Village Roadshow Entertainment is suing Warner Bros. for violating their contract by releasing The Matrix Resurrections on streaming. Village Roadshow Pictures, a subsidiary of Village Roadshow Entertainment, is an Australian-based production company that has had a long history working with Warner Bros. and has worked on many of the studio's biggest films including American Sniper, Joker, and The Matrix series. The studio's latest film, The Matrix Resurrections, was the long-awaited sequel to The Matrix trilogy that brought back director and writer Lana Wachowski and stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss.
The Matrix Resurrections was released in theaters and on HBO Max on December 22, 2021, and received mixed reviews from audiences and critics. The film underperformed at the box office as it grossed $37 million domestically and $153 million worldwide, making it the lowest-grossing film in The Matrix franchise. It did score the fourth-best weekend on HBO Max of the studio's 2021 releases, coming in behind Mortal Kombat, Godzilla vs. Kong, and The Suicide Squad, so it is likely the decision did impact the films box office and now Village Roadshow is taking action.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Village Roadshow has filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court against Warner Bros. for releasing The Matrix Resurrections on HBO Max and in theaters at the same time, violating the of the contract. The suit claims that the box office was cannibalized and also made the film a victim of piracy, and claim Warner Bros. knew this would happen. In the lawsuit, the studio also alleges that Warner Bros. is attempting to cut the company out of future films and television series based on characters and intellectual properties that have an ownership stake in, claiming Warner Bros. tried to force it to give up rights in the television series based on Edge of Tomorrow and was denied the option to partner on the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory prequel Wonka. The lawsuit from Village Roadshow Entertainment said:
"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 subscriptions from what it knew would be a blockbuster film, despite knowing full well it would decimate the film's box office revenue and deprive Village Roadshow of any economic upside that WB and its d would enjoy. WB has also been devising various schemes to deprive Village Roadshow of its continuing rights to co-won and co-invest in the derivative works from the films it co-owns."
Warner Bros. originally had The Matrix Resurrection set for release on April 1, 2022, but bumped the film up to December 22, 2021, which was an odd move at the time as other films were getting bumped back. Two months after Warner Bros. bumped up the release of The Matrix Resurrections is when they made the announcement to release their entire 2021 slate on HBO Max, so they had a final big end-of-the-year film for the holidays. Also worth noting is that Warner Bros. originally had Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore and The Batman originally set to be released in 2021 but both were delayed due to COVID-19 related issues with filming but the studio also likely wanted to save The Batman and Harry Potter franchises for a strictly theatrical release and saw The Matrix Resurrection as a more risky investment.
The Village Roadshow lawsuit regarding The Matrix Resurrections is just another in a string of fallout from Warner Bros.' decision to release their 2021 slate on HBO Max. Many of the studio's filmmakers voiced their displeasure and Christopher Nolan, who had partnered with WB for all of his films since Insomnia in 2002, left and took his next film Oppenheimer to Universal Pictures. Legendary Pictures was looking into legal action regarding Warner Bros.' decision to release Godzilla vs. Kong and Dune on HBO Max, yet a deal was struck between the two sides. As the deal to merge Warner Bros. and Discovery is on the horizon, the studio will be facing an uncertain and rocky future where it will need to mend broken relationships.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
