Bankrupt: Utahns Sad To See This Iconic Product Leaving

The Parent Company for Redbox Has Filed for Bankruptcy 

Chicken Soup for the Soul is a media company that owns Redbox and they have recently filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company revealed they have almost $1 billion dollars in debt. Their lenders have refused to cooperate to try and refinance. 

That's right. A staple of the 2000s is going away. The big red vending machine that sat outside of stores spitting out DVDs could soon be an antique like the phone booth or phone attached to the wall. It is actually kind of surprising it hasn’t happened sooner. 

How Have They Stayed in Business This Long? 

I walked by a Redbox outside of Smiths and wondered who was still using these machines. Turns out, not that many people. With streaming services making it easy to rent a movie on demand or watch it with ads, the need to visit this box has declined. 

The company who owns Redbox also has a streaming service and live TV that has kept them somewhat relevant. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been enough to keep them afloat. There are still an estimated 27,000 Redbox kiosks around the country. 

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It is always bittersweet when something you used regularly goes away due to the march of time. We used to rent movies and slap them in the in-car DVD player for long trips. We could then return it to a Redbox in the city we were visiting.  

Now I don't own a DVD at all and would have no place to play it. I wouldn’t want to ditch streaming and go back, but it does feel like I’m losing more of my past and it is sad.