Photos: 300 Blockbusters closing in weeks, no word yet how many in Colorado

Big photos below.

Last August, Governor John Hickenlooper joined Blockbuster President Michael Kelly and other dignitaries to celebrate the relocation of the video firm's headquarters to Douglas County -- a move that came with the company's pledge to bring 150 jobs to Colorado over the next five years. (See photos from that event below.) Unfortunately, the latest news from Blockbuster, a subsidiary of locally based Dish Network, represents the opposite side of that coin.

Dish spokesman John Hall confirms that 300 Blockbuster stores nationwide will close soon, and while he can't yet say if any of them will be in Colorado, he doesn't rule out the possibility, either.

Photo by Natalie Gonzalez.

Dish President and CEO Joseph Clayton, Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen, Governor John Hickenlooper and Blockbuster president Michael Kelly at the August ribbon cutting.

"The stores have not been announced," Hall notes. "The closures will be taking place in the coming weeks, but I don't have a hard date when we will have a list of the stores."

Photo by Natalie Gonzalez

The August event featured the unveiling of Blockbuster's Blue Carpet new release wall display.

Last year, Dish closed about 500 Blockbusters, including plenty in Colorado; the one a block from my house, in unincorporated Jefferson County, is now a dentist's office. But 26 remain in the state at this point, with a dozen in the Denver metro area according to the online Blockbuster store locator, including outlets at Colfax and Ogden, Havana and Mississippi, Alameda and Virginia, Wadsworth and Crestline and a number of prime spots. That's some valuable -- and presumably expensive -- real estate.

Photo by Natalie Gonzalez

Also featured was Blockbuster's new Anytime rental box.

After the latest downsizing, Hall says about 500 Blockbuster stores will remain in the U.S. That represents a massive shrinkage from when Dish bought the company out of bankruptcy in April 2011 -- 1,700 stores were open then, according to the Denver Business Journal. The DBJ adds that Blockbuster had 9,100 stores at its peak. That means more than 94 percent of them have closed.

Continue for more about the latest Blockbuster store closures.