This week’s biggest news story in the entertainment industry, it was revealed last night that upcoming movies Batgirl and Scoob!: Holiday Haunt have been completely shelved by the David Zaslav-run Warner Bros. Discovery, despite both films nearing completion and over $100 million already spent to get them there. With Zaslav in control of Warner Bros., sweeping changes to current and future plans are being made, and this impacts upcoming horror films including Evil Dead Rise and Salem’s Lot, the latter of which was just bumped to next year.

There’s no telling what’s coming next from Warner Bros. Discovery, but the plot has thickened today with the news that several HBO Max Originals have been pulled from HBO Max. Variety first reported the news that Indiewire has now confirmed with more info, and included in the mix is the 2020 HBO Max remake of Roald Dahl’s The Witches, starring Anne Hathaway.

Variety had reported earlier today, “Within the past few weeks, at least six Warner Bros. movies have been removed from HBO Max.” Those titles that have disappeared include:

• Moonshot
• Superintelligence
• The Witches
• An American Pickle
• Locked Down
• Charm City Kings

So what’s going on here? Indiewire’s report this afternoon suggests, “A person with knowledge of the decision told IndieWire the six movies in question are part of a long list of films and series being pulled off HBO Max and Discovery+ as Warner Bros. Discovery executives prepare to turn two SVOD (subscriber video on-demand) services into one.”

Indiewire adds, “The content being targeted for removal tends to be shows and movies that are not performing on the service but have an opportunity for a partial write off.”

“Content costs can be amortized — or assigned a cost that gets recognized by an entity across multiple years — over the program or film’s expected lifetime. If years on that timeline remain, a company can remove that asset from distribution and use its remaining cost balance to offset taxable income elsewhere,” the website’s report further explains and clarifies.

In other words, now that David Zaslav is in charge he’s looking to cut costs wherever he can, with more films expected to be removed and more WB changes expected to be made.

Stay tuned for more on this developing madness as we learn it.

If you’re looking to stream HBO Max’s The Witches (2020), you’re still able to rent the film on VOD platforms including Amazon. And it’s now available physically on DVD as well.