One of the co-producers of the latest installment of the
Matrix
saga has filed a complaint for breach of contract against Warner Bros studios, which he accuses of having broadcast the film in streaming at the same time as its theatrical release.
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The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles by the Village Roadshow Entertainment group is the latest episode in a controversy between film professionals who derive a large part of their income from movie tickets and entertainment giants desperate to develop their video-on-demand platforms to appeal to financial markets and shareholders.
Last year, Marvel movie star Scarlett Johansson publicly took on Disney for choosing to release
Black Widow
simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+.
The actress was contractually entitled to a percentage of the theatrical receipts and estimated in a complaint to have suffered a shortfall of several million dollars.
The two parties have since reached an amicable settlement.
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While the cinema industry was bearing the brunt of the health restrictions linked to the coronavirus pandemic, WarnerMedia, parent company of Warner Bros. studios, had decided to broadcast all 2021 releases on its HBO Max platform.
They had notably drawn the wrath of the director of
Dune
, Denis Villeneuve, who felt that this risked
"killing"
his film and constituted
"a threat to cinema in general"
.
The lawsuit filed claims that the release of
The Matrix Resurrections
on HBO Max was intended solely to boost that service's subscriptions before the end of the year, according to The
Wall Street Journal
.
And this
"despite the fact that it would decimate the film's box office receipts and that it would deprive Village Roadshow of the same economic benefits as Warner Bros. and its affiliates"
, accuses the complaint.
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The Matrix Resurrections
is the fourth installment in the sci-fi saga starring Keanu Reeves.
By early February, it had grossed around $37 million in the United States and Canada, compared to $172 million at the time for the first Matrix.