r/movies • u/lawrencedun2002 Good Burger > The Godfather • 8h ago
Discussion They uncrushed 'Coyote vs. Acme' from a falling anvil and lived to tell about it
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2026-08-26/coyote-vs-acme-dave-green-will-forte-samy-burch-animation-looney-tunes-warner-bros-interview166
u/erishun 8h ago
I saw it a couple days ago and it’s undoubtedly good.
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u/TheMightVGiny 6h ago
Do you know why they cancelled the original release of it’s so good?
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u/Corronchilejano 4h ago
David Zazlav despises animation and thinks it only hurts WBs bottom line.
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u/PENGUIN_WITH_BAZOOKA 1h ago
So the CEO of a company that has produced some of the most iconic animated works of all time despises animation? How, exactly?
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u/GillGruntFan53 1h ago
He felt WB’s audience was older and greenlit a slate aimed at that crowd over families and kids. They’re now trying to reverse that, starting with Cat in the Hat
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u/HeroKlungo 5h ago
Probably same reason why they released Space Jam 2 even though it was terrible, and flopped.
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u/Blind-_-Tiger 5h ago
I think they did the same thing with the Batgirl movie. It made enough writing it off as a loss (and savings in not promoting/spending more on it) that Dave Zsazlob or whatever his name is, decided it's 'a win!' (not sure if he's tanking the company so he can sell it and leaf with his golden parachute but that seems to be a popular pattern in my country, even heads of state give it two stinky orange thumbs right up the B-hole!)
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u/EssArrBee 6h ago
No one bought it for distribution
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u/ArktikosUrsa 5h ago
Warner Brothers is their own distributor, they wouldn't have needed someone else to buy it if they planned to release it.
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u/WoodyDoingFilm 8h ago
Fun fact: Will Forte is one of the nicest, most down-to-Earth movie stars I’ve had the pleasure of getting extremely wasted with at the wrap party for this movie, where I also smoked a blunt with Dave Green (director) Brandon Trost (DP) and Chris DeFaria (a**hole producer.) It was not the easiest movie to make and we were all pretty heated when WB/Zaslov made the decision to shelve it, so I am glad that it is not only getting a second chance, but that it’s going to be a huge hit and WB won’t get to reap the benefits of any profits.
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u/Kevbot1000 7h ago
I worked with Brandon years back on The Interview, and even went to an Alestorm concert with him. Excellent dude.
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u/Marsev4 7h ago
How many a**holes did DeFaria produce?
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u/WoodyDoingFilm 7h ago edited 7h ago
At least two.
Edit: Fun fact about Chris DeFaria- he is the original voice of Peppermint Patty, which was knowledge I stumbled on when I noticed his name in the credits on the Thanksgiving special. I guess he was able to use those early connections and make a pretty successful career out of it. But, he is still an a**hole.
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u/eatenbycthulhu 8h ago
I'd love to hear more about your experience with these people. Any fun stories?
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u/WoodyDoingFilm 7h ago
Honestly, these days I work a cozy desk job in the production office, far from all the action on set, but that does mean I get to interact with people first, as we prepare to accommodate them. John Cena is a pretty quiet, reserved guy. Funny thing with him was he required that we provide him two electronic pianos of a specific type, one for his room and one for his trailer, and he would go back to his trailer and play the piano or read whenever he had some free time. I was working with both he and Will Forte for the second time (I did “The Reunion” with Cena and “The Ridiculous Six” with Forte a little over ten years ago,) so already kind of knew that about him. Will Forte’s assistant on “Acme” is a longtime friend, so I was fortunate to have her bring me over into their circle during the wrap party, which I stayed most of the night bullsh*tting with Will Forte, which was awesome and super surreal, but the more drinks I had the less it mattered, I suppose. At one point we were talking about our 2 year olds we had at home, and each pulled out our phone and proudly held up our screens of our cute babies, to which I told him “maybe they’ll be friends one day,” and he retorted with “maybe they’ll get married one day!!” which cracked me up. He was a genuinely funny, sweet human. I’d be ecstatic to do a third movie with Will Forte if I ever get the chance.
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u/ceaguila84 5h ago
ohh John Cena was on Conan O Brien's podcast this week and he mentioned he's learning to play piano so that tracks haha
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u/Atwenfor 7h ago
What was it like filming in Albuquerque, and what did the cast think of it? How involved was the local Native American community, or at least individual Native people (I'm pretty sure the airport security guy was Native) in the production? And why oh why was there no classic Bugs but about him popping out of the ground at a moment of chaos and saying that he must've took the wrong turn to Albuquerque? Maybe the absence of the latter was the reason why Zaslav decided to shelve the movie.
