Did Warner Bros. Blow It? ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Box Office Success Puts David Zaslav’s Decision Back Under the Microscope

Few movies have had a stranger journey to theaters than ‘Coyote vs. Acme’. The Looney Tunes comedy, directed by Dave Green and loosely based on Ian Frazier’s 1990 New Yorker article, follows Wile E. Coyote as he enlists a personal injury lawyer to sue the Acme Corporation for selling him faulty products.

The film was finished, tested well internally, and was ready for release, but Warner Bros. Discovery shelved it as a $30 million tax write-off. In 2023, the studio calculated that writing off the completed feature would generate a bigger tax benefit than releasing it, once marketing and distribution costs were factored in.

Now the underdog has the last laugh. Rescued by indie distributor Ketchup Entertainment, ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ has become a box office bright spot with more than $100 million globally, and Variety is asking whether Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav was wrong to axe it, noting that the answer may depend on who’s doing the accounting.

The road to release wasn’t easy. Fans launched petitions, including one with 20,000 signatures, while the film was reportedly turned down by companies including Netflix, Amazon and Paramount.

Ketchup Entertainment finally acquired the rights for $50 million in March 2025, then pre-sold foreign territories to reduce its risk. The film opened in late August with $15.9 million domestically. Strong reviews and word of mouth kept it going. Ticket sales have since climbed to $59.8 million domestically and $45 million overseas, according to Variety.

The numbers look very different depending on who’s counting. For Ketchup, the film is a major win, but Warner Bros. might not have been celebrating, since the movie cost $70 million to produce.

The new trailer for ‘COYOTE VS ACME’ has been released. In theaters on August 28. https://t.co/cmfJjmdLvw

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) July 23, 2026

ScreenRant previously reported a break-even point of $120 million, though digital and streaming revenue should help cover any theatrical shortfall. The film launched on digital platforms on September 29.

IndieWire even suggested that Warner Bros. may have been right that the film was too offbeat for a massive box office run. Still, analysts see clear value in what the studio passed on.

“There was legacy value in that IP, and the box office grosses of ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ reflect it,” analyst David A. Gross of FranchiseRe told Variety, adding that all-audience films are among the biggest earners at the box office.

The film’s success has invited awkward comparisons. ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ has already out-grossed several movies Warner Bros. chose to release this year, including Lee Cronin’s ‘The Mummy’ at $90 million, ‘Practical Magic 2’ at $78 million and ‘Evil Dead Burn’ at $72 million.

It has also closed in on the studio’s summer superhero swing, ‘Supergirl’, which earned $126 million on a reported $186 million budget. And there’s still more room to grow, since the film hasn’t yet opened in roughly 80% of international markets, including Greece on October 28.

The team behind the film credits audiences for the turnaround. “The audience spoke up and spoke loudly for the Coyote,” Green told TheWrap, thanking every moviegoer who bought a ticket.

Ketchup even leaned into the messy backstory in its marketing, with Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort joining after San Diego Comic-Con 2025. Fittingly, a movie about taking on a giant corporation has become a real-life underdog story of its own.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!