The Matrix co-producer Village Roadshow is suing Warner Bros over the release of The Matrix Resurrections, alleging that the day-and-date launch of the film in cinemas and on HBO Max caused it millions of dollars in lost theatrical revenue.
The suit takes aim at ‘Project Popcorn’, Warner Bros’ controversial plan to simultaneously launch films such as The Matrix Resurrections and Dune on its streaming service and in cinemas during the 2021 pandemic year.
The suit describes Project Popcorn as a “clandestine plan to materially reduce box office and correlated ancillary revenue generated from tent pole films that Village Roadshow and others would be entitled to receive in exchange for driving subscription revenue for the new HBO Max service, for which only [Warner Bros parent] WarnerMedia would be the sole beneficiary.”
The suit added that Warner Bros did this “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.”
Village Roadshow pointed out that The Matrix Resurrections has earned substantially less than any of the prior films in the franchise. It cited figures showing that the 1999 release of The Matrix took $783m (in 2021 dollars) from the box office, while The Matrix Reloaded grossed $1.1bn and The Matrix Revolutions $646m. By comparison, The Matrix Resurrections box office in 2021 was $149m.
Village Roadshow claims that Warner Bros’s strategy not only ensured that The Matrix Resurrections would be a bust at the box office, but also inflicted serious harm to the entire Matrix franchise. “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.”
In a statement, Warner Bros said it had brought an arbitration case against Village Roadshow. “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. We have no doubt that this case will be resolved in our favour.”
Village Roadshow has a co-financing arrangement with Warner Bros, and says that over the past 25 years it has paid the studio over $4.5bn to produce and distribute nearly 100 films for which it co-owns all intellectual property rights.
These include the Matrix trilogy, Joker, and the Oceans series, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Edge of Tomorrow.
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