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Village Roadshow has a $365 million bid for its film

library

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Film library includes over 100 films, like The Matrix,

Ocean's

Eleven

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Warner Bros dispute, writer blacklist drove bankruptcy

filing

By Dietrich Knauth

NEW YORK, March 18 (Reuters) - U.S. film producer

Village Roadshow Entertainment Group is "open to all bids" for a

film library that includes rights to well-known movies like The

Matrix, Ocean's Eleven, and The Joker, a company attorney said

on Tuesday at a court hearing a day after filing for bankruptcy.

Los Angeles-based Village Roadshow filed for Chapter 11 with

a tentative agreement to sell its film library to investment

firm Content Partners for $365 million. But the agreement is

subject to overbids, and Village Roadshow hopes to hold an

auction in May before seeking court approval of a sale, the

company's attorney Justin Bernbrock told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge

Thomas Horan in Delaware, who is overseeing the case.

Village Roadshow entered bankruptcy with $393 million in

secured debt.

The company's film library, which generates $50 million in

annual revenue, is its most valuable asset in bankruptcy. It

includes the rights to 108 films including the Joker, The Matrix

trilogy, Ocean's series, The Lego Movie, and The Great Gatsby.

The films generated $19 billion in total box office receipts and

have won 19 Academy Awards, according to Village Roadshow's

court filings.

An attorney for Alcon Entertainment said Tuesday that his

client was a potential bidder for the film library. Bernbrock

said that Warner Bros could also bid for Village

Roadshow's film rights.

Most of Village Roadshow's films were co-produced with

Warner Bros, and the breakdown of that partnership was one of

the factors that pushed the company to seek bankruptcy

protection, according to court filings.

Village Roadshow sued Warner Bros in 2022 over the studio's

move to release "The Matrix Resurrections" simultaneously in

theaters and on HBO Max, alleging that Warner Bros breached a

co-production agreement to attract more subscribers to its

streaming platform.

The litigation has soured the companies' working

relationship, caused Village Roadshow to rack up $18 million in

unpaid legal bills, and risks an adverse ruling that could

"flatten" Village Roadshow's balance sheet, according to court

filings.

Warner Bros' attorney Steven Warren said Tuesday an

arbitrator had already sided with Warner Bros in the dispute

over the Matrix Resurrections' release. Warner Bros was the

"creative spark" in all of the movies that the two companies

co-produced, while Village Roadshow provided financing in

exchange for a portion of the film revenues, Warren said.

Village Roadshow faced other challenges besides its dispute

with Warner Bros, including a challenging market for movie

theaters after the COVID-19 pandemic and an unprofitable effort

to produce its own films and television shows after a private

equity buyout in 2017.

Village Roadshow's studio business has significant unpaid

debts to writers, which damaged its reputation and caused the

Writers' Guild to blacklist the company in December 2024.