Village Roadshow Sues WB For Bringing The Matrix Resurrections To HBO Max

thegamer.com:

Village Roadshow just filed suit against Warner Bros. for putting The Matrix Resurrections on HBO Max. Village Roadshow claims that doing so effectively sabotaged its theatrical release, costing the company millions of dollars in lost revenue at the box office.

“This case is about the deliberate and consistent coordinated efforts of WB to eviscerate the significant value of Village Roadshow’s intellectual property in order to prop up the new HBO Max streaming service owned by Warner Media, the ultimate parent of WB, without providing any accounting and shut Village Roadshow out of its legal and contractual rights,” the company notes.

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Releasing the movie on the streaming service was about creating “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 Warner Bros. and its affiliates would enjoy,” according to the company.

The Matrix Resurrections came out on December 22, 2021. The movie went on to make a disappointing $153 million at the box office. The budget for the production was $190 million. Village Roadshow co-financed the film with WB and Venus Castina.

Village Roadshow claims that Warner Bros. not only created a “bust at the box office,” but actually “inflicted serious harm to the entire Matrix franchise.” The company describes how “the abysmal theatrical box office sales figures from The Matrix Resurrections dilute the value of this tent pole franchise.”

Warner Bros. on the other hand refuses to acknowledge any of these