Streaming Wars -- Warner Bros Discovery Kills Batgirl (The Movie, Not The Character) -- August 4, 2022

Streaming: link here. Streaming wars. 

Updates

Later, 8:12 p.m. CT: post-Covid pivot? WBD wants to get big movies back on the big screen?

Later, 7:15 p.m. CT: for investors, this is getting good. The fog is starting to life. For streamers and streaming and investing, Q: what's the moat?

• A: deep pockets
• for the past two decades, many players, with a few stand-outs: Netflix and HBO
• but with Apple in the mix, things have changed
• all of a sudden, it's the "catalogue" vs "new content

Later, 7:01 p.m. CT:

• 2Q22 earnings: could it get any worse?
• first quarterly report since the merger;
• shares sink on $3.42 billion loss; actually they "plummeted" (link here)
• HBO Max restructuring plan revealed
• highlights:
• revenue: $9.82 billion vs $11.91 billion forecast
• subscribers: 1.7 million net additions vs 1.65 million expected
• total number of subscribers: 92.1 million
• expects to see 130 million global streaming subscribers by 2025
• the company estimated that EBITDA for global streaming will hit $1 billion by 2025 with the streaming business breaking even by 2024. It expects peak EBITDA loss in streaming by this year.
• comment: 
• catalogues are over-rated
• after watching "Only Murders In The Building" I am convinced streamers only want to watch new content
• some exceptions: I can name two:
• Casablanca
• Blade Runner
  

Original Post

Earlier this morning I noted that Warner Bros Discovery killed the $90-million "Batgirl" movie. My thinking was wrong (again, not unusual).

Background here.

This is absolutely fascinating. The lede:

On Tuesday, Warner Bros. announced its plan to not move forward with the release of Batgirl, a movie that cost an estimated $90 million to produce, along with the less expensive film Scoob! Holiday Haunt, a property based on the cartoon about crime-solving dog Scooby-Doo. 

The decision came as a surprise to many, as the movie had already finished production in March of this year and featured an all-star cast including actress Leslie Grace in the lead role, providing significant Latinx representation in a major motion picture. 

Directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the film was also meant to feature Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne—a return of the Golden Globe–winning actor to a role he hadn’t played in 30 years. 

Keaton was the first big-screen Batman in two Tim Burton–directed movies in 1989 and 1992 that ascended to cultural phenomenon status and set the stage for the coming decades’ superhero blockbuster boom. 

So why throw away tens of millions in investment and the return of a legendary actor? According to Warner Bros., now under new leadership since a merger with Discovery was finalized, it cut Batgirl because the release no longer made sense within the company’s broader business strategy.

Prior to the Warner Bros. spinoff from ATT and merger with Discovery:

• led by Jason Kilar and Ann Sarnoff
• pioneered a COVID-era streaming-first model on its subsidiary HBO Max
• the new model: release every movie it produced in 2021 at one time
• purpose: to quickly gain subscribers.

Now, with Warner Bros spinoff from ATT with merger with Discovery:

• new boss: David Zaslav
• cleaning house (read: CNN+  and CNN)
• new streaming model
• turning the company back toward a theatrical release structure, with a focus on individual high-budget blockbusters instead of simultaneous streaming releases of less expensive products;
• has removed a number of films from streaming on HBO Max
• but he won't sell these movies to others; doesn't want to lose these franchises