There’s bad news today for Batgirl and Scooby Doo fans.
According to various reports from entertainment publications that include The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. has decided to scrap Batgirl, a $185 million DC film centered on the superheroine that already finished shooting and was set for release on HBO Max this year. Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, an animated feature with a budget in the $40 million range, has also been axed by the film and entertainment giant.
Batgirl was canceled because “big-budget films made directly for streaming no longer make financial sense under the company’s new strategy,” according to industry insiders, something that has since been backed up by an official statement from Warner Bros that clarified its decision had little to do with the quality of the film.
“The decision to not release Batgirl reflects our leadership’s strategic shift as it relates to the DC universe and HBO Max,” a Warner Bros. spokesperson explained. “Leslie Grace is an incredibly talented actor and this decision is not a reflection of her performance. We are incredibly grateful to the filmmakers of Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt and their respective casts and we hope to collaborate with everyone again in the near future.”
Sources with the New York Post have suggested in a separate report that Batgirl’s cancellation actually did have more to do than just saving money, however, with some describing the film as being “irredeemable” on the quality scale.
The reportedly $70 million movie (the source said the budget was actually more than $100 million), which was doing test screenings for audiences in anticipation of a late 2022 debut, would rank among the most expensive cinematic castoffs ever.
Those tests were said to be so poorly received by moviegoers that the studio decided to cut its losses and run, for the sake of the brand’s future. It’s a DC disaster.
Batgirl was directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the duo behind Bad Boys for Life and select episodes of Marvel Studio’s Ms. Marvel series on Disney+. The cast includes Leslie Grace (In the Heights), who plays the titular Bat Family member, as well as J.K. Simmons and Michael Keaton back in the roles of Commissioner Gordon and Bruce Wayne/Batman, respectively.
Brendan Fraser even had a key role in the film, playing supervillain Garfield Lynns/Firefly, a pyromaniac who enjoys starting fires. Fraser can be seen in DC’s Doom Patrol, in which he stars as Robotman, a cyborg member of the superhero team.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Can I say that I am disappointed that this was not some sort of Batman and Scooby Doo universe crossover? :p
Secondly,
I am not a by no means involved in the film industry, so there very possibly are dynamics to this that I am aware of, but this makes absolutely no sense to me.
If you've already spent the money filming the **** thing, which is where the majority of the budget goes, might as well release it and try to recoup some of the cost, right?
Just outright canceling it seems like it would be leaving lots of money on the table, which just doesn't make any business sense to me.
I'm just looking at this from the perspective of running a business. I am not personally a fan of super hero titles, and probably was never going to watch this anyway, but I just can't seem to figure out what they were thinking.
Only thing I can come up with is if the actors have ****ty contracts where they only get paid if it actually launches, or something like that. Still, the revenue from the release should at the very least cover the actors pay...
daysweeks after launch when it didn't immediately get the #s they wanted. Evidently these two movies are only just the beginning and one source was quoted as saying that Warner is "done treating DC like a hobby."Edit: David Zaslav, I know we had a story on the CNN+ so I went and looked that up. He's the one making these decisions.
https://www.thefpsreview.com/2022/04/21/cnn-being-shut-down-just-weeks-after-launching/
Hadn't that been around for like 9 seasons or something though?
Maybe it was time for it to wrap up. Quit while you're ahead and all that.
Rumor has it he's prepping the channel to be sold off or dismantled. Seriously I think there's maybe 3 or 4 shows left that haven't been canceled, I can't back that up but he has canceled a bunch.
Waay to late for that, watched a couple seasons of that, pretty mediocre at best
‘Irredeemable’ ‘Batgirl’ movie gets ‘shelved’ by Warner Bros. despite $70M price tag: source
Batman & Robin was a good example of how to damage a brand with a bad film. I think they want to avoid that.
Yeah, I'm confused about that too.
I grabbed all the episodes maybe a couple weeks ago, was getting ready to watch it soon, as I loved James Gunn's The Suicide Squad.
Good question. The answer seems to be it was more economical to get a tax write-off. Don't ask me how. I don't understand this !!!
Why Warner Bros. Killed ‘Batgirl’: Inside the Decision Not to Release the DC Movie
The MCU can put out a less than stellar movie every once in awhile and still remain viable. On the other hand, DC's films being decent are the exception not the rule.
Iron Man : Good
Iron Man II : OK
The Avengers : Good
Iron Man III : I don't remember if I liked it or not.
Guardians of Galaxy : Hated it, didn't even watch till the end.
Avangers : Age of Ultron : Very mediocre, had much more promise than what it delivered
Ant-Man : It wasn't really even about ant-man
Doctor Strange : Hated it, stopped watching before the halfway point.
Avengers Infiniity War : OK
Ant Man and the Wasp : I don't even remember it, didn't leave much of a mark on me.
Black Widow : OK
I'll probably watch Thor Love and thunder when it releases for home viewing, the rest I completely skipped, mainly, because spider man and captain america are way too cringe characters to me. They work in a comic book, but I have not enough suspension of disbelief to take those seriously in live action format.
I will say the DC Animated movies have been on average better than the live action adaptations.