Redbox

Redbox was an American video rental and streaming media company, based in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, west of Chicago. Redbox specialized in automated DVD rental kiosks, and operated transactional and ad-supported streaming video and television services. From 2022¹ until its liquidation , Redbox was a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. Redbox kiosks, which rented and sold films on DVD and Blu-ray, were located at retail stores, including convenience stores, supermarkets, and pharmacies. At its peak in the early 2010s, the company operated kiosks at more than 34,000 locations, and controlled more than half of the US DVD rental market. In June 2024, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; the following month, the company's case was converted to Chapter 7 liquidation. As part of ongoing liquidation proceedings, Redbox's online streaming services and mobile app ceased functioning in July 2024.

Redbox was an American video rental and streaming media company, based in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, west of Chicago. Redbox specialized in automated DVD rental kiosks, and operated transactional and ad-supported streaming video and television services. From 2022 until its liquidation , Redbox was a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. Redbox kiosks, which rented and sold films on DVD and Blu-ray, were located at retail stores, including convenience stores, supermarkets, and pharmacies. At its peak in the early 2010s, the company operated kiosks at more than 34,000 locations, and controlled more than half of the US DVD rental market. In June 2024, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; the following month, the company's case was converted to Chapter 7 liquidation. As part of ongoing liquidation proceedings, Redbox's online streaming services and mobile app ceased functioning in July 2024. ==History== ===Founding under McDonald's=== Redbox Automated Retail LLC was initially developed in Chicago as a part of "Project 361", a McDonald's business expansion initiative. John Sexton Abrams, a strategy executive at McDonald's, designed the original concept as an immersive kiosk leveraging McDonald's product supply chain and geographic footprint to provide 24/7 access to fresh dairy and other products. Initially, the kiosks sold a range of goods under the name TikTok Easyshops. In late 2003, McDonald's ended its use of the kiosks for the products. Instead, McDonald's executive Gregg Kaplan decided to use the kiosks for DVD rentals, which was tested in Denver in 2004. The company employed a "return anywhere" policy, different from competitors, which allowed consumers to return their rental to any Redbox kiosk, not just the one from which they originally rented it. ===Purchase by Coinstar=== In 2005, Coinstar bought 47% of the company for $32 million, after unsuccessful attempts to sell half the company to Blockbuster and Netflix. In early 2008, Coinstar exercised an option to increase its share to 51%, before acquiring the remainder for $169–176 million in February 2009. While traditional brick and mortar rental stores were closing at a high rate, Redbox moved into existing retail locations such as supermarkets, and placed kiosks within them or outside of them to gain access to that consumer base. Competitors included Netflix, Blockbuster, Movie Gallery and its subsidiary Hollywood Video, West Coast Video, and Family Video along with other DVD by mail rental services. Mitch Lowe joined Redbox in 2003, after spending five years as an executive at Netflix. At Redbox, he started first as a consultant and then as VP of Purchasing & Operations. In 2005, he became the Chief Operating Officer. Lowe owned and operated a video rental company named Video Droid from 1982 through 1997. Video Droid attempted a VHS rental vending machine concept, though the idea was quickly deemed impractical. Lowe was named President of Redbox in April 2009. With growing concern in 2009 that DVD kiosks might jeopardize movie studio income from DVD sales and rentals, three major movie studios, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and Universal Studios, each refused to sell DVDs to Redbox until at least 28 days after their arrival in stores. Fox and Warner Bros. represented 62% of home video rental revenue in 2008 and 2009. Redbox responded by filing lawsuits, first, against Universal in October 2008, then against 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. in August 2009. In August 2009, the federal judge hearing the Universal case allowed the antitrust claim to continue. In October 2009, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. filed motions to dismiss Redbox's lawsuits against them. During that time, Redbox continued to rent films from the companies, purchasing them at retail from places like Walmart instead of receiving them from the movie studios, which in some cases saved Redbox money due to the discounted prices offered by retailers. Other major studios, such as Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Lionsgate, signed distribution deals with Redbox. The Walt Disney Company permits third-party distributors to sell to Redbox, but did not enter into a direct relationship with the company. Both sides of the studio lawsuits pointed to these revenue-sharing deals to shore up their argument, with Redbox president Mitch Lowe saying, "our growth can lead to theirs [the studios' growth]. For example, Redbox currently estimates we will pay more than a combined $1 billion over the next five years to Sony, Lionsgate and Paramount to purchase and then rent new-release DVDs to consumers," while Warner Bros. says the deals are proof that far from being shut out by Hollywood, "Redbox's business has thrived since its suit against Universal, underscored by lucrative distribution deals with Paramount Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and Lionsgate." Redbox entered into an agreement with Warner Bros. on February 16, 2010, followed by Universal and Fox on April 22, 2010. In the agreements which settle the lawsuits, Redbox agreed to not make available for rental films from these studios until 28 days after their initial home-video releases. Redbox continued to sign additional and new distribution deals with these and other movie studios; by 2017, titles from Fox and Warner became available on Redbox seven days after their initial home-video release. ===Acquisition by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, bankruptcy and liquidation=== On May 11, 2022, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment announced its intention to acquire Redbox for $375 million. The acquisition was completed on August 11, 2022, less than a year after Redbox went public. At the end of 2022, the company operated about 34,000 kiosks nationwide, with plans to increase that number with 1,000 more kiosks in 2023. In July 2023, CSSE announced a partnership with the video sharing platform TikTok, under which screens showcasing