Warner Bros. Says It’s Bringing ‘Looney Tunes’ Back to Theaters

After years of treating the property like TV or streaming fodder — or a way to write off corporate taxes — Warner Bros. now claims it thinks the Looney Tunes are ready to return to the big screen.

Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chair and CEO Pam Abdy said as much during an event highlighting the company’s upcoming animation slate this week. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Abdy said the studio was “thrilled to be unveiling at Annecy [Animation Festival] Daffy Season, a Looney Tunes theatrical short that reestablishes our commitment to bring Looney Tunes back to the big screen.”

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This would be quite a turnaround for Warner Bros. from their attitude toward the property in recent years. When the studio has made Looney Tunes movies, they’ve only been released if they were acquired by other companies. They made the very funny The Day the Earth Blew Up for HBO Max, canceled its streaming premiere, then eventually sold the theatrical rights to the project to Ketchup Entertainment.

They also famously shelved Coyote vs. Acme, a live-action and animation hybrid featuring the Looney Tunes and John Cena. They reportedly planned to bury or even delete the movie permanently in order to use it for tax write-off purposes. After months of controversy and bad publicity, they eventually relented, and struck a deal for the film with Ketchup.

The last Looney Tunes movie to actually make its way to theaters under the Warner Bros. banner was Space Jam: A New Legacy in 2021. The film made only $163 million in theaters — although that number was affected by the company’s plan to release all of its 2021 movies in theaters and on streaming simultaneously due to Covid — and got dreadful reviews.

It would be great to see the Looney Tunes back in action (so to speak) on a more regular basis. But this commitment, no matter how sincere, comes with a huge asterisk: If Paramount Skydance completes its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, they could completely throw this plan away and do something else with the characters. Or nothing at all, for that matter.