Those screenings reportedly indicated that the movie would be a flop in theaters, andWarner‘sWBD -16.53%new top brass thus decided that a tax write-off would be more valuable than putting it on its HBO Max streaming service. The company previously known for its vast slate of reality shows got even more real on Thursday. Warner also revised down the combined subscriber count for its HBO Max and Discovery+ services by about 10 million, citing factors like unactivated accounts fromAT&T‘sT 0.44%wireless business. Chief Executive David Zaslav said Warner “cannot find an economic case” for releasing an expensive movie direct to streaming. But that isn’t expected until after the company combines its HBO Max and Discovery+ services into one offering, which it plans to start rolling out next summer.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 05, 2022 20:50 UTC