An estimated $15.5m North American box office debut for Coyote vs. Acme behind Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day was enough to secure second place and the highest opening weekend for Ketchup Entertainment.
The $70m Looney Tunes animation-live-action hybrid has been the subject of scrutiny ever since Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav ditched it in 2023 for a $30m tax write-off. The filmmakers, animation community and star Will Forte were incensed, and Ketchup CEO Gareth West eventually acquired the rights in March 2025 in a reportedly $50m deal.
West and his team reportedly spent in the region of $10m marketing the story about the infamous Wile E. Coyote character as he sues Acme Corporation and the feature opened in 3,575 locations across the US and Canada on the back of mostly strong reviews. The cast includes John Cena and Lana Condor. Dave Green directed and helmed 2013 hit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows.
The opening weekend was well ahead of Ketchup’s release of Looney Tune’s The Day The Earth Blew Up, which earned $3.2m in March 2025 and grossed $8.9m in its lifetime, a little over half of what Coyote vs. Acme has achieved in its first weekend.
According to box office analyst FranchiseRe, the average opening weekend based on results of 15 prior family hybrid sequels is $23.2m. However the strong response by audiences bodes well heading into the three-day Labor Day holiday weekend and downstream revenue platforms.
Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day starring Tom Holland held on to number one in its fifth consecutive weekend as $22.2m from 3,678 sites after a 43% drop resulted in an $891.5m running total, with $900m a certainty by the holiday weekend. The tentpole ranks comfortably as the second-highest North American release of all time behind Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens on $936.7m. Time will tell if Spidey can become the all-time champion.
Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic sci-fi The Dog Stars from 20th Century Studios/Disney misfired, arriving in fifth place on $8m from 3,330 sites. Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin and Guy Pearce star and the debut leaves question markets over Elordi’s ability to open a film.
Buddy scores for Roadside, Saban
There was a notable $5.4m debut from 1,258 locations for the Sundance Midnight selection Buddy in sixth place through Roadside Attractions and Saban Films. This was Roadside’s biggest post-pandemic debut and the second-highest in the company’s 23-year history behind the 2018 release of family title I Can Only Imagine on $17.1m.
Roadside and Saban said Buddy scored the highest opening of 2026 so far by any films arriving in fewer than 1,800 sites. According to exit poll cited by the distribution partners, some 83% of the audience was aged below 35; while it over-indexed with Hispanic audiences on 37%. Casper Kelly directed the story of a girl and her friends who must escape a sinister children’s television show.
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey starring Matt Damon ranked third through Universal on $14.3m for a $563.8m cumulative tally after seven weekends, and Sony’s horror Insidious: Out Of The Further placed fourth on $10.1m after a 60% slide in its second weekend to reach $43.6m.
After its second weekend Jason Statham action thriller Mutiny fell 64% and added $2.8m for Lionsgate for a $13.2m running total. The film’s leak onto Prime Video for several hours in the run-up to the theatrical release, and subsequent incidents of piracy, will have impacted box office, although it is unclear to what extent. Lionsgate’s international buyers are understood to be deeply upset about the leak, and the film has opened in multiple territories.
Rentrak reported 2026 year-to-date box office has reached $7.2bn, up 21.2% on the same portion of 2025. Summer box office has soared past $4bn and stands at $4.6bn, which is roughly $158m behind the record $4.8bn market established in 2013.
Kino Lorber opened Rafael Manuel’s acclaimed Manila-set coming-of-age drama Filipiñana on $25,75 in a single location at New York Film Forum. The film premiered in Sundance where it won the special jury award for creative vision, and received its international premiere at the Berlinale. It will expand this week onto an additional 20 screens.
After four weekends, Jane Schoenbrun’s Cannes Un Certain Regard opener and Queer Palm winner Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma stands at $5.4m through Mubi following a $707,863 take. The slasher parody has just overtaken the $5.4m final box office of Schoenbrun’s 2024 horror I Saw The TV Glow.
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