COYOTE VS. ACME Scores a Solid Box Office Win With $15.4 Million Opening Weekend
After everything Coyote vs. Acme went through just to reach theaters, watching the movie pull in a respectable opening weekend feels pretty satisfying.
The long-delayed Looney Tunes movie opened to $15.4 million at the domestic box office, giving distributor Ketchup its biggest debut to date. That’s also incredibly close to the $15.5 million opening of 2025’s The Day the Earth Blew Up.
It managed that while Spider-Man: Brand New Day continued holding onto the top spot as the summer movie season comes to an end.
For a movie that was once canceled and nearly locked away for good, $15.4 million isn’t a bad way to finally introduce itself to audiences.
The positive response from critics and moviegoers certainly helped. Live-action Looney Tunes movies aren’t exactly common these days, with the previous one being 2021’s Space Jam: A New Legacy, which received a simultaneous theatrical and HBO Max release.
The unusual road to release has also become a major part of the story surrounding Coyote vs. Acme. Its marketing has acknowledged just how fortunate the movie was to escape its original fate, while fans and others familiar with the situation have framed buying a ticket as a way to send a message to Warner Bros. Discovery and its CEO, David Zaslav.
Judging by the opening weekend, plenty of people were willing to show up for Wile E. Coyote.
Elsewhere at the box office, Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars had a rougher launch. The post-apocalyptic film debuted with $8 million, with audience reactions landing in mixed territory while critics were generally less enthusiastic.
That gives Scott his lowest opening since The Last Duel, which debuted to $4.8 million in 2021.
Casper Kelly’s Buddy also arrived this weekend, earning $5.4 million. The supernatural slasher from the creator of Too Many Cooks has received generally positive reactions from both critics and audiences.
With summer wrapping up, theaters are moving into the fall movie season. Onslaught arrives September 4, followed by Practical Magic 2 on September 11.
For now, though, Wile E. Coyote gets to enjoy a rare victory. After spending years fighting ACME products, studio decisions, and the possibility that audiences would never get to see his movie at all, Coyote vs. Acme finally made it to theaters and people actually showed up to watch it!