IGN Article...

"Worried that the time to make money from the franchise may be running out faster than expected, representatives for Warner Home Video contacted some of the major video retailers and rental outlets on Monday to let them know that Revolutions may be coming home a lot sooner than expected. Early January was mentioned but if the box office continues to drop at its current pace, Matrix Revolutions could hit DVD before Christmas.

Adding insult to injury, a possibility was mentioned to one video dealer that the studio may try putting together a 3-movie boxed set for Christmas if Revolutions is released in time to show up in your holiday stocking. According to one video dealer that spoke to IGN FilmForce on condition of anonymity, "Warners is afraid that Revolutions won't sell very well because of the word of mouth on the movie. The only way to make the money on sell-through is to package it with the other two." The retailer went on to say that the number of requests for the film have dropped significantly since the film's opening day."

As far as I am concerned Warner should not worry about my 20$. I will be buying it for sure!!

That isnt exactly good news, I mean they're considering releasing it only in the boxset? So those of us that bought Matrix and Matrix Reloaded are just SOL if we want a seperate release? Guess this is going to be a wait and see situation.

I keep hearing all this talk of "bad word of mouth" and "bad buzz" but I don't see it in any sizable quality....

Yes the critics have panned it (Rotten Tomatoes score)

...but if you look at how joe six pack has received it (I loved it and think it was as good as the first film) the reception has been excellent...

"B+" user rating on Yahoo... out of 22,923 reviews... there can't be that many fan boys skewing the ratings... *grin*

Ouch.

What a bogus story. Revolutions only made $201.4 million worldwide in it's first week. Sounds like a real financial loser to me for WB.

And nobody's going to be more likely to snap up Revolutions on DVD if it's bundled with the first 2. Everyone* and their grandmother has the first Matrix on DVD and most likely Reloaded. And if they don't have Reloaded, more than likely they don't want Revolutions.

The Matrix fans that enjoy all 3 movies are waiting for a real deal, all comprehensive box set, not just a bundle.


* who owns a DVD player and likes The Matrix (first movie)

...so I am a Joe 6pack now......

my abs are pretty good and I am in excellent shape but...Please...Joe6pack..........

Folks that have been big into DVD since the beginning can probably remember that the Matrix was really the first "killer app" for the format... the original disc made people buy DVD players in droves...

I can remember working for Circuit City and Best Buy from 5/98-9/00 and this disc being a huge drive for people to buy their first player... and remember all the 1st generation players who crapped out with the complexity of the menus...

So what does this mean with regards to the rumoured re-release of The Matrix reloaded that'd feature deleted scenes and whatnot. Also, will they ever remaster The Matrix in order to coincide with the boxset?

Disappointing news about the boxed set(if true) but I loved Revolutions so I'd buy it. As I always say, though, let's wait for an official announcement from the studio before jumping to any conclusions.

They will be stupid to only release it in Box Set, I think they know this and would not make such a big mistake

Sounds bunk.

Will not happen.

They will do an Austin Powers on us. First it will be by itself then they will repackage it all in keep cases of pretty colors are resell the entire set together along with Revisited and Animatrix. Only in America.

people sure are using their collective will to ensure that Revolutions fails. i think it's FAR better than Reloaded, and i'm a bit confused by all the hate.

that said, i still haven't bought any of the films on DVD. i only have The Animatrix thus far.

I liked it, better than the 2nd. If they release it early, just hope they don't rush it and give a lame barebones version.

I don't know, but just about everyone I've talked to that's seen the film either thought it was horrible, were highly disappointed, or just thought it was plain confusing.

I heard on www.dvdbs.com that they aren't even going to release it at all on video, they're just throwing the negatives to a pack of wild dogs or something. I know this has to be true because the Internet never lies to me.

Unless they authored the Revolutions DVD at the same time as the Reloaded DVD, I can't see how they could get this out in time for the holiday season. There just isn't time to coordinate DVD authoring, packaging, and production in less than a month. It's only 6 weeks till christmas (eek!) and they would be lucky to get this out by December 23.

I could see a late January/early February release if business really falls off.

So release it while it's only in it's 6-8th week in theaters? that will really go over well with the theater owners who are just starting to make their profit off this at that time.

Sound bogus. They already know that regardless of how the film was welcomed, it will see it's third installment of it. simple as that and it would mean bad news for us because the time to make a good quality dvd with plenty of extra's as well as revamp the original two will be cut down and left in the background. eh. I wasn't a big fan of the second and this is why I waited on buying reloaded. I might get it if the price is right and the extra's are present. not if it's a rushed job.

The DVDs for most new movies are prepped and near 100% complete when the film is released theatrically, which provide the studios the widest possible flexibility on release dates. Excluding of course to uber-wonder-special-editions of DVDs that might appear on the market later...

With the Matrix films, they were in post-production long enough to prep the extras for any eventual release. Look at Lucas, on Episode III he has almost a year and a half of post-production time, LucasFilm is producing and releasing featurettes and content along the way. It is safe to assume that a almost complete version of Ep. III disc will be ready at the time of the theatrical release.

A film like “From Justin to Kelly” or “Gigli” can be turned around in weeks or months to capitalize on whatever theatrical marketing budgets were able to accomplish.

Most major theatrical releases have between a $20 and $50 million advertising budget and if a film flops, the studios want to piggy back a quick DVD release on that work/money (name recognition) in hopes of trying to recoup as much as possible. If they put off a release by a year or more, they have to fund additional marketing in hopes of turning a profit on the home video release.

Marketing/tie-in budgets for major DVD releases (Finding Nemo) can approach $50 to $100 million...

Lame.

If a boxed set of the three films comes out before Christmas, it's bound to be sub-par. Unless they've been working on it and have finished it already, it will be a disappointment.

I don't own the first or second on DVD, I'm waiting until a boxed set comes out. But if the first boxed set is rather bare, I'll be waiting again until I can get 1, 2, 3, animatrix, and revisited all in one box. That'd be soooo sweet.

Soundz like a HOAX to me.

i cant believe revolutions is hitting dvd so fast

darq, having reading comprehension problems? Or is the whole message just too difficult for you to grasp?

1) The movie opened big, but it has dropped off fast, faster than expected, with bad word-of-mouth. It doesn't matter what MR made in the first week or month. What matters to the studio is how to make the most *additional* money with the home release market. It sounds like they'll try to release it soon, to catch the holiday rush and also before the negative buzz has largely killed the demand for it.

2) Yes, everyone has the Matrix on DVD already. (And if not, it's something like $7 at BB!) *BUT* (again, reasoning ability is important here), if they only sell it as a boxed set, they can make more $$$ by double-dipping the first 2 releases with each sale. And, to a degree, by double-dipping the first for those (like me) who saw Reloaded but haven't bought it yet. As opposed to releasing it just as a single disc, of course.

3) I think that all Matrix fans who want all three movies will buy up the box set when released (it's also holiday time, remember?) rather than wait for a possible future 'better' release.


Bottom line is, the movie had a lot of prerelease buzz that died down quickly, so the studio is trying to angle things to maximize the home-release profits off a trilogy that is rapidly losing its appeal...