Imagine having a movie nearly finished, only for it to be pulled from release for financial reasons – welcome to Warner Bros.' world, where tax breaks seem to outweigh audience interest.
Do you remember the story of how Pixar accidentally deleted Toy Story 2 with no backup, and the only reason the movie was saved was that an employee had a copy at home for her child? Or the buried copies of the E.T. game in the New Mexico desert that were only discovered and leaked decades later? Stories like these are fascinating. But in Warner Brothers' case, the reason you’re not going to see their latest film is far less exciting and much more calculated – taxes. Here's everything you need to know about the strange case.
Coyote vs. Acme: The Big Delete
Warner Bros. is at it again – this time, taking down the hungriest coyote in film history. Coyote vs. Acme, a live-action/animation hybrid starring Will Forte, was supposed to be dead and buried. But after a test screening full of praise, the filmmakers were allowed to shop it around. Netflix, Amazon, and Paramount showed interest – but Warner wanted a ridiculous $75–80 million. Too much, even for streaming giants. In the already released trailer, we saw that in the movie the Coyote is suing Acme, the company that sold him their products which have repeatedly failed to help him stop the Road Runner. Seems like this court fight was lost before it even started.
The movie cost about 70 million, and the basic rule is that marketing has the same budget as production. So, the movie needs to make about 140 million to break even. But if they don't release it, they can write off the 70 million as a loss, which reduces their profit and leads to them having to pay 30 million dollars less in taxes. That's why it's not going to be released — because the movie needed to break even and, on top of that, make an additional 30 million, making it as profitable as pressing Alt+Delete. Warner Brothers' ethical responsibility towards the hundreds of artists who... this author is an economics major, so I don't know what you're mumbling about.
Creature of Habit
Warner Brothers has made a habit of teasing audiences with movies only to put them so far up on the shelf that they’ll never reach them. The 90 million dollar production Batgirl is another example of this. But this time, the film never stood a chance, as there were still scenes left to be filmed and visual effects to be added. However, Warner Brothers saw enough in the early cut and decided to stop production and never release it – again, for tax reasons.
Even Shaggy's best friend, Scooby-Doo himself, is not safe from being shelved. An animated movie called Scoob! Holiday Haunt, set to be released in December 2022, was never released, as Discovery stated that they wanted to cut costs and focus solely on theatrical films instead of those being produced for streaming.
For us mortals, it’s both, but for the Coyote, it seems like death may not be certain, but taxes certainly are.
Would you like to see those films, and would you have acted the same way if you were Warner Brothers' CEO? Tell us in the comments!