Redbox owner Chicken Soup for the Soul files for bankruptcy

Jordan Valinsky, CNN

New York (CNN) — The genitor institution of Redbox, those distinctive, red-colored kiosks astatine market stores that waste aliases rent DVDs, has revenge for bankruptcy aft enduring months of financial struggle.

Chicken Soup for nan Soul Entertainment (CSSE) revealed successful a filing that it has astir $1 cardinal successful indebtedness and owes millions of dollars to respective intermezo companies including nan BBC and Sony Pictures, positive to retailers ranging from Walmart to Walgreens.

Filings show that nan institution took connected astir $325 cardinal successful indebtedness pursuing its acquisition of Redbox successful 2022 from backstage equity elephantine Apollo Global Management. The scheme was to make it into an intermezo conglomerate, combining nan DVD rental business pinch its free streaming services, for illustration Crackle, nan intermezo level erstwhile owned by Sony.

Those plans didn’t cookware out, hindered by dual Hollywood strikes that constricted accumulation of caller contented and nan diminution of group renting beingness DVDs that moreover forced rival Netflix to discontinue that portion of its business past year.

CSSE declined to comment.

Deadline antecedently reported that Redbox hadn’t paid labor for a week, and aesculapian benefits person been suspended. Filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy could thief nan institution hole those issues if its plans are approved by a tribunal successful Delaware.

The company’s publishing arm, which produces those ubiquitous self-help books that were erstwhile a worldwide phenomenon, isn’t affected by nan bankruptcy filing of its intermezo unit.

The number of Redbox kiosks has grown to astir 34,000 crossed nan US, mostly located astatine market and supplier stores. Since its 2002 launch, Redbox has rented its 1 cardinal discs astatine prices cheaper than cable, according to its website.