‘The Matrix Resurrections’ is a huge failure at the box office. If there was one movie that had the potential to save Warner Bros. train wreck of a year, it was ‘Resurrections’. Warner bros. has had an absolutely abysmal year at the box office, with only a couple of highlights being ‘Godzilla vs Kong’, and a tepid ‘Dune’. But, other than that, they have lost a ton of money. Warner Bros. gambled on the same day release of movies in theaters and HBOMax, and lost. Dune was the worst casualty, as it was a pretty good movie overall(David Lunch’s Dune is still my favorite), but was stymied by HBOMax subscribers being able to watch it for free at home. But the biggest disappointment has got to be ‘The Matrix Resurrections’. I will admit, that when I saw the trailer, I was excited to see Neo return in another movie, hoping that they might make up for what they did to him in the two sequels. Critics might try to give excuses as to why it failed so miserably, but the biggest reason was the story. ‘Resurrections’ fails in every aspect and is seemingly proud of it. “The Matrix Resurrections’ is a rehash of the first Matrix, reshaped as a political platform, for the writers and director to express their distaste for conservative points of view. Lana Wachowski, along with her sister Lilly, created a classic in ‘The Matrix’, that was a near perfect movie in every way. But, instead of doing the very creative thing that gave us the first Matrix, Wachowski decided to retell the first Matrix, diminishing the originals all important contribution to cinema.
The Matrix Resurrections Was a Reimagined Matrix
‘The Matrix Resurrections, to date, has produced a paltry $105,5 million globally, and only $30.9 million domestically. With an estimated $190 million budget, ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ might go down as one of Warner Bros. biggest losses. ‘Resurrections’ would have to break $400 million just to break even and $500 million just to be considered profitable, never mind a box office blockbuster. Sure, ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ is a box office juggernaut, but ‘Resurrections’ should have been the one movie that gave ‘No Way Home’ a run for its money. But it didn’t, and fell flat with audiences who were confused, angry, and questioning why this sequel was even made. Was Lana Wachowski’s best effort put into ‘Resurrections’, was it laziness, was it all about money, or was it all three? I think it was all three, plus the writers telling a story that audiences didn’t want to see or care about.
Politics Were Purposely Layered Into Resurrections
One of the reasons Warner Bros. green lit ‘Resurrections’, was because Lana Wachowski was attached to it. And why not? Wachowski helped heal the first Matrix, which was a revolutionary box office success. If I were Warner Bros., I would have thought that that was a win win decision. But did anyone at Warner Bros. question the story that Lana Wachowski was bringing to the table? Or was it more that they had confidence in Wachowski to bring a blockbuster to the box office? The Wachowski’s haven’t exactly been blowing off the barn doors with blockbuster success lately…or even in the last 15 years. All the excuses in the world, from the pandemic, to day and date releases, to ‘No Way Home’ can’t account for the horrible story Wachowski was trying to tell. ‘Resurrections’ was an unoriginal retelling of a cinematic masterpiece, with political propaganda filtered in by the two scriptwriters, who felt the need to interject reactionary politics. In an interview with AV Club, the two writers, Aleksander Hemon and David Mitchell admitted to as much, as they were responding to their dislike of conservatives taking over the red pill/blue pill meme, and to personalities such as Ben Shapiro.
“We were aware because you bring it into [the writer’s group], all that’s happening in the world, so we talked about specific things. Things like the Red Pill/Blue Pill trope or meme and how it was kidnapped by the right-wing. The verb ‘to red pill’ and so on. So one thing we were mindful of is how to reclaim that trope. To renew the meaning of Red Pill/Blue Pill. I (Hemon)am infused with a need to confront some of the things that are taking place in this country. But we did not set out to get into arguments with right-wingers. I think, at some point, there was a joke about Red Pill and Blue Pill, and Lana decided that she did not want to give any credence to that position, even a semblance of dialogue with that. There’s nothing to talk about with that. My personal position is I don’t discuss things with Nazis and fascists. There’s nothing to talk about. One of us is just going to be left standing, and I want it to be me and my people.”
