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Warner Bros. has settled a big part of a lawsuit that alleged the creators and executive producers of Smallville were cheated out of tens of millions of dollars through sweetheart license-fee deals that the studio made with its sister TV networks, which include The WB and CW.
A Warner Bros. spokesperson confirms toThe Hollywood Reporter that the dispute with the production company has been resolved. The producers contended they were deprived of significant profits when WBTV allegedly undersold the series to affiliates the WB Network and then The CW instead of licensing the series to outside companies.
In August, Judge Michael Johnson said there was enough in the pleadings to send it to a jury. In his ruling, he said the plaintiffs had demonstrated triable issues as to whether WBTV complied with obligations to conduct negotiations at various divisions in-house at arms-length and whether the producers’ contracts included profit definitions that necessitated that money be collected at “fair market rates consistent with licenses granted by Warner to non-affiliates.”
The plaintiffs’ claims for monetary damages also were aided by the judge allowing the possibility of punitive damages as well as a late claim that alleged that Warner Bros. had paid itself for Superman rights by including subsidiary DC Comics (the show is based on theSuperman comic) into the profit pool and unilaterally reducing plaintiffs’ profit participation. That action was alleged to have cost the producers about $13.4 million.
