Much like when the Coyote chases the Roadrunner in the classic Warner Bros. cartoons, it seems the Coyote just can’t catch a break. The WB movie Coyote vs. Acme has been the focus of a lot of attention over the last few months. Initially the movie was set to be shelved unseen. Then there was hope that the project might be sold to another studio. Now, however, it seems that possibility has faded away, and Coyote vs. Acme is once again going to the same WB movie graveyard as Batgirl and the Scoob! sequel.
The Wrap is reporting that in early January Coyote vs. Acme producer Chris DeFaria was told that WB wanted to put the movie behind them. With Warner Bros. Discovery’s quarterly earning call coming up in a couple of weeks, it’s looking likely that the company will take the opportunity to move the movie off the books and into whatever purgatory these movies go into.
It had previously been reported that there was at least some interest in Coyote vs. Acme from multiple studios and that Netflix and Paramount had both bid on the movie. One actor seemed so confident in Coyote vs. Acme's future that he even tweeted that we should expect to see it on the 2024 movie schedule.
But it now seems those reports weren’t entirely accurate. If the current story is to be believed, WBD wanted $75-$80 million for the movie, and there was no process for bidding. Instead, it was either pay what WBD wanted or move on. It appears none of the interested parties were that interested.
It’s looking like WB may not have had a lot of interest in selling off Coyote vs. Acme after all. The movie had an estimated budget of around $70 million, and the reported tax write-down the company will take for shelving the movie is about half of what they were asking for, so the studio was seemingly only interested in selling if they could make money, there wasn’t interest in simply losing less.
The initial announcement that Coyote vs. Acme was being shelved for tax purposes was met with a chorus of anger from fans, the makers of the movie, among others. The backlash was enough to give the film a stay of execution and start the process of shopping it around. This was great news as previous films that WBD decided to never release, like Batgirl, were never given that opportunity.
Interestingly, it’s being reported that several executives within Warner Bros. including CEO David Zaslav, who said it took "courage" to cancel the movie, have never seen the finished film, so they don’t know anything about the project that is being shelved.
It’s a frustrating time to be an entertainment fan. At this point nearly every major studio has shelved a product before release, or pulled content from a streaming service that isn’t available elsewhere, making it impossible for people to watch things they might want to see.
