The Redbox service is no more. The rental company, which was founded by Gregg Kaplan in 2002, was known for its signature red kiosks found at various brick-and-mortar locations such as grocery stores and convenience stores, where customers could rent or purchase DVDs, Blu-Rays, and 4K UHD discs of current physical media titles as well as video games. Other Redbox ventures included a short-lived streaming service, which lasted for 19 months between 2013 and 2014, and an on-demand service that launched in 2017.

Per Variety, Redbox is shutting down. On Wednesday, the kiosk service’s parent company Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment “converted its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case to a Chapter 7 liquidation proceeding.” This proceeding includes the company’s employees, which number more than 1,000, being laid off. The company originally acquired Redbox in 2020, taking on more than $350 million in debt in the process. At the time of writing, there is no word as to exactly when the kiosks will be shut down or removed from their various locations or if another company is looking to take them over.

More to come…

Source: Variety