Redbox is beefing up its AVOD movie catalog as it prepares an ambitious SPAC-enabled IPO play.
The company, best known for its aughts-era legacy business featuring ubiquitous disc-rental kiosks in super markets and 7-Eleven stores, announced deals today to license movies from Shout! Factory, Legendary Television, Magnolia Pictures and Relativity Media.
Coming to Redbox Free On Demand AVOD platform this summer will be 13, a Most Dangerous Game-ish 2010 thriller starring Jason Statham and Mickey Rourke; Empire State, a 2013 caper film starring Dwayne Johnson, Liam Hemsworth and Emma Roberts; Solace, a 2015 thriller starring Anthony Hopkins as a psychic doctor trying to take down a (yup) serial killer played by Colin Farrell; and Child 44, a 2015 movie starring Tom Hardy as a Stalin-era Russian military cop charged with solving a series of child murders.
Notably, none of these movies had a score of even 30% on reviews aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, with 13 bottoming out at 8%. But hey, it’s free, right?
Launched last year, Redbox Free On Demand exists side-by-side with the live/linear Redbox Free Live TV platform, which includes live-streamed channels including Crackle, Popcornflix, Tastemade, Unsolved Mysteries, Cheddar News, Divorce Court and Pac-12 Network.
Free Live TV is available to enjoy on Redbox.com, Roku, iOS and Android devices, Android TV, Vizio Smart TVs, LG TVs, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Samsung, and Chromecast. Notably, Redbox doesn’t list support from Amazon Fire TV.
“We know audiences are hungry for entertainment, and we’ve seen steady growth across Free Live TV and Free On Demand since they were launched in 2020,” said Jason Kwong, chief strategy and digital officer for Redbox. “Redbox is building a home for audiences looking for the widest possible selection of entertainment at every price point, including free.”
In May, Redbox announced plans to go public via acquisition by a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Seaport Global Acquisition Corp. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter. Once completed, Redbox will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “RDBX.” The transaction is being financed by a combination of $145 million of cash held in Seaport Global Acquisition trust account, as well as a private investment in public equity (PIPE) commitment of $50 million led by Ophir Asset Management.
When the deal closes, Redbox expects to have about $209 million in cash that it can use to pay down debt, as well as fund content acquisition and marketing initiatives.
