Warner Bros. sued over The Matrix Resurrections' dual release

[midian182]

What just happened? Warner Bros. is being sued over The Matrix Resurrections, and it’s nothing to do with the quality of the film itself (I’ve not seen it so can’t comment). The co-financiers of the fourth Matrix movie, Village Roadshow, have filed a lawsuit over its hybrid theater/streaming release, claiming it was a move by Warner Bros. to attract subscribers to HBO Max.

Variety reports that Village Roadshow has a 20-year relationship with Warner Bros. during which time it co-financed several movies, including The Matrix trilogy, Joker, and the Oceans series.

As with all of Warner Bros. 2021 movies, the Matrix Resurrections was released at theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously to offset declining cinema attendance that came as a result of the pandemic. But Village Roadshow says Warner Bros. did not consult with or notify the company before deciding to put the Matrix Resurrections on HBO Max.

The Matrix Resurrections has barely broken even on its estimated $190 million budget. It took $37 million in the US, the lowest of any Matrix film, and just over $153m worldwide. The Matrix Reloaded, the highest-grossing movie of the franchise, made over $740 million in 2003.

"WB’s strategy not only ensured that The Matrix Resurrections would be a bust at the box office, but it also inflicted serious harm to the entire Matrix franchise," the suit claims. "There can be no doubt that the abysmal theatrical box office sales figures from The Matrix Resurrections dilute the value of this tent pole franchise as a film’s lack of profitability generally prevents studios from investing in additional sequels and derivative films in the near term."

The suit also alleges that Warner Bros. used the pandemic as an excuse to move The Matrix Resurrections’ April release date to the end of the year, thereby creating a "desperately needed wave of year-end HBO Max premium subscriptions." AT&T last month said that HBO and HBO Max had ended 2021 with 73.8 million combined subscribers, beating expectations.

Village Roadshow is claiming breach of contract and alleging that Warner Bros. is also "devising various schemes" to deprive it of rights to follow-ups to other co-owned films such as sequels to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Edge of Tomorrow, writes The Guardian. Village Roadshow also notes that some wholly-owned WB movies, such as The Batman and Black Adam, were delayed into 2022 and will receive exclusive theatrical releases this year.

"This is a frivolous attempt by Village Roadshow to avoid their contractual commitment to participate in the arbitration that we commenced against them last week," Warner Bros. said in response. "We have no doubt that this case will be resolved in our favor."

Back in 2020, director Christopher Nolan slammed Warner Bros.' dual-release plan and called HBO Max the "worst streaming service."

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/93311-warner-bros-sued-over-matrix-resurrections-dual-release.html

 

[dualkelly]

This movie sucked soo bad. A quarter of the movie was just old footage from the first movie. Better fight scenes could be found in cheap B movies from china. Story line was contrite and worthless... Neo was just running around waving his hands with people flying.
Make better movies and see people pay for it.

 

[fps4ever]

I watched the movie when it was released on HBO Max. Lets just say I'm extremely happy I didn't pay for the full movie theater experience.

 

[Squid Surprise]

So when Christopher Nolan (and others) blasted WB for the dual live/streaming release, where was Village Roadshow then? This movie was in production, I assume, for a LONG time... Are they seriously claiming they had no idea that this movie would be released in HBO Max as well as in theatres?

I call BS on that...

 

[Dimitriid]

Even in the US not everybody was ready to go out and get a potentially lethal infection just to watch a stupid movie the very same week cases started to climb up exponentially with over 200,000 new cases daily up until one *$!@% million cases on a single day all lining up within the theatrical release lifecycle of about a month or so.

Look regardless of quality or lack thereof for the film that's your answer right there: you decided not to delay your release and put your movie right in the middle of the Omni wave: This stupid company should be *grateful* it was a dual streaming+theaters release otherwise it probably wouldn't had even break even at all.

 

[Carlos GarPov]

I'm a fan of the franchise, BUT this last movie (Matrix 4) was a CRAPPY one! It sucked so baaadddd!

 

[TheBigT42]

The Matrix Resurrections has barely broken even on its estimated $190 million budget. It took $37 million in the US, the lowest of any Matrix film

Bad films are not going to make money. I was able to pain my way through the entire movie...That's more than I can say for Blue Brothers 2000.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Bad films are not going to make money. I was able to pain my way through the entire movie...That's more than I can say for Blue Brothers 2000.

I beg to differ.... almost all of the biggest grossing movies can be categorized as "bad movies"... Yes, Mortal Kombat, I'm looking at you!

