How Baltimore’s ‘Free Blockbuster’ is reviving movie nights and community bonds

There’s a new Blockbuster in Baltimore.

No, not the familiar storefront from the ’80s and ’90s.

Following the model of the Little Free Libraries, a Free Blockbuster in Hampden — no relation to the former video rental company — allows people to leave and borrow DVDs, Blu-ray discs, VHS tapes and video games from a handcrafted box at no cost. There are almost 400 Free Blockbuster sites across the globe.

The Hampden Blockbuster and a thriving nonprofit video store in Baltimore reflect how some local residents are turning back to physical media to forge community and connection and preserve a meaningful segment of art and culture.

Patricia Williams-Dockery, a professor at Morgan State University, said a desire for nostalgia and community is likely driving people to Free Blockbuster boxes.

“I think that the idea of giving — whether it’s free books or free vinyl or free DVDs — speaks to the need for community,” she said. “There are other people out there who feel the same way that I do, who are interested in preserving this evidence of our human connection, our human creativity.”

Jake Armstrong, a 32-year-old animator, saw people online creating Free Blockbusters over a year ago and was inspired to bring it to Hampden.

The rust-colored wooden box stands in the 3100 block of Chestnut Avenue, just a 10-minute walk from the Baltimore Trinket Library on Elm Avenue. A label with the former video chain’s blue-and-yellow color scheme reads, “Hampden Blockbuster.” Armstrong crafted the box over a weekend in May with leftover lumber from improvements he made to his back deck.

Armstrong created an Instagram account for the Hampden Blockbuster, posting about items from his own collection that he’d donated, including “Goodfellas,” “Battlefield 4” and “La Strada.” It didn’t take long for people in the neighborhood — and beyond — to follow suit.

“I had a huge grocery bag come through one night with like 50 or 60 DVDs. Some people were dropping off old video games, old VHS tapes,” Armstrong said. “It spread to people not even in the neighborhood that will come by.”

Brian Morrison, a film producer based in Los Angeles, got the idea for Free Blockbuster when he learned that some thrift stores were discarding donated DVDs because of their lack of retail value.

He filled an old newspaper distribution box with DVDs he’d collected over the years and launched the nonprofit in 2019. Morrison told The Banner he’s grateful for people like Armstrong who’ve chosen to be part of this zero-waste collective project that preserves an art form and allows people to connect with their neighbors.

“It’s a very challenging time. We’re all very disconnected. Everyone is overworked. Everyone is underpaid. Everyone is overspent. And to see your neighbor creating a gift for their community, what a relief that is,” Morrison said.

A video rental Goliath falls

Founded in 1985, Blockbuster was a video rental chain that, at its peak, had over 9,000 stores around the world — including 135 in Maryland. Customers flocked to retail stores for VHS tapes and later DVDs, but the company saw its dominant position eroded by Netflix’s DVD-by-mail rental service and later by streaming services.

After the video giant filed for bankruptcy in 2010, its assets were acquired by Dish Network, which ended Blockbuster’s retail and mail DVD distribution and resulted in the shuttering of its remaining 300 corporate stores by 2014. A franchise store in Bend, Oregon, is the last remaining Blockbuster.

In 2025, streaming largely drove the $62.2 billion in spending on in-home entertainment in the United States, according to The Digital Entertainment Group, a data firm.

Sales of physical formats declined 23.4% from 2023 to 2024, but only by 10% from 2024 to 2025, according to the firm, reflecting continued interest in physical media. National publications have taken note of the emerging audience for physical media, especially among Gen Z. And a Wirecutter writer called a DVD player he bought for $50 online his “best purchase” of 2025.

Elliot King, a professor of communications at Loyola University of Maryland, said that changing consumer habits reflect the evolution of technology. New ways of sharing information and creativity go mainstream but later become obsolete.

“When it becomes obsolete, it also becomes a collector’s item,” he said. “It becomes connoisseur.”

Connecting over movies

Gregory Golinski notices those connoisseurs, especially teenagers and college students, scouring the aisles and multiple levels of Beyond Video, a membership-based nonprofit video rental store in Charles Village that he co-founded and co-owns. Most members were ages 25 to 40 when it first opened in 2018, and more and younger people have joined since then.

“There’s the one movie aficionado friend that drags their other friends. And the other friends aren’t, at first, so into it, and then they start to get it a little bit,” he said.

Beyond Video launched with the help of 416 people donating over $32,000 and roughly 9,000 films on DVDs, VHS tapes and Blu-ray discs. It’s now grown to about 44,000 films, which the co-owners believe makes it the biggest video rental store Baltimore has ever had.

Co-owner and co-founder Kevin Coelho said the store has roughly 530 members, with plans ranging from $12 a month for up to three rentals per visit to $20 a month for up to six rentals at a time.

The store, run by the co-owners and a group of volunteers, has become a community destination, Coelho said.

“It’s just not, like, getting new movies and going in and out. It’s people wanting to chat about movies and also getting to know them and their personal lives and seeing kids grow up in all that,” he said. “It’s pretty special.”

For David McDonald, a 22-year-old member of Beyond Video, browsing the DVD-lined walls of the old rowhome is just different from scrolling through the offerings on HBO Max. On a recent Sunday, McDonald was returning “Cloud,” a Japanese psychological thriller from 2024. He’s taken an interest in director Kelly Reichardt’s work and was eyeing DVDs of her films in the store’s directors room for his next pick — ultimately settling on “River of Grass.”

“Just having a physical place to come to allows me to fulfill the human aspect of liking movies,” McDonald said.

Amanda Garrison and her husband have been members of Beyond Video for about a month. She said they wanted to get their fix of foreign films with English subtitles. Among their recent returns was “The Swimming Pool,” a 1969 French film.

Garrison said she’s been into physical media since childhood, when she would visit her grandparents, whose rooms were filled with VHS tapes. The 31-year-old has collected vinyl records since she was in high school. For her, renting DVDs is about engaging with art and historical artifacts.

“There’s a lot of extra care and a lot of extra art that goes into creating something like a movie poster you miss out on” when streaming movies, she said.

In Hampden, Armstrong is wowed by the overflowing Hampden Blockbuster. He might’ve built the box, but what’s inside belongs to the community.

“It means a lot that people like it as much as they do,” he said. “It’s just cool that it’s being used.”