Batgirl’s Shot At Release Depends On Coyote Vs. Acme

April 1 proved to be more than just April Fool’s Day for Looney Toons fans, Coyote vs. Acme fans, and Warner 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 Entertainment acquiring 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 of Batgirl, another Warner Bros. production that remains in the shelved abyss. But the ultimate power to decide Batgirl’s fate resides in the movie electorate — fans.

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Just Like Coyote vs. Acme, Batgirl Was Shelved Before Seeing The Light Of Day

It Was an Unprecedented Move For Warner Bros.

It’s been nearly three years since Warner Bros. painfully canceled the completed Batgirl movie months 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.

Unsurprisingly, the bold decision to axe a $70 million-plus Batgirl project — 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 called Batgirl an “unreleasable” movie that “would hurt DC.” Multiple test screenings reportedly concluded with the same bad reviews. The executive axe that killed Batgirl also didn’t spare Scoob! Holiday Haunt and the movie remains unreleased to this day.

Coyote vs. Acme’s Box Office Could Save Batgirl From Purgatory

It’s A Litmus Test For These Oddly Unreleased Films

As it stands, Batgirl is never seeing the light of day. But the same was said for Coyote vs. Acme until Ketchup Entertainment offered salvation. In other words, Batgirl may be out but not dead. A wonderful performance of Coyote vs. Acme in the box office could very well ignite a chain reaction that could resurrect Batgirl.

Still, there’s reason for caution. Another Looney 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, if Coyote vs. Acme toes the line of The 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 shelving Coyote but all but seal the already-gloomy fate of Batgirl.

Considering the nature of box office revenue splits, Coyote vs. Acme would 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 office with 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 — sans Wonder Woman — earned, at best, mixed reviews. But the box office returns of the Snyder-led regime were always profitable, including the underwhelming Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. But growing dissatisfaction from both the DC fandom and the general audience elicited a franchise overhaul that started right from Suicide Squad to The Flash.

Except for both Aquaman films, 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 with Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

Is It Too Late for Batgirl?

Suppose Coyote 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 toward Batgirl. 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 with Superman. 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 up Batgirl indefinitely. Fans should hope that’s not the case. The cast and crew deserve to have their vision aired.

Coyote Vs. Acme

Release Date

November 17, 2023

Director

Dave Green

Writers

Samy Burch

Producers

Carsten H.W. Lorenz, Christopher DeFaria

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