Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: movies, The Matrix Resurrections, Warner Bros

Warner Bros. Sued for Day-and-Day The Matrix Resurrections Release

At the end of 2020, it was becoming more and more apparent that the COVID-19 pandemic was not going away anytime soon. Studios were in a place where they had tons of finished movies that were just sitting on shelves, and they wanted to figure out ways to release them. Some studios just delayed all of their big stuff; some studios took it on a case-by-case basis. Then there was Warner Bros. Warner Bros. made the extremely unpopular decision to just make all of their 2021 releases hybrid releases that would be in theaters and on HBO Max the same day. It was a decision that very well could have lost Warner Bros. their relationship with Christopher Nolan, and it seemed to either really work, or it really didn't. For The Matrix Resurrections, it looked like things didn't really work out. The movie only grossed $37 million at the box office and couldn't find an audience, while a theatrical only release like Spider-Man: No Way Home brought in millions of dollars. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Village Roadshow Entertainment Group has sued Warner Bros. for breach of contract concerning the hybrid release.

"WB's sole purpose in moving the release date of The Matrix Resurrections forward was to create a desperately needed wave of year-end HBO Max premium subscriptions from what it knew would be a blockbuster film, despite knowing full well that it would decimate the film's box office revenue and deprive Village Roadshow of any economic upside that WB and its affiliates would enjoy, especially as compared to a 2022 exclusive theatrical release," states the complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Village Roadshow is seeking "an unspecified amount in damages, accounting of all of Warner Bros.'s earnings over Matrix Resurrections, including the value earned by using the movie to steer subscribers to HBO Max, and an order forcing the studio to consult with it for distribution plans in the future." Warner Bros. has been walking a fine line with this decision since they announced it. While there was a lot of talk about how much Warner Bros. negotiated with Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot when it came to the Wonder Woman 1984 hybrid release at the end of 2020. There didn't appear to be that kind of consideration for other creative teams to the point that there were reports that Legendary, who financed most of Godzilla vs. Kong and Dune, didn't know about the decision until a few hours before the public did. So while Warner Bros. had the better part of the year to smooth things other with the creative team behind The Matrix Resurrections, it doesn't appear that everyone is happy behind the scenes.

However, there is also the fact that The Matrix Resurrections is rated R, which is always a smaller audience, and the reviews were extremely divisive. Spider-Man: No Way Home had much better reviews and a PG-13 rating. So the two movies were going for different audiences. So far, other cases like this, such as the Black Widow suit, have been solved behind closed doors. COVID-19 is very much still a thing now in 2022, and movies are still getting delayed; the streaming conversation is one we need to have, but it is one we need to have with all parties on the same page.

From visionary filmmaker Lana Wachowski comes "The Matrix Resurrections," the long-awaited fourth film in the groundbreaking franchise that redefined a genre. The new film reunites original stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss in the iconic roles they made famous, Neo and Trinity.

The film also stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Candyman, the Aquaman franchise), Jessica Henwick (TV's Iron Fist, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens), Jonathan Groff (Hamilton, TV's Mindhunter), Neil Patrick Harris (Gone Girl), Priyanka Chopra Jonas (TV's Quantico,), Christina Ricci (TV's Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story, The Lizzie Borden Chronicles), Telma Hopkins (TV's Dead to Me,), Eréndira Ibarra (series Sense8, Ingobernable), Toby Onwumere (TV's Empire), Max Riemelt (series Sense8), Brian J. Smith (series Sense8, Treadstone), and Jada Pinkett Smith (Angel Has Fallen, TV's Gotham). It was released in theaters and on HBO Max for 31-days on December 22nd.

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