Brands That Went Bankrupt But Were Bought and Revived

Polaroid went bankrupt in 2001. It stopped making instant film in 2008. Today, Polaroid is growing so fast it cannot meet demand. Toys R Us closed all 700 US stores in 2018. In 2026, it operates 1,664 stores across 35 countries. Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy in 2023 and closed every store. It is now coming back through Kirkland's. Blockbuster went from 9,000 stores to one. That one store is still open.

Bankruptcy does not always mean the end. When a brand has enough recognition, someone buys the intellectual property out of bankruptcy and tries again. The results vary. Some revivals work. Others are zombie brands that trade on nostalgia without building a real business. Here is what happened to four brands that went bankrupt and came back.

Polaroid: From Bankruptcy to Boom

Polaroid Corporation declared bankruptcy in 2001. It discontinued instant film production in 2008. The brand seemed dead. Then a group of former employees and enthusiasts stepped in.

In 2008, Florian Kaps and Andre Bosman purchased Polaroid's last film factory in Enschede, Netherlands, along with the manufacturing equipment, for $3.1 million. They founded The Impossible Project and spent years reverse-engineering the film chemistry. Quality was inconsistent at first. Color accuracy and development times varied.

In 2017, The Impossible Project acquired the Polaroid brand and intellectual property. It rebranded as Polaroid Originals. In 2020, the company dropped the "Originals" modifier and went back to just Polaroid. The comeback was complete.

At CP+ 2026 in Yokohama, CEO Dan Dossa made Polaroid's first major trade show appearance with instant cameras as the focus. "We have been growing continuously since the company was reborn about ten years ago," he told DC Watch. "We have now grown to the point where we cannot meet demand."

The instant camera market is booming. PhotographyTalk reported that the global market reached $2.93 billion in 2024 and is projected to hit $5.72 billion by 2033, an 8.3% CAGR. Gen Z drives most of the growth. Gen Z usage of instant cameras has climbed 45% in recent years. Two-thirds of Gen Z consumers actively want to reduce smartphone screen time.

Polaroid is investing heavily in factory expansion, with plans to fully meet global demand by the end of 2026. The company's film is now in its fifth generation. Fujifilm's Instax remains the dominant competitor with over 70% market share in Asia-Pacific and over $1 billion in annual sales. But Polaroid is gaining ground.

Toys R Us: From 700 Closed Stores to 1,664 Worldwide

Toys R Us filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2017. In March 2018, it announced it would liquidate and permanently close all 700-plus US stores. The brand seemed finished.

WHP Global acquired a controlling stake in Toys R Us' parent company. The brand management company has been using the Toys R Us name and Geoffrey the Giraffe intellectual property to rebuild the chain. Business Insider called these "zombie brands" because the new stores operate under the old name but with entirely new ownership and operations.

The revival strategy is multi-channel. WHP opened a 20,000-square-foot flagship at American Dream mall in New Jersey in 2021. It launched 452 shop-in-shops inside Macy's stores nationwide in 2022. It partnered with Go! Retail Group for flagship stores and seasonal holiday shops. It brought Toys R Us to airports and cruise ships through Duty Free Americas. It partnered with NEXCOM to bring the brand to military bases.

In 2026, the results are visible. Jamie Uitdenhowen, EVP of Toys R Us at WHP Global, told The Toy Book: "We are now at 1,664 stores across 35 countries and continue to expand. 2025 was our largest international expansion year ever, with Toys R Us opening in six new countries and growing by more than 100 locations worldwide."

The brand generates more than $2 billion in global retail sales annually. WHP is now expanding into content (Toys R Us Studios, a Toys R Us movie), social commerce, and live selling. Bricktober, the LEGO partnership, is going global in 2026.

Bed Bath & Beyond: From Bankruptcy to Beyond Inc.

Bed Bath & Beyond filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2023. It liquidated and closed all namesake and Buy Buy Baby stores. At its peak, the chain had over 1,000 stores.

Overstock.com acquired Bed Bath & Beyond's intellectual property, including social media, mobile platforms, business data, and trademarks, for $21.5 million in June 2023. CEO Jonathan Johnson said: "An opportunity arose in bankruptcy to get the pieces that we loved and not have them burdened by the things we didn't like." Overstock rebranded as Bed Bath & Beyond online, then changed its corporate name to Beyond, Inc. (NYSE: BYON).

The brand became online-only. Then Beyond started bringing it back to physical retail. In October 2024, Beyond announced a strategic partnership with Kirkland's, Inc. Kirkland's became Beyond's exclusive brick-and-mortar operator and licensee for new small-format "neighborhood" Bed Bath & Beyond locations, up to 15,000 square feet. Beyond invested $25 million in Kirkland's through a combined debt and equity transaction.

Kirkland's CEO Amy Sullivan said: "We are planning to open our first neighborhood Bed Bath & Beyond stores in 2025 with an initial pilot of up to five stores." Beyond also invested $40 million in The Container Store to carry Bed Bath & Beyond products.

The revival is still early. Beyond's approach is asset-light: it licenses the brand to partners rather than operating stores itself. The company earns a 3% royalty on net store sales under the Bed Bath & Beyond banner, increasing to 5% if the collaboration agreement terminates. Whether the small-format neighborhood strategy works remains to be seen.

Blockbuster: One Store, Still Open

Blockbuster had over 9,000 stores at its peak. The chain filed for bankruptcy protection in 2010. Dish Network bought the brand out of bankruptcy for $320 million in 2011. By 2014, only 300 US stores remained. The last Australian store closed in 2019, leaving Bend, Oregon as the final Blockbuster on Earth.

