The film Warner Bros tried to bury for a tax write-off is opening at $12 million

Every now and then Hollywood manages to shoot itself in the foot so spectacularly, you almost have to respect the effort involved. This week, Warner Bros. has provided a textbook example with their bizarre handling of Coyote vs. Acme—the Looney Tunes/CGI hybrid they tried to kill off for a tax break, only for it to claw its way back to cinemas thanks to Ketchup Entertainment and a noisy fan revolt.

Coyote vs. Acme is cruising towards a $12-14 million opening after being salvaged by a tiny distributor and passionate supporters.

Box Office Winners and Losers

The most surprising bit? Coyote vs. Acme is actually pulling off a decent result. Deadline reckons it’s heading for a US opening between $12 and $14 million. Now, on paper, that’s not headline-grabbing blockbuster money, but considering Ketchup is operating on a shoestring and didn’t have one of those sycophantic WB advertising blitzes, it’s not half bad. Just imagine—if Warner had bothered to properly release it themselves, we might have been looking at double those numbers. In other words, WB sabotaged a film that could have outperformed some of their own embarrassing flops this summer—think Supergirl, Evil Dead Burn, and The End of Oak Street.

If the studio had got their way, Coyote vs. Acme would be festering in a vault somewhere, never to be seen outside of a dubious ‘tax write-off’ line item, a la that poor still-unreleased Batgirl project. It’s only because fans kicked up a fuss and Ketchup swooped in that you’re able to see it at all. Even better, the punters who did turn up seem chuffed: the film just landed a shiny A CinemaScore from audiences.

The Dog Stars Disaster

Meanwhile, over on the opposite end of the spectrum, you’ve got Ridley Scott grimacing through the weekend as his would-be epic, The Dog Stars, is on track for a pathetic $8 million launch. This is a film that reportedly cost well over $100 million(!), and yet even with big names like Jacob Elordi (fresh off Euphoria), Margaret Qualley, and Josh Brolin, it couldn’t be less of an event. The only folks turning up are die-hard Ridley Scott completists. It’s landed a pretty brutal C+ CinemaScore, so there’s no rescue party coming.

Elsewhere in the Charts

• Buddy, the oddball indie from Roadside Attractions about what’s basically a murderous children’s mascot, is doing better than expected: looks like a $4-5 million weekend for them.
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day is still the big dog, easily topping the chart with a projected $19 million take.
• Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey sticks close behind, holding strong at $14.5 million.
• Insidious: Out of the Further is already fading, dropping a full 64% to about $9 million, but that’s par for the course for a PG-13 horror flick—front loaded, then done.