If you actually look at Hemon’s Twitter profile, you will see just how political he is. His profile reads… “Writer. Prof at Princeton. YNWA. Blocks fascists/trumpists/misogynists/ homophobes. He/his. I make music too.” Hemon also believes that Trump nationalists will kill if they are told to, and that people against the vaccine should worry more about climate change killing them. If that doesn’t tell you what went wrong with ‘Resurrections’, when you have someone purposely infusing their political beliefs into an audience’s entertainment, then I don’t know what does.
Months before the Jan. 6 violence, @SashaHemon wrote a prescient article for @theintercept that explains America's doomed condition today:
Trump’s Nationalism Advances on a Predictable Trajectory to Violence. His Supporters Will Kill When They’re Told To.https://t.co/mskvzIGwZ1
— Peter Maass (@maassp) January 3, 2022
Hundreds of homes burned in Colorado's first December wildfires just weeks after thousands of homes were destroyed by the worst December tornados in U.S. history. But in this Ohio diner, patrons are more worried by the dangers posed by mRNA vaccines than by the changing climate.
— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) January 1, 2022
The Hollywood Mainstream Media Will do What They Can to Help Resurrections
The mainstream Hollywood media, however, is trying to save ‘Resurrections’ in any way it can, by down playing the absolute catastrophe it is. Some of the headlines are absolutely hysterical in their denial. Collider wrote:
“‘The Matrix Resurrections’ Crosses $100 Million Worldwide Even Before China Release”
And Deadline’s headlines:
“‘Matrix Resurrections’ Ranks Behind ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’ In Streaming Viewership; Pic Is Most Pirated Of The Week”
In those two articles for example, Collider had to go to Italy’s box office, and compare it to ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ and ‘F9’ to try and make ‘Resurrections’ look good.
“With an estimated $13.7 million this weekend from 76 international territories, The Matrix Resurrections is now sitting at $106 million worldwide. It fell by over 50% from last weekend, but is tracking ahead of titles such as F9, Blade Runner 2049 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in Italy, where it opened with $1 million on Saturday”
While over at Deadline, they tried to blame ‘Resurrections’ failures on the movie being pirated and same day release on HBOMax’s streaming platform.
“In the same breath, the Lana Wachowski-directed and co-written movie was the most pirated feature according to MUSO for the week of Dec. 20-26 with a 32.6% share of the top ten torrents, outpacing the clean-copy PVOD availability of Screen Gems’ Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (16.6%) and the rusty copies of Spider-Man: No Way Home shot by pirates in-theaters (12%). All of this underscores the downside of the theatrical-day-and-date-in-home distribution model: Once you make clean copies available online, the movie can be duplicated several times in several languages.”
Warner Bros. Should Ask Sony for Advice
It would be nice if just once, these Hollywood mainstream outlets would report the real reason a movie like this failed. But they won’t, and are too afraid of the woke backlash they’d receive, from the mindless woke social media drone committees. Warner Bros. should have had a massive hit on their hands, despite the competition it received from ‘No Way Home’. But ‘Resurrections’ got beat in its first weekend, by an animated ‘Sing’ sequel. That’s rough. The mainstream Hollywood media can’t convince us that it was because it was rated R, or that it was the pandemic, same day release streaming, or because it was pirated. The audiences and their reviews are telling you exactly why ‘Resurrections’ failed. Because they are sick of their favorite franchises being used as political platforms and they are tired of great movies being “reimagined”, instead of giving us a sequel that might have had an ounce of original thought. The only saving grace, is that Warner Bros. will not be making any more Matrix sequels in the foreseeable future…their pocketbooks couldn’t handle another dismal loss. What Warner Bros. should do, however, is give Sony a call, and ask them how it’s done.
Related: Do We Need The Matrix Resurrections?
