Summary
April 1 proved to be more than just April Fool’s Day for Looney Toons fans,Coyote vs. Acmefans, andWarner Bros.Pictures. It was the day news broke of the unreleased live-action animated hybrid movie,Coyote vs. Acme,being saved from obscurity by Ketchup Entertainmentacquiring the rights for $50 million. Although no trailer has been released yet, the movie will play on the nostalgia of Wile Coyote’s pursuit of the Road Runner, with the former suing ACME Corporation for the repeated failure of their gadgets in his endless pursuit of the Road Runner.
Coyote vs. Acme’s cinematic rescue is a bittersweet reminder for fans ofBatgirl, another Warner Bros. production that remains in the shelved abyss. But the ultimate power to decideBatgirl’s fate resides in the movie electorate — fans.
Just LikeCoyote vs. Acme,BatgirlWas Shelved Before Seeing The Light Of Day
It Was an Unprecedented Move For Warner Bros.
It’s been nearly three years sinceWarner Bros. painfully canceled the completedBatgirlmoviemonths before its scheduled release. Leslie Grace was supposed to don the junior cape and cowl as Barbara Gordon’s Batgirl, starring alongside Michael Keaton and Brendan Fraser in the defunct DC Extended Universe. But the movie was abruptly canceled six months after production — reportedly as a tax write-off — without warning to even its cast and crew.
There were a lot of incredibly talented people in front and behind the camera on that film. But that film was not releasable. And it happens sometimes. And I actually think that Zaslav and the team made a very bold and courageous decision to cancel it because it would have hurt DC and it would have hurt the people involved in making it.
Unsurprisingly, the bold decision to axe a $70 million-plusBatgirlproject — at the time, unprecedented for a film of such size — was not met with folded arms as even U.S. lawmakers questioned the Warner Bros.-Discovery merger. Citing reasons,Peter Safran calledBatgirlan “unreleasable” moviethat “would hurt DC.” Multiple test screenings reportedly concluded with the same bad reviews. The executive axe that killedBatgirlalso didn’t spareScoob! Holiday Hauntand the movie remains unreleased to this day.
It’s A Litmus Test For These Oddly Unreleased Films
As it stands,Batgirlis never seeing the light of day. But the same was said forCoyote vs. Acmeuntil Ketchup Entertainment offered salvation. In other words,Batgirlmay be out but not dead. A wonderful performance ofCoyote vs. Acmein the box office could very well ignite a chain reaction that could resurrectBatgirl.
Still, there’s reason for caution. AnotherLooney Tunes animated film,The Day the Earth Blew Up,is currently in theaters, and its box office numbers are enough to scare any stakeholder. Despite scoring 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, it failed to even recoup its $15 million production budget, grossing a little over $10 million instead.
Suffice to say, ifCoyote vs. Acmetoes the line ofThe Day the Earth Blew Up, it would mean that the backlash from millions of members of the film community of its initial cancelation was all audio and would further reinforce Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s earlier decision to shelve it. In an industry where filmmaking is business first, craft second, that would not only validate shelvingCoyotebut all but seal the already-gloomy fate ofBatgirl.
Considering thenature of box office revenue splits,Coyote vs. Acmewould need to gross at least $160 million to be considered a safe investment. That’s in the same range as the fellow Looney Tunes movie,Space Jam: A New Legacy,which failed at the box officewith its $163 million gross against a bloated $150 million production budget.
Warner Bros. Has Learned A Thing Or Two From the DCEU
Support in Hashtags and Twitter Threads Doesn’t Always Translate to Ticket Sales
To say that the defunct DC Extended Universe wasn’t divisive is to ignore an obvious fact. The opening movies of the franchise — sansWonder Woman—earned, at best, mixed reviews. But the box office returns of the Snyder-led regime were always profitable, including the underwhelmingBatman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. But growing dissatisfaction from both the DC fandom and the general audience elicited afranchise overhaul that started right fromSuicide SquadtoThe Flash.
Except for bothAquamanfilms, all the post-Snyder DCEU movies failed to score hits at the box office, either outrightly failing to recoup their production budgets or breaking even. This is despite the supposed slight improvement in the average audience and critical reception. It’s this inconsistency that likely contributed to the harsh decision to reboot the universe. It seems that only the Snyder faithful kept their word withZack Snyder’s Justice League.
Is It Too Late for Batgirl?
SupposeCoyote vs. Acme’s commercial performance goes as planned, and it forces David Zaslav and top executives at Warner Bros. to have a change of heart towardBatgirl. It might be too late for Leslie Grace and directors Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi. James Gunn is heralding a new DC Universe, which will officially open shop on the big screen withSuperman. If the movie launches on high ground — which increasingly looks likely from the reactions to the test screenings — Warner Bros. would likely want to do away with any reminder of a failed universe and lock upBatgirlindefinitely. Fans should hope that’s not the case. The cast and crew deserve to have their vision aired.
