"Coyote vs. Acme," the $70 million Looney Tunes movie Warner Bros. Discovery quietly destroyed for a tax write-off, opened in theaters this Friday, August 28 and critics say it was worth the three-year fight.
For a while, this movie didn't officially exist. It was finished. It was tested with audiences. And then, in November 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery decided the smartest business move was to shelve it completely and claim a tax loss instead of releasing it the same fate that had already befallen the $90 million "Batgirl."
Fans were furious. Cast members spoke out. Filmmakers who'd spent years on the project went public with their frustration. For a company that owns one of the most recognizable cartoon rivalries on the planet Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner writing off a finished film felt, to a lot of people, like corporate self-sabotage.
Then something unusual happened: the backlash actually worked.
From the Trash Bin to the Big Screen
After rejecting a string of lowball offers, Warner Bros. eventually sold the film's worldwide distribution rights to independent studio Ketchup Entertainment in March 2025, reportedly for around $50 million reportedly beating out bids from Netflix, Amazon, and Paramount. Ketchup had already pulled off a similar rescue mission with "The Day the Earth Blew Up," a Looney Tunes movie that performed well both critically and commercially after a limited theatrical run.
This time, the strategy is bigger: a full nationwide theatrical release, with the film also opening in the UK and Ireland the same weekend. No streaming date has been announced for now, if you want to see it, you have to go to the theater, a deliberate choice for a movie that spent three years unable to be seen anywhere at all.
What the Movie Is Actually About
Directed by Dave Green from a script by Samy Burch (story credit also goes to James Gunn, who produced), the film reimagines Wile E. Coyote's decades of exploding gadgets and failed contraptions as the setup for an actual lawsuit. After one too many defective products, Coyote decides to sue the ACME Corporation hiring down-on-his-luck billboard lawyer Kevin Avery (Will Forte) to face off against ACME's slick corporate attorney, played by John Cena. Lana Condor also stars, with Eric Bauza voicing Coyote himself.
It's a live action/animation hybrid in the vein of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," based on Ian Frazier's real 1990 New Yorker satire piece imagining exactly this premise.
The Reviews Are in and They're Shockingly Good
Critics who caught the film ahead of release have been unusually enthusiastic for a movie with this kind of backstory. It's currently sitting at a "Certified Fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes, with several major outlets calling it one of the better live action/animation hybrids in decades some critics have gone as far as ranking it above recent Warner Bros. releases entirely.
The irony hasn't been lost on anyone: the studio that decided this movie wasn't worth releasing may have accidentally let go of one of its best reviewed titles of the year.
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