A film enthusiast has turned his wardrobe into a portal to the past – successfully renovating it into his very own mini Blockbuster.
TikTok user John Martino shared the transformation in a video that has been viewed over eight million times, explaining the closet was too small to be functional.
‘What if I turned this closet into a miniature Blockbuster?’ he wrote in the video, sharing a series of slides of the transformation.
John explained he started collecting VHS tapes recently, but was ‘quickly’ running out of space to store them.
‘[I] got the crazy idea to turn a tiny closet I have in my bedroom into a miniature Blockbuster,’ he explained in the caption.
To create his blast from the past, he gutted the entire space before painting it the signature Blockbuster yellow.
He then added a strip of iconic blue carpet and built in shelves, as well as installing interior lighting that is hooked up to a remote switch.
‘[I] built a staff picks rack for my dog and I, a snack rack for the customers, and hooked up the official Blockbuster sign to an on/off switch triggered by pressing on a specific VHS tape,’ he explained.
His most recent addition includes some extra shelf space and an actual TV hooked up to a hidden VCR so that ‘customers’ can watch a movie while they browse.
‘This project turned out so much better than I could have imagined and it makes me smile so hard,’ the film-enthusiast gushed. ‘To me, this is art.’
The finished product boasts rows of VCRs sitting under a neon Blockbuster sign.
He even built a shelf for some classic movie snacks and a spot to showcase his ‘staff pick’ of the week – not unlike actual Blockbuster stores.
‘As a former Blockbuster employee this gives me bittersweet feelings. Nice work,’ one user wrote in reaction to the clip.
Others had suggestions of what to add to the mini Blockbuster.
‘Gumball machine, every blockbuster had one,’ suggested another,
‘You need a slot in the door for returns,’ said someone else.
‘Does that mean its the second Blockbuster left in the world?’ chimed in someone else.
‘Teeny tiny movie posters! And somehow, a cardboard cutout,’ another enthused.
There is one remaining Blockbuster store still open in the US, located on Bend, Oregon.
There was widespread panic in October after a rumor the store would close forever on Halloween, marking ‘the official end of the iconic video rental chain.’
However, the store assured loyal customers they weren’t closing anytime soon, writing it would be there ‘until the bitter end’ in an Instagram post.
Blockbuster was founded by David Cook, and the first store opened in Dallas, Texas, on October 19, 1985.
The original store had more than 8,000 tapes on display, and it quickly expanded following its success in Texas, according to History.
By 2004, there were more than 9,000 Blockbusters in the US, and it launched an online DVD rental service to compete with Netflix later that year.
This venture did not work, and the company later filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2010.
