I had an account at Hollywood Video for emergencies, at least until they started robocalling me at home to try to get me to enroll in a monthly subscription program.

The parent company, which calls itself Movie Gallery, had already been in bankruptcy once, so I wasn’t surprised to see various stores around town closing, though many remain open. Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that it’s probably going back into bankruptcy, possibly next week:

As part of the restructuring, Movie Gallery could attempt to close about two-thirds of its outlets—about 1,800 stores, these people said. That could create a significant number of layoffs, given the company currently employs 21,000.
In an initial wave, Movie Gallery plans to shutter just over 800 stores, these people said, and then make plans for further closures.

The story notes that Netflix, vending machines like Redbox, and even iTunes is eating into the video-rental business—but read on and you can see the real culprit:

Movie Gallery’s troubles began after it took on too much debt to acquire Hollywood Entertainment Corp. in 2005 for more than $800 million. The company, which no longer reports financial results, has aggressively tried to cut costs, closing about 500 stores last year. It carries about $600 million in debt today.