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Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, the production and finance company that has backed the Matrix and Ocean’s franchises, is undergoing a small round of layoffs.
The banner, led by CEO Steve Mosko, has cut eight staffers in business affairs, administration in addition to film and TV roles over the course of the last couple weeks, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The pink slips arrive as the corporate is exploring strategic options, including taking over more investors.
On the deals front, Village Roadshow has been relatively quiet this 12 months. The corporate, which has produced greater than 90 features with Warner Bros. over the past several a long time including Mad Max: Fury Road, Joker and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, has been locked in arbitration with the studio because it filed a lawsuit in Feb. 2022.
On the time, Village Roadshow claimed partly that Warners devalued The Matrix franchise by releasing Resurrections day-and-date throughout the COVID-era on its streaming service Max as a substitute of giving it an exclusive theatrical run. (Resurrections grossed only $157 million globally.)
“WB agreed to permit its sister company to stream Village Roadshow’s tentpole film, on the identical day of its theatrical release, for no additional revenue in order that its sister company could increase its subscribers and subscription revenues with the extra good thing about boosting its parent company’s stock,” a lawyer for Village Roadshow alleged.
In a subsequent legal filing, the corporate claimed that it was being cut out from being a financial partner on multiple projects in development on movies where it shares rights, including Sherlock Holmes, Fringe of Tomorrow, Ready Player One, I Am Legend and Where the Wild Things Are. After several months, a judge moved the case to arbitration in May 2022.
Amid that legal battle, Warner Bros. released Fury Road prequel Furiosa in May without Village Roadshow, with the film happening to gross $173 million. The corporate, which has been owned since 2017 by asset manager Vine Alternative Investments, also didn’t take part in DC’s Joker: Folie à Deux sequel that bows on Friday in theaters.
Borys Kit contributed to this report.
