Village Roadshow Pictures was founded in 1989 by Greg Coote, who served as president, when it purchased certain assets of
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. The company’s first film was
The Delinquents and its first hit was
Fortress in 1992. In 1993, Village Roadshow Pictures expanded into television production with the launch of its first television series
Paradise Beach. In 1995, Village Roadshow Pictures launched a television division headed by Jeffrey Hayes. Also that year, the company started an international sales division called Village Roadshow Pictures International, which was led by Bobby Myers. In 1996, Village Roadshow Pictures Television and
Yoram Gross formed a joint venture focused on animation. In April 1997, Village Roadshow Pictures and
Intermedia formed a joint venture called Village Intermedia Pictures. The deal ended several months later when Village Roadshow Pictures and Intermedia decided to cut ties and became independent again. In September 1997, the company underwent restructuring with Michael Lake joined the company as managing director. In October 1997, Yoram Gross-Village Roadshow signed a co-production alliance with
EM.TV & Merchandising a Munich-based distribution and merchandising company to partner on 10 animated series over the next five years. In December 1997, Village Roadshow Pictures and
Warner Bros. signed an agreement to co-finance and distribute at least 20 movies over the next five years. Under the deal, Village Roadshow would produce the films and Warner Bros. would market and release them worldwide, except in Australia and New Zealand.
Bruce Berman, the former Warners’ theatrical production president, signed on as chairman and CEO of the company. In 1998, Village Roadshow Pictures announced that it would sell its television division in a management buyout to Greg Coote and Jeffrey Hayes, who renamed Village Roadshow Pictures Television to Coote/Hayes Productions. Around the same time, the company announced it was shutting down the international sales unit. As part of its exit plan from the sales business, Roadshow sold international rights to its Western productions to
Icon Entertainment International and the Australian films to
Beyond Films Limited. Also that year, Village Roadshow Pictures sold off its 50% stake in the Yoram Gross animated studio venture to EM.TV & Merchandising, which would become Yoram Gross-EM.TV. Crescent invested $115 million for its interest in VRP. Village Roadshow Pictures used the $115 million invested by Crescent to repay an inter-company loan of $100 million owed to its parent company, as well as pay a $15 million dividend to the existing VRP shareholders and management. In 2008,
Concord Music Group merged into Village Roadshow Pictures to form Village Roadshow Entertainment Group (VREG). Investors in VREG included the shareholders of Crescent, as shown above, as well as Australia's Village Roadshow Limited and Tailwind Capital. In 2012,
Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures extended their co-financing first look deal through 2017. In May 2014, VRPG established a supplementary co-financing production deal with
Sony Pictures Entertainment which commenced with the release of
The Equalizer and
Annie. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available capital. In 2013, Concord Music Group was sold to Wood Creek Capital, an affiliate of
MassMutual, for approximately $120 million. In 2015, VREG, the holding company of Village Roadshow Pictures and Village Roadshow Television, was recapitalized with a $480 million investment that included funds from Falcon Investment Advisors and Vine Alternative Investments. Vine Alternative Investments and Falcon Investment Advisors added additional capital in April 2017 to take a controlling stake in the company. This was to fund a new strategic plan for an expanded film slate and add production of television programs and other content offerings. More recently, Phantom Four Films signed a first look deal with Village Roadshow Pictures. On 27 September 2021, Bruce Berman announced that he would step down as CEO of the company. On 24 December 2021, the company had signed a pact with
Fox Entertainment to distribute pictures for
Tubi and partnered with Kevin Garrett to launch Black Noir Cinema. In March 2025, the Village Roadshow Entertainment Group filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing an overly ambitious studio expansion, staff layoffs, and an ongoing arbitration dispute with
Warner Bros. for breach of contract over the
simultaneous release of
The Matrix Resurrections. The former Australian parent company had to issue press statements stating it has had no control over the company since 2017, and has since commenced action to revoke VREG of the right to use the company's name and logo. Around the time bankruptcy was filed, Content Partners had reportedly placed a
stalking horse offer of $353–365 million for the assets of VREG. However, in April 2025,
Alcon Entertainment outbid Content Partners with a higher offer of $416.5 million, with the company being approved as the new stalking horse bid by Delaware bankruptcy judge Thomas Horan, who also set a deadline of May 16 for other interested bidders, if any, and a 20 May auction date if more than one party showed up. VREG was to file notice within a day of the bidding deadline whether it would prefer holding an auction for its assets or sell them directly to Alcon, with Horan scheduling the hearing date for the transaction's approval for 11 June. On 18 June 2025, it was announced that Alcon's stalking horse bid worth $417.5 million had succeeded, giving it rights to VREG's library of 108 films, including intellectual properties, distribution rights, cash flows, overall rights and royalties, as well as its development slate of films and television series; distribution rights to titles co-financed with Warner Bros. were retained by the latter. On 5 November 2025, Alcon was also awarded derivative rights to most of the titles it had acquired for $18.5 million following a hearing in a Delaware court. Warner Bros. tried matching Alcon's offer, subsequently submitting a revised bid of $19.5 million, and offered to release certain claims from an arbitrary dispute with VREG, only for the latter to make a counterclaim of $30 million in cash and settlement of undisclosed claims from the dispute; Warner Bros. rebuked the counter offer and is considering appealing the Delaware court's decision. ==Filmography==