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AUSTIN, Texas – The backstory to how this movie got to a theater near you could be a movie. And it might be someday, but Hollywood won’t make it.
Hollywood isn’t making a lot of movies these days. Production has moved away, to Texas, to Georgia, to Canada. California has the natural environment that created Hollywood in the first place, but the business environment that has driven much of Hollywood away and is strangling what’s left of it. It’s so bad that President Donald Trump recently stepped in to try to save the industry that’s been weaponized against him.
Hollywood has mostly forgotten that its primary purpose is to entertain.
Warner Bros. had a movie it spent $70 million to create, finished in 2022. It brought some big names together – James Gunn as writer and producer, stars John Cena and Will Forte, and even bigger names in Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote, and all the other classics from Looney Tunes. Warner didn’t just launch production on this film, it went through the entire process, and had a finished work that was ready for theaters. It was called “Coyote vs. Acme,” pitting the hapless Wile E. Coyote against the megacorp from which he’d bought so much failed gear from over the decades.
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But thanks to perverse tax incentives and a difficult climate for major movie releases, Warner decided to do the unthinkable: It was going to delete this finished movie. Not just shelve it. Destroy it.
Will Forte, who plays Coyote’s attorney in the film, appeared on Jay Mohr’s podcast, called it “A very frustrating story.”
“So we make this movie. The script is really fun. And then, we went through the process of making this movie, and we made an even better movie than this great script.”
Because half the film is animated with composited cartoon characters, anvils and other tropes, post-production was a long process. But it got through all that, Forte says, and they were called to a screening.
“After all the animation, they’re finally ready to show it to the cast. They called us up on a Tuesday night. Said, ‘OK we’re gonna show it to you next Tuesday. It’s testing really well, we’re very excited about it.’ The next day I get a call that Warner Bros. is going to shelve it. Just wants to take a tax loss.”
The cast still got to see the movie. Forte said he assumed that if Warner was shelving it, “It must be not as good as these guys said. But they saw it, and it’s “great.”
“Which made it even more frustrating… It was nuts.”
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As an artist, seeing a corporation shelve your work would tend to be frustrating. But it might be understandable if the work is terrible. The corporation may even be saving you from embarrassment. But “Coyote vs. Acme” was testing well with audiences, and it landed well with the people who made it.
The big names involved, and then more big names, and then a grassroots campaign, all gathered force to try to shame Warner into releasing the movie. A guy wearing a Wile E. Coyote costume showed up at Warner picketing the studio.
And it worked. Sort of. Warner shopped the movie around, but was reportedly asking for more money than it spent from any buyers. Eventually a little 12-person outfit called Ketchup Entertainment bought the film for $50 million.
Ketchup spent roughly 25 cents marketing the movie. There was no build-up of reviews, no big trailers dropping on YouTube powered by ad dollars. Really, very little marketing. I happened to see a video about it one day while trolling YouTube. And it looked fun, like “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” or “Space Jam” kind of fun.
“Coyote vs. Acme” landed in theaters worldwide in late August. It’s competing with a Spider-Man tentpole and some other summer films, but it’s holding its own, hitting second and third on its first two weekends and getting strong reviews across the board. As of this writing it has blown past $50 million. Ketchup wins by getting its name out there and may even make some money, and with the $100 million war chest it announced in May, it’s not done.
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But is “Coyote vs. Acme” any good?
In some ways it’s irrelevant if the movie is actually good. It’s a piece of art that should be seen by the audience it was made for. Bad movies, and books, and TV shows, get released every day. The art, and the hours of blood, sweat and tears the humans put into making it, matters.
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I saw it over the long weekend. And it’s good. Very good. The jokes land, the cartoon combination with live action works, the sometimes surprising use of classic Looney Tunes characters all fit, the cartoon tropes and send-ups work, and John Cena delivers a deliciously villainous performance as Acme’s shark lawyer.
Getting back to what was once Hollywood’s reason to exist, “Coyote vs. Acme” entertains. And then some.
FOX Business reached out to Ketchup Entertainment, John Cena and Bugs Bunny prior to publication.
