Innovative Visual Effects House Digital Domain Files for Bankruptcy

By Karla Robinson
September 13, 2012

The Digital Domain Media Group won an Oscar for its reverse-aging special effects in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” worked on the 3D transformation of “Titanic” and awed audiences with its hologram performance of the late Tupac Shakur earlier this year.
Despite its impressive resume, the special effects company has filed for bankruptcy after its shares fell 94 percent from a peak in May.
“Digital Domain’s financials have long been a concern,” CNN reports. “Since the company was typically hired by Hollywood studios on a contract basis, its revenue stream was pretty small. Digital Domain expressed hope recently that expanding the virtual performer business beyond Tupac would be lucrative, as it would be able to get a cut of the ticket sales for such events.”
This June, the company’s debt outweighed its assets by $9 million. With a court’s approval, private investment firm Searchlight Capital Partners will acquire Digital Domain’s core production business for $15 million.
Digital Domain had teamed up with Lionsgate to produce a film based on the popular sci-fi novel “Ender’s Game,” to be released November 1, 2013. Regardless of the company’s bankruptcy filing, “the postproduction work remains on schedule,” a Lionsgate representative said. “We’re confident that we will release the film as planned.”

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