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This Move by Redbox Signals the End of DVDs

Photo from Redbox’s Facebook

This Move by Redbox Signals the End of DVDs

By Movieguide® Contributor

Redbox’s parent company, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, is shutting its boxes.

That means Redbox will completely shut down for good, and its 1,033 employees no longer have a job.

“Call it Deadbox,” Variety said July 11. “In another nail in the coffin of physical media, Redbox is shutting down after more than two decades of serving up DVD rentals from thousands of kiosks across the U.S.”

“Redbox’s network of 24,000 DVD rental kiosks and its streaming services will be shut down after its parent company, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, converted its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case to a Chapter 7 liquidation proceeding on Wednesday,” Variety said.

This was a long time coming for Redbox, which peaked in 2013 and then declined with the increase of streaming services. The DVD rental giant had over 43,000 rental stations in the U.S. and Canada.

“On June 28, CSSE filed for Chapter 11 reorganization, listing total debts of $970 million and consolidated assets of $414 million as of March 31, 2024,” Variety reported. “Creditors included Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate, BBC Studios Americas, Walgreens, Walmart and Vizio.”

All of CSSE’s 1,033 employees have been let go with no severance or extension of benefits.

“A current Redbox employee, who asked not to be identified due to uncertainty over future legal actions he said some at the company are considering, said the news has been destabilizing,” NBC News reported July 11.

“Sentiment’s in the gutter,” the employee said. “We have coworkers who’ve missed rent, facing eviction.”

In addition, layoffs aren’t legally official until a bankruptcy trustee is appointed. That means employees don’t know when they can file for unemployment insurance.

“Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment had failed to pay employees and vendors for at least four weeks prior to its Chapter 11 filing. In court documents, HPS, the company’s top lender, had alleged gross mismanagement by the company,” Variety said.

CEO Bill Rouhana Jr. claimed that the bankruptcy is due to the company’s lenders not fulfilling their obligations.

“Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment closed the acquisition of the struggling Redbox business in August 2020, in a deal valued at $370 million. With the acquisition, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment assumed $359.9 million of Redbox’s debt,” Variety reported.

Variety continued, “In his declaration, Rouhana said CSSE’s ability to service the Redbox debt was ‘predicated on a partial return to pre-COVID levels in the number and cadence of theatrical releases that were available to the company for its kiosk network, as well as cost synergies. The corresponding rebound in demand for physical kiosk rentals was expected to return to approximately one-third of 2019 levels.’”

Fast Company says that any customers who currently possess Redbox DVDs are still obligated to return DVDS to operational Redboxes. They may have to pay a fee if they don’t return them.

In April, Movieguide® reported Target will stop selling DVDS:

The days of buying a physical video game or DVD in stores are coming to an end.

Target is following Best Buy’s example and plans to pull Blu-ray discs and video games from its shelves by 2025.

Per Collider, “This comes from the ‘President of Physical Media’ on X who claimed their ‘Target Sources’ have said that the big chain retailer will not be selling any more physical media within the next year.”


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