it was released i think same day on the hbo max streaming service and i think the producers thought it hurt their box office numbers and cost them big time
I had to look it up, it was the last WB film to be simultaneously released on HBO Max. At the time the Omicron variant of COVID was the big thing, here in the UK they were considering another lockdown and facemasks were compulsory in public spaces (including cinemas).
You can imagine that people at Village Roadshow might have been resentful, because had the film been delayed again or even just kept off streaming, it likely would have made more - from Wikipedia:
"According to Samba TV, the film was streamed in 2.8 million households over its first five days of release.[107] Over the same period, it received the most unauthorized downloads of any feature, making up 32.6% of torrents"
Part of the problem was that the film didn't get an international streaming release - HBO Max is only available in a limited number of countries (tbh, I'm not sure that it wasn't USA only at the time). Again, from a UK perspective, the film got a theatrical release, but if you wanted to see the film but didn't want to go to the cinema and risk either COVID or just didn't want to wear a mask, then the only way to watch it was to download it illegally.
So, I think Village Roadshow has reasons to believe that WB's decision release the film with HBO would have hit their bottom line.
It was probably even more damaging for this film because by the time the world could pay to stream it, everybody knew that the film wasn't going to be one that would be bothering many top ten lists.
variety.com
