Free Blockbuster boxes pop up in Triangle, offering vintage movies for free loan
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Free Blockbuster boxes in the Triangle loan vintage VHS movies to residents.
- Boxes revive obsolete VHS format and promote old-school communal movie nights.
- Project joins a nationwide nostalgia movement offering free media exchange in 2025.
Long centuries ago, in the quaint infancy of Earth, early humans entertained themselves by watching motion pictures recorded on magnetic tape spooled inside plastic cassettes — a clunky but charming form of video technology known as VHS.
In those dark days, VHS tapes could be played only on a specialized machine that attached to a single television set the size of a bank safe — so limited that entire families were forced to watch the same programs at the same time, sometimes even sharing a bowl of popcorn.
These consumers built blue-and-yellow palaces called Blockbuster Video stores and established them inside every American mini-mall, asking only that consumers hungry for their VHS treasures be kind and rewind.
All gone to dust now, and boxes in the attic.
But thanks to Free Blockbuster boxes, now popping up around the Triangle as part of a nationwide nostalgia trend, this clanking technology is revived for old-school movie night.
Just press play.
Where around here?
Hundreds of Free Blockbuster boxes now dot the United States — not to mention a few in England, Mexico and Australia — and the Triangle now boasts three of its own: in Carrboro, Durham and Clayton.
They operate much like a Little Free Library, only obscure movies live inside the boxes rather than books nobody wants to read. Bonus: the movies available for borrowing are mostly on DVDs, a slightly updated obsolete format.
They operate completely on the honor system: take a movie, leave a movie. The box at 108 East Main St. in Durham offered “The Italian Job,” “The Bourne Identity” and “Outlaw Brothers,” but a Reddit post requested more local titles.
“Need to get a copy of Bull Durham in there,” wrote one critic.
What’s a newspaper box?
The folks at Free Blockbuster invite anyone to found a franchise out of whatever container is durable enough to last outside, but the prevailing choice thus far is a refurbished newspaper box.
To obtain these, Free Blockbuster advises: “They’re pretty common in shopping districts or train stops. Rescue it, take it home, and DIY it.”
But this is a tad suspect, because as a lifelong newspaper employee, I last clapped eyes on one of The N&O’s boxes in about 2008, and I can only imagine they long ago met their end on a conveyor belt in reprocessing plant. Another word of caution: I wouldn’t just grab whatever may still be standing in a shopping district or train stop. I’d ask first, or better still, build something out of wood.
Once constructed, Free Blockbuster will send one of several identifying logos for various prices.
The temptation to join this artifact-sharing collective is strong here in Raleigh, as yet franchise-free. Considering that a DVD copy of “Jeremiah Johnson” lies within arm’s reach of this keyboard, some weekend box construction might be in order.
First though, I will need someone to found a network that shares DVD players. I recycled the last one along with our espresso machine.