In what seemed like a victorious moment back in November 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery reversed its decision to shelve Coyote vs. Acme by allowing the Looney Tunes film to be shopped to other streamers instead of plunged into the ether alongside Batgirl. At the time, Amazon was being touted as the top contender, and it truly seemed like the film was saved. But then nothing happened.
For the past few months, there have been crickets from Warner on the fate of the film, and according to a new report, there’s a reason for that: Coyote vs. Acme is about to be “unceremoniously deleted.”
The Wrap reports that Amazon, Netflix, and Paramount Plus all submitted “handsome offers” to take Coyote Vs. Acme off of Warner’s hands. All of them were rejected:
But Warner Bros., which stood to make $35 – $40 million on the tax write-down, wanted something in the ballpark of $75 – $80 million from a buyer. And what’s more, they wouldn’t allow the interested studios to counter Warner Bros.’ offer. It was a “take it or leave it” situation, one that the other studios didn’t even know they were entering into.
According to The Wrap, Warner Bros. wanted to turn a profit through the sale of Coyote vs. Acme by insisting on a price tag that was “negative cost plus.” In essence, the studio wanted to make up the entire cost of the film plus whatever “additional fees” had incurred through this whole process.
When they couldn’t extract the exorbitant price they wanted from the streamers, the studio contented themselves with “closing the book” on the whole thing by quietly returning to the tax write-off strategy.
“They made a short-sighted choice based on dismal third quarter projects,” a source told The Wrap while noting that the fate of Coyote vs. Acme is most likely sealed.
(Via The Wrap)