Shelved Looney Toons movie casts Hollywood CEO David Zaslav as villain — but will get last laugh at box office?

Industry types looking for the new Looney Toons movie “Coyote vs. Acme” to be a proverbial pie in the face this weekend for Warner Bros. boss David Zaslav may need to keep an eye out for falling anvils.

The live-action and animation hybrid is set to hit theaters this Friday after a lengthy road to the big screen: Warner Bros. shelved it in Nov. 2023 for a reported $30 million tax write-off, but eventually allowed the filmmakers to seek alternative distribution.

In March 2025, Ketchup Entertainment nabbed the rights for $50 million.

While the film making it to theaters is being celebrated as a win for the creatives behind the project, it’s Zaslav who could be laughing all the way to the bank.

The film is projected for a soft opening between $10 million and $15 million, making it all but assured that — outside of incredibly strong legs that would make the Road Runner jealous — “Coyote vs. Acme” will run into a financial brick wall. 

“Good will and good reviews are great to have, but the grassroots marketing campaign is, well, still grassroots,” Boxoffice Pro’s Daniel Loria told us.

Part of that grassroots campaign has been consistently bashing Zaslav for dumping the live-action/animation hybrid.

“It’s f–king bulls–t. It is such a delightful movie. It deserves so much better than it got… it makes my blood boil,” star Will Forte (“SNL”) told MovieWeb last year. Forte has continued to verbally pummel Zaslav and Warners in Q&As for the film — during one press tour stop he called the decision to shelve the film “cruel and heartless” — which picked up traction on social media with fans.

The film has subsequently gotten a 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and reviews all roundly mentioned the diss of Warner Bros.

The New Yorker called the movie, “a zany triumph, having escaped, Road Runner-like, Warner’s attempt to cancel it.” The Post’s critic, Johnny Oleksinski, wrote in his review that the film, “was part of a trio of completed projects that were unceremoniously shelved and taken as a tax write-off by new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.” But that, “‘Coyote vs. Acme,’ which was happily bought from WB by distributor Ketchup Entertainment, is the dream scenario of what I wish every studio would do with their IP — play around, don’t focus-group it into generically inoffensive oblivion and retain the essential soul of our favorite characters.”

Coverage of the movie’s release has taken a similar tone. 

The Hollywood Reporter posted a piece titled, “How ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Was Rescued From Oblivion — and Blew Up in David Zaslav’s Face.” Fan site Nerdist wrote of the film: “Since Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav wanted to turn ‘Coyote Vs. Acme’ into an unreleased tax write-off, it’s hard to watch the movie in a vacuum.” And The Verge posted a story asking: “Is Coyote vs. Acme really great or do people just hate David Zaslav?”

Loria predicts that, with “Spider-Man” expected to swing to its fifth consecutive No.1 weekend, the battle to watch is for second place between “Coyote vs. Acme” and holdovers “Insidious” and “The Odyssey.” If “Coyote” can land at No. 2 that would be a major accomplishment.

“While the Looney Tunes IP has a recognizable brand name, it has been going through a really rough patch at the box office lately,” Loria says. “The ‘Space Jam’ sequel during the pandemic didn’t really take flight, and Ketchup’s last Warner Bros. Discovery pickup, ‘The Day the Earth Blew Up,’ didn’t make an impact at the box office either.” But ultimately, “just having a chance to be seen in theaters at all is already a victory for this title, so it’s not entirely fair to size up this performance to the Looney Toons tentpoles of yesteryear.”

“I feel like there’s been no advertising, so I’m not surprised,” adds one insider of the low-tracking for the film, noting they never expected it to be a moneymaker.

Like a Looney Toons character, it’s Zaslav who keeps landing on his feet: His reign at Warner Bros. Discovery since 2022 had been widely criticized, and he then managed to pull off the stunning sale of the studio to Paramount — though it’s now mired in a legal war with California AG Rob Bonta.

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