Warner Bros. continues its never-ending saga of shifting tides. Scoob: Holiday Haunt has also been cancelled, after the shocking announcement that WB would not be showing Batgirl in cinemas or on HBO Max, as previously reported by The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. Scoobsequel ! has been cancelled because of the studio’s new concentration on theatrically distributed pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter. A number of WB’s best creatives were enraged by the same-day-and-date hybrid release format used by HBO Max before to the merger and the arrival of new CEO David Zaslav. That’s something from which WB has perhaps yet to fully recover. Amid the pandemic’s peak in mid-2020, Scoob! made $28 million at the global movie office, mainly through VOD.
For WB, it was all it took to get Holiday Haunt greenlit. In light of what we currently know about the sequel, we may estimate that it cost $40 million. Another factor is the film’s cancellation. Along with its theatrical strategy, the studio prioritises “cost-cutting” tactics. HBO Max was supposed to be the exclusive home of Holiday Haunt, but the studio no longer wants to produce expensive shows for the streamer and has been gradually reducing the amount of original programming available on HBO Max.
However, from the film’s perspective, this makes sense because it’s difficult to recoup your investment with such a release approach. However, an animated film’s $40 million budget is about as cheap as it gets. Scoob! was a colourful and enjoyable tribute to Hanna-Barbera, even if it wasn’t the finest version of this well-known cartoon. This is why it’s shocking that the sequel was abandoned, and it’s hard to think that WB couldn’t earn their money back if they pushed the picture to cinemas.
It also featured a strong voice cast, including Zac Efron, Amanda Seyfried, Will Forte, Gina Rodriguez, and Frank Welker. This is a low budget for an animated film, but Scooby-Doo is still a highly sought-after brand more than 50 years after it was first created.
We can only hope that WB now has a more refined vision for the IP. What about a brand-new live-action movie? There’s still a lot of room for improvement there.
Despite its reputation as a family-friendly cartoon, Scooby-Doo has always been more compelling when it deviated from the norm. Bringing back the Zombie Island and Witch’s Ghost vibes that revitalised the series in the late 1990s would be fascinating. Several WB assets have had a difficult year since their merger with Discovery earlier this year. A rising number of television series and films, such as Scooby-Doo: Holiday Haunt, have been announced as being either ending shortly or being scrapped altogether. For the time being, you may watch Scooby-two Doo’s live-action flicks, as well as Scoob!, on HBO Max.