It owes money to Universal, Sony, Lionsgate, Warner Bros., and more.

informed employees of the filing late Friday […] that it had filed for a debtor-in-possession loan — a way for companies that are reorganizing after filing for bankruptcy to secure additional working capital to meet payroll. […] employees have been waiting for paychecks since June 21st […] it’s not certain that the company will be able to secure such a loan.

Chicken Soup took on $325 million in debt when it acquired Redbox in 2022 and has since been sued over a dozen times over unpaid bills.

  • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    44·
    4 months ago

    I don’t doubt that rental companies have been squeezed harder and harder on licensing costs specifically to drive them out so the publisher-owned services take over

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      4 months ago

      I’m not sure that was much of an issue for DVD. Historically VHS had those huge licensing terms for new releases ($90 for VHS), but the same rules didn’t apply to DVD (new releases $20). This was one of the main reasons VHS rentals died so fast after DVDs came out.

      Also at least at one time, I remember Redbox was simply buying DVDs at retail stores instead of buying from retail stores for their disc inventory. I see that Walmart is listed as a creditor. That makes me think perhaps Redbox still was.