Rant #2,949: Bad

I am sure that you have heard that the “Batgirl” movie has been canned, and I mean completely canned, with not even a dumping on the streaming services planned.
 
It won’t go into the theaters at all, and it won’t show up anywhere, even though millions were spent on it.
 
So the public will never get to see this film … how bad can it be?
 
I mean, there have been, through the decades, completely atrocious films that have been released … so why is this one thought to be so bad that it won’t be released anywhere?
 
I guess it has to do with economics.
 
Even the movie business has suffered from the pandemic, like every other business, and they continue to try to cut their losses anywhere they can.
 
Warner Bros. spent upwards of $100 million on this film, and it must really be a dog, because when films get released worldwide, oftentimes some markets dive right into it while others simply don’t … but you would figure that with a worldwide release, the movie might at least make back a good portion of what it cost to make it.
 
But I think that thinking is kind of short-sighted, because even a $100 million movie has to be promoted, so I believe the executives decided that it would never make back not only the $100 million it cost to make it, but whatever residual millions it would have cost to promote it, including the placement of movie ads on TV, in the newspapers and on social media, the transportation of actors and other personnel around the world to sell the film, etc.
 
But you spend $100 million on a movie and don’t even “quietly” release it on the multitude of streaming services that there are?
 
How can a movie be so bad that you can’t even dump it on those sites?
 
I guess to obtain a full tax write-off, the studio can’t release it anywhere, or anywhere where it could generate some money, so looking at every alternative, they just decided to dump it.
 
Other than Michael Keaton—who is one of those actors that is a star and kind of a star at the same time—there really aren’t any major, breakout actors in the film, or at least any actors in there who will draw you to see the movie even if it got zero stars in your local newspaper.
 
I think that Warner Bros. might have also canceled the film because their DC Comics franchise is not doing very well right now, and it might need a reboot.
 
This year’s “Batman” film did pretty well, but nowhere near the numbers of many of the previous movies starring the Caped Crusader.
 
(Personally, I watched the film on HBO Max and thought it was terrible,)
 
The recent Wonder Woman and Superman films have been duds, and I think that the studio believes it needs to re-examine the entire DC franchise, and find out why it is not performing like the Marvel franchise is for Disney.
 
Personally, I think the films have gotten too dark, and is only drawing audiences that would see the films anyway, and would probably have seen “Batgirl” no matter how bad it was.
 
You need a further audience, one that isn’t automatically drawn to a film, to make a blockbuster, and the latest DC films generally have not done that, with a few exceptions.
 
Even with all of those elements added up, to put a $100 million film right into the dumpster is puzzling, because even bad movies can make money, or at least make some money.
 
And that holds true even in these pandemic times.
 
Further, good films can bomb at the box office—look at the remake of “West Side Story” for the most recent example of that situation.
 
It received great reviews, it won Oscars, yet audiences stayed away from it in droves.
 
I would imagine that sometime in the future, if one of the lesser known lead actors in “Batgirl” becomes a megastar, Warner Bros. will probably renege on its own decision and finally release the thing as a curiosity, a stepping stone to some megastar’s career, but that won’t happen for a few years, if at all.
 
If I were the studio head, I would probably release this dud with little fanfare, see how it goes, and take it from there.
 
But then you lose the tax write-off, and I guess that is the most important thing about why this film was canned; you release it in any way, shape or form and Uncle Sam will come after you.
 
And I guess that Warner Bros. will lick its wounds and move on from this, re-examine the DC franchise and try to make it the cash cow that it used to be.
 
They saw as it played to test audiences that “Bargirl” wasn’t going to cut it, so they cut it themselves.