In a Security and Exchange Commission filed this Monday, Warner Bros. Discovery reaches out to Wall Street to show their commitment to cost-cutting and celebrates a tax write-off between $2 billion and $2.5 billion in the July-September quarter. The money was raised by cancelling movies such as Batgirl and shelving TV shows such as Final Space and Infinity Train. Unfortunately, while the document intends to prove how Warner Bros. Discovery is focused on achieving financial stability, it also throws salt in the wounds of hundreds of people fired during the company’s merging process and all the creators whose work will never see the light of day.
WarnerMedia and Discovery merged last April with the promise to trim down costs and get rid of at least $3 billion in debt in the two years following the merger. In order to achieve that goal, the restructuring of both companies under the same roof led to massive layoffs aimed at even high executives of the previous companies. However, the primary victims of the merger have been movies and series, as Warner Bros. Discovery shelves anything they can turn into a tax write-off.
The first movie to fall under Warner Bros. Discovery’s greedy ax was Batgirl, which can never be released, even though it had an initial investment of $90 million. The decision to cancel a big superhero movie in post-production was unprecedented in Hollywood and eventually led the former president of DC Films, Walter Hamada, to abandon the company. Other DC movies cancelled during the merger were Supergirl and Wonder Twins, while series such as Young Justice were not renewed for following seasons. In addition, highly-anticipated animation projects such as Bruce Timm's Batman: Caped Crusader were also cancelled, although there’s hope this animated show will find a new home elsewhere.
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DC is not the only property affected by the merger since Warner Bros. Discovery began to secretively pull movies and series from HBO Max, including Charm City Kings and An American Pickle, trading other people’s hard work for some more bucks in the bank. The cancellation also hit Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, the sequel to 2020's Scoob! And while profit is the rule of business, it’s hard to accept so much content has been swept under the rug and will remain locked in a vault, never to be seen again. And it’s not just content that has been purged, as the company has dismantled entire departments, such as Cartoon Network, in their mad race to please investors. The worst of it all? In the new financial document, Warner Bros. Discovery promises we haven’t seen the last of these cuts. As the document reads:
“While the Company’s restructuring efforts are ongoing, including the strategic analysis of content programming which could result in additional impairments above the estimate provided above, the restructuring initiatives are expected to be substantially completed by the end of 2024.”
At this pace, we wonder if there will be anything left for the company to sell by the end of 2024. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for further developments, and you can expect to read all about it here at Collider.