Three years after Warner Bros. nearly turned the finished Looney Tunes movie into a tax write-off, Wile E. Coyote finally reached the big screen—and audiences showed up.
August 31, 2026—There is something almost perfectly fitting about Wile E. Coyote finally getting his shot at Acme.
For years, the character has chased the Road Runner with one ridiculous Acme invention after another, only for every carefully planned scheme to explode in his face.
Then Hollywood gave him a story that felt almost too appropriate.
Warner Bros. completed Coyote vs. Acme, then nearly made the movie disappear.
Now, after years of uncertainty, fan campaigns and a $50 million acquisition by independent distributor Ketchup Entertainment, the film is finally playing in theaters.
And it didn’t exactly crawl across the finish line.
Coyote vs. Acme opened domestically with an estimated $15.4 million, finishing No. 2 at the weekend box office behind Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The result is Ketchup Entertainment’s biggest opening weekend ever, a remarkable jump from the company’s previous record of $3.1 million for another Looney Tunes film, The Day the Earth Blew Up.
For a movie that was once supposed to vanish without an audience, that is one heck of a second act.
The Looney Tunes Movie Hollywood Almost Never Let Us See
The strange history of Coyote vs. Acme goes back years.
The film was inspired by Ian Frazier’s 1990 New Yorker piece imagining Wile E. Coyote taking Acme Corporation to court over all those defective products that repeatedly leave him flattened, burned, blasted or otherwise humiliated. The movie turns that basic idea into a live-action/animation courtroom comedy.
Will Forte plays Wile E. Coyote’s lawyer, Kevin Avery, while John Cena plays Acme’s defense attorney. Lana Condor also stars, with classic Looney Tunes characters including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and others appearing throughout the film. Dave Green directed.
Production was completed in 2022. The movie was supposed to arrive in theaters in 2023. Then Warner Bros. Discovery pulled the plug.
In November 2023, the studio announced that Coyote vs. Acme would be shelved as part of a tax strategy. The decision came during a period when Warner Bros. Discovery was making aggressive cost-cutting moves across its entertainment businesses. The studio later reversed course and allowed the completed movie to be shopped to other distributors after substantial public backlash.
That backlash became part of the movie’s identity. The filmmakers and cast had made a finished film. Fans had never even been given the chance to judge it, And the more people heard about it, the stranger the decision seemed.
Reports about early screenings described positive reactions, while the #ReleaseCoyoteVsAcme and #SaveCoyoteVsAcme campaigns helped keep the film’s disappearance from becoming a footnote.
Then came Ketchup Entertainment.
Ketchup Paid $50 Million to Rescue Wile E. Coyote
Ketchup Entertainment wasn’t one of Hollywood’s giant studios.
That’s part of what makes this story so good.
In March 2025, the independent distributor acquired the North American rights to Coyote vs. Acme from Warner Bros. for approximately $50 million. The company had already released The Day the Earth Blew Up, another Looney Tunes project that Warner Bros. had previously decided not to release itself.
Suddenly, a movie that had been treated as an accounting problem had a theatrical future.
Ketchup didn’t just put it quietly on a streaming service.
It took it to theaters.
The movie opened August 28, 2026, and the response has been much stronger than its unusual release history might have suggested.
Before the weekend was even over, Coyote vs. Acme had become Ketchup’s biggest opening ever. The final estimated domestic debut came in around $15.4 million, with the film also generating roughly $23.9 million worldwide.
That isn’t a superhero-sized opening.
It doesn’t need to be.
For an independent distributor, it is a genuine milestone.
Ketchup’s previous record holder, The Day the Earth Blew Up, opened with only $3.1 million domestically. Coyote vs. Acme nearly quintupled that figure.
The irony is difficult to miss.
Warner Bros. almost erased the movie.
The independent company that rescued it just scored its biggest opening weekend ever with it.
And Wile E. Coyote finally got the audience he had been waiting for.
