The cinematic experience is evolving, and our good friend Covid-19 is helping it along. With the new advancements that Hollywood has provided, along with the new demand the people have provided, we have been gifted with Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, Redbox and many more. Disney+, a newcomer to the scenes of online streaming, has decided to skip the movie theater and have you pay extra for their personal at home cinematic experience. Netflix has also jumped on the speeding train and has put some big funds into their Netflix originals. Bigger names are appearing, as well as new and improved story development, lighting, and settings. Sadly, with these new improvements in modern streaming we are seeing some of the iconic movie stores leave our little towns and strip malls that they once inhabited.

Family Video and Blockbuster were a part of most of our childhoods. If you did not partake in that, you definitely partook in finding the nearest Redbox, probably at your local  Dollar General or a CVS, to find the perfect movie night choice. If you are truly a lucky kid you knew what Netflix was before high speed streaming. Oh yeah, I’m talking about the DVD that would come in the mail in a white envelope that had Netflix in a big red font. Sure, it only worked 50% of the time, but if you were like me, you waited for that precious piece of mail to arrive and literally pounced on the poor mail delivery person. 

Students here at DCHS had similar memories of their at home cinematic experience before high speed streaming came into our lives. Kyler Friend, senior at DCHS, thinks just as highly as I do about the old cinematic experiences. “I fondly remember Blockbuster in Delphi. I remember Redbox, and even when Netflix was a “movie in the mail” service. Blockbuster is very nostalgic for me personally. It was like going to the library, but instead of books there were movies and games. Blockbuster is probably the sole reason why I am in love with film today. It is a shame that all of them (except for one in Oregon) shut down for good. When I go by the old [Blockbuster] location, I still think of all the memories I had,” said Kyler.

Corbin Krebs, junior, has fond memories, too, stating,  “I always enjoyed going to Blockbuster. I loved the smell of popcorn and the new plastic. Sometimes if I wasn’t looking for a movie, I would lean up against the shelves and watch the random movie they had playing on the CRT television they had sunk into the wall.Blockbuster just wasn’t able to keep enough regular customers as companies like Netflix and Redbox got more convenient for people to use.” After the closure of the Blockbuster locations in Delphi, Lafayette, and Monticello, Corbin and his family started to rent movies from the Family Video in Lafayette. Sadly, Family Video liquidated all of its assets. 

Even with that sad reality coming into view, we have many possibilities that await us—and Disney+ is just the first speeding bullet within the new ways of streaming, and Mulan is paving what might be the new cinematic experience.