$39 Million Salaried CEO Calls Shelving John Cena’s Finished Movie a ‘Courageous’ Move

The SAG-AFTRA strike finally came to an end on November 9, 2023, after four months of wreaking havoc in the Hollywood industry. But despite the strike ending, troubles continued for John Cena. His live-action movie, Coyote vs. Acme was dumped after a year of its completion.

Warner Bros. decided to shelve the movie as they believed it was what was best for business. David Zaslav – WBD CEO – recently defended shelving Cena’s movie, stating that it was hard but the right decision to make from a financial point of view for the company.

David Zaslav explains why Warner Bros. decided to shelve John Cena’s Coyote vs. Acme

During a Q&A at The New York Times’ DealBook conference, the $39 Million Salaried CEO justified why WBD decided to pull the plug on Cena’s movie. He said, “We’re at a very hard time that requires hard decisions, and many of them are unpopular”.

He added, “Warner Brothers team and HBO made a number of decisions. They were hard. But when I look at the health of our company today, we needed to make those decisions. And it took real courage.” The studio has already spent $70m on making the movie. Thus, they didn’t want to spend extra money on tax write-offs, marketing, and distribution of the movie.

Warner Bros. wants to focus more on theatrical releases

The Hollywood Reporter was the first to break out the news of Cena’s movie getting shelved. The report revealed that the studio has shifted its attention to focus more on theatrical releases. This is why they decided to not release Cena’s movie, despite it being fully complete and ready for release.

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The release date for the movie was July 21, 2023. But later it got postponed for unknown reasons and when the next update came, it was revealed that the movie had been dumped. It took two years for the movie to be filmed completely so all the effort went down the drain when WBD decided to script the movie.

Well, not all the effort. Recently it was revealed that the hybrid live-action and animation movie will be available for distributors and platforms. Some good news for Cena, finally. This decision was taken after the animators and filmmakers of the movie raised their voices and demanded justice for the time and effort they put into the movie.

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What do you have to say about David Zaslav’s comment on WBD nixing Cena’s movie? Share your thoughts in the comments below.