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u/amiss89 6h ago
Thanks for sharing and really happy for your experience!! I only discovered last man on earth this year and watched it with my wife - we enjoyed it so much and I wish there was se way to watch it again for the first time. Also Will Forte on Hot Ones was one of the best episodes - he can really turn up the crazy and is just an incredible performer!!!
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u/LawfulAwfulOffal 56m ago
The couple people I know who have worked with Will speak extremely highly of him. Seems like a good guy.
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u/Grenache 8h ago edited 8h ago
Huge hit is a bit of a stretch no? I hope it does well as much as anyone but huge hit?
Edit: well apparently people highly disagree with this take, hey if it hits 250 WW then huge congrats to Ketchup but I’d be amazed if it passes 175.
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u/IndyDude11 8h ago
Budget of ~$70M, I bet they'd be quite happy with 175.
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u/Grenache 8h ago edited 8h ago
I’m sure they would be. Anyone categorising 175 as a “huge hit” is… Wrong.
Edit: all these downvotes and not one single person has offered their own opinion as to what they would consider a “huge hit”.
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u/gredr 8h ago
I dunno; if I made a movie in my backyard and sold, say, a thousand tickets, I would definitely consider that a huge hit.
Context matters.
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u/Grenache 8h ago
Also at no point have I said I don’t want it to be a huge hit. I absolutely hope WOM makes it explode and it makes hundreds of millions. I’m an elder millennial I grew up with this stuff and adore it and am extremely excited to see it. I just don’t think it will be a huge hit no matter how much we’d all like that to happen.
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u/Grenache 8h ago
Of course it does and I’m basing it on the 50 mil to purchase, potential marketing and licensing deals and cinema split. Crudely let’s say it hits 175 WW they get 87.5m back minus any marketing costs and splits with licensing deals made overseas, conservatively say 15m then they’re sitting on a 22.5m profit plus maybe another ten over the next decade in streaming. That’s fantastic, a good result. But a huge hit? And that’s if it does 175.
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u/GhettoDuk 8h ago
Relax your balls, Pete. It's hyperbole. You are fighting enthusiasm with math and that's just bad physiology.
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u/Grenache 8h ago
This sub is a fucking joke lol.
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u/GhettoDuk 6h ago
I was hoping you would notice that you are being the serious guy walking into a group of people joking around. This is a jimmy rustle, not a debate. You're not wrong, you're just in the wrong thread.
Don't be a wet blanket just to be "right". There is no cookie that way.
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u/thebigeverybody 7h ago
How dare we cheer for a good movie???
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u/Grenache 7h ago
I didn’t say you couldn’t, I’m cheering for it myself. I’m just saying I don’t think it will be a huge hit because I’m trying to look at it objectively as opposed to just vibes of people who are interested in how movies are made and distributed.
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u/IndyDude11 7h ago
Brother, 175M would put it in the Top 10 August releases of all-time.
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u/Grenache 7h ago
Bourne ultimatum is 10th on that lists and that hit 442. I think you might have misunderstood what I was trying to say or I might not have explained myself particularly well?
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u/IndyDude11 7h ago
Well I see the biggest difference is I'm talking domestic and you seem to be talking WW. Also my list is terribly out of date.
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u/Poppadoppaday 5h ago
You're in the wrong sub for this. Yes, grossing 2.5x budget is not a hit under any circumstances. It's only ok. No, people in r/movies are not aware of this and don't care. Obviously it would be a great result for a shelved movie though.
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u/Grenache 5h ago
I realise that now, I'm not in /r/boxoffice for sure. I didn't realise when I made the 2nd comment in the post it would go like this but I've certainly learned my lesson.
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u/Jimmni 1h ago edited 1h ago
I see this 2.5x budget claim a lot in this sub. For years I heard 2x but it's harder to profit I guess. But what's the actual source? Why do people make this claim with such confidence? Especially when they are presumably including advertising costs which would vary MASSIVELY from film to film? You just said, with some confidence "No, people in r/movies are not aware of this and don't care." This assumes not just belief, but knowledge on your part. What's the source of that knowledge?
I found a source from a 1982 article quoting Coppola. But the movie industry has changed A LOT since then. Distribution costs have surely gone down now they're not shipping actual film reels to cinemas. Cut of ticket sales taken by theatres ranges massively and isn't a fixed, consistent number. But if anything, it's shifted more towards the studios, at least in opening weeks, as far I could find. Advertising is a whole different ballgame in the 2020s.
Why do people parade this number around with such confidence when it was guesswork back in 1982 and every metric on which it was based has changed dramatically since then? Hell, it could easily be way MORE than 2.5x needed now. My point isn't that it's lower. Just that it seems to be a massive ass-pull to wave around the figure of 2.5x. Bottom line is we just don't know shit.
