Warner Bros Sued By Weinsteins Over Profits From The Hobbit

Warner Bros Sued By Weinsteins Over Profits From The Hobbit

Warner Bros is being sued by Bob and Harvey Weinstein over a portion of the profits for the upcoming second and third chapters of “The Hobbit” trilogy of Peter Jackson.

Lawyers indicated that Warner and New Line Cinema are attempting to avoid providing the five percent share of the gross owed to the Weinsteins and Miramax in papers filed recently. Warner and New Line supposedly split the movie into three different movies and indicated that the second and third chapters were remakes.

Miramax and the Weinsteins are claiming around $75 million, which is based on the projected revenue of the two movies.

The lawyers added that the position of Warner is an inappropriate attempt at denying the right to a share of the revenue of two of the three movie installments of “The Hobbit.” The lawyers indicated that it was a mere attempt at denying the share to people who were originally responsible for the movies based on the work of JRR Tolkien.

However, Warner indicated that the Weinsteins were sour grapes after they were not able to negotiate the contract properly. The company indicated that it is considered among the greatest blunders in the history of movies.

The company indicated that the rights to the movie were sold to New Line by Miramax, when it was run by the Weinstein brothers. The company added that the brothers agreed to receive payment from the first movie based on “The Hobbit.” The contract indicated that five percent of gross receipts for all original motion pictures were assigned to Miramax basing on the provision in Exhibit C. This provision was still open to disputes.

The only thing that remains undisputable is the fact that the second part of “The Hobbit” trilogy is expected to top the box office around the world when it reaches the big screen.

Posted by Kade Quinn on Saturday December 14 2013, 4:38 AM EST. Ref: SMH. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Entertainment, Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0