It’s not looking great for “Coyote vs. Acme” (per Matt Belloni). The film has had private screenings at the Warner Bros lot for a weeks now, but offers for the scrapped, and completed, movie just haven’t been to Warners’ liking.
As we speak, it is still being shopped around by the filmmakers, to potential distributors. Netflix expressed interest, but “at less than half the $70 million production cost”. This led to Netflix backing out of the bidding. Sony and Apple are also not interested anymore.
However, Paramount and Amazon made some offers, but they “weren’t high enough”. Belloni is now worried that the film will end up being scrapped by Warners, which was their original intention before heated backlash happened.
Meanwhile, Deadline’s Anthony D'Alessandro saw the film on the Burbank lot and had nothing but praise for it —
There’s a lot of action scenes in the movie and hysterical jokes that can easily be used in trailers. I’ve seen the movie. Look out for the Porky Pig pant-less joke) The sense of humor rivals the sophistication of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
There were reports that Warners would be getting a $30 million tax write-off for shelving “Coyote vs Acme”’ The film is said to have had very good test scores. It tested many months ago and ended up playing very well with audiences. It scored 14 points above the average for a family movie and its final score, reportedly, was in the high 90s.
If you’re not fluent in test screening lingo, a movie scoring in the high 90s means 95% of the audience who saw the film rated it “Very Good” or “Excellent.” It rarely happens.
Unlike “Batgirl,” Warner Bros cannot use the same excuse that they're cancelling “Coyote Vs Acme” for quality reasons. They're not shelving a film destined to fail. There is no way around lying about the quality. This was purely and simply a greed-driven decision on the part of Warner Bros.