The Best Reasons Warner Bros. Discovery Should Release ‘Batgirl’ In Theaters In 2023

The recently cancelled superhero film Batgirl is a valuable property. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) thinks it looks and feels more like a TV movie than a big-budget feature film, but with a year until it can even hit theaters due to continuity issues with the timing of Michael Keaton’s arrival as the new DCEU Batman in The Flash, there’s plenty of time for WBD to elevate its cinematic scope and release Batgirl in 2023.

Releasing Batgirl means spending money instead of taking a write off. But that’s what betting on yourself is all about in big moments, even if the typical way of doing business is to cast off the plans and victories of your predecessors (the thinking being, “Why invest time and resources under your watch to something that will only gain fame and favor for someone you replaced and are specifically repudiating with your longterm vision and planning?”).

I cannot believe anyone seriously thinks there’s more value in a tax write-off than in releasing a live-action DCEU film featuring a recently returned and beloved Keaton Batman alongside a new younger Bat-centric hero played by pop star and Broadway star Leslie Grace, from the creative team of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah who previously brought us Bad Boys for Life and episodes of the acclaimed Ms. Marvel.

Even if it costs another $20-30 million to finish and spice up the VFX and action sequences, it would be worth the investment to have a completed Batgirl film for theatrical release in 2023, when it can also enjoy coattail effects from The Flash.

Word is that audience reactions to the film were good, contrary to some initial fan rumors and hyperbolic quotes in some outlets. The studio also liked what they saw and expressed a desire to maintain a relationship with the filmmakers and cast, despite the decision to shelve Batgirl as “too big to release on streaming and too small to release in theaters. If $20-30 million is enough to get the film to a theatrical level, then that bypasses the issue of releasing DC IP on streaming without being cost-prohibitive.

The main reason WBD feels it’s too expensive to spend more on Batgirl for theatrical release isn’t the money to complete it and boost the spectacle. The real cost-prohibitive part for WBD is the marketing, which normally adds at least $100 million to the costs for a superhero movie like this (in addition to any money spent on increasing Batgirl’s cinematic suitability). And that’s a fair point. However, the marketing could be treated in a novel way that reduces costs while serving multiple goals.

Instead of a whole separate marketing plan, Batgirl could be marketed within the marketing for The Flash, by adding small teasers for Batgirl into The Flash trailers and ads, with focus on The Flash until that movie releases, and then post-release marketing for The Flash shifts to centering the pitch “and the story continues in Batgirl at Thanksgiving” (for example). Put an extra $40 million into The Flash marketing for inserting Batgirl promotions into it, and make sure to always tie the two films together. That, plus some good online viral marketing to hit overindexing demographics with ads and trailers, would go a long way.

So for an additional $60-70 million, WBD could get Batgirl ready for theatrical release and have a unique new marketing approach for The Flash and Batgirl together. That’s a total investment in Batgirl of about $150+ million for production and marketing, which is extremely affordable for a DC bat-related IP.

This approach also serves to further boost interest in The Flash (and provides an additional hero and face to promote, which may be an added benefit depending on how things go with Miller in the promotion phase of pre-release) and promote the DCEU overall, helping maximize the remaining releases under this iteration of the DC characters. Promoting and maximizing this slate is worth the investment to ensure the IP are as good and as successful as possible, regardless of whether this is all the last hurrah or a possible foundation upon which more will be built.

Here is a comparison to consider: When Netflix screened the first two episodes of their Daredevil streaming series to a select group of fans and press, many of us immediately felt they could’ve released what we saw in theaters as a Daredevil origin film and it would be a solid superhero movie that made decent box office. Yes, the production values were vastly lower than a typical superhero feature film, and it lacked IMAX-scale CGI spectacle, but that was part of what made it stand out and feel different, like a superhero movie that lived somewhere in the dark corners of a Martin Scorsese crime thriller. So production values be damned, it was great (and those production values were good enough anyway, it simply looked like a more indie production, w) and could’ve worked well if that’s the route they’d chosen at the time.

Batgirl seems to be in a similar boat in some regards, although the production values are higher than Daredevil’s were, and it includes Batman alongside Batgirl. That’s why I already suspect that whatever concerns WBD bosses have about the quality of the film, audiences care more about whether it’s engaging and engrossing and fun, and we can reward such films generously even if they lack CGI spectacle present in other films.

There’s every reason to think Batgirl could beat Birds of Prey and perform at least closer to Shazam!, in light of coattails and bat-branding. If Batgirl can take a modest $300-350 million at the box office and another $100 million on worldwide home entertainment sales and rentals, then additional merchandising sales would push its revenue toward at least the $500+ million range. That certainly seems like enough to justify a total $150 million investment for production and marketing.

I personally think a good Batgirl film with modest promotion could wind up closer to the $500 million range at the box office with a Thanksgiving holiday release, so I feel the payoff is even bigger than anyone fully appreciates. But this property was already much more heavily anticipated — and was going to enjoy a stronger extra foundational boost from fans — than the studio realized, and I think they continue to underestimate what they’ve got in their hands right now. Plus, the current controversy has actually helped elevate the film’s reputation and increased public awareness.

With total costs of $150 million, the film could in fact perform worse than Birds of Prey and still generate enough revenue to pay for itself and make some profit, besides other value as a DCEU property. And if that happens, it’s a project from the previous administration, and the new leadership merely listened to the loud chorus of fans and press saying “Batgirl should be released.” It won’t lose the studio money, so it’s a safe bet as something that they put more money into for a theatrical release and therefore they can take credit for any benefits it enjoys, yet still mitigate expectations and any underperformance by noting it was a holdover project. It’s a win-win in this regard.

Batgirl already exists. It’s a bat-centric film with Batman in it. It’s a follow-up to the big summer DC tentpole release. It can be released with total costs of $150 million, which includes a very modest and original marketing approach and is a terrific price for such promising IP. Warner Bros. Discovery is making a mistake in shelving the project — Batgirl should be released in 2023, and I hope the studio comes to realize it.