Neo and Trinity stand amidst a futuristic city with green Matrix code, as a WB shield with lightning clashes against a VR logo with dark tendrils.

Warner Bros., which had a longtime partnership with Village Roadshow that soured in recent years, had execs among the attendees. They were interested not so much in the library, which generates roughly $50 million annually, but something called “derivative rights” that give the owner the opportunity to participate in certain sequels and remakes. Those rights have emerged as something of a headache for WBD, with the studio refusing to develop titles in which Village Roadshow was a cofinancier. That contributed to the legal blowup over The Matrix Resurrections when Warners released the movie on HBO Max the same day it hit theaters in December 2021 during the height of the COVID era. See more