--- title: 'Coyote Vs. Acme Outruns The Dog Stars After Warner Shelved It' type: 'blog post' section: 'Industry' format: 'Editorial feature' standfirst: 'Ketchup’s release of the long-shelved Looney Tunes hybrid opened above Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars, and the gap says plenty about August studio logic. One film was treated like a write-off; the other was supposed to be the safer grown-up play.' author: 'CinePixo' published: '2026-09-02' updated: '2026-09-02' about_people: - 'Jacob Elordi' tags: - 'Coyote Vs. Acme box office August 2026' - 'The Dog Stars opening weekend box office' - 'Ridley Scott The Dog Stars flop' - 'Ketchup Entertainment Coyote Vs. Acme rights sale' - 'Labor Day 2026 weekend box office' - 'Spider-Man Brand New Day weekend box office' - 'Buddy horror movie per-theater average' sources: - 'https://www.avclub.com/weekend-box-office-coyote-acme-dog-stars' - 'https://www.fanbolt.com/180418/box-office-report-the-dog-stars-struggles-to-8m-coyote-vs-acme-debuts-strong/' - 'https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/coyote-vs-acme-no-2-at-box-office-spider-man-tops-titanic-dog-stars/ar-AA2bdJtS' - 'https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/08/28/what-parents-need-know-about-coyote-vs-acme-dog-stars-more/' - 'https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/dog-stars-coyote-vs-acme-042112979.html' canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/blog/coyote-vs-acme-outruns-the-dog-stars-after-warner-shelved-it' publisher: 'CinePixo' --- # Coyote Vs. Acme Outruns The Dog Stars After Warner Shelved It *Ketchup’s release of the long-shelved Looney Tunes hybrid opened above Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars, and the gap says plenty about August studio logic. One film was treated like a write-off; the other was supposed to be the safer grown-up play.* By CinePixo, 2026-09-02 · Industry On the Aug. 28-30 weekend, Ketchup Entertainment’s *Coyote Vs. Acme* opened above Ridley Scott’s *The Dog Stars*, and that reversal matters because one movie was once treated like a tax line item while the other was sold as a straight studio bet. The A.V. Club put *Coyote* at $11 million; FanBolt reported $15.5 million. Either way, it beat *The Dog Stars*, which landed at $8 million. For anyone who follows movie business math, that is the weekend’s real story. ## Coyote Vs. Acme turns a tax write-off into a strong opening Ketchup’s win starts with how odd this movie’s path has been. Warner Bros. Discovery pulled *Coyote Vs. Acme* off the schedule in November 2023 and booked about $30 million in tax benefits, then let filmmakers shop it after the backlash. Deadline reported that Ketchup bought worldwide rights for $50 million in March 2025, after Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Paramount passed. FanBolt said Ketchup spent roughly $10 million more on marketing. That is a hard way to turn a profit, but the opening at least gives the company oxygen. FanBolt reported a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score and an A CinemaScore, which is the kind of reception that can keep families coming once the calendar opens up around Labor Day. The film also marks Ketchup’s biggest debut to date, which is another way of saying this distributor just turned a rejected shelf item into its best-known title. ![Jacob Elordi in 2025](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/8cf83676-7a12-4fb7-be79-dace1e064828.webp) *Photo: Raph_PH · [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacob_Elordi.jpg)* ## The Dog Stars misses badly on a wide release *The Dog Stars* did not get that kind of lift. FanBolt reported $8 million from 3,330 locations, with $850,000 in Thursday previews, a 40% Rotten Tomatoes score, a C+ CinemaScore, and PostTrak numbers that looked soft enough to hurt: 65% positive and only 41% saying they would definitely recommend it. The movie also carried a reported $70 million negative cost, and analysts put break-even near $175 million once prints and advertising are folded in. That gap matters because the campaign appears to have sold the wrong movie. FanBolt described the marketing as a survival thriller with scavengers and gunfire, while what 20th Century actually financed was a slower two-hander about loneliness. That is a very different sell, especially in a 30-second spot in the last week of August. Ridley Scott has made plenty of films that ask for patience. This one seems to have asked for the wrong kind. ![Jacob Elordi à l'avant-première de "Frankenstein" de Guillermo del Toro au Grand Rex, le 10 octobre 2025.