The boss of Warner Bros. takes on the cancellations of films and series: “It took courage”
The studio notably abandoned Batgirl and Coyote VS Acme, while they were being filmed.
The big Hollywood studios are unique in that we don’t necessarily know those who run them. However, their leaders make decisions with serious consequences, such as completely canceling the release of a film or series. THE New York Times thus met David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, to respond to the removal of anticipated blockbusters like Batgirl Or Coyote VS Acmea comedy inspired by Looney Toons with John Cena, while these films were fully shot. The latter will be resold to another broadcaster -Amazon Prime Video is the first candidate- but the first has indeed fallen into limbo: it will neither be released in cinemas nor in streaming, despite its budget of 90 million dollars.
David Zaslav begins by giving his opinion on the historic strike of screenwriters and actors which recently ended in Hollywood: “I think the idea of going on strike was bad for everyone. My goal was to put an end to the movement. Every day we were on strike and people weren’t working was a bad day for us.”, explains the businessman. Statement which contradicts a previous interview with New York Times saying he agreed with the demands of SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and the union’s chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.
Unfortunately, the cancellation of project releases is not the only consequence of studio policy. This is accompanied by mass layoffs and significant financial losses in order to restore economic balance. Over the course of 2022, this complete restructuring cost a whopping $2.9 billion. David Zaslav fully assumes responsibility: “We decided we had to be brave.”
He explains that a film with a budget of 100 million dollars requires an additional expenditure of 30 to 40 million dollars just for its promotion. For the CEO, the cancellation of certain projects was a matter of necessity: “When we see the state of our studio today, we had to make these decisions. It took courage” he declares. Batgirl, Scoob! Holiday Hauntwhich was to present the youth of the characters of Scooby Doo, And Coyote VS Acme thus suffer the consequences of the merciless law of the market.
Batgirl: “Everything is gone. On the server, everything was blocked. There was no way to access the movie!”
