Posted in: DVD/Blu-ray, Movies, Netflix, TV | Tagged: DVDs, film, netflix, streaming, television

Netflix Final DVD Mailing Marks End of Pop Culture Era After 25 Years

After 25 years, Netflix has mailed out its final DVDs - marking the end of the red envelope and the end of a pop culture era.

Long before streaming entered the scene and changed the pop culture landscape forever, the gateway to your favorite films & television series was the DVD. For the most part, the way you got those DVDs was to head out to either a Blockbuster or your local DVD store (RIP York Ave. DVD in NYC) to rent them – assuming they were in. Unless you wanted to own a film or television series – but wow were the prices to own insane back then. And then, in 1998, Netflix changed to game in a very big way when they mailed out their very first DVD to a subscriber to the new service. And for the next 25 years, that red envelope waiting in the mailbox was like a special surprise at the end of what might've been a pretty rough day. But in the age of cutting cords and streaming, the DVD has gone the way of vinyl and the "cassingle" – and today marks the day that Netflix mails out its final DVDs. RIP physical media, long live streaming…?

As far as moments that impact the pop culture landscape go, this is definitely one of those bittersweet ones. With one last mailing going out, here's a look back to a time when Netflix arrived in your mailbox:

Along with that video trip down memory lane, the streaming service also shared a timeline of some of its biggest DVD milestones over the past quarter century (with that opening factoid about Beetlejuice still blowing our minds – and Shrek was the only time Netflix went away from a red envelope?)

And here's a look at the marquee that was put up on Sunset Boulevard to mark the historic gate in pop culture history – composed of actual DVDs and Netflix red envelopes:

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