Audiences Revolt over Matrix

November 8, 2003

When it was announced the final two films in The Matrix Trilogy would be released so close together most people were excited. However, after The Matrix Reloaded opened huge but fell fast at the box office the box office potential for The Matrix Revolutions had to be rethought. Wednesday brought some relief, single day box office numbers were great, not excellent but great. Then Thursday's numbers took a huge hit; down from $24.3 million to just $11.0 million or a 55% drop. Still, Friday's number should be double Thursday's and the rest of the weekend should have close to a 3.0 multiplier. $65 million weekend and $100 million by Sunday, as I predicted on Friday. The Matrix Reloaded's $282 million was probably out of reach, but $250 million was easily attainable.

That changed when Friday's estimates were just announced. On Friday, The Matrix Revolutions was only able to make $16.7 million, an increase of just over 50% from Thursday. With that news estimates have to be revised to less than $50 million this weekend, with $200 million at the top of the domestic estimates.

There's a word for this, and that word is, 'backlash.'

Fortunately for Warner Bros. the early international numbers are looking much stronger. But we'll have to wait till Tuesday for more details on that front.


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Filed under: The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions