If it weren’t for “Spider-Man: No Way Home” then we would be reading plenty of “obits” about how this past year was the year when theaters died. Safe for Spidey, moviegoing audiences strayed far from the multiplex in 2021.

I don’t even think it’s just COVID that should be blamed either — it’s also the fact that Hollywood just didn’t deliver good movies. In other words, most of the big titles sucked.

One of the most significant bombs of the past year was Lana Wachowski’s “The Matrix Resurrections, which reportedly cost $190 million to make, and had only earned $106 million globally since its Dec. 22nd release. It didn’t help that the film was extremely divisive, earning a “B-” audience survey ranking from Cinemascore and a 64% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Adding marketing costs, rumoured to be upwards of $50 million, to the aforementioned $190 million budget, “The Matrix Resurrections” stands to lose close to $100 million when all is said and done. It’s a staggering failure for Warner Bros. and this time the usual HBO Max excuse cannot even be taken seriously.