Three years after the final movie was released, interest levels are still high as evidenced by a high level of searches on major search engines. A definite cult-like following for the Matrix Trilogy has definitely developed.

Merchandising for these movies has also been huge. The movie spawned several video games, a 10 disc DVD collection, a sunglasses line, in addition to the typical toy and action figure line. The movies have rabid fans who will buy anything that has the Matrix name on it and who have spent countless hours trying to decipher the religious and philosophical messages in the movies.

While a lot of time has been spent by Star Wars enthusiasts on developing additional background and back-story, the same is true of the Matrix movies. One need only look at the Ultimate Matrix Collection which includes several additional DVDs that help explain the entire story of the Matrix in addition to the three DVDs of the movies.

Total worldwide gross on the trilogy of movies is $1,623,967,842, making the Matrix Trilogy one of the most successful trilogies of all time. The original three Star Wars movies have made $1,788,879,251 in worldwide gross revenues.

However, the parallels to the Star Wars movies don't end there. While Star Wars was known for it's ground breaking special effects back in 1979, the first Matrix movie was ground breaking “bullet time” special effects which is now a common effect seen in action movies.

While The Matrix still has a long ways to go in proving that it can remain popular like Star Wars has all these years, so far early numbers indicate that the Matrix movies will stay popular for many years even if no new movies are ever released.