The Bend store is independently owned by Ken Tisher, who first opened a video rental store called Pacific Video in the early 1990s and later converted to a Blockbuster franchise. He still pays franchise licensing fees to Dish Network. General manager Sandi Harding told The Bulletin: "We still are able to get movies to renters. We can still pay our employees. We can still do our thing."

The store has 26,000 movies. It rents videos every day. But the real business is nostalgia. People visit from around the world to take photos in front of the sign. The store sells T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, fanny packs, key chains, and a locally brewed 10 Barrel Blockbuster Black Ale. A couple got engaged in the store. School groups take field trips to learn about VHS tapes.

The 2020 Netflix documentary "The Last Blockbuster" boosted attention. A "Free Blockbuster" movement has spread across the country, with hundreds of Blockbuster-themed newspaper boxes filled with free DVDs and VHS tapes. Brian Morrison, who started the movement, told The Bulletin: "Streaming fatigue is real. It could be just that you don't like the selection or the way the selection is presented, and it could just be that we don't really want to sit in our houses and not interact with anyone."

Blockbuster is not a corporate revival. It is a single franchise location kept alive by a local owner, nostalgia tourism, and merchandise sales. But the brand recognition remains powerful enough that people travel from around the world to visit.

How Bankrupt Brands Get Revived

The revival playbook has four steps:

1. Buy the IP: A brand management company or competitor purchases the trademarks, domain names, social media accounts, and customer data out of bankruptcy. Overstock paid $21.5 million for Bed Bath & Beyond's IP. The Impossible Project paid $3.1 million for Polaroid's factory. 2. License to partners: The new owner licenses the brand to operators rather than running stores directly. WHP licenses Toys R Us to Macy's, Go! Retail Group, and Duty Free Americas. Beyond licenses Bed Bath & Beyond to Kirkland's. 3. Start small: Revivals begin with pilots, pop-ups, and shop-in-shops rather than full-scale store fleets. Toys R Us started with one flagship at American Dream. Bed Bath & Beyond is starting with five pilot stores. 4. Leverage nostalgia: The brand's existing recognition is the primary asset. Polaroid positions analog photography as an antidote to screen time. Blockbuster trades on 90s nostalgia. Toys R Us leans on Geoffrey the Giraffe.

Brands That Went Bankrupt and Came Back

What This Means for Consumers

Bankrupt brands can come back, but the revival is rarely the same as the original. Polaroid is a different company making different products under the same name. Toys R Us operates through partnerships, not standalone stores. Bed Bath & Beyond is an online retailer licensing its name to Kirkland's. Blockbuster is a single store selling T-shirts.

When a brand you love goes bankrupt, watch who buys the intellectual property. Brand management companies like WHP Global and Authentic Brands Group specialize in acquiring bankrupt brands and licensing them to operators. The revived brand may look familiar, but the business behind it is entirely new.

FAQ

Can a brand come back from bankruptcy? Yes. Polaroid, Toys R Us, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Blockbuster all went bankrupt or disappeared and have been revived. The revival typically involves a brand management company purchasing the intellectual property out of bankruptcy and licensing it to operators. The revived brand is a new business using the old name.

Who owns Polaroid now? Polaroid is owned by the company that began as The Impossible Project, a group of enthusiasts who purchased Polaroid's last film factory in 2008 for $3.1 million. They acquired the full Polaroid brand name in 2017 and renamed the company Polaroid in 2020. CEO Dan Dossa said at CP+ 2026 that the company is growing so fast it cannot meet demand.

Who owns Toys R Us now? Toys R Us is owned by WHP Global, a brand management company that acquired a controlling stake in the parent company. WHP licenses the brand to partners including Macy's (shop-in-shops), Go! Retail Group (flagship stores), and Duty Free Americas (airport stores). In 2026, Toys R Us operates 1,664 stores across 35 countries.

Is Bed Bath & Beyond coming back? Beyond, Inc. (formerly Overstock.com) acquired Bed Bath & Beyond's intellectual property for $21.5 million in 2023. The brand operates online and is returning to physical retail through a partnership with Kirkland's, which will open up to five pilot small-format stores. Beyond also invested $40 million in The Container Store to carry Bed Bath & Beyond products.

Sources

• PhotoWorkout: Polaroid's Comeback: CEO Interview at CP+ 2026 (2026)
• PhotographyTalk: Polaroid Instant Camera Revival: Rise, Fall, Rise Again (2026)
• PetaPixel: Inside the Only Polaroid Factory in the World (June 2026)
• The Toy Book: State of the Industry Q&A 2026: Jamie Uitdenhowen, Toys R Us, WHP Global (2026)
• Business Insider: Inside the Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Toys R Us (December 2025)
• WHP Global: Toys R Us Retail Expansion to Air, Land and Sea (2023)
• Retail Dive: Bed Bath & Beyond stores to return with Kirkland's partnership (October 2024)
• Beyond, Inc. press release: Kirkland's Home and Beyond, Inc. to Revitalize Bed Bath & Beyond Brand (October 2024)
• Reuters: Online retailer Overstock rebranding as Bed Bath & Beyond (June 2023)
• The Bulletin: Rewind to 1985: Bend's Blockbuster celebrates 40 years (October 2025)
• Retail Dive: Reporter's Notebook: Blockbuster still wants you to be kind, rewind (2023)
• The Bulletin: Free Blockbuster movement takes off in U.S. (October 2024)