Burying Movies May Cost Warner Bros. More Than It Saves

Shelving the likes of 'Batgirl' and 'Coyote Vs. Acme' may save money, but the practice is doing overwhelming harm to WBD's reputation as a vital entertainment company

As presumed for a while now, Warner Bros. attempts to offload Coyote Vs. Acme isn’t working out. As detailed via Drew Taylor at TheWrap, it’s more likely than not that the completed half-animated/half-live-action comedy will end up being shelved and deleted for a $35-$40 million tax write-off as initially intended.   

Getting a tax write-off for Coyote Vs. Acme made raw financial sense for a theatrically dicey release in a world where streaming originals now hold no value. But so might have letting another studio have the film for an amount equal to the write-off. WBD would get the same cash-in-hand without the narrative of having erased a completed motion picture.

However, what would the fallout have been if (for example) Paramount had bought the film for $40 million only to release it theatrically to (sight-obviously-unseen) critical huzzahs and box office glory? The egg-on-face notion of Warner Bros. being unable to sell a Looney Tunes movie successfully would have cost more than the money saved. Deleting the film at least allows the bosses to sell the notion that the movie itself was to blame for its fate.

Zaslav’s predecessor Jason Killar green-lit a bunch of HBO Max exclusives amid a time when Wall Street convinced the industry that spending untold billions on media-friendly streaming shows and movies would translate into sky-high subscription growth and thus theoretical profit.  

Zaslav, to his credit, called bullshit on that earlier than most of his peers, but then was stuck with movies (like Scoob: Holiday Haunt and Batgirl) that weren’t considered theatrically viable and now (especially after Wall Street reversed course in early 2022 on subscription growth and spending sprees as a sign of success) were worthless to the streaming platforms.   

Were theoretical offers from Paramount and Netflix, less than the firm $75-$80 million WBD wanted to break even on production and related fees, worth accepting even if they merely evened out to the proposed tax write-off amount? I’d say yes.

Stock prices are about revenue, expenses, and the hope of future success, but narrative and “feelings” play a role. And right now most feelings toward WBD are skewing negative.