COYOTE VS. ACME REFUSES TO FALL OFF THE CLIFF AS THE RESCUED LOONEY TUNES MOVIE HOLDS STRONG!

WEPAAAA, Crusaders! Wile E. Coyote spent decades chasing the Road Runner off cliffs, through painted tunnels and directly into enough defective machinery to keep ACME’s legal department working overtime. Now the movie bearing his name is surviving something even crazier: Hollywood tried to make it disappear, audiences finally got to see it, and the box-office hold says they are not ready to let it go.

Coyote vs. Acme earned approximately $11.34 million domestically from September 4 through September 6, dropping only 29% from its opening weekend. According to The Numbers, the film has reached $33.84 million domestically and $39.84 million worldwide after ten days in theaters. The second-weekend hold is the real story. Movies usually take their hardest punch after opening weekend, when the curious crowd has already arrived and word of mouth begins deciding who keeps selling tickets. Coyote vs. Acme lost less than one-third of its opening business while adding theaters, finishing third behind Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey. That’s  not a championship parade yet, familia, but it is a loud response to the executives who once decided audiences should never be allowed to judge the finished movie.

Warner Bros. Discovery shelved Coyote vs. Acme in 2023 as part of a cost-cutting strategy, despite the production reportedly costing approximately $70 million and receiving encouraging reactions during test screenings. The decision triggered backlash from filmmakers, animation supporters and fans who saw another completed creative work being treated like a number on a corporate spreadsheet.

Ketchup Entertainment later acquired the movie and released it theatrically on August 28, 2026. Directed by Dave Green, the live-action and animation hybrid stars Will Forte, Lana Condor, Tone Bell and John Cena, with Eric Bauza voicing Wile E. Coyote. Tickets, trailers and official film information remain available through the official movie website.

The Associated Press reports that Ketchup acquired the film for approximately $50 million after Warner Bros. elected not to release it. The independent distributor still has ground to cover once acquisition, marketing and theatrical revenue splits are considered, so anybody declaring the film completely profitable after two weekends needs to slow that rocket sled down.

What these numbers show is demand. Audiences were told this movie did not deserve a release, yet it opened with $15.91 million and followed that performance with one of the weekend’s better holds. The conversation has moved beyond fans asking whether the film should exist. People are buying tickets and making that argument with actual receipts.

There is also a bigger creative issue sitting underneath the comedy. Finished movies are not disposable inventory. Animators, actors, directors, writers and crews invest years of their lives into work that can vanish because a corporation finds a short-term financial advantage in locking it away. Coyote vs. Acme escaped that fate, but plenty of other projects never received the same rescue.

Wile E. Coyote has not beaten the Hollywood accounting machine yet. Nearly $40 million worldwide does not erase every cost attached to the production, and the final commercial judgment will require theatrical, digital and home-entertainment results.

Still, this movie was pushed toward the cliff, looked down and kept running. For the moment, the audience is helping make sure gravity does not win!