Alaska’s final two Blockbuster video stores are shutting their doors, leaving just one store left open in the U.S. The stores in Anchorage and Fairbanks will close for rentals after Sunday night and reopen Tuesday for video liquidation sales through the end of August, reports The Associated Press. The news was announced to Alaskans on Blockbuster Alaska’s Facebook page. The closures are coming two months after late-night host John Oliver sent a jockstrap worn by Russell Crowe in the 2005 movie Cinderella Man and other items to the Anchorage store.
“You would not believe how much business we got just from that memorabilia alone,” said Kevin Daymude, general manager of Blockbuster Alaska. “I can’t thank John Oliver or his show enough.”
However, it wasn’t enough to counter a planned lease increase at both Alaska locations. The jockstrap will most likely go to the franchise owner, Alan Payne, who lives in Texas. At its peak, Blockbuster had 15 stores in Alaska, and while other stores vanished across the U.S., the stores in Alaska survived longer.
These closures leave the Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon as the only holdout.
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