If a disaster destroys the factory, it can be a writeoff. But yeah, you can't claim an intact factory as a loss and continue to use it as an asset. Warner Brot

If a disaster destroys the factory, it can be a writeoff. But yeah, you can't claim an intact factory as a loss and continue to use it as an asset. Warner Brothers has made the business decision that the movie is not valuable. Releasing a bad product can do harm to a business, so the movie isn't an asset that can automatically be assumed to have positive value. And there is a cost to releasing a movie, even if minimally marketed, there's opportunity cost if nothing else to getting it out the door. Right or wrong, it's their decision to make that their investment has more value as a writeoff. They just can't write it off and then change their mind and decide to release it next year. (Unless they amend the return that declared it a writeoff.)