Profitable or not, ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ matters

As much as certain movies garner broad appeal and appreciation, some can feel like personalized gifts.

“Coyote vs. Acme” is a good movie, sure. But it also seems like a movie made exclusively for me.

Warner Bros., the studio that originally greenlit the live-action/animated hybrid, of course, intended to make gobs of money with the “Looney Tunes” project. Why else spend $70 million on a courtroom-set adventure starring old cartoons and the guy who plays MacGruber?

Right or wrong, the studio eventually decided it spent way too much on “Coyote vs. Acme” and tried to bury the film to snatch a $30 million tax break. Public outcry ensued ... mostly because word started spreading that the movie was actually good.

Flash-forward to end-of-summer 2026, where “Coyote vs. Acme” did reach theaters courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment, who purchased the movie from Warner Bros. for $50 million. The movie opened to a respectable $15 million this past weekend, but thanks to a thrifty marketing spend, Ketchup might eventually make a little bit of money in the long run after international release and post-theatrical revenue streams.

Interesting economics aside, I give Ketchup major credit for rescuing the movie. The hundreds of artists who worked on it deserve to get their work in front of a mass audience.

But, really, I think “Coyote vs. Acme” was made for me.

As an old millennial, I grew up in the twilight of “Looney Tunes” relevance. As a kid, I watched the shorts on TV all the time. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and crew don’t appear to be important to any subsequent generations of kids. Sure, the original “Space Jam” became a phenomenon in 1996, but the superstardom of Michael Jordan at the time propelled it to blockbuster status. Subsequent attempts to revive the “Looney Tunes,” perhaps most embarrassingly the woeful “Space Jam” sequel featuring LeBron James in 2021, never seemed to make a cultural impact.

I loved all the “Looney Tunes,” and, yes, at a young age, I didn’t really notice the sex predator antics of one Pepe Le Pew. From my earliest memories though, the highlight of any block of “Looney Tunes” was the shorts featuring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Predominantly dialogue-free (minus the Beep Beeps), a Coyote-Road Runner short always worked for me. They still work for me. Faulty products and unexpected bursts of violence = comedy gold.

So checkbox No. 1: A feature-length movie about the co-dependent relationship between desert predator and prey.

Checkbox No. 2: Deft use of comedian Will Forte, an underrated “Saturday Night Live” alum known for some of the more bizarre skits from his era of the sketch comedy series. Also, notably the guy behind “MacGruber,” a funny repeat sketch that morphed into, seriously, one of the best studio comedies of the last 20 years. The presence of the late Val Kilmer playing the villain is reason enough to reconsider the “MacGruber” movie. Also, yep, the one-season revival on Peacock rules too.

Checkbox No. 3: “Coyote vs. Acme” is a courtroom thriller about a disillusioned lawyer who finds his mojo sticking up for the little guy (who, admittedly, has ulterior motives to call the Road Runner to the witness stand in a confined room). I’m a first-year attorney, and I went to law school as a second career hoping to avoid “Big Law” and help people who don’t normally have access to legal services. But also, being a lawyer kinda sucks too, and “Coyote vs. Acme” captures that feeling.

Checkbox No. 4: A good concept put into the right hands can be magical cinema. That’s what happened here — the film takes a great idea (lifted from an old New Yorker essay) and hands it to screenwriter Samy Burch (Oscar nominated for the cheeky domestic drama “May December”) who understands how to use legacy IP in a way that can meaningfully reinvigorate a class of characters for a whole new generation.

Checkbox No. 5: Make the movie all about how big corporations ruin everything, and that even though we all don’t have much chance of beating them, there’s something admirable and meaningful about trying to do it anyway. Had Warner Bros. released the movie as they intended, they’d at least be pretending to be aware of their own hubris. Even if they are inevitably proven right about “Coyote vs. Acme” being a financial mistake, at least we all know what matters to Warner Bros. more than artistry and ideas.

Objectively speaking, is “Coyote vs. Acme” a masterpiece? No. But go take a look at the critics reviews and audience reactions — it’s objectively a good movie worth your time. It’s joyous, clever and about things that should matter in an exceedingly grim world.

But it’s a classic to that kid who used to watch Road Runner constantly foil a starving coyote, then grew up thinking, at least occasionally, that there’s value in trying, even when you know you might lose.