Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss star in Warner Bros.’ “The Matrix Resurrections.”
Warner Bros.
Village Roadshow Entertainment, a co-producer of “The Matrix Resurrections,” has filed a lawsuit towards Warner Bros., alleging the studio mother or father’s choice to release the sequel on HBO Max and in theaters on the similar time was a breach of contract, in accordance with a report from The Wall Street Journal.
The swimsuit, which was filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that WarnerMedia, a unit of AT&T, pushed up the movie’s release date to 2021 from 2022 so as to bolster its subscriber base on HBO Max.
Representatives for Warner Bros. didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.
“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,” the swimsuit stated, in accordance with WSJ.
Warner Bros. determined in late 2020 that its total slate of movies launched in 2021 would arrive in theaters and on HBO Max on the identical day. This observe was a lot wanted within the early days of the pandemic, when vaccines weren’t extensively out there and audiences have been reticent to return to film theaters. However, in direction of the top of 2021, these twin releases considerably reduce into field workplace ticket gross sales.
“The Matrix Resurrections” disenchanted on the field workplace, partially due to its simultaneous release technique and partially as a result of its audience is older than the moviegoers who’ve been most lively in returning to cinemas.
Village Roadshow is just not the primary to sue a studio over a day and date release technique. Last July, Scarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit towards Disney, alleging her contract to star in “Black Widow” was breached when the media big determined to release the movie on its streaming platform Disney+ on the similar time it launched in theaters. The two parties settled the dispute in September.