Blockbuster Video Looks To Declare Bankruptcy Mid-September

Stick a fork in Blockbuster, folks–it’s just told the studios that it’s planning to declare formal bankruptcy in the middle of September.

But take heart–Blockbuster isn’t planning to fold up completely, it’s going Chapter Eleven.  They’re planning to use their time in there to get out from under just over a billion bucks in debt (1.1 billion to be more specific) and get out of the leases on roughly one in every seven stores (five hundred out of the just over thirty four hundred out there).

They took the word to the studios first so they could assure the studios they’re still viable, and that they were going to need a steady and uninterrupted flow of new DVDs, which is about the only thing that will keep them afloat.

However, Blockbuster will definitely have a lot of support for it, as they’ve already established themselves as a new kind of company, with fewer stores, expanded online offerings and a six thousand unit-strong kiosk operation that looks on par to compete with Redbox.

Still though, how freaky is it that the new king of movie store chains is Family Video?

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