Nah, I think it was just Zaslav didnt want any direct to streaming movies. I want to say for most(all?) live action movies they had planned for streaming, they bumped them up to theatrical releases(this, Evil Dead Rise) if they were okish or just used them as a tax write off(Bat girl) if the money needed to upgrade it to a theatrical release wasnt worth it. This was originally pose to come out on streaming in July of last year.
This was an article from August
HBO Max has purged at least six Warner Bros. movies that were exclusively streaming on the service in an apparent cost-cutting move.
variety.com
So I can see WB thinking it was cheap enuff to maybe make a few million in theaters OR they were going to use it as a tax write off but
Lebron fought for it to be released. Either way it wasnt going to be released on Max after Zaslav took over.