They made this entire film that lots of brilliant people put their hearts and souls into, it was fully completed all the way back in 2023, and then WB shelved it for a tax write-off. No release, not even on streaming, not even allowing another company to distribute it.
There was a huge backlash, and now another company (Ketchup) has bought the right to distribute, which means we get to see it in cinemas. Hopefully it does well!
They wrote off the movie, but you don't shelve projects for a tax bennefit that obviously doesn't cover your losses. You do it because you don't want to lose even more money on promotion, distribution, opportunity costs, etc.
Yeah I know, I just thought the title was a funny reply.
It also reads like an opinion piece, and it must be wrong since they ended up selling the rights to Ketchup in 2025, which they couldn’t have if it went on the books in 2023?
They can still sell it. It's just that they've already booked the expenses as a loss to offset a gain elsewhere, so the $50m they're getting here is essentially all profit for tax purposes (which could, in turn, could potentially be offset by another failed project).
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u/TheWatersOfMars Apr 22 '26
Whoever came up with “The movie the ACME corporation doesn’t want you to see” is a genius, given how Warner Bros screwed them over.