Batgirl Movie Axed

[Kyphael]

I think the current meta is frequent cancel/resub patterns anyway. Since a lot of new content comes out in clusters rather than continuously, there's always something you aggregate and watch on a one or two month sub, then cancel again until the next one. Old content you can just watch alongside the clusters, and if your interests are diverse enough you'll always have SOME sub running.

Been working great for me so far, I rarely pay for more than a month on any streaming service and still never run out of stuff to watch. The only thing that I keep running is Amazon Prime, but that's not for streaming.

I need to get more disciplined and get with the program of constant re-sub/cancel. I tend to be loyal and stick to a few key streaming services because they offer what I like and consistently upload new content. I'm also kind of lazy to juggle what/when to cancel/re-sub, but that's about to change. I've been meaning to check out Paramount+ for the longest and HBO Max is easily the most expensive service I pay for right now.

[Rennadrel]

Have to wait and see with what happens with Shazam 2, and Black Adam. Dwayne Johnson is being pretty pushy about continuing his role. And depending on how well Black Adam does, WB will either push back, or let him have his way.

Black Adam at least doesn't look like it was a movie produced by the CW. How successful it is will depend entirely on the script and story.

[Biomega]

Black Adam at least doesn't look like it was a movie produced by the CW. How successful it is will depend entirely on the script and story.

I'm afraid for that movie. Very often antiheroes are just turned into "heroes, but sometimes they make a mean quip". That's not how it's supposed to work, and I'm really scared they'll do exactly that for Black Adam.

[Koriani]

Aaaah, it was a good while ago then. What I read made it sound like a very recent thing, as though it coincided with the topic of this thread.

Actually just read this yesterday - its not these 9 DC films though. HBOMax IS taking off another 6 films 'quietly' that are streaming from WB right now and NONE of them are superhero/DC related. All of it is being 'supposed' to be more of those 'tax breaks' or that, whatever financial issues they are settling, that somehow removing these movies that have already been streaming to 'no where available' somehow is helping them with those financial issues.

And like I said - if you look at the list - none of these are DC related, they are just random, underperforming, relatively recently released movies.

*goes to try and find what she just read yesterday...* AHA! Yup, found a few articles on it:

https://variety.com/2022/digital/new...ve-1235332258/

I don't pretend to have any idea of understanding how removing already released and streaming movies from being viewed 'helps their financials' in any way - but that's what they are claiming. - "in an effort to cut costs."

From the article >>
HBO Max’s removal of the Warner Bros. movies could be part of WBD’s move to get streaming-content payment obligations for underperforming titles off its books. In the case of an unreleased movie like the “House Party” remake, the media conglomerate could be accounting for it as a tax write-down, as it is expected to do with “Batgirl” and “Scoob: Holiday Haunt” (the latter of which was a sequel to the animated “Scoob!”).<<

It does make me wonder what WB's new management is up to and what this all might be 'shaking out' to REALLY mean for WB in the future. We shall see. But it is...interesting...and odd.

[Milchshake]

Who wants scripted content like Batgirl when you can have awful reality TV?

Chip and Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Network Content Heads to HBO Max in First Move to Bring Together Warner Bros. Discovery Content!
https://www.thewrap.com/chip-joanna-...-hbo-max-when/

[Gaidax]

Dam, it must have been total shit that they'd rather down few dozen mils and not down the potential franchise.

[Karlz0rz]

Batman as a hero concept is a big stretch in and off itself. His weakness is literally EVERYTHING. He goes to the store, gets covid-19, dies 3 weeks later.
And then you want to make a movie about Batgirl, who would lose to a 17 year old bully during recess..
I understand why they didn't want to get too involved with this project .

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Zaslav speaks on the future of the DCEU and the cancelation of Batgirl:

https://www.slashfilm.com/953419/war...pping-batgirl/

10 year plan:

"We have done a reset. We've restructured the business. We're going to focus, where there will be a team with a 10 year plan focusing just on DC. It's very similar to the structure that Alan Horn and Bob Iger put together very effectively with Kevin Feige at Disney. We think that we could build a long term, much stronger, sustainable growth business out of DC. As part of that, we're going to focus on quality. We're not going to release any film before it's ready."

Cancelling Batgirl:

"We've looked hard at the direct-to-streaming business. We've seen, luckily, by having access now to all the data, how direct-to-streaming movies perform, and our conclusion is that expensive direct-to-streaming movies, in terms of how people are consuming them on the platform, how often people go there or buy it, or buy a service for it, and how it gets nourished over time, is no comparison to what happens when you launch a film in the theaters. This idea of expensive films going direct to streaming? We cannot find an economic case for it. We cannot find that economic value for it. So we're making a strategic shift."

