Written By Mikey Sutton • Editor-in-Chief • Owner
Warner Bros Discovery could cancel the Black Canary film. After shelving Batgirl, Black Canary might find itself in a similar position. Like Batgirl, Black Canary is a movie intended exclusively for HBO Max. Granted, the studio nearly switched Batgirl to a theatrical release.
In the end, WBD decided it wasn’t good enough. Instead, they turned the movie into a $90 million tax write-off that the public will never see.
Sources tell me that Warner Bros. Discovery hasn’t made a final decision on Black Canary yet.
Warner Bros Discovery Might Cancel Black Canary Movie
Image: Warner Bros.
Nonetheless, the old Warner Bros. regime that greenlit Black Canary has exited the company. In fact, WBD replaced DC Films with DC Studios. The Suicide Squad director James Gunn and Peter Safran run DC Studios. However, whether Black Canary moves forward depends on WBD CEO David Zaslav. But on WBD’s Q3 earnings call, Zaslav revealed he doesn’t want to produce movies for exclusively for HBO Max.
He explained:
We learned what doesn’t work. And this is what doesn’t work for us based on everything that we’ve seen: direct-to-streaming movies. So spending a billion dollars or collapsing a motion picture window into a streaming service. The movies that we launch in theater do significantly better, and launching a 2-hour, 40-minute movie direct to streaming has done nothing for HBO Max in terms of viewership, retention or love of the service.
In other words, that doesn’t sound promising for Black Canary. After all, Zaslav has refocused Warner Bros. Discovery for theatrical releases. Zaslav already proved this with Batgirl. Given that, Black Canary could end up on the junk pile as well before it even gets going.
Warner Bros Discovery Might Cancel Black Canary Movie
Image: Warner Bros.
Still, what about Matt Reeves’ The Batman TV spin-offs? Those are TV series and not films. Therefore, they’ll have smaller budgets. In addition, the Penguin’s show connects to a movie that earned $770.8 million worldwide.
On the other hand, Jurnee Smollett’s Black Canary debuted in the box-office disappointment Birds of Prey. While they could change Black Canary into an HBO Max show instead, is the audience there for it?
That’s one of the big questions facing DC Studios as they just opened their doors.