Discovery Won’t Be Content To Let Warner Bros Or HBO Maintain Status Quo

When Discovery and WarnerMedia merged, a shake-up was obvious. Two of the largest media companies in the U.S. coming together was bound to pose challenges, but the way Discovery and CEO David Zaslav had previously done business also seemed directly opposed to how WarnerMedia approached things.

As Discovery built a cable empire on lower-cost reality TV and family programming, WarnerMedia has spent big with varying levels of success. But for every questionable outcome — especially around various film properties in the DC Comics universe or others — there are success stories to balance them out. The company controls Batman’s lucrative media rights and found a way to make over $1 billion at the box office with Aquaman not too long ago, while HBO and HBO Max continue to churn out hits at a rate that keep them in good standing with both consumers and critics alike.

Warner’s successes are not without cost, though, and those costs were in Zaslav’s crosshairs when he revealed he’d cut $3 billion to streamline the new Warner Bros. Discovery machine. We already saw how quickly he was willing to harpoon CNN+ despite the time and money thrown at its promotion and development. And this week started to provide even more hints about how Warner Bros. and HBO could be handled differently under the new regime.

The New York Post reported on Tuesday that the Batgirl movie, which was slated for HBO Max and already had at least $70 million spent on it, would not be released on streaming or in theaters. Another HBO Max-bound film, Scoob!: Holiday Haunt (a Scooby-Doo film) was also axed $40 million into the project.

Variety indicates that while cancelling projects with this much money already invested is rare, it’s part of a shift in approach by leadership back to theatrical releases for films. On paper, it makes sense given the larger budgets usually associated with theatrical releases over streaming shows or most direct-to-streaming movies. But HBO had also seen a ton of success during the pandemic by putting its theatrical releases on HBO Max.

The strategy, which was questioned initially, wound up being a major boost for the streaming service as a differentiation point. And it helped aid a pitch on quality of programming first and foremost as competitors like Netflix were (then) selling volume.

It’s yet to be seen if these are the only projects in production that will be cancelled, but the abrupt end for Batgirl has DC Comics fans concerned about what else could be next. Warner Bros. Discovery’s approach seems to indicate that planned theatrical releases should appear there as planned (though we’ll see what happens to the beleaguered The Flash movie which was already pushed from November 2022 to June 2023).

But what about DC movies like Blue Beetle, Black Canary and Zatanna, which were all slated for HBO Max-exclusive releases in 2023?

With some time until those projects appear, there’s a chance they could be salvaged for theatrical release or pivoted into series. The potential scaling down of superhero-related projects for Warner Bros. Discovery does come at an interesting juncture though, as chief competitor Marvel just unveiled a slew of new series and movies at San Diego Comic-Con, and the studio will be leaning heavily on streaming shows to help build toward major tentpole movies — including two highly-anticipated Avengers titles in 2025.

Not to be too dramatic, but does this indicate that Warner Bros. Discovery is basically conceding the superhero “war” for streaming and box office attention to Marvel parent company Walt Disney Co.?

That’s palatable, perhaps, if it has alternatives — especially on streaming. DC’s series timeline isn’t as built out as Marvel’s, but it could still keep momentum with well-crafted spinoff shows on HBO Max around characters like Catwoman (something that was already hinted at). HBO will also be leaning heavily on Game of Thrones’ intellectual property, with at least seven spinoff shows in development right now, plus the highly anticipated House of the Dragon series appearing later in August.

These shows don’t come cheap, though. House of the Dragon comes in at just under $20 million per episode and other effects-heavy series could land in similar ranges. While a 10-episode season keeps eyeballs on a streaming service for longer than a movie would, that’s still a budget on par with a blockbuster theatrical release. How long will HBO be allowed to invest like that, especially if audiences aren’t similar to what Game of Thrones saw at its height?

Whether it happens gradually or all at once, we’re going to see an adjusted approach for Warner Bros. Discovery when it comes to streaming and movie releases. Cuts like this week’s could be first glimpses of how the combined firm operates going forward. And if recent removals of streaming-exclusive movies (which the company already owns) from HBO Max are any indication, expect more changes that attempt to strictly define what both Warner Bros. and HBO are in the eyes of Zaslav and his leadership team.

[Update since publishing this story: Rumors appeared on Wednesday that there are plans to merge Discovery+ and HBO Max… which would likely lead to further consolidation of people and content on the services]