The executive also drove the point home about the company's dedication to theatrical releases saying, "Our focus will be on theatrical, and when we bring the theatrical films to HBO Max, we find they have substantially more value." Zaslav once again reiterated that Warner Bros. Discovery will not "put a movie out unless we believe in it." While rumors about the quality of the "Batgirl" movie have been flying on social media from people who saw early test screenings, this statement certainly seems to throw the film (and the filmmakers) under the bus. If WBD refuses to release a movie unless they believe in it, there can be no mistaking the fact that they did not have faith in what Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah were doing.

[Jotaux]

Assuming that's true (I'm not a CPA and have no clue about "purchase accounting adjustments"). For weird accounting in the industry I recall that the fictious accounting for "Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp With Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden" (in "The Producers") was based on fraud, not real tax breaks.

So what if there's a different "accounting" reason in this case?

What if someone is paid a bonus for the number, average movie revenues for released movies, for the average hitting some target, or something similar. How would the decision influence that?

It would have to be more than the revenue the film generates in which case they have way bigger problems at WB Discovery than a cancelled film.

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I believe most of the press reports at least have to do with a £150,000 premium from the city of Glasgow linked to them filming there, that hasn't been paid yet and is now in dispute for various legal reasons. I'm sure there's other tax shenanigans involved depending on who gets to book the loss, but surely not the ENTIRE sum.

That amount would be Glasgow paying DC. Its an incentive grant that hasn't been paid. It wouldn't have bearing on cancelling the film or not unless its conditional on the film being released, in which case by cancelling the film WB lost out on £150,000.

[Raisei]

I'm curious if this is just the start of dc films getting axed. They have had a string of bad luck that's casting a shadow over the DCEU (Ezra Miller and Amber Heard, accusations of Zack Snyder personally being involved in the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut bot-brigade.)

"bad luck" was hardly the problem with those films.

DC was happy to let Marvel do a test run on big movie projects and a cinematic universe, then - when it succeeded - they decided that they wanted one too. But they didn't want to go through the trouble of building up to the universe first, they wanted the money for the big team movie immediatedly, showing their complete lack of understanding why Marvel succeeded.
The result was such a terrible bunch of movies that neither Henry Cavill nor Joss Whedon could safe. Terrible casting, terrible characterization, terrible dialogue, terrible story. Just a rushed project to ride the coat tails of a company that did things infinitely better.

None of that was bad luck, it was a bunch of suits on the board of DC making a call solely motivated by greed and fear of missing out on cash.


As far as Batgirl specifically is concerned, I assume the backlash over the incredibly sexist dumpster fire that was the Batwoman CW show has something to do with this. Not the same character I know, but still, public opinion is rarely discerning enough to not be affected by this.

Luckily there is the Batgirl in the Harley Quinn animated series that makes up for it, but the life action character will be hard to take serious for quite a while yet.

[LeGin v3]

For weird accounting in the industry I recall that the fictious accounting for "Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp With Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden" (in "The Producers") was based on fraud, not real tax breaks.

Dude. False equivalence.

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ffs how many posts do you need to make on this site before you can actually post? It's fucking stupid.

I'm a good faith poster! Always have been.

Please could someone tag @Kronik85 as I don't seem able to:

Dude. Delighted to see your necro post. I check in from time to time. Yes - kudos to Hue for fighting the good fight. I don't know where they get the energy from either. Miss you all but find myself a better person for not stabbing angrily at the keyboard and have locked myself out. Best to you and yours

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

"bad luck" was hardly the problem with those films.

I should probably be more clear about what I mean about "Bad Luck"... I'm specifically referring to the things that were beyond their control... like the controversies revolving around Ezra Miller and Amber Heard. All of the other problems you mentioned are entirely on WB itself.

As far as Batgirl specifically is concerned, I assume the backlash over the incredibly sexist dumpster fire that was the Batwoman CW show has something to do with this. Not the same character I know, but still, public opinion is rarely discerning enough to not be affected by this.

As far as Batgirl is concerned...apparently the test screenings of the mostly finished product went very bad and the movie was considered to be irredeemable. Can't really comment on the accuracy of those reports...but for WB to shelve it entirely when it was nearly finished post-production rather than release it on their own streaming platform (which, compared to even a limited theatrical release, would basically cost them nothing) does add some credibility to the idea that this film would have done damage to the entire DC brand...which is already in pretty rough shape due to the issues you mentioned and the other facts which were not directly under their control.

