Don’t call it a comeback – yet.

The long-dormant website for video-lending giant Blockbuster suddenly came to life this week, with the homepage message now reading “We are working on rewinding your movie.”

Not only that, but earlier this month, Blockbuster took to Twitter to joke about reopening, saying “New business idea: We’re going to come back as a bank and use VHS and DVDs as currency. Time to go visit your mom.”

The tweet was a joke, but three days later, Twitter users realized the Blockbuster website was active again, and these moves are making some believe that is evidence the company is making a comeback. 

Blockbuster once boasted over 9,000 locations, but was a casualty of the popularity of streaming video. They filed for bankruptcy in 2010, and by 2014, all of the chain’s corporate stores were closed. Individually-licensed stores kept the Blockbuster signs lit for a little while longer, but as of now there is only one store left, operating in Bend, Oregon.

In recent years, Dish has licensed the Blockbuster brand for a number of products and projects that trade on nostalgia, including Netflix’s Blockbuster TV show, as well as board games, clothing, and a number of Blockbuster-branded movie poster puzzles. Despite that, the Blockbuster.com website had remained more or less unchanged since 2014, until now.

In other signs of life, the Bend Blockbuster store teased a Super Bowl ad, which led some to hope that the brand could be coming back in a bigger way — either as a streaming service, or as an online retailer. Instead, the ad was just a gimmick whereby the store released their ad ON Super Bowl Sunday.

Though there’s nothing but speculation to be had right now, that hasn’t stopped some nostalgia addicts from waxing hopeful about the good old days of two-day rentals and late fees.

In 2021, an entity called a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, was created with the goal of acquiring Blockbuster from DISH. A DAO is an entity that has no central governing body, unlike a corporation with executives or board members at the top. They usually use cryptocurrency in transactions.

The Blockbuster DAO, later renamed Rewind, had a goal of raising $5 million to buy the brand from DISH. 

Rewind, which has become a video platform for creators, said they had 13 meetings with DISH about the acquisition. “Unfortunately, the idea of wholly acquiring the Blockbuster brand was shut down immediately. Dish had spent $320 million on the brand in 2011 and they believed it was still worth more than any community like ours would be able to raise,” they said in a statement.

Whether this news is a coming attraction or just a blank cassette is yet to be seen, so stay tuned!