still individuals who value physical media, between VHS tape collectors and film buffs who want the original versions of films that have been altered digitally, like the first “Star Wars.” He said he works with Blu-ray companies to provide interviews and “extras” for new versions of obscure and cult-classic films, which often sell for up to $35, proving that physical media is not obsolete. 

“Physical media, for certain people, has a utility and sort of an intrinsic value,” he said. “It’s not just the content, it’s also the physical item. I can watch this movie whenever I want, as many times as I want.”