Film distributor Village Roadshow Pictures is going belly-up. The company, known for producing and financing many films independently, as well as in conjunction with Warner Bros., filed for bankruptcy. 

Village Roadshow has churned out a number of iconic films over its years of business, including some such as The Lego Movie, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Joker. These projects, as well as The Matrix series, were made alongside Warner Bros., making for, as it has been described before, a very successful pairing between the two companies. 

However, some of the cracks started to form once Warner Bros. gave the green light to have the latest Matrix film, Matrix: Resurrections, release on HBO Max the same day it was released in theaters. 

“The Company accused WB of shutting it out of its legal and contractual rights to co-own and co-finance the sequels, prequels, spinoffs, and other derivative works of the 89 films that the Company funded and co-owns and with respect to which derivative rights are applicable,” the official filing had to say, per Deadline. 

Hollywood Reporter noted, as well, that the deterioration of relations between the two was said to be, by Village Roadshow themselves, the pivotal point that led them to this step. 

On top of the deteriorating partnership, Village Roadshow has accumulated a large debt to their names, with reported totals going beyond $160 million. Hollywood Reporter also noted that due to that, they were unable to pay some of their writers. The fallout from that caused the company to fall from the good graces of the Writers Guild of America. 

Currently, there is at least one bidder interested in scooping up some of the library assets held by Village Roadshow. The lowest asking price is $365 million. 

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