Coyote Vs Acme Proves That Warner Bros Made A Mistake
No amount of dead ends could stop this Looney Tunes saga.
Fans can often cast studio CEOs as villains, blaming them for creative decisions or lackluster products. Kathleen Kennedy was raked over the coals for being President of Lucasfilm during the sequel trilogy, and Bob Iger got blamed for so much during his tenure at Disney. But when it comes to David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, there are some moves that very much sound like a villain enacting an evil plan.
Beginning with Batgirl, WBD would occasionally choose not to release a movie at all, even after it was completely done and ready to be released, for the tax write-off. It was always met with fan uproar, but in one specific example — the Looney Tunes movie Coyote vs. Acme — fan uproar caused the film to be shopped to other markets. Ketchup Entertainment eventually acquired it and gave it a theatrical release, even though it was first announced as a streaming film. Now, it’s looking like this nightmare scenario has actually been great for the movie’s success.
Coyote vs. Acme follows Wile E. Coyote as he pursues legal action against the Acme Corporation.
Coyote vs. Acme debuted to $15.9 million at the box office, beating out iconic director Ridley Scott’s latest sci-fi adventure, The Dog Stars. This success has only continued since, and the worldwide box office currently sits above $22 million. Strong reviews and word-of-mouth are sure to keep viewers coming in, especially during the holiday weekend.
Yes, Coyote vs. Acme is a fun movie with just the blend of meta and goofy that works well in this era, but the quality of the movie isn’t entirely responsible for its success. If anything, this is proof of an adage people have been saying for decades: all press is good press.
The release of Coyote vs. Acme became a fan activism success story.
If Coyote vs. Acme was quietly released on HBO Max like it was first planned to, it would have made no money at the box office. If it was released theatrically by WBD, it would have drawn crowds. But after all of the hubbub with the cancellation, this movie is now “the movie Warner Bros. doesn’t want you to see.” Now, seeing this in the theater is a win for the little guy, a way to prove that no creative act should be shelved forever for tax reasons.
Once again, the Streisand Effect is shown in Hollywood: WBD wanted to quietly shelve this movie and hope nobody would miss it, but by doing that, they drove more attention to it than ever. Hopefully, we won’t see this happen to any other movies in the near future. We have enough lost media in this world; we don’t need to purposefully lose some just to save some money.
