{"id":54701,"date":"2022-08-24T07:09:04","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T07:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/hbo-max-is-out-here-canceling-everything-but-for-different-reasons\/"},"modified":"2022-08-24T07:09:04","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T07:09:04","slug":"hbo-max-is-out-here-canceling-everything-but-for-different-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/hbo-max-is-out-here-canceling-everything-but-for-different-reasons\/","title":{"rendered":"HBO Max Is Out Here Canceling Everything \u2014 but for Different Reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Batman: Caped Crusader” is not another “Batgirl,” but it’s another financially motivated decision at a company that desperately needs to make a lot of good ones.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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At HBO Max, the Bat-folk can’t catch a break. Weeks after the decision to kill the effectively completed straight-to-streaming movie \u201cBatgirl,\u201d HBO Max canceled \u201cBatman: Caped Crusader\u201d and \u201cMerry Little Batman,\u201d among four other animated projects. The good news for these six newly scrapped Warner Bros. Animation projects is they are still full steam ahead in production and being shopped elsewhere, a person with knowledge of the situation told IndieWire \u2014 unlike \u201cBatgirl,\u201d which will never see the light of day.<\/p>\n

A second source told IndieWire that HBO Max has made the choice to spend some time away from the kids-and-family sandbox. It’s a crowded and expensive field, and HBO Max isn’t a breakout brand for that type of programming. Disney+ and Netflix will vie for the kids’ market, one with no opportunity for ad revenue \u2014 both made a pledge to let the programming run commercial free \u2014 in the time when AVOD is not only king, but is also the future of the streamers’ plans for revenue growth.<\/p>\n

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Previous HBO Max overseers Jason Kilar and Ann Sarnoff were so dedicated to building then-WarnerMedia’s streaming portfolio that they released Warners’ entire 2021 slate day-and-date on HBO Max, infuriating theater owners and talent alike. That won’t happen under Zaslav, but these new strategies present a similar-but-different charm offensive.<\/p>\n

Production on \u201cBatman: Caped Crusader\u201d is \u201cfar along,\u201d the first person who spoke to for this story told us, and it is \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d at animation tables and within edit bays and the voiceover studio. Though HBO Max no longer wants these six projects, it is the sister studio’s prerogative to see production through and pitch them to other networks and streamers. Any landing pad will be outside of the sizeable Warner Bros. Discovery umbrella, we’re told. Think: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu.<\/p>\n

There will \u201clikely\u201d be more of this sort of external licensing to other platforms, a third person told IndieWire for this story \u2014 but to suggest Warner Bros. is shifting toward a seller-first model (see: Sony), the person said, would be inaccurate and overstated: \u201cPlenty to go around and we can still keep all the stuff we need.\u201d While Warner Bros. Discovery has a lot of platforms, apparently it has even more content.<\/p>\n