top content from the service would be installed on at least 3,000 Redbox kiosks. These ads also displayed advertising sold by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment's sales platform Crackle Connex. In August 2023, convenience store chain 7-Eleven terminated its contract with Redbox due to its failure to pay commissions and demanded the kiosks be removed; Redbox failed to do so. Franchisees began to unplug machines and tape credit card readers shut. 7-Eleven eventually filed a lawsuit in June 2024. In February 2024, drug store chain CVS filed a lawsuit against Redbox for failure to pay commissions during the third quarter of 2022. Convenience store chain Sheetz followed suit the same month for not receiving payments since the end of 2022. store in Chula Vista, California]] On April 23, 2024, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment announced a $636.6 million loss in 2023, and warned that without any options to generate additional financing, the company could be forced to liquidate or pause operations, and seek a potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing. However, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment did also report that Redbox's sales increased in 2023, seeing a 66% increase in annual revenue to $112.7 million. By June 15, all Redbox kiosks in Hannaford grocery stores had been shut down. On June 29, 2024, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after missing a week of paying its employees and failing to secure financing. On July 10, 2024, a bankruptcy judge ordered to convert Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment's Chapter 11 bankruptcy into a Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation after accusing the company's previous CEO of misusing the business and failing to pay employees or support healthcare. With the Chapter 7 conversion, the company's assets were liquidated, resulting in the shut down of its subsidiaries, including Redbox. In addition, over 1,000 employees¹ were laid off. The company's website and apps were taken down shortly after. Although many of Redbox's kiosks have been removed, many remaining kiosks are still functional and dispense discs. Some kiosks have been taken by hobbyists and tinkerers who aim to reverse engineer the software used by them. A major company involved in the removal and disposal of Redbox kiosks is The Junkluggers, although most kiosks are removed by independent contractors. The Junkluggers aim to recycle the metal used by the kiosks and donate the DVDs inside to community organizations. ===Redbox+=== In late December 2020, Redbox began offering a yearly subscription service allowing a subscriber to rent 12 or 24 discs in total, depending on their plan of choice. Only eligible movies could be rented on the plans. It extended the user return window until midnight, giving customers an additional 3 hours to return a movie to a kiosk. store, still operating in August 2024]] ==Streaming services== ===Redbox Instant=== Redbox began internally testing a video streaming service, dubbed Redbox Instant, in July 2012. The service was a joint effort between Redbox and Verizon. On March 14, 2013¹, Redbox Instant by Verizon officially went public, offering customers a free 1-month trial of an $8/month unlimited streaming service that includes 4 disc rentals from kiosks ($1 more for Blu-ray). The service launched with 4,600 titles from movie companies including Epix, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Relativity, and Sony Pictures. According to early reports, Redbox Instant planned to allow users to download content to mobile devices for offline viewing; titles could be either rented or purchased, in SD or HD quality, with rental customers having 30 days to begin viewing their title and 48 hours of unlimited views thereafter. In June 2013, Sony made the official announcement at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) that Redbox Instant would be available on the PlayStation 4 console, and it was released in late 2013. Android and iOS apps also enabled streaming content on mobile devices. Redbox Instant disabled sign-ups for new users in mid 2014 owing to a growing number of people using the website to verify stolen credit cards. In Q2 2014 earning call, Outerwall, Redbox's parent company, stated that they were "not pleased" with Redbox Instant subscription numbers. Finally on October 4, 2014, it was announced that Redbox Instant would shut down on October 7, only 19 months after its initial launch. ===Redbox On Demand=== On December 13, 2017, Redbox offered a new service called Redbox On Demand. Like Redbox Instant, it was a streaming service, but based on a different model. It did not require any membership, and the list contained new releases as well as several titles that were claimed to never be available on services like Netflix. The service launched with 6,000 titles for on demand rental or electronic sell-through in line with its kiosk operations. The titles came from the major film studios' libraries except for Disney and Lionsgate. ===Redbox Free Live TV=== Redbox Free Live TV was an ad supported channel based video on demand service. The service was soft launched in early February 2020 with a nationwide launch on February 18. Nearly 30 channels were offered—three self-branded channels: Redbox Rush (action and adventure), Redbox Comedy and Redbox Spotlight, featured and recommended titles. The service's launch content partner was Lionsgate. Other content suppliers include America's Funniest Home Videos, Cinedigm, Comedy Dynamics, Fremantle, FilmRise, Gravitas, Jukin Media, Kabillion, Maverick Movies, People Are Awesome, TMZ, and USA Today. ==Redbox Entertainment== Redbox Entertainment was Redbox's content acquisition and production division. On April 23, 2019, Redbox acquired the indie film Benjamin for an exclusive 90-day release period via its kiosks and on demand service as a Redbox Original. In October 2019, Redbox formed its film and TV series acquisition division, Redbox Entertainment, with Marc Danon as senior advisor of content acquisition. Then Redbox Entertainment exclusively picked up the distribution rights to Assailant, which was released in March 2022, and Vendetta, which was released in May 2022. ===Filmography=== with Quiver Distribution The Fanatic (August 2019) Running with the Devil (September 2019) The Lost Husband (April 2020) Becky (June 2020) Chick Fight (November 2020) Bandit (September 2022) with Vertical Entertainment Capone (May 2020) The Informer (December 2020) Shadow in the Cloud (January 2021) SAS: Red Notice (March 2021) American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally (May 2021) She Ball (August 2021) Black Site (May 2022) with VMI Worldwide The Last Son (December 2021) ==See also== DVD-by-mail Redbox Automated Retail LLC v. Universal City Studios LLLP Video rental shop ==Further reading== ==External links== https://www.redbox.com on the Wayback Machine

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