Summary
- Warner Bros. may be selling off Looney Tunes due to financial losses despite critical acclaim.
- Recent management shake-ups at Warner Bros. are leading to potential project cancelations.
- Looney Tunes has struggled to find its identity with modern audiences despite past successes.
A shocking rumor has been circulating recently that Warner Bros. may be considering dumping one of their most iconic brands. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the company over the last decade. Is a genuine animated legacy in danger of being kicked to the curb?
Warner Bros. is almost synonymous with animation in the entertainment industry. Their logo features in every intro of the Spielberg brain-child Animaniacs (1993-2023). They’ve had a hand in almost every Scooby-Doo TV series and film for decades. They led the 2010s animated renaissance on Cartoon Network, before unfortunately shutting the studio down in August 2023. They are responsible for some of the most foundational elements in a lot of people’s childhoods. So why, then, does WB have such a will-they-won’t-they relationship with their support of animated projects? The CN Studios shutdown is well-reported at this point. They have canceled several animated shows on their Max service, including burgeoning series like Infinity Train (2019-2021). The Animaniacs revival was short-lived on Hulu, and more recently WB has removed their 95-years-worth of animated Looney Tunes films and shows from Max. Although Disney doesn’t always hold true to its animated roots during this era of live-action reboots, at least their properties aren’t at risk of being wiped from their library entirely. Most of these WB productions are either well-received or critically acclaimed. So, what thought processes are leading the studio to make these creative decisions?
Related
8 Best Quotes From The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie brings back the classic brand of Looney Tunes comedy, leading to some memorable and hilarious quotes.
Unfortunately, things may be about to get a lot worse for the Looney Tunes. A rumor has been spreading through the industry, originating from Jeff Sneider of The InSneider, that Warner Bros. is considering selling off the entire Looney Tunes franchise in a bundle deal with the shelved Coyote vs. Acme project. Fans of the franchise will be extremely unnerved by this speculation. It had been hoped by many that, with the release of The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (2025), audiences may be about to see a revival of 2D animation. It’s the first proper feature that Looney Tunes has received in years, but sadly, financial forces may be about to dictate the future of these characters.
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie received wide critical acclaim this March, garnering a Rotten Tomatoes score of 87%. However, its financial losses have not gone unnoticed by the top brass at WB. The film has made a measly $6.9 million against a budget of $15 million. It is more proof of the sad reality that audiences just aren’t as interested in 2D animated films as they used to be, despite die-hard fans of the genre wanting the opposite to be true. The Looney Tunes have struggled in general during the 21st century to find their identity with modern audiences, limping along from project to project. Their attempt to break into live-action fumbled as The Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003) failed to impress critics and resulted in a financial loss. Cartoon Network was the shining beacon that kept the franchise going for many years. The Looney Tunes Show attempted to put a sitcom spin on its characters, angling to capture the success of many other shows like The Office. But that safe harbor disappeared with the closure of the studio. Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021) felt more like a nostalgia cash grab, than any real effort to celebrate these animated legends.
Will Warner Bros. Discovery Really Say Goodbye To The Looney Tunes?
There was an exciting Looney Tunes renaissance on Max as the streaming service was beginning to set up shop. Looney Tunes Cartoons (2020-2024) was a faithful, almost nigh-on perfect, revival of the old cartoon roster of characters. It didn’t try to take Looney Tunes in a new direction, or put them in an unusual genre; the show just delivered on what hardcore fans had wanted for many years.
The culprit behind most of the recent Looney Tunes dramas is likely to be the shake-up in Warner Bros. management. On April 8, 2022, WarnerMedia, a unit of AT&T, merged with Discovery, Inc. to form Warner Bros. Discovery. After the merger, the current CEO, David Zaslav, promised sweeping changes to its structure to ensure that the entity would be profitable as the company faced a mountain of debt. Many projects faced cancelation as a result. Batgirl, a highly publicized film, was scrapped despite being in post-production. Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, a nearly finished animated film, was also axed. Batman: Caped Crusader, an animated DC TV series, was shelved and eventually given new life on Prime Video. Unfortunately, the Looney Tunes may be about to receive the same treatment. In this new cut-throat world of Warner Bros. Discovery, even the oldest, most legendary IPs might not be safe. Fans may have to say ‘That’s All Folks!’ to a franchise that has defined generations of children’s entertainment.
Source: The InSneider