The co-producer claims Warner deliberately set the film up to bomb.

Australian film production company Village Roadshow has filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros., with whom they co-produced The Matrix Resurrections. The film has been deemed a box office failure, only turning a $37 million profit domestically against an approximately $190 million budget.

Village Roadshow, one of the production companies behind The Matrix Resurrections, is suing Warner Bros. for inflicting "serious harm to the entire Matrix franchise" by releasing it on HBO Max and cutting into its box office profits. https://t.co/xdMl94vcKq pic.twitter.com/ItrPhrAIv6

— IGN (@IGN) February 8, 2022

Village Roadshow asserts that this was due to Warner’s decision to release the film on HBO Max for streaming in addition to releasing in theaters, which it claims was done to bolster HBO Max’s subscription numbers by the end of the year. In addition to that, Village Roadshow claims this was a deliberate move on Warner’s part to damage their credibility in the industry.

“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,” their lawsuit claims. “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.”

Village Roadshow, the production company behind the ‘The Matrix’ films and ‘Joker’, will sue Warner Bros over the HBO Max release of ‘THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS’.

The company says they were not consulted with or notified about the decision.

(Source: https://t.co/Jg6MKZGyh0) pic.twitter.com/j5YTxsOqKo

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) February 7, 2022

“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,” Warner said in response to the suit. “We have no doubt that this case will be resolved in our favor.”