<p><pre><code> Village Roadshow put into development 99 feature films, 166 scripted television series and 67 unscripted series. Of those, six movies and seven television series went into production.
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I don't know if it is standard practice, but these numbers looks wild to me.
It turns out, if you go all in on "torch the franchise and run" films (Matrix 4, Joker 2), you might not make back your money and can end up in a shitheap of financial trouble if they were costly to produce, distribute, and market.<p><a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TorchTheFranchiseAndRun" rel="nofollow">https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TorchTheFranchis...</a>
Note this is related to but separate from the Australia company Village Roadshow.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Village_Roadshow" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Village_Roadshow</a><p>The Australian company owned 3% of the American Village Roadshow.
Wonder how it's possible.<p>> "The breach of contract lawsuit against Warner Bros. came after the studio introduced “The Matrix Resurrections” in December 2021 on its HBO Max streaming service the same day the film was released in movie theaters. Village Roadshow complained that the Burbank studio’s pivot away from an exclusive theatrical release had destroyed the value of a key franchise."<p>-- how is that true? Did they lose that much box office money on Matrix Resurrections that cashflow or lack of revenues made them collapse?<p>> “A confluence of macro-economic factors have weighed heavily on the company’s balance sheet,”<p>-- Now we're getting somewhere. An unbalanced budget? What might have caused it I wonder? Would they have a worse time than the other studios or have less cash reserves etc?<p>A shame the article doesn't give many answers. Would love to know.
"Hollywood accounting" being notorious for avoiding payout to rights owners down the list, is it fair to ask if this is a bit "leopards ate my face" as one arc of Hollywood consumes another by creative accounting?<p>The decision to release product against Village Roadshows wishes feels like potential breach of contract stuff but this is now water under the bridge.<p>I wonder if the bond completion insurance side of this is also now a bit underwater: money in films is strange and all kinds of people and their two-and-a-half employee company could be affected. Feel a bit sad for industry people who lose their shirt in this.
I wonder too if this is poor leadership not understanding that the streaming era is just a return to classic TV. Like hey, swinging and missing on a high cost major blockbuster is more devastating than greenlighting a ton of lower budget movies with up and coming actors.<p>Aka I like Chris Pratt or the Rock just fine but one movie a year is enough??
How is this possible when <i>The Matrix: Resurrections</i> was the best entry in the whole series? /s<p>Does anyone know: Did the dispute with Warner Brothers cause the digs against Warner Brothers in the <i>Resurrections</i> script, or vice versa, or were they both caused by something else, or were they unrelated?