Why Coyote vs. Acme Was Shelved — And How the Movie Finally Escaped Warner Bros.

Updated September 28, 2026: The Numbers now lists a $15.9 million domestic opening, $58.4 million domestic total and $79.6 million worldwide total through September 27. Prime Video lists a U.S. digital release for 9 p.m. PT on September 28 / midnight ET on September 29.

Coyote vs. Acme opened in theaters August 28 after nearly three years in release limbo. Warner Bros. Discovery had shelved the completed film in 2023, before Ketchup Entertainment acquired it and brought it to cinemas. Its theatrical run is now documented rather than a question of opening-weekend projections, and its next stop is digital purchase.

Why Warner Bros. shelved it

Coyote vs. Acme wrapped production in 2023 as a completed film, directed by Dave Green and written by Samy Burch from a story credited to Burch, James Gunn and Jeremy Slater. It’s a legal comedy loosely inspired by Ian Frazier’s 1990 New Yorker piece imagining Wile E. Coyote suing Acme Corporation over its faulty products, with Will Forte as the down-on-his-luck lawyer who takes the case and John Cena as the opposing counsel representing Acme.

On November 9, 2023, Deadline reported that Warner Bros. Discovery would shelve the finished film entirely rather than release it, taking a reported $30 million tax write-off in the process. That figure describes the write-off, not a cash payout, and it’s a separate number from the movie’s roughly $70 million production budget. WBD’s decision followed the same post-merger cost-cutting logic that had already led the studio to scrap the completed Batgirl and the animated Scoob! Holiday Haunt, and Coyote vs. Acme quickly became the most visible example of a finished film being written off rather than released.

Warner didn’t simply change its mind

The backlash was immediate, from filmmakers, critics and the film’s own cast, and it worked fast: by November 13, just four days later, WBD reversed course and said it would allow the movie to be shopped to other buyers instead of writing it off entirely. That’s a meaningfully different outcome than Warner deciding to release it themselves. Reporting at the time described interest from other studios and streamers during that shopping period, but Warner Bros. Discovery had reportedly set an asking price in the $75-80 million range, and by early 2024 no buyer had met it. Campaigns like #ReleaseCoyoteVsAcme kept public pressure on the situation through most of that year.

How Ketchup Entertainment got it made

The deal that actually moved the film forward came in March 2025, when independent distributor Ketchup Entertainment acquired worldwide distribution rights in a deal later reported at about $50 million. Associated Press reported the worldwide-rights scope when the deal was announced, though Ketchup did not disclose the price. Ketchup, a smaller distributor that handled 2025’s The Day the Earth Blew Up, took the finished movie to Cannes to line up international deals and set its own theatrical date for August 28, 2026, nearly three years after the film had wrapped.

Official key art for Coyote vs. Acme. Credit: Ketchup Entertainment.

How Coyote vs. Acme performed at the box office

A promotional image marking the film’s theatrical release. Credit: Ketchup Entertainment.

The Numbers’ September 27 tally records a $15,914,007 domestic opening weekend from 3,575 theaters. Its cumulative box office stands at $58,390,427 domestic, $21,191,380 international and $79,581,807 worldwide in that same dataset. These totals can continue to change as theaters and territories report results.

Those are ticket-sales grosses, not the amount Ketchup keeps. Theater splits, marketing and distribution costs mean the figures alone cannot establish whether the distributor recouped the reported acquisition price or whether the film is profitable.

When can you watch Coyote vs. Acme at home?

ComingSoon reports that U.S. digital availability begins September 28 at 9 p.m. Pacific Time, which is midnight Eastern Time on September 29. The Numbers lists September 29 as the video-release date, and Prime Video has a film listing. The Prime Video page may show a preorder until that time, and purchase or rental choices can vary by region and retailer.

This is a digital storefront release, not a confirmed subscription-streaming date. Check the listing in your own territory for the available format and price; neither the Prime Video listing nor the current box-office data establishes an HBO Max start date.

Why this became a bigger story than the movie itself

The saga mattered beyond one Looney Tunes movie because it put a specific, uncomfortable question in front of the industry: what happens to a finished piece of work when a studio decides releasing it isn’t worth the cost, and who gets to see it if nobody stands to profit? Coyote vs. Acme became the answer’s test case largely by accident — it was completed, it tested well, and the backlash to shelving it was loud enough that Warner Bros. Discovery couldn’t just quietly write it off and move on. Batgirl never got that reversal. Scoob! Holiday Haunt didn’t either.

Warner’s initial plan would have kept the completed movie from audiences. Instead, Coyote vs. Acme reached theaters, recorded a measurable run and is moving to digital. The box-office totals tell us how many tickets were sold; they do not turn that outcome into a claim about profit.