Why was Coyote vs Acme shelved? It was the third finished Warner film to vanish in little over a year
Imagine finishing a movie. The whole movie. Actors paid, animation rendered, test audiences happy. Now imagine your boss looks at it and says: what if, instead of releasing this, we pretend it never existed for tax purposes?
That's not a hypothetical. That was Warner Bros. Discovery's actual repeatable workflow circa 2022–2023.
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A brief history of the memory hole
Coyote vs Acme wasn't even the first film Warner disappeared. It was the third:
- Batgirl — a $90 million DC movie, shelved in 2022, gone forever
- Scoob! Holiday Haunt — a $40 million animated family film, also 2022, also gone
- Coyote vs Acme — shelved November 2023, for a reported $30 million write-off
All three were greenlit under previous management, which apparently made them expendable the way your new boss finds your old boss's projects expendable. The difference: this one had test screenings confirming it actually worked.
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"Beyond devastated"
Director Dave Green found out by phone, secondhand, and his reaction reportedly began with disbelief before pivoting — immediately — to how to get the movie seen. His public statement at the time didn't bother with diplomacy:
What followed was a sustained pressure campaign from fans and the animation community loud enough that Warner couldn't quietly finish the burial. Amazon, Apple and Netflix all screened it and passed; Ketchup Entertainment finally didn't.
Three finished movies went into the hole. Exactly one crawled out. The lesson Hollywood will take from this is, presumably, nothing.
Earlier we wrote: One of the best & most overlooked fantasy movies might finally get a sequel: “A big believer in it”
