By Michaela Gordoni
Warner Bros. has decided to destroy a building on its Burbank, California, lot that was once used for LOONEY TUNES productions.
The removal will make more room for all the HBO series that are being shot, per Deadline. WB has long planned to destroy the building, and the razing could start as soon as this week. The area will not be placed with another building, according to CBR.
The studio has not yet made any public statements about the raze or responded to news outlets’ requests for comments.
It’s already been a tough few years for LOONEY TUNES fans, as Max, which is owned by Warner Bros. and Discovery, stopped streaming the cartoons in 2022, causing an outroar, as reported by CNET. Max also removed SESAME STREET. Unfortunately, the cuts came from the streamer’s decision to focus on adult content instead of family and kids TV.
“There couldn’t possibly be a better metaphor for the state and trajectory of WB than this,” one Reddit commenter wrote.
Another commenter said, “Warner Bros was built on the LOONEY TUNES. A shame how they’re treated.”
Though Max cut the main classic cartoons that aired from 1930 to 1969, it does still have other Looney Tunes content: THE SYLVESTER AND TWEETY MYSTERIES, NEW LOONEY TUNES (2015), LOONEY TUNES CARTOONS (2020), LOONEY TUNES PRESENTS: BUGS AND DAFFY’S THANKSGIVING ROAD TRIP (2021), BUGS BUNNY BUILDERS (2022), TINY TOONS LOONIVERSITY and THE TIE-IN SPECIAL TINY TOONS LOONIVERSITY: SPRING BREAK (2023). It’s uncertain whether Max plans to keep all of this content.
A live-action and animated movie called COYOTE VS. ACME was recently fully completed but scrapped by WB at the last minute. The company chose to get a tax write-off instead of going through with it, according to Screen Rant.
Related: Could This Save Shelved LOONEY TUNES Movie COYOTE VS. ACME?
A new LOONEY TUNES movie just came out this month, though, called THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES STORY. WB decided not to market or distribute it, and Ketchup Entertainment eventually picked it up but struggled to market it.
The movie had a production budget of $15 million. So far, it has made only $9.6 million worldwide, as reported by The Numbers. Despite the box office struggle, it has been received well by viewers. At the time of writing, it has an 88% critics score and an 89% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Movieguide® gave the movie a -1 ranking, calling it a “wonderful, funny, wacky, heartfelt return to the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoons of the 1940s and 50s.”
Amidst everything that’s been going on with LOONEY TUNES, this new news about the building, and no word of redirection for the franchise, its future remains bleak.
Read Next: HBO Max Removes 15 Seasons of Classic LOONEY TUNES Cartoons
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