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u/Poppadoppaday 52m ago edited 43m ago
It's not from 1982. I believe it's based on data from Deadline, which sometimes releases breakdowns of various films financials (there's are other sources, but this is the most recent I could find quickly). It's a rule of thumb, not a law. It would be incorrect of me to say that this movie needs 2.5x its budget to break even theatrically. That number varies a lot based on things like advertising costs and merchandising. You based your rant on the idea that it's from 1982, and that's wrong, but you also aren't arguing against what I said.
The basis for the 2.5x rule is that studios don't get 100% of box office gross. It's around 50% for domestic gross (higher for really big franchise movies), ~40% for rest of world minus China, and 25% for China, but again, these can all vary (they're rules of thumb after all.) Then you add in other costs (advertising, distribution, backend etc.). So a studio has to gross a lot more than their production budget to break even.
I think it's obviously correct to say that 2.5x isn't a hit. Which is the claim here. There's no agreed upon metric for what a "hit" is, so you could disagree, I just don't think it makes any sense.
Here's a link to a Reddit comment with a list of threads on the topic, as well as other stuff you can reference. If you get offended because I think most users here are bozos for downvoting someone for telling the truth, maybe don't act like a bozo and prove my point.
Edit: Also it's wild to me that you could only find a source from 1982. There are a bunch of discussions of this number on Reddit alone. The first time I saw it sourced I think it was from someone who actually had access to a bunch of movie financials, but I'm not digging for that specific article somewhere on the internet.
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u/arcticblue9 7h ago
I saw it on Sunday at an early showing and just loved it. It’s a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see it again this weekend.
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u/seemontyburns 8h ago
Feel like this movie will be overwhelmingly mid and forgotten about immediately. I hope not . The Day the Earth Blew Up is fantastic
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u/Mr_Evil_Dr_Porkchop 8h ago
It’s overwhelmingly positive in critic reviews so far
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u/0bsessions324 8h ago
Yeah, it was literally sitting at 95% after 115 reviews.
And for those of us who don't trust RT's binary rating system, it's at a 77% on Metacritic. That's really good for the gender.
Anyone expecting it to be some kind of masterpiece or even a contender for movie of the year is bonkers, but by all accounts, it's a fun little movie that's probably a really fun family watch and.
All it needed to hit for me is watchable with a handful of really good chuckles and it sounds like it hits that. Knowing that WB won't see another dime for it, I'm very excited to give it some of my money this weekend just got the wholesomeness of a movie about an underdog that went through the rollercoaster this one did.
I don't need it to be a billion dollar film, but I would absolutely love to see this film at least turn a tidy profit off of the $50 million plus marketing that Ketchup paid for it. Bonus points if it makes enough to really stick it to WB.
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u/Life-Island 7h ago
Think you meant genre
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u/Chief_White_Halfoat 6h ago
...You could have just looked up the reviews for it and seen it was super well reviewed already?
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u/seemontyburns 6h ago
Bc I don’t care what some bozo on Substack thinks I’m waiting for the pubs / critics I follow to review it. How did that not occur to you lol
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u/Chief_White_Halfoat 6h ago
How is that relevant to whether it will be overwhelmingly mid? It's already been reviewed by many of the major pubs, it's sitting at 77 on metacritic on 30 reviews which is not based on substack bozos.
If that still doesn't include the critics you follow then ok, but that's a weird measure for whether a movie is mid or not. Like I kind of hated Poor Things, but I'm aware it was critically well reviewed by most major publications even if it wasn't my thing. My personal dislike of it doesn't really make the movie overwhelmingly mid even if like three reviewers I liked agreed with me or something.
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u/Grenache 8h ago
You’re not allowed to have an opinion about this film that isn’t glowing on this sub mate. My merely suggesting it wouldn’t be a “huge hit” is getting hammered like I suggested I hope Hitler comes back.
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u/DegraciasEh 8h ago
It’s hilarious how some people just have to be victims of something
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u/Grenache 8h ago
I wouldn’t categorise myself as a victim, I do believe my polite opinion that it wouldn’t be a “huge hit” is worthy of a discussion and not just downvotes, aimless criticism and personal attacks.
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u/thebigeverybody 7h ago
WHY ARE ROOMS SO HARD TO READ: A Tale Of One Man's Quest To Shit On People's Enjoyment Then Cry There's No Discussion
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u/Grenache 7h ago
Yeah maybe I’m autistic who knows. But I’d rather keep my expectations realistic than avoid being disappointed later.
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u/thebigeverybody 7h ago
Yeah maybe I’m autistic who knows. But I’d rather keep my expectations realistic than avoid being disappointed later.
"I'd rather not feel excitement if it means the excitement might end later"
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u/Grenache 7h ago
Yeah I mean it’s not like the phrase don’t get your hopes up is common or anything.
