This Is the ‘Looney Tunes’ Movie That Warner Bros. and David Zaslav Couldn’t Kill

At this point, Warner Bros. Discovery is as famous for not releasing movies as they are for releasing them. After the non-releases of Batgirl, Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, and especially, Coyote vs. Acme, it’s genuinely shocking to see that a new Looney Tunes movie is actually coming out. 

At least it seems to be coming out, judging from the recently-released trailer for The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie. It doesn’t hit theaters until February 28, 2025, so there’s still time for CEO David Zaslav to burn every copy in existence as part of a tax scheme to defray the cost of Bill Maher’s massive salary. 

As we’ve mentioned before, The Day the Earth Blew Up, which finds Daffy Duck and Porky Pig fending off an invasion of grotesque aliens, has already earned rave reviews from those who have seen it. While it doesn’t come out in the U.S. until next year, it’s already been released in countries like Germany and Italy. 

Looney Tunes fans are no doubt excited to get a new big-screen adventure starring two beloved cartoon characters that A) doesn’t include any live-action athletes, and B) isn’t just a two-hour commercial for a streaming service.

So why is Warner Bros. Discovery releasing The Day the Earth Blew Up, but not Coyote vs. Acme, which, from all accounts, is another fun, modern riff on the Looney Tunes mythology? Well, technically, Warner Bros. Discover isn't releasing this movie. 

Sure, it was produced by the company, originally for HBO Max, but it became one of several in-house projects that was shopped around due to corporate restructuring. The movie was eventually picked up for U.S. distribution by Ketchup Entertainment, the company that previously released Ben Affleck’s Nickelback meme movie Hypnotic.

That being said, The Day the Earth Blew Up hasn’t been doing huge numbers at the international box office. So it’s entirely possible that it will similarly tank when it hits theaters in the U.S.. Still, it’s just plain wrong to delete any work of art for tax purposes. Even if it doesn’t do Avatar money, The Day the Earth Blew Up took a lot of work to complete, and has earned the right to exist. And now it’s even being talked about as a potential Oscar contender for Best Animated Feature.

Even from a purely greedy financial standpoint, it would be super dumb of Warner Bros. Discovery to bury this movie, because it keeps the company’s legacy characters in the public consciousness. The same goes for Coyote vs. Acme, by the way.

It’s incredibly shortsighted to take a tax write-off on any project that would serve to bolster the relevance of these iconic characters who, historically, have made money in other ways, such as by appearing on T-shirts, spawning toys and even hawking Kentucky Fried Chicken — a job that, disturbingly, fell to Foghorn Leghorn.