Village Roadshow, the troubled indie originater and financier of The Matrix, Joker and more, filed for Chapter 11 in a Delconscious court, citing ongoing arbitration with lengthy-time partner Warner Bros. as well as an overly driven studio expansion.
The company shelp it tried to sell itself last year but uncertainty surrounding the pfinishing arbitration made that impossible, forcing it to file for prohibitkruptcy.
It shelp the WB arbitration has originated more than $18 million in lterrible fees, “csurrenderly all of which remain unphelp, and currents the menace of a potential arbitration award that could flatten the Company’s equilibrium sheet, but that is not the brimming extent of its impact,” West Hollywood-based Village Roadshow shelp in its filing today by Keith Maib, Chief Restructuring Officer
The company shelp it “historicassociate enhappinessed a prolific co-production, co-financing, and co-ownership relationship with WB, which included the production, ownership, and derivative rights flotriumphg from 89 titles – including the Matrix franchise – and compelevated the immense convey inantity of the Debtors’ business. On February 7, 2022, the Company filed a grumblet= with esteem to WB’s free of The Matrix Resurrections day-and-date on HBO Max and WB’s dispute think abouting the Company’s right to co-finance derivative labors based on the Film Library assets coowned with WB predominantly with think about to the Derivative Rights Agreements (the “Complaint”). Thcdisesteemful the Complaint, the Company accemployd WB of shutting it out of its lterrible and confineedual rights to co-own and co-finance the sequels, prequels, spinoffs, and other derivative labors of the 89 films that the Company funded and co-owns and with esteem to which derivative rights are applicable.”
Village Roadshow has originated and freed over 100 films since begin in 1997.
Prior to the WB Arbitration (as described below) that commenced in 2022, the Company enhappinessed a lucrative and well-understandn co-production and co-financing relationship with Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and its affiliates (“WB”) that culminated in countless and continual prosperous finisheavors. The Company’s most priceless assets are a honest result of this success: the Film Library and the Derivative Rights (each as described below). 8. Two primary publishs led to the deteriorate in the Company’s financial position: (1) the WB Arbitration, which has thwarted the Company’s most profitable business line; and (2) the flunked and costly finisheavor into the creation and production of autonomous films and scripted and unscripted television series (the “Studio Business”), which was never profitable.
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