Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, swamped by debt, declares bankruptcy

Positive thinking wasn't enough to help Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment escape a pile of unpaid bills.

The publisher of uplifting books, TV, movie and online video content, which also owns DVD rental operator Redbox, on Friday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware court after racking up nearly $1 billion in debt.

Chicken Soup was founded in 1993 by motivational speakers Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. Over the ensuing years, the company expanded beyond publishing books and developed a range of advertisement-supported video-on-demand services, including Redbox, Crackle, and Popcornflix, according to S&P Capital IQ.