In a surprising turn of events, a film once removed from Warner Bros. Discovery’s release schedule has now become a major streaming hit on the company’s own platform. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie has surged into the Top 10 most-streamed movies on HBO Max shortly after its debut on the service. The animated feature, starring the iconic duo of Porky Pig and Daffy Duck (both voiced by Eric Bauza), had a long and troubled path to the screen, becoming a notable example of the studio’s controversial content strategy before finding an unexpected second life.
The Day the Earth Blew Up sees Porky Pig and Daffy Duck team up as unlikely heroes to save their town, and the world, from a secret invasion by aliens using a local bubble gum factory as a hideout. In classic B-movie fashion, the extraterrestrial threat involves chewing gum that transforms people into mindless zombies, forcing Porky and Daffy to overcome their chaotic dynamic to stop the global takeover. The film, which marks the first fully-animated, feature-length Looney Tunes movie to hit theaters, was developed by the creative team behind the acclaimed Looney Tunes Cartoons series and was directed by Pete Browngardt.
The Day the Earth Blew Up was initially slated for an exclusive premiere on HBO Max. However, in the wake of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, the film was pulled from the streaming schedule and shopped to other potential buyers along with other animated projects. GFM Animation licensed the film, and distributor Ketchup Entertainment subsequently acquired the North American rights, giving the movie a theatrical release in March 2025. Critics received the film warmly, praising its classic humor, hand-drawn animation style, and the heartfelt dynamic between Porky and Daffy, resulting in strong scores on Rotten Tomatoes. Its recent arrival on Max and immediate jump into the top streaming charts proves there was an audience for The Day the Earth Blew Up, even if the studio that produced it initially lost faith in its distribution plan.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s Controversial Strategy of Shelving Completed Films
The rocky release of The Day the Earth Blew Up is part of a controversial trend surrounding Warner Bros. Discovery’s content strategy over the past few years. The company has made headlines for shelving multiple nearly completed films, often for financial reasons like tax write-offs, sparking backlash from both fans and the creative community. One of the most notorious of these shelved projects is another Looney Tunes film, Coyote vs. Acme, a live-action animated hybrid movie that was also scrapped for a tax credit before public outcry forced the studio to reconsider. The film, starring Will Forte as Wile E. Coyote’s lawyer and John Cena as the lawyer for the Acme Corporation, was fully completed at a cost of around $70 million, reportedly receiving extremely high scores in test screenings. After a series of negotiations, Ketchup Entertainment, the same company that rescued The Day the Earth Blew Up, acquired the rights in March 2025 and plans a theatrical release in 2026.
Beyond the Looney Tunes, the studio infamously cancelled the release of the live-action DC film Batgirl, which had completed principal photography and was in post-production with a budget of approximately $90 million. The unprecedented move to scrap a film of that scale was attributed to cost-cutting measures and a strategic shift to focus on major theatrical event films. These decisions have unfolded alongside significant restructuring within the company, including recent plans to split Warner Bros. Discovery into two separate entities, basically undoing the merger that led to all the shelvings in the first place.
Do you think the success of The Day the Earth Blew Up will make Warner Bros. Discovery reconsider its strategy of shelving movies? Let us know in the comments.
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