Ooooh, they’re writing off Batgirl and the Scooby Doo movies for tax purposes, not due to the quality of the movies themselves… Meaning that they legally would never be able to show the films to anyone ever again.
…
Well that’s stupid, but unsurprising considering both films were greenlit by the previous heads of the company and how the new guy in charge is all about cutting costs. So rather than risking loosing the combined $130 million or so at the box office it took to make both movies, they’re writing them off to prevent a potential loss… I guess?
It’s just so sad for the cast and crew though!
Accountant: Amazing…under the right circumstances a production company could make more money by NOT releasing a film…
Warner Brothers: You keep saying that…you haven’t said HOW
Account: Well, let’s assume for a moment that you are a dishonest man
Warner Brothers: ASSUME AWAY
This is just infuriating.
Hundreds of people spent years of their lives on these films, and they’re being killed for an accounting trick. It doesn’t matter if they’re bad, that’s an act of vandalism. This is ethically the same as commissioning as burning a Rembrandt for the insurance money.
Plus now all the directors have “made a movie so bad it was cheaper to not release it” hanging around their necks, and no way to tell if its true or not.
The toy and merch deals are now worthless, and that stuff has already been manufactured, so that’s more wasted resources and effort from creatives, and unlike Warner Brothers, Spin Master isn’t going to be seeing this as a win. The only winners there will be Big Lots and Five Below.
Something needs to be done about Hollywood accounting.