The Blockbuster Index is an AI-powered exploration of how consumer buying habits have shifted from traditional brick-and-mortar stores to digital purchases across the United States. Inspired by the nostalgic decline of video rental stores like Blockbuster, this project creates a unique index that scores each state based on signals reflecting the balance of online versus in-person purchases.
The website visualizes these scores and trends, providing an engaging way to see how retail behaviors vary geographically—combining humor, nostalgia, and data-driven insights.
The Blockbuster Index is built using modern web technologies including Next.js, AWS Cloud Infrastructure, and OpenAI, and is updated daily with new data. All data is sourced from public APIs, web scraping, and official government sources.
