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 as well as film and TV roles over the course of the last couple weeks, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The pink slips arrive as the company is exploring strategic options, including taking on more investors.
On the deals front, Village Roadshow has been relatively quiet this year. The company, which has produced more than 90 features with Warner Bros. over the past several decades including Mad Max: Fury Road, Joker and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, has been locked in arbitration with the studio since it filed a lawsuit in Feb. 2022.
At the time, Village Roadshow claimed in part that Warners devalued The Matrix franchise by releasing Resurrections day-and-date during the COVID-era on its streaming service Max instead of giving it an exclusive theatrical run. (Resurrections grossed only $157 million globally.)
“WB agreed to allow its sister company to stream Village Roadshow’s tentpole film, on the same day of its theatrical release, for no additional revenue so that its sister company could increase its subscribers and subscription revenues with the additional benefit of boosting its parent company’s stock,” a lawyer for Village Roadshow alleged.
In a subsequent legal filing, the company 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, Edge 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 going on to gross $173 million. The company, which has been owned since 2017 by asset manager Vine Alternative Investments, also didn’t participate in DC’s Joker: Folie à Deux sequel that bows on Friday in theaters.
Borys Kit contributed to this report.