Some of the people behind the film (director, actors, writers, etc) may be entitled to more money even if the film loses money overall.
“Coyote v. Acme” would be a hoot. Scrap whatever has been done so far, and cast John Laroquette to represent Coyote, and Joe Pesci to represent Acme. A civil case, yes, but with Pesci, we’d have a “My Cousin Vinny” scenario. Hilarity would ensue.
In the actual movie (which tested well among audiences), Will Forte plays Coyote’s lawyer, while John Cena plays Acme’s lawyer.
That trailer (when the new stuff kicked in) was awesome.
I don’t doubt there are good reasons, but I’d like to see the math. Here’s a simplified view of the movie biz c. 30 years ago:
Profits to studio = Gross Revenue*(1-share of the gross that director and big stars get) - production expenses - marketing expenses.
Marketing expenses could easily exceed production expenses. So it could make sense to either not release a film to theaters or arrange a limited release without promotion (eg Rock and Rule as an extreme example). But there’s always direct-to-TV / direct-to-video / direct-to-streaming, which skips the expensive marketing campaign.
That share that directors and big stars get? It’s always less than one. So to a first approximation keeping the film under wraps never makes sense.
Speculation:
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If the film is sexist or racist and can’t be fixed, maybe it makes sense to seal the evidence. I’m very dubious, but… maybe.
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It’s a bargaining gambit. There are a small number of studios bargaining with a small number of streamers. The industry is settling down now. Warner Bros figures that driving a hard bargain on this sacrificial lamb of a film will help them with future bargaining with Amazon, Disney, Netflix et al. This strikes me as plausible. Maybe big studios think they are going to lose to big streamers. who can create their own films like Netflix does. I’m not sure whether this move will actually help though.
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The CEO is an idiot. I can’t rule this out, but I’m inclined to consider something clever like #2.
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You think that Studio Revenue < absolutely minimal marketing campaign. I can’t see how that applies here.
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CEO is foregoing profits over next 2 years to hit his quarterly earnings target. If so, the board of directors should be concerned.
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A contract with the actors and directors was signed where they get a big bonus if the movie was released at all. For example maybe the director gets the first $10 million of movie revenue. That might explain Batgirl, but it doesn’t match the reported facts here, given Paramount’s offer.
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This brouhaha is the marketing campaign and the movie will be released after all. I mean this is Wile E Coyote: you could release the film any time (though the studio takes a hit by delaying release, either borrowing money or forgoing interest on cash). This is my best guess.
I’d like to know more about #2 though.
I hope that you’re aware that Warner Bros (or more properly Warner Bros Discovery) has its own streaming service, called MAX.
Yeah and good point. I suspect the streaming industry will consolidate and I’m not convinced Warner will be one of the ones left standing. My general point was that bargaining practices between producers and platforms is still fluid, even if Warner was vertically integrated to some extent. Or so I hypothesize.
Remember last summer when Disney was pulling shows off? Here’s an article from Variety back then. As near as I can figure, once a project is completed, it counts as “inventory” to the studio, the same as a hammer is inventory to a hardware store. So, in the crazy world of tax accounting, completely dumping an $80 million project may save more in taxes than finishing it and selling it to some other studio for e.g. $50 million and taking a loss on the other $30 million.
Hey, I was in that movie:
One morning I got a call that EMRTC wanted any available members of the model airplane club to come to the EMRTC conference room. Half a dozen members showed up and some guy gave us a pitch on a movie they wanted to make - it was actually doing the tricks from the Coyote Roadrunner movies. They wanted EMRTC to organize a skit where Coyote gets blown up in an airplane. They’d give the club $1000 for an airplane and pilot.
We showed up at our field the next day and they put mics on us and filmed usual RC activity. But EMRTC said no way for explosives in an airplane. Not even an M80 and a glo plug. They would set up an explosive charge and a trigger on a pole out on their test range. The film guys would have to figure out how merge that with their script. And, we didn’t get to watch - 1 pilot and airplane and a crew fo 3 for filming. We voted Carl as the best pilot for the job.
As Carl tells it, they drove to the back of Socorro Peak where they had set up the explosive charge and trigger in an arroyo. At the head of the arroyo there was a flatbed truck with vertical shields on the side. The range safety officer told Carl he could not be closer than the flatbed and would have to stand behind one of the shields. He pointed out that he couldn’t even see the target from there. So, he made a couple of passes down the arroyo then on the third he dropped down to what he believed to be the height of the trigger and KABOOM it went off. He walked the arroyo after and found the engine and some pieces.
I never saw the movie. I understand it competes with Manos Hands of Fate for worst movie ever made. Probably won’t be missed. We gave the thousand dollars to the family of a member with terminal cancer.
Yeah, movie accounting is a crazy patchwork designed to screw over everyone but the studio and a few important people in the production. There have been movies that made hundreds of millions but declared losses so that none of the bonuses have to be paid out and a tax writeoff can be taken. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix made close to a billion dollars at the box office, but the studio declared a $167 million loss. Return of the Jedi has reportedly yet to turn a profit.
A movie costs $100 million to make, and earns $500 million in revenue, yet it’s declared a money loser. How? Well, if it costs $200 million to market, and ‘distribution costs’ are $90 million, and thr theaters take 60% of the box office, there you go. This is basically what happened to ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’. The kicker was that the studio ‘lost’ money because of the high distribution costs - charged to the film by another division of the same studio. It’s good to be the studio.
One new thing they tried over a dozen years ago was a 3D Coyote/Roadrunner cartoon, Coyote Falls. I just learned about it last week:
Here it is in anaglyph 3D
We showed that prior to our screening of The Creature from the Black Lagoon for our outdoor 3D movie night a couple Halloweens ago.
I showed 3D cartoons between the 3D movies I showed a month ago at Arisia 9including CftBL), but I wasn’t aware of this one.
I now have it, along with a couple of other road runner 3D cartoons, dubbed onto DVD. There are a few other 3D warner brothers cartoons, but I haven’t been able to find them.
(I showed Shrek 3D, B.O.B.'s Brig Break, and the 3D Woody Woodpecker cartoon The Hypnotized Hick)
No comment on the movie production termination, but I’ll go on record as challenging the success of the film’s premise. We all loved watching the coyote get crushed repeatedly by his own cunning or bad luck, but it seems like Roadrunner cartoons with their slapstick are funny for about five or ten minutes, but would grow mighty old mighty quick where a two hour movie is concerned. Obviously, to make a two hour movie they’re going to have to delve into character development and other aspects of film entertainment that have nothing whatsoever to do with making the Wile E Coyote cartoons of yore entertaining. Finding that new formula to achieve success would be a daunting filmmaking challenge.
I don’t think anyone here has seen the movie but articles I’ve read said it tested well with audiences. That’s no guarantee but it seems that they may have met the challenge.
Didn’t Kirk Douglas and Arnold Schwarzenegger already make the definitive live action Coyote and Roadrunner film.
And it doesn’t end, it just stops. Or more accurately, it just sto
I wouldn’t have believed 3 minutes of Coyote and Road Runner could make me start to dislike them, but it nearly did. There’s more to the cartoons than just endlessly bashing the Coyote!
Did some Googling and found that the model airplane club was in a six episode series for Tru TV. It was called “Man vs Cartoons or Animation meets Actuality”
Similar but not Coyote vs Acme.
Will Forte weighs in.
The short version: he thinks the movie is fantastic and he’s baffled by the choice to bury it.
Didn’t Family Guy already do a cutaway on these lines?