John Cena says he has no hard feelings about nearly losing Coyote vs. Acme to a studio tax write-off.
According to Deadline, the Looney Tunes hybrid film was shelved by Warner Bros. Discovery in November 2023 following the company's merger, earning the studio a $30 million tax write-off. Ketchup Entertainment later acquired the film in a deal reported to be in the $50 million range. It now opens in theaters August 28.
Cena told Entertainment Weekly he approaches film work with a mindset focused on what he can control. "I am hired by an employer to do a task, and it's my job to prepare as much as I can, be early, be coachable, be passionate, and be reliable. I do that and hope for the best. Those expectations are beyond my control, so it doesn't make me view the business any differently," he said. "Keep in mind, it is the movie business. Sometimes, business decisions are things that we don't see through the same lens."
He was direct about who holds the rights to his work on screen. "Of course, I want my work seen by an audience. That's how I can accept both the positive and the negative and get better as a performer. But I don't own my performance. I'm contracted to do a job, and the person who owns it gets to decide what happens with it."
Cena added that the experience itself held value regardless of the film's fate. "Even if the movie never saw the light of day, the takeaway I have is that, with the things within my control, I got to be there on the ground with people who made me better and people I care about, and I got to do the thing."
In Coyote vs. Acme, Wile E. Coyote responds to an advertisement for attorney Kevin Avery, played by Will Forte, and decides to sue the Acme Corporation for decades of faulty products. The film also stars Lana Condor, Tone Bell, Martha Kelly and Luis Guzmán. The screenplay was written by Samy Burch from a story by Burch, James Gunn and Jeremy Slater. The film is based on a 1990 New Yorker article by Ian Frazier.
Warner Bros. Discovery also shelved Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt during the same period. Coyote vs. Acme opens August 28.
