Despite movie-canceling spree, Warner Bros. is spending a fortune on Joker 2

For a studio that can’t release a Looney Tunes movie because they make more money throwing it away, Warner Bros. isn’t acting like they are billions in the hole. Per Variety, Warner Bros. is spending like they won a class action against the ACME company on Joker 2 and projects from Paul Thomas Anderson and Bong Joon-ho as well as create in roads with Tom Cruise and Quentin Tarantino. This spending spree probably has something to do with the fact that Warner Bros. Discovery will likely merge with another major media conglomerate, like Paramount or NBCUniversal, to test the anti-trust laws America routinely forgets to enforce.

Over the last few years, but more specifically after Discovery purchased WB and sat CEO David Zaslav at the head of the table, axing completed movies like Batgirl and Coyote Vs. ACME, because the tax incentives were too tantalizing, many assumed WB would become studio non-grata. That hasn’t been the case because the studio is spending gobs of money on projects audiences want to see and artists want to join. Nevertheless, budgets are ballooning. Joker: Folie A Deux, Variety reports, cost a staggering $200 million and probably isn’t even the musical that many convinced themselves it is. A good chunk of that budget went to its stars, Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, who play a pair of scary clowns in the movie and were paid $20 million and $12 million, respectively, for their trouble. To be clear, the billion-dollar grossing, Oscar-winning original cost roughly $60 million.

Warner Bros. also wants to lure Tom Cruise back into Oscar-caliber performances again. Before Oprah’s couch, Tom Cruise was an auteur’s dream, putting that righteous commitment toward artistically-driven material or high-minded blockbusters. Post-couch, Tom has retreated into the world of trying to kill himself on screen for our amusement. To catch a Cruise, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy have been discussing an Edge Of Tomorrow sequel and an attempt to secure Quentin Tarantino’s The Movie Critic for Cruise to star in. Both are a resounding “Yes, please” from us, but nothing is secured. Tarantino’s film does not yet have a distributor, and Warners will compete with every other studio in Hollywood, including Sony, which released Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood in 2019.

Additionally, the studio is very hot on the idea of getting Cruise and his Magnolia director, Paul Thomas Anderson (which, again, yes, please). The studio spent $115 million on Anderson’s latest. Far be it from us to stop Warner Bros from making a $115 million Paul Thomas Anderson movie, but economically, it makes no sense because Anderson’s movies don’t make that much money. More confusing still, the studio dropped $150 million on Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17, a movie they delayed once and are now dumping in January, signaling to everyone that Bong’s Parasite follow-up is not an Oscar contender for the studio. Variety claims De Luca and Abdy aren’t “pumped” on the movie. Warners claims there is “enthusiasm” for it.

So why is the most notoriously broke and hunting for cash studio taking such fiscally irresponsible and audience-pleasing risks? One insider told Variety that the studio is “playing with other people’s money,” hoping to turn a new Tarantino or Cruise movie into a “shiny object” for the studio’s inevitable sale. All of which checks out. We should probably enjoy this last gasp of Warner Bros. before another entity consumes it, and we’re left with two or three movie studios making music biopics and superhero movies. There’s no business like show business.