Penn State has been to the Blockbuster Bowl. Now State College will have its own Blockbuster.

Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation will open a video store at 1101 N. Atherton St. in mid-May, said Ken Warner, president of UI Video, a Colorado-based franchise of Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation, which will own the store.

The video store will offer customers many advantages, including three-evening rentals for most movies and two-evening rentals for new releases, compared to one-evening rentals at most other stores, according to a news release from Wally Knief, corporate communications manager for Blockbuster.

The stores are open seven days a week from 10 in the morning to midnight, Knief said, adding that Blockbuster is also the leading money-maker in the video industry.

But whether students will abandon the smaller local stores and travel out to North Atherton Street remains to be seen.

Fran McDermid (senior-international politics) said she might be attracted to the Blockbuster name.

"They have a reputation of being really good," McDermid said. The video store's selection and sponsorship of the Blockbuster Bowl are additional bonuses, she said.

Scott Kavalek (senior-public service) said he will rent videos from the new store because it will have many copies of each video available.

But not all students will be drawn in by the Blockbuster mystique.

"They have a lot of movies, but they all suck," said Todd Lawrence (senior-secondary education), who said he often rents unusual movies.

"They'll have 10 million copies of the new Madonna movie, but they skip on foreign and avant-garde movies," he said.

Location is also a factor when choosing a video store.

Carolyn Thompson (senior-general arts and sciences) said she will probably keep renting from Mike's Video stores because she lives in Bellefonte and commutes. She can return the videos at any of the five Mike's Video locations.

That should be good news for Mike Negra, owner of Mike's Video, who is not welcoming Blockbuster with open arms.

"I'd rather they don't come . . . the pie is only so big," Negra said.

But the extra challenge may be to his advantage in the long run, Negra said.

"Competition is good . . . we thrive on it," he said, adding that his employees will rise to the competition.

"You'll see some sort of price war erupt," he predicted.

But Wes Bumbarger, manager of McLanahan Self Service Store, 414 E. College Ave., said he is not too worried about the new Blockbuster.

"I'm sure we'll lose a few customers, but I'm pretty confident in our selection and prices," Bumbarger said.

But there are those for whom the arrival of a new video store is meaningless.

"I can't afford (videos) anyway," said Machelle Yingling (junior-health policy administration).