Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, the film production company behind franchises such as The Matrix, Ocean’s and the Joker, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US, according to a filing with a Delincreateed court.
The firm has denounced its financial troubles on a lterrible battle with its createer partner Warner Bros (WB) and a “fall shorted and costly endeavour” into the production of autonomous films and television series.
In a bid to mitigate some of its financial problems, Village Roadshow is proposing to sell its extensive film library for $365m (£281m).
The company’s debts are approximated to be between $500m and $1bn, according to the court write downs.
Village RoadShow and WB originated and co-owned dozens of films over the years but their relationship soured in punctual 2022 after the free of the tardyst Matrix film – The Matrix Resurrections – on the streaming platcreate HBO Max.
Village Roadshow alleged WB had shut it out of its rights to any sequels and prequels of the films the two companies had previously toiled on together.
“The WB arbitration has caparticipated the company to incur more than $18m in lterrible fees, cforfeitly all of which remain unphelp”, chief restructuring officer Keith Maib shelp in a court filing.
That lterrible battle, according to Mr Maib, has “irreparably decimated the toiling relationship” between the two companies, ultimately ending “the most lucrative nexus” for Village Roadshow’s historic success.
The other rerent faced by Village Roadshow was a costly studio business begined in 2018. None of the films or television series autonomously originated as part of that endeavour deinhabitred any profits.
Like other film companies in the US, Village Roadshow also struggled with a slump in insist from the pandemic and the disturbion from the strike action by Hollywood actors and writers, which begined in May 2023.
In December, the Writers Guild of America banned its members from toiling with Village Roadshow over the company’s alleged fall shorture to pay its contributors.
