The Surprising Light at the End of the Tunnel

Recently, there was a surprising conclusion that was a light at the end of the tunnel for the unfortunate saga of Warner Brother’s misguided move to shelve an entire movie after the film was done.

For those who don’t know the story, Warner Brothers Discovery financed a mixed live-action and animated film called Coyote vs Acme. The movie featured the Coyote and Acme, the Coyote’s favorite source of equipment and explosives to use on the roadrunner. 

Some of the studio execs screened it and, with the blessing of their extremely unpopular CEO, David Zaslav, thought it wasn’t good enough to spend significant marketing money on. Instead, they shelved the movie to take the loss as a tax write-off. 

Shooting Yourself in the Foot

The problem was that none of the people who worked on the movie could show the results of their efforts. It was like a hole the size of a tunnel in their resume, not to mention the loss of any residual payments they might have had coming from the film. 

Warner Bros Discovery has lost half its value in the past year due to the writer’s and actor’s strikes on top of a slow economic recovery after the pandemic. This causes them to look closely at the bottom line of every project. But this time, they miscalculated. They misjudged the respect in the industry for the artists, animators, cast and crew who worked on the film. They also misjudged the considerable lack of respect for the studio in the wake of the actor’s and writer’s strikes. It was like shooting themselves in the foot.

The entire creative arm of the film industry, via social media, ripped into Warner Bros. The public heard about it, and the studio faced the prospect of its value dropping even further. In the end, they tucked their tails between their legs and allowed other studios to bid on releasing the film, giving the film a new lease on life.