The Movie Warner Tried to Hide: ‘Coyote vs. Acme’

After 3 years of fighting for it’s release ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ is finally seeing the light of day.

Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner are Looney Tunes characters that appear in silent shorts. The premise of every short follows Wile E. trying to catch the Road Runner by buying products from the ACME corporation, only for it to blow up in his face (sometimes literally).

Then, one day, Ian Frazier wrote a short story that was published in The New Yorker in February 1996, called Coyote v. Acme. The story takes the form of a legal document in which a lawyer helps Coyote sue the Acme Corporation for all the faulty products.

While not affiliated with Warner Bros., production on a film adaptation of the book began in 2018, with Chris McKay as producer and the Silberman brothers writing the screenplay.

Shelving ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Shocked Fans

The film was finally complete, and everything was going well until Warner Bros and Discovery merged and appointed a new CEO, David Zaslav. One thing Zaslav did as CEO was reduce Warner Bros.’s number of cancellations and shelved movies. Shelving movies means that the company decides not to release a nearly or completely finished film to the public.

The movies Zaslav decided to shelve were Batgirl, which was already finished filming; Scoob Holiday Haunt, which was also completely finished; and Coyote vs Acme, which was also completely finished. Other films that were canceled were WonderTwins and Bye Bye Bunny.

The internet was outraged because the 3 shelved films were already complete or close to completion, and it seemed like they were throwing away money. The only thing that survived were some behind-the-scenes still images from the films.

There were protests for the film to be released; a fan even dressed up as Wile E Coyote and held up a sign saying ‘Release Me,’ and at the 51st Annie Awards, Eric Bauza, in his Daffy Duck voice, yelled. “RELEASE COYOTE VS ACME.”

Warner Bros finally decided to look for a distributor for the movie; places such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Apple all threw their hats into the ring to buy the rights. However, Warner Bros was asking for $75-80 million, and when no other company would pay, they decided to shelve it completely.

The people who worked on the film were outraged, with Carsten Kurpanek (an editor on the film) taking to Twitter and expressing frustration with Warner Bros decision. This started #releasecoyotevsacme to start be posted on Twitter and YouTube.

While people waited for the movie to be released or at least any news, the whole plot got leaked, and since Warner Bros wasn’t doing anything, many saw this as a sign that the movie was officially canceled and that it wouldn’t see the light of day.

A year went by, and when it seemed as if the movie would never be released, a surprise announcement just popped out of nowhere.

Posted on December 12, 2024, the trailer for The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie was released, and it showed that Ketchup Entertainment was distributing it.

Well, it turns out the movie was another one Warner Bros was about to cancel back in 2022, but thanks to Ketchup, they managed to save the film and became its distributor.

The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie was released in March 2025 and ultimately underperformed at the box office, making roughly $15 million on a $15 million budget. However, while it may have underperformed at the box office, many people sang its praises, saying that it was a return to classic Looney Tunes.

Then silence fell, with no news or updates about the film. Then, on March 31, 2025, it was reported that Ketchup Entertainment had obtained the distribution rights for Coyote vs Acme. Fans cried tears of joy, as it felt like a win amid all the canceled projects.

The Lead up Towards The Release

For the rest of 2025, there was no major news on anything related to the movie. Then, in 2026, there were major updates. On April 15, 2026, Ketchup Entertainment and Coyote vs Acme YouTube dropped a short preview where they threw shade at Warner Bros.

If you don’t know, April 15 is tax day, and since the movie was shelved for a tax write-off, this small teaser was used to poke fun at Warner Bros. and announce the trailer for next week.

Then on April 22, the first trailer for Coyote vs Acme dropped on the Ketchup Entertainment YouTube channel. It included a few references to the whole write-off situation.

On July 23, another trailer dropped, showing more footage from the movie and the official website to buy tickets in advance.

The last two marketing pieces released were an in-universe ad showing the lawyer talking about failed ACME products blowing up (literally) in your face. It contains a small reference to the original creators of Coyote and the Roadrunner. This leads to an in-universe website about calling the lawyer about the ACME products, which also doubles as a way to find out more about the movie.

The last piece of online marketing was a sneak peek at a scene where Coyote and the lawyer meet for the first time, and Coyote shows the lawyer how ACME products have injured him in his attempts to catch the Roadrunner.

Why Coyote vs. Acme Deserves to Be Seen

As a fan of animation and movies in general, I’ve always kept up with the news about this movie. It’s been a wild ride for this movie, first getting greenlit, then getting scrapped, then looking for distributors, then getting scrapped again, then finally getting a distributor after another Looney Tunes movie was saved by the same distributor.

When it was first canceled, the people who saw the film when Warner Bros had a Funeral Screening (it’s when a movie is shown to the people who worked on it one last time before it’s shelved forever) and when it was shown at a film festival, some of the best directors came to say that it deserves to be seen.

After all of this and another similar situation with the Avatar Aang movie, with the whole leak and getting sent straight to streaming. This movie better be popular with the audiences to show companies they shouldn’t be able to shelve entire movies that are complete just to save a couple of dollars.

Maybe this movie’s success could save the other two films, Batgirl and Scoob Holiday Haunt, from being completely canceled and let them see the light of day. Who knows, though we would just have to wait and see how this movie performs in theaters.

Honestly, this movie is similar to an actual Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoon. Even though Coyote fails over and over and over again, he never gives up. He tries again and again and again because he truly believes that he can catch the Road Runner.

It’s honestly inspiring to anyone with a dream, even if it seems like the world is telling you to give up on it.

Keep trying to achieve that dream and keep throwing yourself at it; hopefully, one day that dream will come true, and you’ll finally be able to see the fruits of your labor.