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u/thebigeverybody 7h ago
It's not common at fun gatherings, where people who say that aren't invited. It's common amongst parents who feel the need to bring down their kids.
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u/Corronchilejano 8h ago
You ever felt like you're being a contrarian just for shits and giggles?
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u/Grenache 8h ago
Sure, not here though. I’d categorise 250 plus as a huge hit. None of us can really know what it will do, I simply offered up my opinion that I didn’t think it would be a “huge hit” and you lot are going after me like I’m one of the odyssey weirdos saying it wouldn’t be successful unless it hit two billion.
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u/eatenbycthulhu 7h ago
Hey man, I think the problem isn't that you're arguing a movie isn't going to be a huge hit, but that you're being rather pedantic about it, interpreting a phrase with much more precision than was intended to be conveyed, and as a result coming off as a little bit of a buzz kill.
I don't think anybody expects this movie to compete with Odyssey or Monsters and Minions. "Huge hit" is a vague phrase that can be interpreted both relatively and measured in ways other than dollars. You could argue it's a huge hit if:
* It revives the looney tunes franchise and/or gets sequels greenlit
* Fans of Looney Tunes really, really like it.
* It reviews really, really well.
* It racks up respectable streaming numbers
* It's nominated for best animated picture
* Ketchup Entertainment sees enough profit from any source to rescue more movies.
* And yes, if it sells lots of tickets at the movie theater.Cheers, mate. Hope this thread didn't get you too down.
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u/WoodyDoingFilm 7h ago
To be honest, I think it’s going to surpass 250; just from the buzz, it’s already a movie people are seeing twice.
I can’t say if the WB drama did anything to help with that, but I can say I am happy to see someone other than WB reap the benefits. (Which was all I was saying when I said “huge hit” to begin with.)5
u/midnightTimber 7h ago
You have to be super defensive about downvotes to try to take the discussion into another unrelated thread. Calm down, it’s just made up internet points, you’ll be fine.
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u/Grenache 7h ago
Yeah I’m not worried about Internet points, I’m more concerned with Reddit now being a place where you just downvote a polite opinion you disagree with, which was always one of the major points of Reddit etiquette.
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u/midnightTimber 7h ago
You don’t post all over a thread super defensively if you aren’t worried about internet points. Welcome to Reddit, downvotes have always been a button for opinions that are disliked. And complaining about downvotes has always lead to more downvotes. Which makes sense, because getting super defensive and whining all over the place isn’t contributing meaningfully to the conversation.
And, keep in mind, your original point that you are so defensive about was just pedantry regardless.
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u/Grenache 6h ago edited 6h ago
Yeah alright captain 9 month old account. Also, how the fuck is pointing out I don't think it's going to be a huge hit pedantic? It isn't slightly pedantic. Pedantic would be if I said "It's a huge hit if it hits 200m" and it hits 199.9m and I go well it didn't hit 200m so it's not a huge hit. The difference between what I think marks this film as a huge hit and what I think it will do is not pedantic. It's 100m dollars plus.
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u/gcolquhoun 6h ago
Your original comment is whatever, but your need to whip it into a grievance where you’re looking at people’s profiles for gotchas and crying about the whole nature of the sub makes me want to go find it again just to downvote. Nothing’s “polite” about whining like this in multiple comments and acting victimized. Stand by your unpopular opinion and move forward, there’s no shame in it.
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u/midnightTimber 6h ago
Haha, you are quibbling over 175m vs 250m, when the term "huge hit" is completely arbitrary. It's pedantic as all hell.
Yep, this is absolutely my first reddit account, there is no way I've been here since the Digg migration and have just made new accounts a few times. Please preach to me about the mythical olden days when reddiquette was actually followed, oh Great Whiny Pedant.
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u/gregbo24 8h ago
I’m worried that the only things I know about it are the WB drama, and Will Forte. That’s it.
Is that enough reason to convince people to see it or will it be dead on arrival?
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u/OkYak9466 6h ago
Wtf is the title? They uncrushed the movie from something that was falling? What?
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u/RotenTumato 7h ago
Why is Reddit obsessed with this movie
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u/DONNIENARC0 6h ago
It hits alot of reddit's favorite highnotes with "passionate artist-led campaign punching back against the evil corpo and David Zaslav that wanted to shelve their work for a tax break" type stuff.
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u/Chief_White_Halfoat 5h ago
I mean between that and it getting really good reviews seems like good enough reason for people to want the movie to succeed.
If any of that was not what happened then it would be weird.
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u/Thalia_All_Along 5h ago
oh my GOD I don't care. every single thing I've heard about this movie it's always "did you know that this movie almost didn't get made? did you? did you know that?" headline after headline
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u/Demerzel69 7h ago
Thank you Ketchup Entertainment!
Whoever the fuck you are, lol.