The movie they tried to delete is a 90. The studio that tried is a 9.
Coyote vs. Acme should not exist. Warner Bros. finished the film, watched it test well, and then announced in 2023 that it was worth more as a tax write-off than as a movie. The backlash was loud enough that the studio let it be shopped, Ketchup Entertainment stepped in, and on August 20, three years after it was supposed to disappear into a vault, Wile E. Coyote finally got his day in court.
Critics got there first: 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. We measure something different. Not star ratings clicked by people who chose to rate, but what people actually say about a film in public social media conversations after seeing it, classified and scored nightly, with the sample size printed next to every number. And for once, the two yardsticks agree. Opening week lands Coyote vs. Acme at 90 from 1,854 verified reactions, our highest confidence tier.
From 76 to 90 in three days, then a week of holding
Thursday morning the film sat at 76, but that was 10 reactions talking. Friday it was 80 from 39. Saturday morning, with 189 reactions in, it crossed to 91, and it has not left the low 90s since: 90, 93, 91, 90, 90, 90 as the sample grew from 189 to 1,854. A score that holds while its sample multiplies tenfold is the signature of a real consensus, not a fanbase burst.
Three days ago we wrote about Mutiny, which climbed until it ran out of fans and stalled at 56 from 481 reactions. Coyote vs. Acme is the other shape: the score reached 90 before the crowds arrived, and the crowds kept it there.
What a 90 is made of
The split from 1,854 reactions: 86% positive, 7% mixed, 6% negative. The aspect tallies say the praise is specific. Humor scores 98 out of 100 across 379 mentions, the film's engine. Story scores 91 across 439 mentions, the single most discussed aspect. Originality, the quality the studio apparently could not find a market for, scores 91 across 141 mentions. Acting sits at 90 from 97 mentions and the visuals at 80 from 136. The one soft number is pacing at 43, but from just 14 mentions it is a footnote, not a fault line.
The room loves the cartoon. It has not forgiven the studio.
Wile E. Coyote drew 100 mentions, more than any human in the cast, at 76% positive, and the wider Looney Tunes bench behind him scores 96% across 51 mentions. The recurring comparison is Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and it comes up warm: 86% positive across 14 mentions. On the human side, John Cena runs 68% positive across 38 mentions and Will Forte 65% across 46.
Then there is the other conversation. Warner Bros. drew 34 mentions this week, and 9% of them were positive. David Zaslav drew 50, and 0% were positive. Not low. Zero. The audience watching the movie the studio wrote off has not stopped talking about the writing off, and the numbers say that grudge is now part of the film's story.
The conversation is also growing, not fading. Opening Thursday produced 110 reactions. A week later, Thursday produced 641, the film's loudest day yet. That is word of mouth doing what word of mouth does when the word is good.
The verdict so far
A 90 at very high confidence, in agreement with the critics, with humor at 98 and the conversation still accelerating. Coyote vs. Acme is tied for the highest movie score on our board, and holds it on the largest sample of the three films up there. The film Warner Bros. decided nobody wanted is the one everybody is talking about, and the audience seems to know exactly who almost kept it from them.
Coyote vs. Acme's score updates every night as new reactions come in. The live number, the trend, and the full breakdown: See Coyote vs. Acme's live Real Score