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/fc045e8a-0ab5-48f4-a365-3c6fda23e42b.webp) *Photo: ManoSolo13241324 · [CC0](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacob_Elordi_2025.jpg)* ![Jacob Elordi, actor, at 82nd Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy for the film Frankenstein.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/dc049cb7-29fc-4d08-967e-4ef73d911020.webp) *Photo: LucaFazPhoto · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacob_Elordi_at_82nd_Venice_International_Film_Festival-1.jpg)* ## Disney can shrug, 20th Century cannot The ugly part for 20th Century is that its parent company has the cushion to absorb it. FanBolt noted that Disney crossed $4 billion worldwide earlier this month, with *Toy Story 5* around $1.09 billion, *The Devil Wears Prada 2* near $692 million, and *Avengers: Doomsday* due on Dec. 18. In that context, *The Dog Stars* reads less like a company-wide alarm and more like one more reminder that Disney can afford to back the wrong horse and keep moving. That does not make the bet wiser. It just means the mistake gets buried inside a year that already has enough wins to drown it out. ## Spider-Man still owns the frame The rest of the weekend did not leave much room for newcomers to breathe. Marvel and Sony’s *Spider-Man: Brand New Day* stayed No. 1 with $22.2 million, down 43% from the $39 million it took the previous frame, according to FanBolt. That pushed its domestic total to $891.5 million and its worldwide haul to $2.33 billion. Christopher Nolan’s *The Odyssey* held third with $14.3 million in its seventh weekend, while Sony’s *Insidious: Out of the Further* stayed in the top five with $10.1 million. This matters because the market was already crowded before either new title got its shot. A fifth-week hold from *Spider-Man* and a seventh-week hold from *The Odyssey* do not leave much slack for a prestige drama or a revived family title. They leave scraps. ## Labor Day gives Coyote Vs. Acme the cleaner path Labor Day is where the contrast gets sharper. Paramount opens *By Any Means* on Sept. 4, A24 puts *Onslaught* wide the same day, Lionsgate has *Fall 2: Deadpoint* arriving on Sept. 2, and Trafalgar Releasing rolls Katy Perry’s *The Lifetimes Tour* concert film into IMAX across 70 countries. That is a lot of fresh product for a frame already busy with holdovers. *The Dog Stars* looks most exposed, because a C+ grade and a weak opening usually invite screen loss before the second weekend can say anything else. *Coyote Vs. Acme* has more room to run. FanBolt’s report says an A CinemaScore, plus families still out of school, can turn a $15.5 million start into a domestic finish in the $55 million to $65 million range. Buddy, the kids’-show horror movie from Casper Kelly, also showed there is appetite for oddball counterprogramming: it opened in sixth with $5.36 million in just over 1,250 cinemas and posted the week’s best per-theater average among newcomers. The second weekend will tell whether *Coyote Vs. Acme* is a clean hit or just the loudest opening of the month. ## How this piece was made **Format:** Editorial feature ## In this piece - [Jacob Elordi](https://cinepixo.com/people/jacob-elordi) ## Sources - https://www.avclub.com/weekend-box-office-coyote-acme-dog-stars - https://www.fanbolt.com/180418/box-office-report-the-dog-stars-struggles-to-8m-coyote-vs-acme-debuts-strong/ - https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/coyote-vs-acme-no-2-at-box-office-spider-man-tops-titanic-dog-stars/ar-AA2bdJtS - https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/08/28/what-parents-need-know-about-coyote-vs-acme-dog-stars-more/ - https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/dog-stars-coyote-vs-acme-042112979.html Every factual claim above is drawn from these. The reading of them is ours. Source: https://cinepixo.com/blog/coyote-vs-acme-outruns-the-dog-stars-after-warner-shelved-it Written for CinePixo. Nothing on this page is imported prose.