The Matrix Reloaded basically dominated the latter two weeks of May. There were no profitable movies at that time.
The Big Six were smart to understand that facing something as powerful as The Matrix Reloaded would be bad for their business.
The Matrix Reloaded had a promising result and the Big Six decided not to release their movies close to Matrix Reloaded because their movies would badly be affected by Matrix Reloaded.
So within the two weeks, The Matrix Reloaded easily grossed $217 million at the North American box office. The Matrix garnered a lot of fans all over the country. Even the fashion sense was affected by this movie because a lot of people were now wearing black windbreakers with sunglasses and such. The influence of this movie was massive, many people couldn't deny that.
Unfortunately, the two sequels would be a disappointment to a lot of people. The Matrix Reloaded had a lot of philosophical scenes that confused the audience, affecting the box office.
"We can't follow our plan."
Alan Horn, the COO(Chief Operating Officer) of Warner Bros announced in the meeting.
The result of The Matrix Reloaded was studied by professionals. Even though The Matrix Reloaded made a lot of money within its first two weeks, the executives clearly saw that the audience response was not good.
CinemaScore rated the movie B+, and this was just the first 5 thousand votes. This rating would further go down.
Based on that result alone, the audience didn't like the movie. Not that much.
"If this continues, we have to release the third movie this year to get as much profit as possible."
If they let The Matrix's 3rd movie be released in a few years, then the audience would lose all of their interest.
So before it could happen, the executives of Warner Bros agreed that they have to release the third movie next year. That was the safest method.
They didn't want to wait any longer since it was obvious that the fans were losing their interest.
"It's a good thing that we filmed the second and third at once, the Wachowskis just need time to polish the movie..."
Speaking of Wachowskis, Alan Horn regretted the fact that he trusted them easily. They should have controlled the film.
Now, The Matrix Reloaded was filled with senseless philosophy about life and such. The audience didn't like that at all. They wanted to see an action-packed and adrenaline rush movie.
"This year, we will release the third movie to squeeze as much profit as possible."
That was actually what happened in the original timeline. Warner Bros realized that this franchise would lose all of its worth if they didn't release the third movie as fast as possible.
So they decided to release the third movie, The Matrix Revolution, in November of the same year and grab as much money as they could grab. Then they erased the franchise for almost two decades.
This taught them that trusting directors too much and letting them edit the movie would be too bad for business. Only a few directors like Kazir Grey had a sense of post-production for the purpose of making money.
The said director could edit a film to entertain the audience, not to make some philosophical bullshit. Because at the end of the day, people watch movies to escape reality.
"Start the promotion for The Matrix Revolution. Announce that will release the third movie this year." Alan Horn said and the management was determined to make it happen.
So yeah, The Matrix Reloaded and Revolution would be released in the same year. A good move for Warner Bros.
...
...
...
Two weeks after the release of The Matrix Reloaded, the animated movie Finding Nemo was released in 3,374 theaters at the same time.
This was a movie animated by Pixar for Walt Disney. Walt Disney basically owned this company since Steve Jobs focused more of his attention on Apple. Walt Disney and Steve Jobs were the two biggest shareholders of Pixar after all.
With a budget of $94 million, this animated movie easily grabbed the attention of many hearts... Not going to lie, Finding Nemo was a Masterpiece.
On its first day alone, Finding Nemo grossed $20.20 million at the North American box office.
This movie was PG-13 so the whole family could watch it with no problem. And here was the magic of watching animated movies such as Finding Nemo, every age could enjoy it.
Parents could enjoy it, understanding the plot and getting touched by how the father clownfish suffered and sacrificed just to find and save his son.
The kids enjoyed it because it was a cartoon movie. It was a universal knowledge that kids love to watch cartoons.
Despite being an asshole sometimes, it didn't change the fact that Walt Disney was the greatest animation studio in Hollywood. Their movies were deep and close to human hearts... Aside from racist old movies. Such as Song Of The South, Pocahontas, and Peter Pan... Disney decided to forget about those movies since they didn't fit with their family-oriented image.
Anyway, Finding Nemo was a great movie and dominated June with no hassle. From May 30 to June 27, Finding Nemo was the king of the box office. Making $244.27 million at the box office.
On June 27, 2003, another big movie was released. It was produced by Sony-Colombia, with the title of Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.
Starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Lui.
This action movie with three female protagonists received a great reception.
The first weekend of Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle made $37 million at the box office.
Within the same weekend, Finding Nemo only made $9 million, making Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle the champion of the weekly box office ranking.