Tubi Saves The Day For Looney Tunes After Warner Bros. Discovery Pulls Classic Cartoons From Max, And Ketchup Entertainment Might Come To The Rescue Of ‘Coyote Vs. Acme’
It’s an interesting time to be a Looney Tunes fan even if the news is mostly a bitter pill to swallow. While The Day the Earth Blew Up is in theaters, it could’ve used better marketing. At least it is getting a chance, though. The traditional animated feature could have wound up like the half cartoon-half live-action Coyote vs. Acme which was shelved in 2022 for a tax break.
Having Batgirl for company in the Warner vault might be considered a fate worse than death, but doing so has had the dividend of increasing the cult around the Space Jam-like legal comedy. A growing voice wants to see the film granted a wide release someday, and people who worked on it such as star and SNL alum Will Forte (MacGruber himself), especially do.
Forte called the decision to lock his film away “f–ing bullsh–” that made his blood boil, while others deemed the move baffling and “anticompetitive” of a major studio. Well, fortunately for them, news broke indicating they might get their wish.
Deadline reports that Warner Bros. is negotiating with Hellboy: The Crooked Man distributor Ketchup Entertainment for “an all-rights acquisition in the $50 million range.” This follows Ketchup doing the same for The Day the Earth Blew Up, and could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Deadline stresses, “The pact isn’t finalized and there’s still a chance it doesn’t make, but it’s heading in the right direction. Should it get over the line, the film would get a theatrical release in 2026.” That would be a full three years after Coyote vs. Acme was shelved, and four after it wrapped filming.
Both Day the Earth Blew Up and Coyote vs. Acme were pushed into development with (the then HBO) Max in mind, which is another corner of the Warner Entertainment family caught up in a “Looney” imbroglio. When you talk about Looney Tunes and problems at Warner, you can’t have that discussion without bringing up the streaming service.
As it’s one of the parent company’s biggest IPs, Max was the home of classic Looney Tunes cartoons and shorts until now. The continuing culling edict from on high has finally reached Bugs, Daffy, Porky, the Coyote, and the Roadrunner. They will no longer appear in the catalog or search bar thanks to those irresistible licensing fees.
Max’s loss is Tubi’s gain as the popular free service is adding The Looney Tunes Show and the 90s gem The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries starting on April 1st, rather appropriately, according to CBR. Joining them are Scooby-Doo! adventures including Scooby-Doo! Ghostly Goals! and Scooby-Doo! Mecha Mutt Menace, among others.
RELATED: Rumor: ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Was Shelved To Make Way For A New Looney Tunes Movie
Scoob’s Holiday Haunt was another production near completion that Warner shelved after Discovery and David Zaslav took over. There’s no word if that was part of any firesales to potential distributors or if it will ever be cleared for exhibition.
Tubi already offers Scoob’s Hanna-Barbera stablemate The Flintstones, so they are the perfect home for the talking Great Dane and the ‘Merrie’ roster of silly and cuckoo animal friends. The platform says it is committed to “preserving and making available classic animated content for audiences of all ages.”
In an age where Warner’s physical media is failing while they purge their Max servers of classic content, Tubi might be our last best hope. What’s more, in an ironic twist, if Coyote vs. Acme does see the light of day, it probably will wind up on Tubi within a few years.
More About:Movie News