Three years after Warner Bros. abruptly canceled "Coyote vs. Acme," the Looney Tunes feature film revived by Ketchup Entertainment debuted with an estimated $15.5 million in ticket sales over the weekend.

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" topped the North American box office for the fifth consecutive weekend. According to studio estimates released Sunday, it grossed $22.2 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters, bringing its worldwide total to $2.33 billion — the fourth highest-grossing film of all time.

"Coyote vs. Acme," once relegated to the scrap heap, fared best among the weekend's newcomers, opening in second place.

The Ridley Scott action drama "The Dog Stars," starring Jacob Elordi, flopped. The film — about a pilot and a German Shepherd who survive a global pandemic — opened in fifth place with $8 million for 20th Century Studios, adding $11.3 million overseas. That is a weak result for a film that cost between $70 million and $100 million to make.

"Coyote vs. Acme," by contrast, earned a solid, hard-won opening. In 2023, Warner Bros. scrapped any release of the completed film, opting instead to take a tax write-off on a movie originally produced for its streaming service, HBO Max. The move came amid broader cost-cutting across the studio following the 2022 merger that formed Warner Bros. Discovery, when the new leadership re-evaluated its streaming content strategy and concluded that abandoning certain finished projects for tax purposes could cost less than releasing or selling them. The studio also shelved "Batgirl" and "Scoob! Holiday Haunt," both of which remain unreleased.

"Coyote vs. Acme," based on an Ian Frazier "Shouts and Murmurs" column in The New Yorker, follows Wile E. Coyote as he sues the Acme Corporation over its faulty products. It stars Will Forte, John Cena, Lana Condor, and Eric Bauza. The live-action/animation hybrid, directed by Dave Green, cost $70 million to produce. Despite strong test-screening scores, Warner Bros. chose to ax the finished film. Following a public outcry from fans and industry figures, the studio put the film up for sale, and early last year Ketchup Entertainment acquired worldwide distribution rights for about $50 million.

For the filmmakers, simply reaching theaters was a victory. The film's journey from tax write-off to release has been closely watched in Hollywood as a test case for whether shelved finished films can find second lives with other distributors — a question that also looms over "Batgirl" and "Scoob! Holiday Haunt," which have yet to receive any release.

"'Coyote vs. Acme' is finally, gloriously, in theaters now," Green said on social media Friday. "Which means one thing. WE WON."

Reviews and audience scores were strong. Moviegoers awarded it an "A" CinemaScore, and critics were equally enthusiastic, with a 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

While such a result might register as a disappointment for some $70 million films, the opening weekend marked the best ever for Ketchup. The indie distributor's previous high was 2024's "The Day the Earth Blew Up" (a $3.1 million opening), another Warner-made Looney Tunes castoff, making Ketchup two-for-two in rescuing the studio's shelved animation projects.

"The box office numbers are fair, but the reception is excellent and the release should set up good ancillary business for kids' viewing, where the film should recoup its investment," said David A. Gross, who publishes the box office newsletter FranchiseRe.

"The Odyssey," in its seventh weekend, slipped to third place with $14.3 million. The Christopher Nolan film remained unusually strong overseas, grossing $48.6 million internationally over the weekend. Altogether, the Universal Pictures release has collected $1.55 billion globally.

With final domestic figures due Monday, the following list reflects estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak:

1. "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," $22.2 million.
2. "Coyote vs. Acme," $15.5 million.
3. "The Odyssey," $14.3 million.
4. "Insidious: Out of the Further," $10.1 million.
5. "The Dog Stars," $8 million.
6. "Buddy," $5.4 million.
7. "The End of Oak Street," $5 million.
8. "PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie," $4.9 million.
9. "Mutiny," $2.8 million.
10. "Tony," $2.2 million.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com