The Movie Has Something Warner Bros. Couldn’t Put on a Balance Sheet
The financial story is complicated.
Ketchup paid $50 million for the distribution rights, while the film reportedly carries a production budget in the neighborhood of $70 million. Marketing adds another expense, meaning the movie’s theatrical run would need to go much further before anyone could call it a conventional financial blockbuster.
But box office isn’t the only reason Coyote vs. Acme has become such a fascinating Hollywood story.
People actually seem to like the movie.
The film currently holds a 95% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes according to recent reporting, and audiences gave it an A CinemaScore. That makes Coyote vs. Acme only the third Warner Bros.-produced animated feature to earn an A CinemaScore, joining The Iron Giant and The Lego Movie.
That’s an extraordinary reception for a movie that spent years being treated as something audiences would never see.
And the reviews explain why.
The film isn’t simply a 90-minute collection of Road Runner jokes.
It takes Wile E. seriously.
Well, as seriously as you can take a cartoon coyote suing a fictional corporation that sells him malfunctioning rockets.
The legal story gives Wile E. an actual grievance. His endless failures are transformed into a courtroom argument about responsibility, corporate power and whether Acme can keep selling products that repeatedly hurt the very customer buying them.
Will Forte’s Kevin Avery becomes his reluctant advocate, while John Cena’s Acme lawyer represents the other side.
That gives the Looney Tunes characters a surprisingly modern playground.
One critic described the film as a heartfelt argument against corporate cruelty, while praising its balance of physical comedy and emotional storytelling.
Why This Opening Matters Beyond Wile E. Coyote
The bigger question now is what happens next.
Coyote vs. Acme entered theaters at the end of August, a tricky period for family movies because schools are reopening and summer moviegoing is winding down.
Yet audiences still found it.
That is encouraging for Ketchup.
The distributor has now proven that a small company can take a movie with an unusually complicated studio history and create a genuine theatrical event around it.
There is also something else happening here.
People wanted this movie because they knew it almost disappeared.
That is unusual.
Most films aren’t marketed around their own near-death experience.
Coyote vs. Acme effectively has a built-in underdog story before the opening credits even roll.
The movie is about a character who refuses to stop fighting after being repeatedly humiliated by a company that keeps selling him the tools of his own destruction.
Then the movie itself spent three years fighting to exist.
You couldn’t write a more appropriate Looney Tunes setup.
The result doesn’t suddenly make the film a guaranteed financial success. Its $15.4 million opening is impressive for Ketchup but still leaves a substantial road ahead given the reported costs.
But it has already accomplished something Warner Bros. once decided wasn’t worth pursuing.
People are watching it.
Families can see Bugs Bunny on a movie screen again.
Wile E. Coyote finally gets his day in court.
And Ketchup Entertainment has its biggest opening weekend.
Maybe that’s the most satisfying part of the entire story.
For once, Acme didn’t win.
FAQ
Why was Coyote vs. Acme almost canceled?
Warner Bros. Discovery shelved the completed film in 2023 as part of a tax write-off strategy. The decision sparked major backlash, after which Warner Bros. allowed the movie to be offered to other distributors.
Who bought Coyote vs. Acme?
Independent distributor Ketchup Entertainment acquired the North American distribution rights from Warner Bros. for approximately $50 million.
How much did Coyote vs. Acme make on opening weekend?
The movie opened to an estimated $15.4 million domestically, finishing second at the weekend box office behind Spider-Man: Brand New Day. It also earned about $23.9 million worldwide.
Is Coyote vs. Acme a Looney Tunes movie?
Yes. The film combines live action with animation and stars classic Looney Tunes characters, including Wile E. Coyote, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.
Who stars in Coyote vs. Acme?
The movie stars Will Forte, John Cena and Lana Condor, with Dave Green directing. Wile E. Coyote and other Looney Tunes characters appear through the film’s animation.