The recently announced bankruptcy filing of Blockbuster Inc. will not affect the locally owned franchise Blockbuster stores, according to a news release issued Friday.

“The financial challenges of Blockbuster Corporation will have no impact on our local operation,” said Kevin Seeger, managing partner of the Albert Lea Blockbuster location. “Our business is on firm footing. As an independent company we are not tied to the financial performance of the corporation.”

“While we have confidence that Blockbuster Corporation will weather this storm and emerge from bankruptcy stronger than before, it’s business as usual here in Albert Lea; our team looks forward to continuing to serve our local area customers and our community as always.”

Blockbuster, founded in 1985 by a Dallas software entrepreneur, was once a home entertainment powerhouse. It helped popularize videotape recorders and took off in 1987 after Waste Management Inc. founder Wayne Huizenga took control and began aggressively expanding and buying up competitors.

But Blockbuster has been losing money and market share for years as Netflix, Coinstar Inc.’s Redbox and other services gained popularity.

Netflix subscribers have grown from 1 million in 2002 to 15 million in 2010. Redbox, meanwhile, operated 26,900 kiosks as of the end of June.

In response to the growth in these companies, Blockbuster ended late fees and started online services and vending machines of its own. NCR. Corp. started putting out Blockbuster-branded kiosks, and now has 6,600 of them. But it was unable to keep its debt in check.

Blockbuster has already closed more than 1,000 stores in the past two years because so many of them weren’t making money.

Hollywood Video parent Movie Gallery Inc., once the second-largest U.S. movie rental chain behind Blockbuster, had similar problems. It filed for bankruptcy protection in February before liquidating in August.

Blockbuster said Thursday it plans to keep its 3,300 stores open in the U.S. while it evaluates them. Internet, mail and kiosk businesses will continue to operate.

In its filing, it had about $1 billion in assets and $1.46 billion in debt.

Blockbuster Corp., based in Dallas, operates 3,300 company-owned locations and is franchisor for 383 stores.