Blockbuster will report complete year-end results on March 19.Its earnings preview comes two days after it hired Kirkland andEllis LLP "for assistance with ongoing financing andcapital-raising initiatives," causing some to speculate about abankruptcy filing, which pushed the company's share price downdespite a denial by Blockbuster.

"In 2008 we executed on our key initiatives to grow the corerental business, enhance our retail offering and develop digitaldelivery channels," Jim Keyes, Chairman and CEO of Blockbuster,said in a prepared statement. "With respect to our financinginitiatives, we continue to work diligently to resolve the August2009 debt maturities, aggressively reduce costs and maximize thecompany's strong cash flow generation."

The increase in same-store sales was comprised of a 2.6%decrease in domestic same-store rental comparables and a 36.5%increase in domestic same-store retail comparables, which means theresults were largely driven by increased sales of games, gamemerchandise and consumer electronics.