Warner Bros. Spent $70M Making ‘Coyote Vs. Acme’; Ketchup Paid $50M To Put It In Theaters

New behind-the-scenes details have emerged regarding the budget of Coyote vs. Acme, its streaming origins, the price of its rescue, and the creative battles fought to ensure that the finished film remained a unique gem that is now earning overwhelming praise following the lifting of its review embargo.

According to a new feature published by The Hollywood Reporter, the live-action/animation hybrid, which critics are almost unanimously praising as the best of its kind since Who Framed Roger Rabbit, cost the studio $70 million to produce and was originally planned as an HBO Max Original. After it was finished, Warner Bros. Discovery controversially shelved the completed film in November 2023 for a reported $30 million write-off before eventually selling it to Ketchup Entertainment for $50 million. Ketchup will now release the once meant-for-streaming film theatrically on August 28.

According to producer Chris DeFaria, the Coyote vs. Acme team moved quickly to prevent Warner’s decision to bury the film from being interpreted as a judgment on its quality.

“We wanted to make sure that it was never viewed as a failure, that it wasn’t being shelved because it was a bad movie,” DeFaria told THR. “We quickly began to take control of the narrative.”

That effort included public support from filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, a fan campaign that combined online pleas with in-person action at major industry events, and private screenings for influential industry figures and members of the media. Cartoon Brew was among the invited outlets and one of the first publications to report that the film was not only finished, but very good.

The campaign eventually grew large enough to put sustained pressure on Warner Bros. and, in a fitting turn of events, prevented studio bosses from quietly making the film disappear. Nearly three years after it was originally shelved, Coyote vs. Acme will finally reach theaters.

During his conversation with THR, director Dave Green also revealed that, even before the fight to save the film began, he and screenwriter Samy Burch had to defend some of its more unusual creative choices to studio executives. Among them was an animated version of actor Peter Lorre, whose distinctive likeness appeared in several classic Warner Bros. cartoons.

“There was definitely a desire to change out that character for a more recognizable character,” Green told THR. “It’s a very deep cut.” The filmmakers prevailed, and Lorre appears near the beginning of the finished film.

With the new details in the THR piece, it looks like even more of a miracle that Coyote vs. Acme has been saved. It’s fortunate that the filmmakers were given a long enough leash to protect and nurture their idea through production; even more impressive that studio decision-makers reversed their original plan to bury the film; and serendipitous timing that it all happened during an era when independent, risk-taking distributors like Ketchup see possibilities for films that their much larger counterparts, despite having far less to lose, seem afraid to pursue.