Discovery seemed willing to entertain the idea of letting another studio release director Dave Green’s Coyote vs. Acme after initially announcing its plans to Batgirl (read: cancel in exchange for tax write-offs) the nearly completed film in early November.

According to TheWrap, Amazon, Netflix, and Paramount were more than interested in securing the rights to debut Coyote vs. Acme for themselves after Warner Bros. changed stances and gave the filmmakers behind the live-action / CGI hybrid project a chance to shop it around to other studios.

But while each of the studios reportedly submitted “handsome offers” for the rights — with Paramount’s even including plans for a theatrical release — they all fell short of the $75–$80 million figure WBD was apparently looking for.

Studios being bullish about the prices they’re willing to sell distribution rights off for is one thing, but WBD reportedly came out of the gate flat-out refusing to hear any counteroffers.

And while the interested buyers’ offers were all, in part, informed by how well received Coyote vs. Acme was at internal screenings, none of the WBD executives — CEO / president David Zaslav, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation president Bill Damaschke — who shot down those potential deals saw the final product for themselves.

Discovery could trot out to explain why it repeatedly turned its nose up at the chance to make a bit of easy money by letting someone else put out a movie it wants nothing to do with.

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