A V Club
Warner Bros & Jonah Hill Deny “Cut Off” Unreleaseable
By William Hughes
June 28, 2026
As far as epithets for Hollywood movies go, “unreleasable” is pretty close to the bottom of the barrel. Sure, Warner Bros. has flirted a bit in recent years with the fiscal value of not putting out movies—thus converting its whole business model into a sort of tax-agnostic cinematic warehouse—but releasing movies is generally viewed as a good way for these companies to make the large stacks of money they require to continue operating. (There’s only so much revenue to be harvested from meme-generating novelty popcorn buckets, apparently.) So when reports started circulating this weekend that Jonah Hill’s latest directorial effort, Cut Off!, was, to use that specific and highly unpalatable word, “unreleasable,” both the studio and the actor/director started pushing back.
This all sources back to Hollywood journalist/The Studio cameo guy Matt Belloni, who included in his most recent Puck dispatch a single line about Hill’s directorial follow-up to this April’s Outcome: “Alas, Warners had scheduled a Jonah Hill-Kristen Wiig comedy, Cut Out, for July 17, but that movie is said to be unreleasable and is now not scheduled.” The latter part, at least, was true: The film was recently moved off of the company’s July release schedule—where it was going to be fed directly into the maw of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey—and has yet to pick up a new date. But Warner Bros. has now been forced to issue a statement to The Wrap pushing back on the whole “unreleasable” bit, saying, “That speculation is inaccurate.” Meanwhile, a representative for Hill made similar statements, saying that the film (which reportedly wrapped back in January) simply got moved off its current schedule spot because it’s still in post-production. A Warner Bros. source says a new release date is forthcoming.
It feels worth noting, in light of all this, that neither critics nor audiences particularly liked Outcome, which starred Keanu Reeves as a Hollywood star facing the terrifying prospect of being canceled. Cut Out, meanwhile, will once again be a multi-hyphen job from Hill, who both wrote and directed in addition to starring with Wiig as the kids of two mega-rich parents (Nathan Lane and Bette Midler) who have to fend for themselves after their parents stop paying for their lifestyles.
I still have high hopes for this movie. Jonah kinda burned it for himself by referring to it as a “stupid comedy”, which probably wasn’t the wisest thing to say. However, “stupid” comedies make a lot of money at the box office, and this one has promise. For example, Stepbrothers, Dumb and Dumber, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Anchorman all earned about $100 mil at the box office. Bridesmaids earned $170 mil, and Wedding Crashers grossed over $200 mil. Clueless and Dude, Where’s My Car pulled in 5-7x more than their budget at the box office. Cut Off’s budget is $49 mil. Maybe we’re waiting for the Warner Brothers/Paramount merger to go through?? That could be interesting, as David Ellison is a huge Trump supporter and Bette is (cough, cough) definitely not. In any event, even if it decides to go straight to streaming, it will most likely land at HBO/Max, and I bet it will perform well. Since Warners is promising to provide an update soon, I have a feeling we’ll still be able to see it this year, if no later than this upcoming January. Of course, I know nothing, just my opinion.
Interestingly, the advance screening for this movie was on Feb. 13, and I gleaned through the websites to find out what kind of feedback it was getting. No mention of Bette, but I’ve copied and posted a blog discussion between “Yahcob” who saw Cut Off at the advance screening, and Neely O’Hara, an interested individual:
Yahcob
2 months ago edited
Huh. I went to that test screening and people seemed to be laughing and enjoying it moderately enough. It needed some trimming but wasn’t bad…certainly not bad enough that it needed drastic reshoots, cancellation, or a January dump.
Neely O’Hara Yahcob
2 months ago
Did you laugh and enjoy it moderately enough?
Yahcob Neely O’Hara
2 months ago
Yes, I thought it was quite funny for the most part. It’s the kind of insane, unabashedly stupid comedy that we don’t see much of anymore. It felt very mid-2000s.
Neely O’Hara Yahcob
2 months ago
I enjoy a good stupid comedy as long as it doesn’t lean too far into the 45 year old boy genre of toilet humor and immaturity.
Yahcob Neely O’Hara
2 months ago
I mean, it kinda does. It’s in the vein of something like Dude Where’s My Car or Anchorman. Granted, the premise is very much about 45-year-old children who have no idea how to function in society, and they do point this out and acknowledge it.
Neely O’Hara Yahcob
2 months ago
This premise has been done dozens of times. If the cast has chemistry, it might work for me.
Okay, well “Steps” sounds absolutely amazing–can’t wait until Thanksgiving. I read that Bette’s voiceovers resemble an “old, Jewish grandmother,” and she came to the sessions extremely professional and prepared. I’m hoping that we get updates on Hocus Pocus 3 soon–at least as far as the cast is concerned. I’m willing to bet that they’re trying to get and integrate some of the original cast (like Omri, Vinessa, Thora), which, of course, takes time, but also can change the narrative of the script and the direction the film is going.
Peace Out!
P.S. Mister D., you are on overdrive with all your amazing posts! You get my vote, as always, for Man of the Year!
As always, what a great post chock-filled with info. Where do you go to find out info on when screenings are and then the audience comments. What kind of questions should I be asking my little laptop. I enjoyed that. Anyway, good to hear from you. Feel free to write anytime. Love, D
Well, my searches are not nearly as sophisticated or as thorough as yours; but this is what I do:
1) For the screening, I google searched “Cut Off Advance Screening” and went through all the links that popped up. There are a few websites that handle advance screenings all the time like “gofobo.com”, “advancescreenings.com”, etc. For Cut Off there is also “wbtickets.com” which is the Warner Bros. site for upcoming movies. I have a feeling since the movie has gone from “competed” status back to “post-production” status, that there might be future advance screenings, as the final finishing touches are made to the movie. Oddly enough, some sites such as boxofficemojo.com and movieinsider.com still have the movie scheduled for a July 17 release date. Originally, the movie was also going to be released around the same time in Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, UK, France, Brazil, Spain, Mexico and others. When this happens, the worldwide gross is frequently double what the U.S. domestic gross is. If Cut Off gets a theatrical release, an international audience could really help pull in the $$$dollars$$$. That’s the power of Warner Brothers!
2) As for the audience comments, I have you to thank for that! You posted an article from “World of Reel”, when it was announced that Cut Off was being pulled from the July release calendar. “World of Reel” is like a reddit forum for the movie community. Hollywood/movie news are posted on the site daily, and at the end of each article there is the option to provide feedback. When it comes to movie and celebrity news, it seems like a lot of people want to always chime in. So, I went to the article directly on the “World of Reel” site, and saw there were over 100 comments/feedback on Cut Off, most of them being rather negative about Jonah Hill (things like “I liked him better when he was fat and funny”, “he’s gotten to be too full of himself”, etc.) About a third of the way down the comments, I found the thread from Yahcob, who went to the February advance screening.
In any event, I’m happy to participate to the discussion in any way I can. Like Bruce, bootlegbetty is my addiction (and favorite waste of time, lol). Kudos, to you, always, for all that you do!
Thank you so much for getting back to me. I needed a few more sites to add to my collection lol That will be fun for me. Always love when you write! D