A few of Warner Bros. Pictures’ movies proved themselves at the box office last year despite the day-and-date premieres on HBO Max. Unfortunately, The Matrix Resurrections wasn’t so lucky. The long-awaited sequel only managed to score $153 million worldwide against a budget of at least $190 million. Now, Village Roadshow Pictures is putting the blame squarely on WB’s shoulders.
According to Deadline, Village Roadshow filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. in Los Angeles Superior Court earlier today. The suit alleges that WB intentionally botched Resurrections’ theatrical run in order to drive up HBO Max’s subscriber base, claiming that WarnerMedia was the “sole beneficiary” to the hybrid release model. Village Roadshow also contends that the studio “rushed” the sequel’s release date from 2022 to 2021 in order to boost these numbers, knowing full well its box office intake would suffer in the long run.
“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. 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.”
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Because of the film’s dismal financial performance, Village Roadshow also insists that it can’t make its own contractually-obligated payment to WB to cover its share of production costs, which puts them in danger of losing their rights to the film. Additionally, Village Roadshow contends that WB is “seeking to deprive the company of its rights to other films, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Edge of Tomorrow.” With this, the suit asks for the court to declare that the studio breached its agreement.
Warner Bros. also issued a new statement in response to Village Roadshow’s claims:
“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 favor.”
How do you feel about Village Roadshow’s new lawsuit against WB? Tell us what you think in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: The Matrix Comics, Vol. 2
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