A US judge on Tuesday approved a ‘stalking horse’ bid of $417.5m from Alcon Entertainment for the library of Village Roadshow Entertainment Grou
A US judge on Tuesday approved a ‘stalking horse’ bid of $417.5m from Alcon Entertainment for the library of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group (VREG), which filed for bankruptcy last month.
The amount is the lowest acceptable for the assets, which includes a roster of 108 feature including the Matrix franchise and Joker, and exceeds the $365m offer tabled by Content Partners. The library is said to generate $50m a year.
Interested parties have until May 16 to submit a rival bid and the court will preside over an auction four days later if there is more than one bidder. That may include Warner Bros, with whom VREG co-financed 92 features.
Warner Bros’ ownership stakes in those films range from 15% to 50% and if it were to prevail at auction it would own the films in their entirety. The studio retains all distribution rights.
VREG’s bankruptcy filing is the latest episode in a list of struggles since the pandemic. It is in ongoing arbitration with Warner Bros after it sued the studio for breach of contract in February 2022 for releasing The Matrix Resurrections simultaneously in cinemas and on HBO Max under the notorious ‘Project Popcorn’ plan hatched during Covid by foimer Warner Bros owners WarnerMedia.
In December the Writers Guild of America issued a stop-work order to VREG amid slow payments to writers, and in January of this year, CEO Steve Mosko departed.
VREG is separate from the Australia-based Village Roadshow Group, which was formed in 1954 and includes Village Roadshow Theme Parks, Roadshow Distributors, Roadshow Productions, Village Roadshow Studios and Village Cinemas.
Since 2017, Village Roadshow Group has had no strategic, operational control, management oversight or financial responsibility for VREG, and owns less than 3% in VREG.
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