You are right. VRL only gets the receipts from international markets excluding the United States. Warner Brothers have all the rights to the lucrative US market. So far, Matrix Reloaded has taken in $US209 million in the United States which is huge! The total take fromt he US should be around $US300 million. However, even more mind boggling are the international figures. Reloaded was released in most markets last week and took over $US115 million in one weekend. Yes, that is one weekend breaking all previous records. It's international total excluding the United States stands at $US150 million with the biggest market being Japan yet to release the film until June. The estimated international gross which VRL will take a 40% cut from exhibitors looks at being north of $US450 million. This means VRL should pocket about $US180 million just from Reloaded's theatrical run. This is before DVD, video sales, video games (Enter the Matrix sold over 1 million units in its first week of release), TV rights, toys etc..... VRL should recoup nearly all of their outlay on both Matrix films just from the theatrical release of Reloaded alone. The revenue from the DVDs etc and then the release of Matrix Revolutions will be all profits.
Let's hope the VRL share price rallies now. We can't continue to allow the Kirbies to bash the price so that they can privatise the company. I'm sure the Kirbies recognise the magnitude of the gains from the Matrix and would dearly like to pocket all the cash themselves.
VRL Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
