Batgirlgetting canceledmade everyone angry, from the actors to the fans, which makes a lot of sense. Everyone was excited, and it hit all the right notes to get audiences pumped for an upcoming film.DCEUhad reliable directors on board, Michael Keaton returning as Batman, and a popular superhero no one’s ever seen on the big screen before. And from a fan’s perspective, there are plenty of reasons thatBatgirlshould have been released. But believe it or not,Batgirlgetting canceled is a good thing.
There are plenty of reasons that Warner Bros. Discovery’s new CEO David Zaslav gave for cancelingBatgirl.There’s the tax write-off, the poor scores on test screenings, and reorganizing the company’s strategy with HBO Max.IGNwill show you how there’s an argument against every one of these excuses, as they really wanted to see the film, but what about the big picture? We all know that DC hasn’t made the greatest films for a long time now.Batgirlmight have been profitable and even covered its own production costs. But would the film have saved the DCEU? Signs point to no, and that’s what Zaslav is trying to do.
Quality Over Quantity
David Zaslav has come into his new position cutting costs out of Warner Bros. Discovery left and right. He put a stop to the plannedWonder Twinsmovie before it even got out of the gate and has been keeping hold of spending with an iron fist. And maybe for the fans, it’s not such a good thing. But people should remember to ask themselves: would they rather see a bad movie with their favorite character right now or wait a year and see a better film? Zaslav is reorganizingWarner Bros. Discoveryin a big way, and it could mean good things for the DCEU.
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Before the merger, Warner Bros. had a reputation for producing mediocre films.Justice League, Batman VS. Superman,and theFantastic Beastsmovies all did poorly at the box office, and none of them were received well by the critics. It just became an expectation to see a subpar film from one of these studios to the point where many fans stopped going to see them. Zaslav is in the middle of an attempt to reorganize the company to make better, more profitable films.Morbiuswas panned, but it still made a profit.Batgirlmight have gone the same way, but what’s important to remember is that mediocre profits don’t do it for a company this big. If they want to compete with the MCU when it comes to superhero films, they can’t keep making them just to cover costs.
Clearly, Zaslav’s excuses still put the company in the red when it comes toBatgirl. The tax loss won’t negate the entire cost of the movie, and it’s nearly impossible to calculate in dollars how beneficial a single film is on a streaming platform. But better perhaps to cull this movie from the herd to show that quality is what matters now.
Taking a Cue from Marvel with a Ten-Year Plan
CancelingBatgirlrepresents the turning of a new leaf in Warner Bros. Discovery. The company is now really trying to make itself better than meager profits.IGNquoted Zaslav making a statement at a quarterly meeting:
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“We’re not going to release any film before it’s ready. We’re not going to release a film to make a quarter, we’re not going to release a film — the focus is going to be, how do we make each of these films, in general, as good as possible. But DC is something that we think we could make better, and we’re focused on it now,”
This sounds like a reasonable position to take. Things may be difficult while the change is in process, but hopefully, in the long term, it will turn out for the better.
The key idea to take away from this is the quality of films fans will be getting. If nothing else,Batgirl’s cancellation should serve as a warning to all those attempting to make another movie at Warner Bros. Discovery. Since creators know they could be rebuked, whatever happened before with DC movies might not happen again. Taking an approach to superhero films similar to howMarvel works in a ten-year plancould improve an audience experience.
Previously, Batman would be rebooted every ten years or so. But now, a cogent, long-term narrative, joining several of the films together will make stories more exciting. After all, that is how the comics work. It really comes down to quality and whether DC fans can patiently await the company’s reorganization to get better films.
