In what year was The Matrix released?

The Matrix was released in 1999.

The film had a premiere at the Mann Village Theater in Los Angeles on March 24, 1999, before opening widely in the United States on March 31. It was directed and written by the Wachowskis and became one of the defining science-fiction action films of the late 1990s. Its release introduced audiences to Neo, Morpheus, Trinity, and the unsettling idea that ordinary reality might be a computer-generated simulation.

The year is sometimes confused with 2003, when the first two sequels arrived. The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions were released that year, with the sequels filmed back-to-back. The fourth film, The Matrix Resurrections, followed much later in 2021.

The 1999 original was a major commercial and critical success. It earned more than $460 million worldwide from a reported $63 million budget and won four Academy Awards, including honors for visual effects and film editing. In 2012, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.