Warner Bros. Steps On A Rake (September 2024 Edition)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2ug6inhalItdr5nXVqIQUk?si=YxZ8xfNiR1O6SczMXMsZkw

Well it's a day that ends in Y so Warner Brothers has made yet another boneheaded decision. In this case, they took the easiest of easy slam dunks and somehow managed to botch the theatrical release of Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story.

For those unfamiliar, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is a documentary about the life and legacy of Christopher Reeve. It was independently produced and was a major hit at the Sundance Film Festival. Warner Brothers acquired the film for $15 million and then told exhibitors at Cinemacon that the film would be getting a major release. Fast forward to, well now, and the movie hit theaters today for the first day of its two-day special engagement through Fathom Events.

Now let me just be clear, Warner Brothers was likely not going to make back $15 million in the theatrical run of a documentary. There have only been 23 documentaries that have grossed more than $15 million, none of which have been in the post-pandemic era, and the only biographical one was Won't You Be My Neighbor? about Fred Rodgers from 2018. It's hard to say that a documentary could reasonably expect to make that price tag back but this would be a solid viewership driver for Max and since it's branded as DC Studios, CNN Documentaries, and HBO Documentaries, there is value in potentially devoting time on the terrestrial stations to it. There was probably a calculus that went into this where Fathom Events paid more money than they expected they would make with a theatrical run. I'm not sure what that amount would be but even if it was lets say $5 million, they probably could have made that back pretty easily before using it as a ratings driver elsewhere.

It is the decision to release this film as a Fathom Event that I take issue with. Seeking Mavis Beacon debuted at Sundance this year as well, was picked up by Neon, and was distributed in a limited capacity over a few weeks. Black Ice got an extended theatrical run. Summer of Soul got a major theatrical run (granted it was the summer of 2021) as did Every Body, Who We Are, and Flee. Even that clown Dinesh D'Souza can get a work of fiction masquerading as a documentary to run for multiple weeks. Right now you can go to a theater and watch a "documentary" about Matt Walsh called Am I Racist? which is such a dumb question because the answer is obviously yes.

The point is, I cannot for the life of me figure out why you would make such a big deal about acquiring this documentary, making sure everyone knows it is going theatrical, clearly defining it as the first DC Studios film, and then punting it to a Fathom Event. To make matters worse, this documentary is really well made and almost designed for a theatrical viewing experience which will now be deprived of everyone unless they go September 25th. Could it have had something to do with Reeve's social justice advocacy? The fact that he spoke at the DNC after his injury? Warner Brothers' content has seemed a little on the Caucasian side of things since Zazlov took over, even going so far as to give Costner a lot of time and money to make an expensive multi-part Western that failed. If you look at the 2024 lineup for their major releases, it does look a little like there's definitely a racial preference that Warner Bros. has when it comes to their leads because they are clearly courting a certain type of viewer. That does not jive with the view portrayed of Reeve in this movie which could have been a contributing factor to the limited release.

All that said, go see Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story if you can in a theater, if not on Max when it hits streaming. It's an expertly crafted documentary and worth the time and money to go to a theater for it.

★★★★★