The Matrix Resurrections is the last film on Warner Bros.’ 2021 release slate to go day-and-date on streaming and in theaters, and its viewership numbers are in. The results for this release model have been mixed at best for the studio and that appears to be the case again this weekend with Resurrections. Many believe that the HBO Max factor definitely stifled its box office earnings over the weekend and given its performance on the platform, it looks like many people did opt to watch the movie at home.
Per Samba TV, The Matrix Resurrections was watched by 2.8 million smart TV U.S. households over the Wednesday-Sunday period. Samba TV measures streaming viewership across 46 million TV devices with a panel of 3 million Smart TV households. Since streaming services keep their numbers pretty secret, a third-party service like Samba TV is our best indicator of how these films are performing on streaming but it should be noted it doesn’t give us the full picture.
According to box office analytics firm EnTelligence, via “Deadline“, 1.76 million people bought tickets to see The Matrix Resurrections over the last five days compared to Spider-Man: No Way Home’s 12.6 million admissions and Sing 2’s 4.1 million. It can be argued that the polarizing response to the film affected ticket sales but these figures also show that having the film available on streaming definitely bit into its ticket sales.
When looking at Samba TV numbers for the other Warner Bros. releases that followed this release strategy, The Matrix Resurrections ranks behind the first five days of Godzilla vs. Kong (3.6 million U.S. households). That film was the first to open when NYC and Los Angeles reopened their theaters and it pulled in $48.1 million in its first five days at the theatrical box office. In terms of 30-day numbers from Samba, Godzilla vs. Kong is the most-watched theatrical day-and-date release on HBO Max with 5.8 million U.S. households. Mortal Kombat follows with 5.6 million U.S. households while The Suicide Squad ranks third with 5.1 million U.S. households.
The biggest takeaway from its availability on streaming is that it opened the film up to be the most pirated film for the week of December 20-26, according to MUSO, with a 32.6% share of the top ten torrents. The central issue isn’t that film is also available to stream, it’s that its presence on streaming makes a clean copy available online for people to rip and share on torrent sites. Once the reaction for the sequel was clearly looking mixed, a bit a lot of people sought the film out online to watch at home instead of spending money at the theater. This is why, in my opinion, the day-and-date strategy is a business model that doesn’t work for tentpole releases. More adult fare, like The Many Saints of Newark and King Richard, can benefit from this model but they’re the exception and not the rule.
What are YOUR thoughts on these The Matrix Resurrections’ viewership numbers?