Impressive collections for Matrix Revolutions

When Peter Travers, certainly not America's most demanding film critic, said, 'at the risk of understatement, The Matrix Revolutions sucks,' you may want to believe the Rolling Stone critic and stay away from the film.

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But proving that some films are just not meant for critics, The Matrix Revolutions grossed an impressive, though not record-breaking, $43 million on its first day in 96 countries.

Trade publication Variety reported that the third film in the sci-fi saga earned $24.3 million in North America. While it expected the five-day American gross to reach $100 million, Gitesh Pandya of boxofficeguru.com expected it to be around $125 film.

The Matrix Reloaded grossed about $150 million during its first five days, but Warner Bros executives quickly point out that film was released in summer.

The new film, focusing on a huge battle between the humans and machines, was released around the world on November 5 in the widest release ever for a film. It was screened in about 10,000 theatres.

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Critical acclaim for the first film, which grossed about $450 million worldwide, was mostly favourable. It waned considerably for the second film but that movie went on to earn about $750 million.

Many trade experts expect the final installment to gross about $600 million even if the film loses substantial box-office clout in its second week. More than 60 per cent of the worldwide gross for each of the previous two films came from outside North America.

All the films are directed by the Wachowski brothers with the same key actors, including Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss.

While a few publications like Hollywood Reporter and Seattle Post-Intelligencer gave the film decent reviews, other major publications were brutal in calling it a wasted effort.

In Hollywood Reporter, Michael Rechtshaffen wrote, 'better than Reloaded, but the thrill is gone,' and William Arnold called it 'a butt-kicking action movie' in the Seattle Daily. USA Today's Mike Clark found it 'arch and pompous', while New York Post's Lou Lumenick confessed: 'The truth is it's awfully repetitive, and a lot like playing a video game with someone else's hands on the controls." In San Francisco Chronicle, Carla Meyer found the film 'dismal'.

The new movie shot right to the top in practically every country by a wide margin. In America, the second highest grossing film Brother Bear grabbed about $1.1 million on Wednesday. In fact, Matrix Revolutions' gross was more than the gross of the next 25 films.

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