[Rennadrel]

Honestly at this point they need to just scrap everything and start over. Cancel The Flash movie because frankly the only screen Ezra Miller belongs on is the TV screen when he's being hauled off to jail. Anyone at WB with some sense would want to disassociate and distance themselves as far as possible from that creep before the hammer of the law comes down on him.

If WB can focus on making good films with Batman, Superman and Aquaman to start out, they'll get people into theaters. I personally feel like outside of Batman and Superman, DC films needs to grow a couple more main characters. Maybe they can do that with Wonder Woman but Christ on a cracker 1984 was such a garbage movie and retconning the entire character to make her a Mary Sue really sucked the life out of what should have been an entertaining flick. Unfortunately most of the most prominent female DC heroes are just variants of the most prominent male characters , so if they still wanted a female focused movie than I'd probably do more of the anti-hero concept with Harley Quinn like they are with Black Adam.

[VMSmith]

I'd probably do more of the anti-hero concept with Harley Quinn like they are with Black Adam.

I'm excited to see Lady Gaga as Harley in the Joker sequel. As much as I love many of the variants of Harley Quinn that already exist, I feel like using the character in the style of the Joker movie could be really fun to watch.

[Orby]

Was Batgirl really something people were excited for? I only knew it existed just when they announced they cancelled it :P

Note: I am not a DC fan so interesting to hear :P

[Jotaux]

Was Batgirl really something people were excited for? I only knew it existed just when they announced they cancelled it :P

Note: I am not a DC fan so interesting to hear :P

I'm not really getting excited for DC movies. Barbara Gordan isn't my favourite Batgirl, they already introduced my favourite one in the Harley Quinn movie and butchered her character. I probably would have still watched Batgirl though.

[Gumble]

Was Batgirl really something people were excited for? I only knew it existed just when they announced they cancelled it :P

Note: I am not a DC fan so interesting to hear :P

Nobody was excited for it that would actually watch it.

The problem that DC (and more recently Marvel is heading this way) has is that they have been making movies for people that don't actually LIKE the characters in them or want to go see them. Unless they luck out and women everywhere want to see Jason Momoa topless, they tend to get bent over when the movies actually come out because they are marketting to people that have NO intention of seeing them.

Saying "we are trying to market Harley Quinn to young girls", but then your theaters have 90% young men in them shows they don't know their audience and are taking advice from people who simply have no idea what they are talking about. DC may be heading in a new direction with this new guy in charge, so we'll see, but its a slow ship to turn around.... it will likely be a few years before we see real change.

Canceling these crap movies and shows is just an attempt to stop the bleeding.

[Biomega]

Honestly at this point they need to just scrap everything and start over. Cancel The Flash movie because frankly the only screen Ezra Miller belongs on is the TV screen when he's being hauled off to jail.

Aaaaand they're at it again

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62473652

Allegedly breaking into a house to steal booze.

[Ivanstone]

Nobody was excited for it that would actually watch it.

The problem that DC (and more recently Marvel is heading this way) has is that they have been making movies for people that don't actually LIKE the characters in them or want to go see them. Unless they luck out and women everywhere want to see Jason Momoa topless, they tend to get bent over when the movies actually come out because they are marketting to people that have NO intention of seeing them.

Saying "we are trying to market Harley Quinn to young girls", but then your theaters have 90% young men in them shows they don't know their audience and are taking advice from people who simply have no idea what they are talking about. DC may be heading in a new direction with this new guy in charge, so we'll see, but its a slow ship to turn around.... it will likely be a few years before we see real change.

Canceling these crap movies and shows is just an attempt to stop the bleeding.

Or you can just make a variety of movies. There's no reason to not make a Batgirl movie. She has her own fan base. Even non-fans might be interested in it if its good enough. It will either succeed or it won't.

Sometimes a crap movie is just that. It just happened to be a Batgirl movie in this case. The only thing notable about it is that its small enough to cancel without ever worrying about it.

And Harley Quinn is marketed to a wide variety of people. She started as a character in a kids cartoon. She's still regularly featured in comics aimed at young girls. She also has a filthy adult side and is also marketed to adults.

[Ivanstone]

I read recently that Black Adam's first cut tested about as well as Batgirl did. So I'm curious to see that ended up.

It costs twice as much and stars the Rock. Its not getting cancelled.

Batgirl's just an outlier. Its mid-budget but production costs were not being kept down. Its parent company recently made a large merger and likely does need some tax breaks. The new CEO also prefers the big budget "event" movies. The snowflake brigade are just making this out to be a much larger thing that it is because they need to malice signal to prop up their pathetic egos.