The past week has been a roller coaster for Looney Tunes fans. The release of a new film, The Day The Earth Blew Up, should be considered a win — but Warner Bros. Discovery sabotaged that triumph just three days later by pulling the original Looney Tunes cartoons from Max. Warner just doesn’t seem to know what to do with the franchise: after indefinitely shelving another feature-length film, Coyote vs. Acme, in 2023, the Looney Tunes brand is slowly going extinct. It’s a frustrating fate for one of the oldest and most beloved animated sagas in history. Looney Tunes should be a jewel in Warner’s crown; instead, the flailing studio is sabotaging one of its strongest pillars.
Fortunately, there’s still hope for the Tune Squad. Warner has been quietly shopping Coyote vs. Acme to other distributors, and after two years, the film might finally get a lifeline. Ketchup Entertainment — the same distributor-financier that brought The Day The Earth Blew Up to theaters — is negotiating an all-rights acquisition for Coyote vs. Acme. Per IndieWire, Ketchup is offering Warner roughly $50 million to acquire the film, “with respect to the film’s reported $70-million budget.” If the deal goes through, then Coyote vs. Acme will get a theatrical release sometime in 2026. There’s still a small chance Warner will reject Ketchup’s offer, but this could also be just the win the Looney Tunes need.
