Redbox DVD rental parent company files for bankruptcy

Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment (CSSE) has filed for bankruptcy roughly two years after purchasing DVD rental company Redbox.

CSSE, the advertising-supported video-on-demand streaming service that also owns Crackle, disclosed in a Delaware filing that it has accumulated nearly $1 billion in debt owed to more than 500 creditors including Walmart, Walgreens and Sony Pictures.

As of the end of March, the company had around $400 million in assets, according to the filing. When acquiring Redbox in 2022, CSSE took on $325 million in the DVD rental company’s debt.

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CSSE is a subsidiary of Chicken Soup for the Soul, LLC., which publishes the famous book series. The company told FOX Business it has no comment beyond the court filing.

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CSSE’s stock has plummeted nearly 90% over the past year, and was trading at around $0.12 on Monday following the news. 

The bankruptcy filing was dated two days after Deadline reported CSSE was nearly a week late in paying its employees, and workers’ health care benefits had been suspended.

The filing stated that Redbox currently has around 27,000 DVD rental kiosks at retailers across the U.S.