NEW YORK — Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, the parent company of DVD rental chain Redbox, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The bankruptcy filing comes after the company struggled financially for months and racked up unpaid bills. Chicken Soup for the Soul has accumulated nearly $1 billion in debt, according to a Chapter 11 filing filed Friday in Delaware Bankruptcy Court after reporting losses in its most recent quarter.
The filing also revealed that Chicken Soup for the Soul owes millions of dollars to more than 500 creditors, ranging from big-name entertainment companies like Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. to retail giants like Walgreens and Walmart.
As of March this year, Chicken Soup for the Soul had about $414 million in assets and $970 million in liabilities, according to a filing Friday. The publicly traded company's stock has fallen more than 90% in the past year.
Connecticut-based Chicken Soup for the Soul declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press on Monday. In court documents, the company said lenders were unwilling to cooperate with refinancing.
Chicken Soup for the Soul acquired Redbox in 2022. At the time, the company billed the merger as the beginning of an entertainment conglomerate that would reach consumers through a variety of mediums and increase revenue, but losses continued to pile up. The acquisition also included Redbox’s reported $325 million in debt.
Founded in 2002, Redbox is best known for its red self-service machines outside pharmacies and grocery stores that rent or sell DVDs. In Friday’s filing, Chicken Soup for the Soul said it currently operates about 27,000 kiosks across the U.S., down from 36,000 when the Redbox acquisition closed in August 2022.
Chicken Soup for the Soul also operates ad-supported streaming and on-demand video services, including Redbox Live TV and Crackle, a streamer that Chicken Soup for the Soul acquired from Sony.