National Australia Bank and Leighton Holdings are suing the US distributor Warner Bros for $95m in a dispute over the rights to The Matrix. Released in 1999, the motion picture made a large sum of money at the US box office and quickly became the highest-selling DVD ever.

However, while its US distributor, Warner Bros, was accumulating hundreds of millions of dollars, the Sydney film's local investors, NAB and construction company Leighton, started wondering if they were getting their true share of the prize. The two commissioned Los Angeles auditor Elaine Douglas, a silver screen accounting specialist, to examine Warner Bros' books, the New South Wales Supreme Court heard yesterday.

Ms Douglas allegedly found issues in the revenue accounts for The Matrix.
Through a second auditor, NAB and Leighton are convinced Warner Bros gave up to $US80 million less money than is due, over the course of their six-year contract by supplying the film at a bargain price to Warner television companies, magnifying expenditures and wrongly accounting for the millions paid to actors Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne.

NAB and Leighton in 1999 sold the US and Canadian distribution rights to Warner Bros for $A62 million, via subsidiaries such as NAB's Matrix Film Investment One. Under the contract, Warner Bros was required to run The Matrix on at least 700 cinema screens, and spend not less than $A10 million promoting and distributing it.

According to documents before the court, the sci-fi action film made $US171 million at the US box office and was Warner Bros highest-grossing film in 1999. It also made more than $A200 million through DVD sales.

Under ''break points'' in the contract, NAB and Leighton were to receive payments when profits broke certain levels. The first annual earnings statement Warner Bros issued to the corporate investors was for $A41,527, which has since been revised to nil.

According to a defence filed by Warner Bros, except for $A74,000 for 2003 and $A156,000 for 2005, other revised annual fees due were also nil.