\n<\/p>\n
\n\tA re-configured multimillion-dollar settlement of sorts between Village Roadshow and Warner Bros over 2021\u2019s The Matrix Resurrections<\/em> seems prophetic and very much of the matrix in its own special way.<\/p>\n \n\tWith the once-big-league film co-financier paying out $57 million to the likely soon-to-be David Ellison-owned studio, the words of Matrix Resurrections<\/em>\u2018 Smith to Neo of \u201cafter all these years, to be going back to where it started,\u201d really nail the legal tussling the past four years between WB and the now-bankrupt VR.<\/p>\n \n\tWhich is to say, you might want to pop that red pill now.<\/p>\n \n\tEarlier this week, lawyers for Warner Bros Discovery pulled the plug on their own attempt to secure a previously awarded $125 million judgment from Village Roadshow. With that \u201cwithout prejudice\u201d (which means it could be resurrected) move in L.A. Superior Court, WBD attorneys revealed they had scored $57 million from VR, which filed for the Chapter 11 last year. That money was scheduled to be in WBD\u2019s account within days \u2014 which has happened, I hear.<\/p>\n \n\tWarner Bros had no comment on the resolution, and lawyers for Village Roadshow did not respond to Deadline\u2019s request Friday for comment. However, having all started when WB released the fourth film in the Wachowskis\u2018 franchise simultaneously in theaters and on its subscriber-hungry streamer during the last gasps of the Covid pandemic, things aren\u2019t quite as blue pill or red pill as they seem.<\/p>\n \n\tFor one thing, that $57 million is less a new figure in the dispute that went to court in the 2002 breach of contract lawsuit from Village Roadshow against the then-Jason Kilar-run Warners, and more some updated accounting with an appeals court thrown in. For another thing, Village Roadshow now has a zero stake in Matrix Resurrections<\/em> \u2014 which is a long way from where things appeared to stand just a year ago.<\/p>\n \n\tLet\u2019s jump back a bit, shall we?<\/p>\n \n\tMoved fairly quickly behind closed doors to arbitration, VR\u2019s lawsuit launched on February 7, 2022, seemed to shuffle off with the company actually found on the hook for the nearly $100 million in co-financing it never actually ponied up for the Lana Wachowski-helmed Resurrections<\/em>. Under appeal, the portion of that $125 million that Village Roadshow would have been paying for 50% of Matrix Resurrections<\/em> was deemed an overreach. An appeals panel concluded Village Roadshow North America, who had long hit the skids financially, couldn\u2019t be forced to purchase half of MR<\/em> in the hopes of half of the waterfalled profits.<\/p>\n \n\tSo they didn\u2019t and they don\u2019t have to pay for something they aren\u2019t going to own any of \u2014 WB owns 100% of The Matrix Resurrections <\/em>now. The remaining sum, that $57 million, was reframed as damages.<\/p>\n \n\tNot that The Matrix <\/em>isn\u2019t still pretty valuable in many people\u2019s eyes and spread sheets. <\/p>\n \n\tDespite the less than stellar returns and reviews for the cash-in vibed Matrix Resurrections<\/em>, Alcon\u00a0Media Group was awarded derivative rights in November last year to the Matrix<\/em> franchise and most of the other titles it snared from Village Roadshow Entertainment Group\u2018s film library in summer 2025. \u00a0\u201cAlcon looks forward to working collaboratively with Warner Bros, as we have for over a quarter-century, to partner in the exploitation of the derivative rights to these many great films across multiple platforms,\u201d AMG bosses Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson asserted late last year.<\/p>\n \n\tAll of which means, under a joint Paramount and WBD umbrella or via siloed studios or whatever, Groff\u2019s Agent Smith also had it right in Matrix Resurrections<\/em> when he quipped \u201cthat\u2019s the thing about stories \u2026they never really end do they?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tNever in the matrix of Hollywood \u2014 IP, bottom line or otherwise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n