Would you look at that. "Coyote vs. Acme," the movie Warner Bros. decided wasn't worth releasing, has now topped $100M at the global box office. Meanwhile, the studio's own big summer superhero swing, "Supergirl," has managed $126M internationally on a reported $186M budget. ‘Coyote’ could surpass that total.
A quick refresher on how we got here. This live-action/animation hybrid wrapped shooting in 2022. Then in 2023, the new Warner Bros. regime announced it was shelving the finished film for a tax write-off. It joined "Batgirl" and the animated sequel "Scoob! Holiday Haunt" on the studio's growing list of completed movies nobody would ever get to see. The backlash was loud, and deservedly so.
Ketchup Entertainment then entered the picture, the low-key distributor that had already rescued the fully animated Looney Tunes feature "The Day the Earth Blew Up” (that one bombed at the box office). Ketchup scooped up "Coyote vs. Acme" and made its messy backstory part of the marketing.
At $100M and counting, "Coyote vs. Acme" has already out-grossed five movies Warner Bros. actually chose to release this year: Lee Cronin's “The Mummy” ($90M), “Practical Magic 2” ($78M), “Evil Dead Burn” ($72M), “The Bride!” ($23M) and “They Will Kill You” ($19M). For a movie that was literally deemed more valuable as a tax deduction than as a theatrical release, that's what you call an embarrassment.
Today it was announced that the film would hit digital on September 29, which is a bit too early for my tastes, especially with the film still in the top 5 at the box office.
Furthermore, TheWrap is reporting that the film contains enough animation to qualify for Best Animated Feature, and it could very well land a nomination given its strong reviews. As a reminder, the Academy requires that animation make up at least 75% of a film's running time for it to qualify in the category. After seeing the film, I didn't think it reached that threshold. Apparently, it did.
Wouldn't that be something? The movie Warner Bros. threw away, showing up at the Oscars.
"Coyote vs. Acme," the movie Warner Bros. decided wasn't worth releasing, has now topped $100M at the global box office. It might soon surpass the totals of “Supergirl” and “Masters of the Universe.”