AUSTIN, Texas – The backstory to how this movie got to a theater near you could be a movie. And it might be someday, but Hollywood won’t make it.  

Hollywood isn’t making a lot of movies these days. Production has moved away, to Texas, to Georgia, to Canada. California has the natural environment that created Hollywood in the first place, but the business environment that has driven much of Hollywood away and is strangling what’s left of it. It’s so bad that President Donald Trump recently stepped in to try to save the industry that’s been weaponized against him.  

Hollywood has mostly forgotten that its primary purpose is to entertain.  

Warner Bros. had a movie it spent $70 million to create, finished in 2022. It brought some big names together – James Gunn as writer and producer, stars John Cena and Will Forte, and even bigger names in Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote, and all the other classics from Looney Tunes. Warner didn’t just launch production on this film, it went through the entire process, and had a finished work that was ready for theaters. It was called “Coyote vs. Acme,” pitting the hapless Wile E. Coyote against the megacorp from which he’d bought so much failed gear from over the decades.

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But thanks to perverse tax incentives and a difficult climate for major movie releases, Warner decided to do the unthinkable: It was going to delete this finished movie. Not just shelve it. Destroy it.  

Will Forte, who plays Coyote’s attorney in the film, appeared on Jay Mohr’s podcast, called it “A very frustrating story.” 

“So we make this movie. The script is really fun. And then, we went through the process of making this movie, and we made an even better movie than this great script.”  

Because half the film is animated with composited cartoon characters, anvils and other tropes, post-production was a long process. But it got through all that, Forte says, and they were called to a screening.  

Warner Bros. decided to destroy “Coyote vs. Acme”. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

“After all the animation, they’re finally ready to show it to the cast. They called us up on a Tuesday night. Said, ‘OK we’re gonna show it to you next Tuesday. It’s testing really well, we’re very excited about it.’ The next day I get a call that Warner Bros. is going to shelve it. Just wants to take a tax loss.” 

The cast still got to see the movie. Forte said he assumed that if Warner was shelving it, “It must be not as good as these guys said. But they saw it, and it’s “great.” 

“Which made it even more frustrating… It was nuts.” 

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As an artist, seeing a corporation shelve your work would tend to be frustrating. But it might be understandable if the work is terrible. The corporation may even be saving you from embarrassment. But “Coyote vs. Acme” was testing well with audiences, and it landed well with the people who made it.   

The big names involved, and then more big names, and then a grassroots campaign, all gathered force to try to shame Warner into releasing the movie. A guy wearing a Wile E. Coyote costume showed up at Warner picketing the studio. 

And it worked. Sort of. Warner shopped the movie around, but was reportedly asking for more money than it spent from any buyers. Eventually a little 12-person outfit called Ketchup Entertainment bought the film for $50 million.  

“Coyote vs. Acme” actually turned out to be good. Very good. (Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images)

Ketchup spent roughly 25 cents marketing the movie. There was no build-up of reviews, no big trailers dropping on YouTube powered by ad dollars. Really, very little marketing. I happened to see a video about it one day while trolling YouTube. And it looked fun, like “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” or “Space Jam” kind of fun. 

“Coyote vs. Acme” landed in theaters worldwide in late August. It’s competing with a Spider-Man tentpole and some other summer films, but it’s holding its own, hitting second and third on its first two weekends and getting strong reviews across the board. As of this writing it has blown past $50 million. Ketchup wins by getting its name out there and may even make some money, and with the $100 million war chest it announced in May, it’s not done. 

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But is “Coyote vs. Acme” any good? 

In some ways it’s irrelevant if the movie is actually good. It’s a piece of art that should be seen by the audience it was made for. Bad movies, and books, and TV shows, get released every day. The art, and the hours of blood, sweat and tears the humans put into making it, matters.  

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I saw it over the long weekend. And it’s good. Very good. The jokes land, the cartoon combination with live action works, the sometimes surprising use of classic Looney Tunes characters all fit, the cartoon tropes and send-ups work, and John Cena delivers a deliciously villainous performance as Acme’s shark lawyer.  

Getting back to what was once Hollywood’s reason to exist, “Coyote vs. Acme” entertains. And then some. 

FOX Business reached out to Ketchup Entertainment, John Cena and Bugs Bunny prior to publication.

