COYOTE VS. ACME finally reached theaters this weekend, opening in second place with $15.5 million across 3,575 screens as SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY held on to the No. 1 spot for a fifth consecutive weekend with $22.2 million.
“COYOTE VS. ACME is finally, gloriously, in theaters now. Which means one thing. WE WON,” wrote director Dave Green on social media, closing the book on a saga that took the long way around just to get an opening weekend at all.
Warner Bros. Discovery shelved the finished movie back in 2023, taking a roughly $30 million tax write-off rather than release it — the same treatment the studio gave BATGIRL. Public backlash, plus support from filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, reversed that call within days, and Ketchup Entertainment bought worldwide distribution rights for about $50 million in a deal that closed in early 2025.
That opening weekend is now Ketchup Entertainment’s biggest release to date, topping the roughly $3.1 million THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP brought in back in 2024. The Looney Tunes hybrid, directed by Green and starring Will Forte, John Cena, Lana Condor and Tone Bell, cost about $70 million to produce — a number an “A” CinemaScore and a 95% fresh Rotten Tomatoes rating should help it climb toward over time.
“The box office numbers are fair, but the reception is excellent and the release should set up good ancillary business for kids’ viewing, where the film should recoup its investment,” said David A. Gross, publisher of the box office analysis newsletter FranchiseRe.
Related: COYOTE VS. ACME Isn’t Your Typical Looney Tunes Movie
SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY, meanwhile, isn’t slowing down enough for anyone to catch it. Sony’s Tom Holland sequel has climbed to $2.33 billion worldwide, officially the fourth-highest-grossing movie ever made, and it hasn’t finished outside first place since it opened July 31.
Rounding out the top five, Christopher Nolan’s THE ODYSSEY held steady in third with $14.3 million in its seventh weekend, on its way to $1.55 billion worldwide, while INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER added $10.1 million in its second weekend. THE DOG STARS, Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic drama starring Jacob Elordi, opened in fifth with a soft $8 million domestically against a reported budget between $70 million and $100 million.
Movieguide® has tracked COYOTE VS. ACME’s long road for months, from Forte’s early sadness that audiences might never see the movie to the cast’s public campaign to keep it alive. Movieguide®’s own review gave the finished movie three out of four stars for entertainment value, praising its themes of perseverance while cautioning parents about slapstick violence and some rough language.
Movieguide® gave SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY a full four stars as well, praising a story that casts Peter Parker as a Christ-like figure willing to sacrifice everything to save someone else, though the review flagged nearly 40 obscenities — several using Jesus’s name — that earned the movie an Extreme Caution rating despite its otherwise redemptive shape.
Wile E. Coyote spent decades chasing something just out of reach, and the movie built around him spent three years doing much the same thing. This weekend, both finally caught up.
Read Next: How John Cena Really Felt About All the COYOTE VS. ACME Drama
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