Parents build homemade Blockbuster for autistic son after local store closes down

A Texas family opened up their very own miniature movie rental store with one specific customer in mind: their autistic son.

Twitter user @Javiii_Zuniga posted these photos showing the touching moment his parents unveiled a customized ‘Blockbuster’ video display rack for his brother.

“My autistic brother was sad that Blockbuster was closing down, so my parents made a mini one at home for him!,” he wrote on the Twitter.

Complete with its very own Blockbuster logo, the rack features a wide selection of the 20-year-old’s favourite rental flicks and it’s conveniently located in his home.

Although it may be hard to believe, there are actually some places where Blockbuster video stores are still open to the public. As CBC News reports, at one point the video rental giant had an impressive 9,000 retail stores worldwide, but after filing for bankruptcy in 2010, it was forced to close down nearly all of its locations by 2013.

Now only a handful of Blockbuster stores run by franchise owners still remain open to the public, with nine in Alaska and three in Texas. That is until the Blockbuster in Mission, Texas, finally closed down for good on April 23rd, prompting the creation of this special at-home recreation.

Speaking to Fox 31 Denver, @Javiii_Zuniga explained that his brother is non-verbal, but he began enthusiastically smiling and clapping once he saw his very own Blockbuster rental rack.

Twitter users were also clearly happy to see the moving moment unfold as well. Since being posted to Twitter on April 23rd, the now-viral tweet has been liked more than 121,000 times and retweeted 31,000 times.

The DIY Blockbuster store also inspired people to express how thoughtful they thought the parents were. Now their son can continue to enjoy his favourite movies for years to come!