diff --git a/libavcodec/mlpdec.c b/libavcodec/mlpdec.c
index 5426712007..eac19a0d5e 100644
--- a/libavcodec/mlpdec.c
+++ b/libavcodec/mlpdec.c
@@ -729,6 +729,7 @@ static int read_matrix_params(MLPDecodeContext *m, unsigned int substr, GetBitCo
         av_log(m->avctx, AV_LOG_ERROR,
                "Number of primitive matrices cannot be greater than %d.\n",
                max_primitive_matrices);
+        s->num_primitive_matrices = 0;
         return AVERROR_INVALIDDATA;
     }