Blockbuster is returning to Benicia, kind of
(KRON)—For years, movie enthusiasts have longed for the blockbuster experience of renting an old, random VHS tape and having a spontaneous movie night. Today, we have good news for the city of Benicia. Blockbuster isn’t necessarily making its national comeback; rather, it’s coming in a smaller, freer form.
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“Take a movie, leave a movie, and just experience that fun movie night experience instead of just going home and streaming a movie,” Thomas Brungardt, co-founder of the Traveling Museum and the upcoming free blockbuster, told KRON4.
On Monday, the Traveling Museum in Benicia will give access to its first free blockbuster stand — an old newspaper stand remodeled to give out free DVDs and VHS tapes for the public to trade and consume — all free of charge.
“It’s completely free. There are no rental limits. There are no late fees. Come grab a movie you want to watch and leave one behind,” Brungardt said. The Travelling Museum will donate the first batch of movies from its store.
Unaffiliated to the old Blockbuster chains, Freeblockbuster.org was started in 2019 with an initiative to repurpose old news racks and old magazine dispensers to turn them into community libraries for old VHS and DVD movies.
Brungardt says the Benicia Herald, Benicia’s local newspaper, donated the news rack that the Traveling Museum will be using.
This isn’t the first free blockbuster newsstand in the Bay Area, as Brungardt says there are several stands dispersed around Oakland, Santa Rosa, and San Rafael. “It’s just people in the community who have a love for old movies and kind of want to relive the eighties and nineties and have other people experience what it’s like to go pick out a movie,” Brungardt said.
Brungardt also encourages people to bring the movies they no longer use or would like other people to experience for themselves: “If you have some movies that you’re not watching and you want to get rid of, come put them in the box. The more movies, the better.”
The Travelling Museum is located in Pocket Monkey Vintage, a used clothing and vintage collectibles store in Benicia. Customers can go into a room where vintage VHS tapes are sold.
Starting April 1, the free movie stand will be located outside the Pocket Monkey Vintage store at 561 1st St, Benicia.
“We have a few VHS players of our own, and watching an old tape is really a lot of fun, and it brings back a lot of great memories. So if you have the time, come and take a movie, leave a movie, and always, you know, be kind and rewind. That’s what we always tell people.”
Thomas Brungardt, co-owner of the Traveling Museum
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