We open on a cockroach crawling through an apocalyptic wasteland. The only living creature to survive the end of the world, the insect passes abandoned buildings with an unforeseen destination in mind. Suddenly our hero stops, a soft warm light beckons to him from the distance. We see that he's staring at a Blockbuster Video. In fact, the world's Last Blockbuster Video. Somehow this brick-and-mortar store has survived not only the decimation of the Blockbuster franchise but the apocalypse itself. The cockroach enters and is affectionately greeted as "Steve" as he goes on to rent his favorite films.

Twenty years ago, Blockbuster was a billion-dollar franchise with eighty-four thousand employees and nine thousand retail locations. Today, there's only a single one left.

True to its origins, this retail store continues renting VHS tapes and DVDs albeit to a much smaller audience.

Facing lagging sales and the rising costs of maintaining a brick-and-mortar location post-COVID, this mom-and-pop shop decided that 2023 was the year it would make its last stand with what little budget and resources it still possessed.

The small mom-and-pop shop would need to increase online merchandise sales and get more people through the doors for rentals.

The film which cost less than $10K to produce would attract the attention of dozens of local and national news channels. In fact, the entire 40s commercial would air several times on prime-time live TV news, without the store paying a single dime of media.

The film reached an audience 9x larger than that of the actual Super Bowl and ranked on multiple "Best Commercials of Super Bowl" lists including those published by the LA Times, Vulture and Deadline, despite never having actually aired on television.

The campaign directly impacted the store’s bottom line; they saw a 200% spike in online sales in the first 24 hours of the commercial release & nearly 1700% increase in the first week making it one of the busiest weeks in their history - and the best ROI of Super Bowl 2023.

The film was shot on site by a crew of three in a single day. Two independent filmmakers would shoot and edit the film along with an art director. Travel amounted to less than $2,000 and no equipment was rented besides a car.

The film was shot on a ten-year-old consumer camera, the Panasonic GH2, without any lighting or sound done besides what was captured in camera. The star of the film cost $19.95 — a robotic cockroach purchased on Amazon.

Most of the costs would go towards post and finishing, which cost around $5,000. The film was transferred to a single VHS for less than $100. The tape itself cost $6. Overall, producing the spot cost under $10K.