Warner Bros. appears to continue its landmark campaign for Worst Mega Corporation of 2025, following moves like shutting down Shadow of Mordor developer Monolith Productions and killing its deal with long-running educational children’s show Sesame Street, by removing the original Looney Tunes cartoons from its streaming service Max.
According to Deadline sources, the company’s choice to scrub the cartoon’s original 1930-1969 run from the streaming service is part of a pivot away from dedicated “children’s” programming, and toward adult and family-oriented shows. Looney Tunes spin-offs like the modern Looney Tunes Cartoons are still on Max, but the original classic cartoons have been wiped from streaming. Warner Bros. has plenty of strikes against it for its shuttering studios and canceling or shelving projects in recent years, most recently canning the hotly anticipated Wonder Woman game and closing the studio behind Shadow of Mordor, and removing one of its foundational works from an easily accessible streaming service is another grievance to add to the growing pile.
This decision also follows the theatrical release of The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie on March 14 to minimal fanfare and promotion. The film was originally meant to be exclusive to Max and Cartoon Network before receiving a limited release from Ketchup Entertainment in December, followed by a wider release this month. This makes it the first fully animated film to be released in theaters in the franchise’s nearly 100-year history, but fans have reported nearly empty theater screenings. Some have even speculated this could be a calculated move from the company to deprioritize Looney Tunes and likely other animated projects.
Warner Bros. has been throwing several of its creatives and properties under the bus as of late like when it canceled the nearly-finished Batgirl film and shutting down its Smash Bros. clone Multiversus, but Looney Tunes has been the subject of some of the most high-profile blunders. In 2023, Warner Bros. shelved a live-action animated Looney Tunes film Coyote vs. Acme to claim a tax write-off. However, the company is apparently still open to selling the film to an interested buyer after previous negotiations fell through.