A Late Fee That Sparked a Revolution
In the late 1990s, Friday night entertainment usually meant one thing: a trip to the video store. Families piled into cars, wandered aisles of VHS tapes and argued over which movie to bring home. But in 1997, a $40 late fee from Blockbuster sparked an idea that would eventually reshape the entire entertainment industry. Reed Hastings, frustrated by the outdated system, teamed up with entrepreneur Marc Randolph to create Netflix, a DVD-by-mail rental service that launched in 1998.
At first, the idea seemed quirky. DVDs were still new, and the internet was hardly the powerhouse it is today. But Netflix offered something Blockbuster could not, and that is convenience. Customers could order online, receive movies in those now-iconic red envelopes and return them at their leisure. The service took off, slowly but surely, and Netflix soon realized it was on to something bigger than late fees.
Outmaneuvering Blockbuster
By 2000, the company introduced its subscription model. For a flat monthly fee, users could rent as many DVDs as they wanted, a radical departure from the per-rental structure that fueled Blockbuster’s empire. While Netflix leaned into customer freedom, Blockbuster clung to its late-fee revenue.
That same year, Hastings and Randolph even pitched Blockbuster on the idea of buying Netflix for $50 million. Their offer was laughed out of the room. What seemed like a small, quirky startup to Blockbuster’s executives turned out to be the company that would undo them. By the mid-2000s, Netflix had millions of subscribers, while Blockbuster was scrambling to catch up. In 2010, Blockbuster was forced to file for bankruptcy. The underdog had not only survived, it had completely flipped the industry.
Betting Big on Streaming
Around 2007, Netflix made a bold pivot: streaming. The move was risky. Broadband was slow, streaming quality was unreliable, and the catalog was thin. Critics dismissed it as premature. But Hastings and his team saw the bigger picture. They believed the future of entertainment was not in physical media. Rather, it was in instant, on-demand access. They bet on technology, and within a few years, streaming became the default way people consumed movies and TV.
Becoming a Cultural Tastemaker
The next evolution came in 2013 when Netflix released House of Cards, its first major original series. Suddenly, Netflix was not just a distributor. It was a studio. With hits like Orange Is the New Black, Stranger Things and The Crown, the company transformed into a cultural tastemaker. It rewrote the rules of television by releasing entire seasons at once, sparking the binge-watching era and changing viewer habits forever.
Global Growth and Industry Domination
From there, Netflix scaled globally. It expanded into over 190 countries, tailored content for regional audiences, and invested billions into original programming. Today, it boasts more than 270 million subscribers worldwide and has become synonymous with streaming itself. What started as a small mail-order DVD service has grown into one of the most powerful forces in entertainment.
Netflix Comes to Fort Monmouth
And now, the story comes full circle, landing right here in New Jersey. Netflix is investing more than $1 billion to transform the historic Fort Monmouth site into one of the largest film studios in the world. Once a hub of military innovation, Fort Monmouth is now set to become a hub of creativity and storytelling. The project is more than a corporate expansion. It is a cultural shift with ripple effects for the entire Jersey Shore region.
For local businesses, this represents enormous opportunity. Restaurants, shops and service providers alike stand to benefit from the influx of talent, production teams and creative energy that a billion-dollar studio will attract. Just as Netflix once saw what others overlooked (a chance to disrupt an old system and build something new), Jersey Shore businesses now have the chance to seize the moment and grow alongside this new era.
The Lesson and the Legacy
Netflix’s journey from a late fee to a global empire proves the power of vision, innovation and timing. And with its newest chapter being written at Fort Monmouth, the story is now closer to home than ever. At Resolution Promotions, we believe the businesses that embrace this moment, just like Netflix embraced the shift to streaming, will be the ones that rise to prominence in the years ahead.