Wordle players looking for help with Saturday’s puzzle can find the answer, along with a full breakdown of hints and strategy tips, for Wordle #1911, the daily five-letter word game published by The New York Times on Sept. 12, 2026.

Today’s Wordle answer is NIFTY, a word commonly used as a compliment for something clever, useful or stylish. Multiple puzzle-tracking outlets confirmed the solution Saturday, noting that despite its familiarity in everyday conversation, the word tripped up a larger-than-usual share of players due to an uncommon letter pattern that didn’t respond well to typical vowel-heavy opening guesses.

How today’s puzzle played out

Wordle challenges players to guess a five-letter word in six tries or fewer, with the game providing color-coded feedback after each guess: green for letters in the correct position, yellow for correct letters in the wrong position, and gray for letters not in the word at all.

According to puzzle trackers, NIFTY contains only one vowel, positioned early in the word, and features no repeated letters, meaning players could safely eliminate double-letter guesses once they had ruled out a first attempt. The word begins with the letter “N,” a detail that several outlets offered as an early hint for players who wanted a nudge without seeing the full answer.

Despite the word’s simplicity in everyday speech, reported solving statistics suggested that many players needed close to five attempts to land on the correct answer, an unusually high average for a word this common. Puzzle analysts attributed the difficulty to the fact that popular opening words like STARE or CRANE, which rely heavily on common vowel placement, returned relatively little useful information against NIFTY’s letter structure.

Hints offered before the reveal

Ahead of publishing the full answer, several outlets offered a tiered set of hints for players hoping to solve the puzzle on their own. Early clues described the word as something used to describe an idea, gadget or solution that is especially clever or appealing, while later hints noted it could also describe something fashionable or smart-looking in a more general sense.

Additional structural hints included confirmation that the word contains exactly one vowel, has no repeated letters, and starts with the letter N, details that narrowed the field considerably for players still working through their guesses before the answer was revealed.

Yesterday’s answer and recent trends

For players looking to catch up or compare notes with the previous day’s puzzle, Friday’s Wordle answer, for puzzle #1910, was ASTER, referring to a flowering plant. Puzzle trackers noted that beyond both being five-letter words, Friday’s and Saturday’s answers shared little in common, continuing Wordle’s practice of avoiding overly similar consecutive solutions to keep the daily puzzle unpredictable for regular players.

Wordle has published a new puzzle daily since its widely reported debut on June 19, 2021, when puzzle No. 1 used the word “cigar.” The New York Times acquired the game shortly after its viral rise from word-game enthusiasts and has continued to publish it on a fixed, non-repeating schedule ever since, meaning the sequence of daily answers is determined in advance rather than generated dynamically for each session.

Strategy tips for future puzzles

Puzzle strategists tracking recent Wordle trends have continued to emphasize a handful of general strategies for tackling the game more efficiently. Five-letter answers frequently rely on common endings such as “-ER,” “-LY,” “-TY,” “-LE” and “-CK,” making words that test those endings valuable in the middle stages of a game once a few letters have been confirmed. Analysts also caution players against assuming double letters are rare in Wordle solutions, noting that repeated letters appear regularly enough that ruling them out too quickly can cost players a guess late in the game.

Strategists also recommend holding off on guesses involving less common letters like Q, X and Z until more conventional alphabet options have been exhausted, since early guesses are generally more valuable when they test frequently used letters rather than rare ones.

Where to find daily answers

Wordle remains one of the most widely played daily word games in the world, drawing millions of players who track their personal solving streaks and compare results with friends and family through the game’s built-in sharing feature, which displays colored tile grids without revealing the actual word. The New York Times continues to publish Wordle alongside its other daily puzzle offerings, including Connections, Strands and the Mini Crossword, all of which draw dedicated followings among puzzle enthusiasts looking to complete their daily routine of word and logic games.

For players who missed today’s puzzle or are looking ahead, a new Wordle answer will be published Sunday, continuing the game’s unbroken daily streak that has now run for more than five years since its original 2021 launch. Players hoping to avoid spoilers for future puzzles are generally advised to solve each day’s word before checking hint sites, since most puzzle trackers publish both hints and full answers together shortly after each day’s puzzle becomes available.

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This article was written by

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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.