[13] Relativity began operations as a middleman brokering deals between film studios and banks,[14] private equity firms, and hedge funds to finance multi-film slates.

[13] For each film, Relativity received equity and brokerage fees of $500,000[13] to $1 million,[15] and Kavanaugh arranged an executive producer credit for himself.

[14] In 2008, Elliott Management bought 49.5% of Relativity Media for $67 million[12] and provided access to about $1 billion in capital and a revolving credit line.

[citation needed] In 2011, Elliott Management pulled its financial backing from Relativity amid reports of tension between the companies.

[13] Relativity took out a $200 million loan from Ron Burkle, who had other entertainment investments including with Bob and Harvey Weinstein through his associated firm Colbeck Capital.

[17] On June 12, 2012, Relativity Media and Rogue sold 30 of their films to Manchester Library Company,[35] which was acquired by Vine Alternative Investments in April 2017.

[38] In 2013, hedge fund investor Carey Metz made a $10 million investment in Relativity Media based on what he later described as Ryan Kavanaugh's lies.

[41][12] The movie slate financing Relativity Media brokered for Wall Street investors also fared poorly for equity holders.

[42] The bankruptcy filing came after a last-ditch effort from investors to salvage the company by preventing Ryan Kavanaugh and Relativity from carrying out any unsupervised transactions.

[44] As a result of the bankruptcy, the company sold off previously acquired films including Suffragette, Jane Got a Gun, The Bronze, Love the Coopers, The Space Between Us, The Foreigner, Solace, Collide, Kidnap, Before I Wake, Animal Crackers, Shot Caller, Hillsong: Let Hope Rise, Fallen and The Secret Scripture.

[51] On October 28, 2016, Kavanaugh announced that he was selling Relativity to Singapore-based social networking platform YuuZoo for $250 million.

Trustee's office expressed concern at the bankruptcy filing, saying that it appeared "designed to benefit Kavanaugh and lender UltraV Holdings at the expense of other creditors" and advocated for a robust investigation.

Greg Zipes, the attorney for the U.S. trustee's office in New York wrote "the Debtors [Relativity Media] have apparently been unable to pay even the administrative claims owed under the confirmed (bankruptcy) plan" of 2016...

The filing from the trustee's office also uncovered the $2.6 million Kavanaugh paid himself between April and November 2016 while remaining delinquent on what Relativity owed from the bankruptcy agreement.

[56] In June 2018, an arbitration case found that executives from Relativity Media, including Kavanaugh, had fabricated a memo alleging sexual harassment by a former co-president of the company.

Miron gave an interview to The Hollywood Reporter about taking two years after the 2018 bankruptcy to "quietly and deliberately rebuild the studio and its industry relationships" and said Relativity Media's strategy going forward would be to focus on smaller to mid-budget films.