The Matrix Resurrections Achieved A Disappointing Record
It is becoming more and more obvious that the return of Mr. Thomas Anderson isn’t getting the welcome everyone had predicted for The Matrix Resurrections.
It is becoming more and more obvious that the return of Mr. Thomas Anderson isn’t getting the welcome everyone had predicted for The Matrix Resurrections. The film has been underperforming at the box office and has been panned by the very audiences who have been ardent fans of the original trilogy. And unfortunately, the only milestone the film has been able to achieve since its debut is the title of being the most pirated movie of the week.
According to the analysis provided by MUSO (via Deadline), The Matrix Resurrections has come up as the most pirated film of last week. Of all the movies on the list, Matrix 4 has been pirated the most as it has a 32.6% share of the top 10 torrents of the week. After it, the recently released Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City occupies the second position (16.6%), followed by bad quality copies of Spider-Man No Way Home (12%).
So, why has The Matrix Resurrections been pirated the most even though, in terms of popularity, Spider-Man 3 trumps it by leaps and bounds? The “credit” goes to Warner Bros.’ same-day theatrical and HBO Max release plan for its 2021 films. Because it was made available online on the streamer on the very day it debuted in the theaters, it became possible for its pirated HD version to be available online within hours of its release. This means that people who neither paid for the tickets to view it in the theaters nor availed of the HBO Max subscription were able to view the film for free, thus drilling away a huge chunk from the revenue the film could have brought in.
As mentioned above, the film hasn’t been having the expected box office debut. Prior to its release, it was predicted that the film would be able to bring in around $40 million within the first five days of its release. But The Matrix Resurrections barely managed to gross a total of $22.5 million in the five-day release window. As for its HBO Max debut, according to Samba TV (via Deadline), the film was watched by 2.8 million smart TV U.S. households over the Wednesday-Sunday period. While the film received generally favorable reviews from critics, the audience has panned the revival of the Matrix franchise for its lackluster script, poor visual effects, and dull action scenes.
The Matrix Resurrections takes place sixty years after the events of Matrix Revolutions, which ended with Neo and Trinity seemingly perishing in their fight against the machines. Decades later, Neo is once again Thomas Anderson and is back in the Matrix, leading the life of an ordinary man who is a video game developer. But memories of his past life keep slipping through the cracks, leaving him confused and unable to differentiate his dreams from reality. He keeps meeting a woman named Tiffany and gets the feeling that he already knows her.
After spending years suppressing his memories, Neo is once again faced with the option to choose to stay in the Matrix and live an illusion or pick the real world, which has only become more dangerous while he was being kept hooked to the machines. The film’s cast includes Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Yahya-Abdul Mateen II, Jessica Henwick, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Jada Pinkett Smith, Max Riemelt, Brian J. Smith, Lambert Wilson, Telma Hopkins, and Christina Ricci. The Matrix Resurrections is currently running in theaters and is available on HBO Max.