 

[Bl00dyMinded]

I had bought tickets for this movie. And the day of, found out it was getting dropped in HBO Max. So I pirated... WOW! Thank god I refunded my tickets on time and didn't pay to see this trash of a movie.

Now they wanna sue their own company for the movie doing so poorly.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

I thought the Resurrections movie was okay. I didn't like the recast of Morpheus - the actor seemed flat and dull. The re-introduction of some of the characters from the second and third movies were just as bad and I agree that the fight scenes were very lacking.....almost like an over the top bad martial arts movie where everyone flies/super jumps/glides through the air.

The story had potential, but was never fleshed out, just kind of a B movie feeling to it.

My plan was to do a double header at the movies with my brother. John Wick 4 and Matrix 4 were originally scheduled to release on the same day before everything got stupid and stuff pushed back and so on. John Wick movies have been the only movies I've gone to the theaters to see (aside from a couple of kid movies I took the kids to and they were never impressed with seeing movies in the theaters. The kids don't want to see movies in the theaters, even if it's a movie that they want to see and I ask if they want to go. They don't like the theater experience) in the past 15 years.

My brother and I will check out John Wick 4 whenever it releases. As for Resurrection, a friend has HBO max so I watched it on there and I had to do the movie in two sessions because it was rather uninspiring and dull to watch.

I'd say that Resurrections is about on par with the third movie and I thought the third one was kind of crappy.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Sue the Wachowski "Sisters"

 

[Bl00dyMinded]

Sue the Wachowski "Sisters"

Hmm now that you say that. The only real good Matrix movie was when they were "brothers".

 

[netman]

Hmm now that you say that. The only real good Matrix movie was when they were "brothers".

They changed their sex apparently...!

 

[netman]

This movie sucked soo bad. A quarter of the movie was just old footage from the first movie. Better fight scenes could be found in cheap B movies from china. Story line was contrite and worthless... Neo was just running around waving his hands with people flying.
Make better movies and see people pay for it.

I'd wait until it comes to Costco...!

 

[DrSuess]

I watched the movie when it was released on HBO Max. Lets just say I'm extremely happy I didn't pay for the full movie theater experience.

Getting hosed by going to a bad movie is part of the experience. I feel if we watch a simultaneous release for free we have a little less reason to complain as we got what we paid for, and that is nothing at all.

 

[takaozo]

This hole talk here made me watch the movie online. This was a low budget movie experience.
Like it was shot with an phone or something. Digital cameras ruin the feeling I had after watching a movie taken in Panavision 65/70mm. This was just a bad joke, all of it from story to cast.
If this is the future of cinema.......

 

[Lew Zealand]

"...generally prevents studios from investing in additional sequels and derivative films.."

LOL! They're on the 3rd beating of a dead horse and still referring to following films being even more derivative.

The posthumous embarrassment Newton and Leibniz must be feeling having their masterwork associated with this dreck.

 

[Dimitrios]

Was going to rent it, $24 no thanks!

 

[Versutus]

Even the first movie sucked big. It had action in it, like every other action movie out there. Also the soundtrack. Every movie before The Matrix had one already. They really can't do better? I mean wtf, actors and actresses... Like in every movie ever... No originality at all!

 

[Adhmuz]

"There can be no doubt that the abysmal theatrical box office sales figures from The Matrix Resurrections dilute the value of this tent pole franchise as a film’s lack of profitability generally prevents studios from investing in additional sequels and derivative films in the near term."

Thank god for that, let the franchise die, it never needed a reboot spin off re-launch in the first place other than the "Hmmm, lets milk this dead horse and see how much money we can make" or perhaps the Wachowski's felt they needed to bring attention to themselves as no one gave a rat's arse about them any longer.

 

[Squid Surprise]

"There can be no doubt that the abysmal theatrical box office sales figures from The Matrix Resurrections dilute the value of this tent pole franchise as a film’s lack of profitability generally prevents studios from investing in additional sequels and derivative films in the near term."

Thank god for that, let the franchise die, it never needed a reboot spin off re-launch in the first place other than the "Hmmm, lets milk this dead horse and see how much money we can make" or perhaps the Wachowski's felt they needed to bring attention to themselves as no one gave a rat's arse about them any longer.

Only 1 Wachowski is involved... the other had "principles"... It's hard to resist the wheelbarrows full of money that people keep rolling up to your door though... If someone offered me millions to shoddily remake something I'd already done... I would be "Yes PLEASE!"