In 2023, Warner Bros finished production on a Looney Tunes movie and decided the smartest business move was to make sure nobody ever saw it. Three years, one fan uprising, and one rescue deal later, that buried film is officially the best-reviewed Looney Tunes movie ever measured, and the shelving decision looks worse by the week.
The record, in numbers
Coyote vs. Acme sits at 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes across 104 reviews heading into its wide release, placing it among the top three reviewed wide releases of 2026 so far. For a franchise whose theatrical legacy is mostly decades old, that is a genuine record, not a marketing spin.
| 2026 wide release | Rotten Tomatoes critic score |
|---|---|
| The Furious | 98% |
| The Invite | 97% |
| Coyote vs. Acme | 96% |
| Project Hail Mary | 95% |
| The Odyssey | 94% |
| Toy Story 5 | 93% |
Scores as of August 25, 2026. Even 2026’s animated heavyweights trail behind: Toy Story 5 sits at 93 percent, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie managed only 42 percent.
How you bury a finished $70 million movie
Dave Green’s film, inspired by a 1990 New Yorker humor essay in which Wile E. Coyote sues the Acme corporation over its faulty products, wrapped filming in 2023 on a $70 million budget. Three months later, Warner Bros announced it was shelving it alongside Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt as part of a major tax write-off. Star Will Forte later described the cast’s own private “funeral screening,” held right after producers had told them the film tested well with audiences.
Composer Steven Price, an Oscar winner for Gravity, released a clip of his abandoned Abbey Road recording sessions “because no one will see it now.” That single post pulled 6.8 million views, an early hint at how much goodwill the film still had banked.
The internet refused to let it go
Fans and crew kept the pressure up for nearly two years, and last year the film finance and distribution company bought the finished film for about $50 million. The hybrid stars Forte as the lawyer representing the cartoon coyote in open court, with John Cena playing his boss Buddy Crane. For Filipino millennials who grew up collecting Bugs Bunny Happy Meal toys, the whole premise lands squarely in childhood territory.
When and where to watch
The movie opens in US theaters on August 28, while UK audiences have been able to see it since mid-August. Box office estimates put its opening weekend between $12 million and $18 million, a number that could climb fast if word of mouth matches the reviews. Either way, the resurrection joins Avengers: Endgame’s encore return this September as proof that audiences will still show up for the ones that almost got away.
