Claim: Laurence Fishburne acted in a movie.

The Matrix is a science fiction action media franchise created by The Wachowskis , about heroes who fight a desperate war against machine overlords that have enslaved humanity in an extremely sophisticated virtual reality gestalt .   The series began with the feature film The Matrix -LRB- 1999 -RRB- , and continued with two sequels , The Matrix Reloaded -LRB- 2003 -RRB- and The Matrix Revolutions -LRB- 2003 -RRB- , all written and directed by the Wachowskis and produced by Joel Silver . The franchise is owned by Warner Bros. , which distributed the films along with Village Roadshow Pictures . The latter , along with Silver Pictures are the two production companies that worked on all three films .   The first film was an important critical and commercial success , winning four Academy Awards , introducing popular culture symbols such as the red pill and blue pill , and influencing action filmmaking . For those reasons it has been added to the National Film Registry for preservation . Its first sequel was an even bigger commercial success , becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film in history , a title which it held for 13 years .   The series features a cyberpunk story incorporating references to numerous philosophical and religious ideas . Influences include the principles of mythology , anime , and Hong Kong action films -LRB- particularly `` heroic bloodshed '' and martial arts movies -RRB- .   The characters and settings of the films are further explored in other media set in the same fictional universe , including animation , comics , and video games . The comic `` Bits and Pieces of Information '' and The Animatrix short film `` The Second Renaissance '' act as prequels to the films , explaining how the franchise 's setting came to be . The video game Enter the Matrix connects the story of the Animatrix short `` Final Flight of the Osiris '' with the events of Reloaded , while the video game The Matrix Online is a direct sequel to Revolutions .   As of February 2016 , the franchise has generated $ 3 billion in revenue , making it one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time . In March 2017 , it was reported that Warner Bros. was in early stages of developing a relaunch of the franchise with new films .