Rather, studios typically use test screenings as tools to figure out how to improve a movie, not to decide whether it should exist or not.
The group overseen by HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys is cutting 70 employees, or 14% of staff, which includes the drawdown of Max’s reality TV operations.īut killing “Batgirl” came across as ruthless, especially after reports citing sources who said that the movie was shelved in part because of its quality. Zaslav’s team is seeking $3 billion in total cost savings from the merger, and employees are bracing for hundreds of layoffs. studio earlier this year, and that such efforts would involve mothballing projects greenlit during the much-maligned AT&T era. Discovery CEO David Zaslav would look for cost savings after taking over the 99-year-old Warner Bros. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Warner Bros. Rather than spend the money that would be needed to beef up “Batgirl” with reshoots and market it for theaters, the company scrapped it in favor of a tax write-off. “Batgirl” was in postproduction and carried a $90-million budget - not at a scale grand enough for theaters, but also financially nonsensical as a streaming-only release, in the eyes of the corporate overlords. Discovery’s highly unusual decision to shelve the movie “Batgirl” was the most dramatic example yet of how the recent company maneuvering is disrupting artists. He also consulted briefly on “Gordita Chronicles.” “The mandates have changed very rapidly and seem to continually change as streaming becomes the new broadcast television.” “It’s just an avalanche of mysterious decisions,” said Mike Royce, a writer and producer known for the canceled Netflix reboot of “One Day at a Time,” in an interview. In this age of constant change, creators are constantly having to reevaluate their strategies for deciding which shows they’ve got in the works should be pitched to which studios. (Laura Magruder / HBO Max Unsplash photo illustration by Nicole Vas / Los Angeles Times) “When things shift, the reaction tends to be, ‘Oh, no!’” said one film agent who did not want to be named discussing private business. Agents have been getting calls from anxious clients as they try to navigate the landscape. They say they’re just getting more disciplined about the kinds of shows and movies they choose to bankroll.Ībrupt shifts in “programming focus” have left showrunners and producers wondering what the future might bring for their own projects.
It’s worth noting that streaming services aren’t cutting spending on content, per se. An HBO Max spokesperson said: “Live-action kids and family programming will not be part of our programming focus in the immediate future, and as a result, we’ve had to make the very difficult decision to end ‘Gordita Chronicles’ at HBO Max.”
In late July, HBO Max canceled “Gordita Chronicles,” a series created by Claudia Forestieri about a young Dominican girl coming of age in Miami, a little more than a month after the show debuted. It’s also sudden shifts in programming strategy that are turning promising shows into castoffs. And it’s not just budgetary concerns that are throwing creators for a loop. Abrams’ ambitious “Demimonde.”Īfter the bender comes the hangover, and it’s the talent - filmmakers, writers, showrunners, actors and below-the-line workers - who are feeling queasy.
Discovery axed direct-to-streaming movies such as “Batgirl” and “Scoob! Holiday Haunt” and ditched shows like J.J. Netflix is slowing down its “cost growth” as its subscriber counts plateau and revenues decelerate, holding its content spending steady at a still-huge $17 billion annually. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.ĭuring the first several years of the streaming wars, media companies and studios were willing to spend whatever it took to compete in the business of making films and TV shows for digital subscribers.īut as subscription increases start to slow down, Hollywood is entering a new phase of its streaming revolution one of relative restraint and conservatism.
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