Growing up near the intersection of Jane and Wilson in Toronto during the 1980s and 1990s, I vividly remember there being a Jumbo Video on the southwest corner of the street and a Blockbuster Video on the opposite.
Today, a Dollarama occupies the spot where the Jumbo Video once stood. And across the street where Blockbuster used to be? Another Dollarama.
This isn’t a knock against everyone’s favourite Canadian general merchandise store. It’s a reminder of just how widespread video rental shops used to be.
I would confidently compare the prevalence of video rental stores to modern-day Cannabis or vape stores.
Better yet—think about all the content you watch on Netflix, Crave, and Disney Plus and turn all that content into physical releases that you would have to leave home to rent.
Back in 1999, a whopping 61.5% of Canadian households rented videotapes, shelling out over $1 billion annually based on data from Statistics Canada.
By 2004, and that number dropped down to 52.8%, eventually leading to the total shutdown of around 400 Canadian Blockbuster storefronts by 2011.
The transition to digital streaming also signalled the shift from traditional physical media. Collecting DVD sets turned into more of a niche hobby. Only hardcore collectors really cared.
Lost in the Stream
One problem—for some—became the question of “what are we losing if we allow others to curate content?”
The answer soon came in the removal of the Simpsons episode ‘Stark Raving Dad,’ featuring guest voice Michael Jackson. Show producers removed the episode from circulation in the face of sexual abuse allegations. It’s currently missing from Disney Plus.
Other popular shows like Scrubs, Community, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia faced removal of episodes due to controversial content.
Owning the physical copies of these shows prevents this problem since you’ll basically own a time capsule of these episodes.
Burnout
Another issue of digital streaming arose in the form of subscription fatigue. Tons of content, scattered through several services.
Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars are on Disney Plus.
Harry Potter, DCU, and the Matrixes are on Crave (or HBO Max in the U.S.).
Prime hosts a variety of popular original series like Fallout, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and The Boys.
Add Paramount, Hulu, Apple and a host of others, and you can see why burnout happens.
Return of the Physical
Physical media is making a comeback that Forbes attributes to Gen Z and we’re currently seeing the effects across Toronto.
In 2023, Vinegar Syndrome opened—a brick-and-mortar store located in Roncesvalles dedicated to rare films on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray, as well as vinyl, cassette tape, and more. And just a few months ago, Criterion opened their own physical location a short walk from the TIFF Lightbox in downtown Toronto.
You’ll still find a few video rental locations scattered across the city mostly focusing on vintage rarities or film restorations of classic movies. Like Bay Street Video that still actually rents movies with approxmiately 40,000 titles!
As a nostalgic adult, it’s great to see. But as a fan of art, I wholeheartedly support the restoration and protection of lost media and would push to see more.
Maybe let’s keep it going until video rental locations once again populate the Jane and Wilson intersection.
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