Wayne's World, the Sequel

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Sensing that he could build up these video stores the same way he had strung together trash haulers, Huizenga and two partners paid $18.5 million for 35% of Blockbuster in 1987. They promptly bought out rival chains and opened stores around the globe at the rate of one every 17 hours (current pace: one every 24 hours). Today Blockbuster rents 10 million videotapes a week; roughly a third of its stores are in countries from Japan to Venezuela.

Still, Huizenga continues to expand. Since last November, when Blockbuster paid $185 million for 237 Sound Warehouse and Music Plus music stores, Huizenga has been on his most ambitious spree yet. In February Blockbuster ponied up $25 million for a 35% stake in Republic Pictures, whose library includes such classics as High Noon and It's a Wonderful Life. A month later, Huizenga paid $140 million for control of Spelling Entertainment Group, which holds the TV rights to such hit shows as Dynasty and Beverly Hills 90210 and films such as Basic Instinct and the Rambo trilogy. Among other ventures, Huizenga joined forces with Britain's Virgin Retail Group to expand Virgin's music Megastores.

Wall Street analysts expect such ventures to reduce the video-store component of Blockbuster's business from 85% today to as little as 60% by 1998. But Blockbuster has no plans to abandon such stores. On the contrary, Huizenga envisions them as the heart of a worldwide chain of enterprises that will make the Blockbuster name as familiar as Coca-Cola, MTV or McDonald's. "For a company that's going out of business next month because of video- on-demand," he says, "we're doing quite nicely, thank you." And with a piece of Paramount, even nicer still.

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CREDIT: TIME Chart by Peter C.T. Elsworth

[Source: Blockbuster Entertainment]CAPTION: BLOCKBUSTER'S ENGAGEMENTS

Time.com

Wayne's World, the Sequel

Blockbuster jumps into the Paramount fray to extend its video empire