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The power of nostalgia in the film industry has become clear over the past few years. And as a result, plenty of beloved properties have returned to theaters. Lana Wachowski’s The Matrix 4 is one of those projects, and fans can’t wait to jack back in with Keanu Reeves and company. And it turns out that production spent an outstanding amount of money to shoot in San Francisco.
The Matrix 4 was in the midst of filming San Francisco when sets around the world were shut down. Set videos teased off some wild stunts, although it cost Lana Wachowski and company a pretty penny to shoot those sequences. Namely a whopping $420,371.
For those of us suffering from financial whiplash thanks to The Matrix 4, let’s break that sum down. This report comes to us from SF Gate, which investigated how much major blockbusters paid the San Francisco Police Department so they could successfully film. This includes other major projects like Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Marvel’s upcoming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. But the fourth Matrix movie reportedly takes the cake by far.
In fact, the money coughed up by Warner Bros. or The Matrix 4 to film in San Francisco cost more than the aforementioned blockbusters combined. According to the report, Shang-Chi cost Marvel $162,775, while Venom 2 paid $192,422 to the city of San Francisco. The Matrix 4 leaves those other projects in the dust, but now the question is: why?
The Matrix trilogy (so far) is currently streaming on HBO Max. You can use this link to sign up for the streaming service.
Over $400k is a ton of money to spend on merely the locations of certain sequences of The Matrix 4. The blockbuster isn’t expected to be entirely set in San Francisco, with extensive production happening overseas. But perhaps this sum of money was due to the wild stunts Lana Wachowski and company were attempting. There were explosions, wire work, and car chases happening. As such, they needed to pay for the appropriate safety measures.
This isn’t the first time that Lana Wachowski has filmed a major project in San Francisco, and it’s clear that the filmmaker has a connection to the city. SF was one of the major locations of her Netflix series Sense8, and there were some thrilling chase sequences throughout the two seasons and finale movie. What’s more, a number of actors from Sense8 will be appearing in The Matrix 4.
Virtually nothing is known about the story of The Matrix 4, but filming was able to complete overseas after a long delay. Lana Wachowski assembled a killer cast for the movie, including a handful of returning faces like Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss. But since both of their character seemingly died in the last movie, fans have questions.
The Matrix 4 is currently expected to arrive in theaters December 22nd. In the meantime, check out the 2021 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
