Warner Bros. Says Its Done with Canceling Movies and TV Shows

Warner Bros. had a crazy 2022 after being taken over by Discovery as it was followed by a mass spree of cancelations of movies and TV shows. There was a lot of confusion and frustration over the decisions that CEO David Zaslav and his executive team were making.

Some of the big cancelations included Batgirl and Scoob!, and then there were shows like Westworld and The Time Traveler’s Wife that were also shut down. On top of that, there were lots of shows removed from HBO Max. Westworld, The Nevers, and Raised By Wolves will be moving to ad-supported streaming services, while others, including several hundred episodes of Looney Tunes and The Flintstones, have been removed completely.

Well, Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels has now announced that they are done with canceling movies and shows and that they are now looking to grow the business instead of gut it. He recently shared at Citi’s 2023 Communications, Media & Entertainment Conference, per Variety:

"We took a little bit of time to make sure that we do it properly. For some of the titles, we’ve found new homes elsewhere. That’s why this took six or seven months. But I think we’ve come to great solutions and, most importantly, we’re done with that chapter."

It’s explained that following the acquisition of WarnerMedia by Discovery, the company had to cut $3 billion in costs. By the end of 2022, that had risen to $3.5 billion, which led to even more cuts.

But, they’re done with that chapter and looking to move forward and focus on building up the company and a big part of that will include what James Gunn and Peter Safran are planning for DC Studios.