Less than 24 hours after abruptly scrapping both its $90 million “Batgirl” film an a $40 million “Scoob!” sequel, despite both being near completion, Warner Bros. Discovery has again made headlines.
This time shock has given way to confusion as Variety reports that at least six of the fourteen narrative films that first launched on the HBO Max service, so-called ‘Max Originals’, have seemingly being purged from the service in the past few weeks. The removals were first noted by users on Reddit in discussions about the planned “Batgirl” release.
Suddenly absent films include Robert Zemeckis’ “The Witches” remake, the Melissa McCarthy-led “Superintelligence,” the Seth Rogen-led “An American Pickle,” the Cole Sprouse/Lana Condor sci-fi rom-com “Moonshot,” Doug Liman heist film “Locked Down,” and Angel Manuel Soto’s “Charm City Kings”.
Warner Bros. Discovery did not announce the removals with some, such as “Moonshot,” surprisingly abrupt as they only released recently on the service. The absent movies are still available to rent or purchase through third-party VOD services. The remaining eight ‘Max Originals’ films, such as “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” and three Steven Soderbergh-directed efforts, are still available on the HBO Max service.
Indiewire is reporting that according to their sources, this is just the start of a long list of films and series being pulled off the separate HBO Max and Discovery+ SVOD services as Warner Bros. Discovery executives prepare to turn the two into a single service.
The content being pulled is likely content that’s not performing on the service and has an opportunity for a partial write off. In other words, more accounting practices not unlike what went on with “Batgirl”. Things should become clearer tomorrow when Warner Bros. Discovery reports its Q2 earnings, with CEO David Zaslav expected to talk about where the company is going.
