10 Dumbest Reasons Movies Got Cancelled
7. Warner Bros.' Tax Break - Batgirl
It has been a time of upheaval and change within the realms of DC movies in recent years, and not just thanks to James Gunn and Peter Safran taking charge of things. The appointment of David Zaslav as CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery saw the cancellation of Batgirl, in spite of the movie being almost completed.
Set to premiere on HBO Max rather than in cinemas, and according to Peter Safran being "unreleasable", Batgirl was cancelled as something of a cost-cutting measure. This seems on the face of it a strange decision, considering a reported $90 million budget had already been sunk into production.
The powers that be ultimately made the incredibly unpopular decision to shelve the movie as they believed releasing it would actually result in a loss for the company. Instead, Batgirl was used as a huge tax write-off.
According to a report from Newsweek, the death of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah's Batgirl meant that Warner Bros. could offset the $90 million loss against its income from other releases, subsequently reducing taxable income. It's a sad day when a movie studio decides against releasing a movie that has been 90% completed in favour of a cost-saving loophole. All that time and effort wasted.