‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Claims the No. 2 Box Office Spot as ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Closes in on ‘Avatar 2′

Late August is typically a quiet stretch at the multiplex, the dead zone between summer’s biggest tentpoles and the fall awards season rush. This year, though, three very different films squared off for audience attention over the same three days, producing one of the more unpredictable weekends the box office has seen in months.

Tom Holland’s ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘ continued its unrelenting dominance at the top of the charts for a fifth straight weekend, but the real story of the frame belonged to the films fighting for position beneath it. A long-shelved animated comedy staged an against-the-odds comeback, while a starry prestige thriller from one of Hollywood’s most respected directors landed with a resounding thud.

That comeback story is ‘Coyote vs. Acme,’ the Looney Tunes hybrid that had once been written off entirely by Warner Bros. as a tax casualty. The film debuted in second place with an estimated $15.4 million from 3,575 North American screens, following a $5.3 million opening day on Friday, marking the biggest launch ever for distributor Ketchup Entertainment.

That result represents a real underdog victory given the film’s tumultuous path to release. Warner Bros. Discovery had originally cancelled the roughly $70 million production outright in 2023, opting for a tax write-off before public backlash forced the studio to sell the rights. Ketchup Entertainment eventually acquired the film for approximately $50 million, and reception since its release has been overwhelmingly positive, with a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score and an A CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences.

Director Dave Green marked the milestone by publicly thanking the fans whose campaign helped save the film from oblivion. “‘Coyote vs. Acme’ is finally, gloriously, in theaters now,” Green wrote on social media, “which means one thing. WE WON.”

Sitting comfortably atop the charts, ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ added another $22 million domestically this weekend, pushing its North American total to approximately $891 million and inching closer to the unadjusted all-time domestic record of $936 million held by ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens.’ Globally, the film has now crossed $2.33 billion, surpassing ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’s’ worldwide total and climbing to fourth place on the all-time global chart.

The clear loser of the weekend was ‘The Dog Stars,’ Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic drama starring Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin and Margaret Qualley. The film opened in fifth place with just $8 million domestically from roughly 3,300 locations, adding another $11.3 million overseas, a disappointing result for a movie reportedly budgeted between $70 million and $100 million.

Taken together, the weekend offered a striking snapshot of how unpredictable late-summer moviegoing can be. A five-week-old superhero sequel remains the biggest draw in theaters, a once-abandoned animated comedy found new life against long odds, and a starry filmmaker-driven thriller couldn’t get audiences through the door.

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