ALLEGAN, Mich. — Movie fans in West Michigan will soon have another way to watch a film. The City of Allegan has announced that a new Free Blockbuster box will be coming to the Regent Theatre on October 14.
The concept of Free Blockbusters is for film fans to “take a movie, leave a movie.” The box will be located inside of the theater’s lobby, and will be available whenever the theatre is open.
Free Blockbuster boxes have been popping up all throughout the United States. The boxes are named after the Blockbuster video rental store chain, which closed all of its corporate owned stores in 2014. However, there is still one privately owned Blockbuster store that is still active, which is located in Bend, Oregon. A fictional version of the last store was recently the setting of the 2022 Netflix comedy series Blockbuster, which starred Randall Park, Melissa Fumero, and Olga Merediz. However, the fictional Blockbuster store in the television series was located in Grandville, Michigan.
“I am a huge proponent of physical media and once I saw this concept online, I knew we needed one in West Michigan,” said local filmmaker and Kalamazoo Film Society board member Chad Campbell. “Most of my favorite films were discovered while wandering the aisles of the video store. With streaming costs rising and services removing titles, this allows you to discover something you may never get the chance to see otherwise. Combined with being inside a beautiful historic theater, it doesn’t get much better than that.”
The debut of the Free Blockbuster box isn’t the only event that the Regent Theatre has planned for October 14. The 2012 horror anthology film V/H/S will be shown that night at 9:30 p.m. as part of the Regent’s Shocktober! film series. V/H/S launched a franchise that includes multiple sequels and spin-offs. The next installment in the series, V/H/S/85, is scheduled to be released on Shudder on Friday.
The Free Blockbuster box will debut at the Regent Theatre on October 14. More information on the program can be found on the theatre's website.
