Reuters
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – The estate of actor Charles Bronson has sued Warner Bros. and MGM claiming the studios have failed to pay profits from two hit 1970's films.
Larry Martindale, trustee for the late actor's estate, claims in a lawsuit filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court that a 1975 Bronson deal for the Warner Bros. film "St. Ives" and a 1976 contract for the MGM production "Telefon" provided the actor with 10 to 15 percent of "gross receipts" and "gross film rentals." The suit says the Bronson estate recently conducted an audit of the films that revealed significant underreporting of revenue.
Specifically, the Bronson estate targets the studios' "not fairly allocating revenue generated from television sales and only reporting 20 percent of the gross receipts for home video and DVD sales."
The home video calculation is a particular sore spot for talent in Hollywood. In the late '70s, as VHS and Betamax were emerging as significant markets, talent guilds agreed to accept that studio profit participation calculations would be made based on 20 percent of revenue generated.
But the Bronson estate claims the actor's deals make no mention of the 20 percent calculation, instead providing that the studios "are required to include 100 percent of the gross receipts from home video exploitation" of the films when reporting to Bronson., who died in 2003.
Warner Bros. and MGM did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The suit, filed by Nevile Johnson, Douglas Johnson and James Ryan of Beverly Hills' Johnson & Johnson, alleges causes of action for breach of contract, declaratory relief, accounting, unjust enrichment, money due on open book account, conversion, fraudulent misrepresentation, and unfair business practices. It seeks unspecified damages.
No comments:
Post a Comment