Making a movie is a complex task, with many moving parts. Most of the time it goes pretty well, and even if the movie turns out to be bad hopefully nobody is hurt and everyone can move on to the next project. Yet there have been many cases where after the film was done, a lawsuit followed either due to a breach of contract, unsafe working conditions, or even copyright claims. There are plenty of reasons for the producers of a movie to be sued.
There are some major film lawsuits in the public eye right now.Eva Green is suing the producersof an unreleased filmA Patriotfor unsafe safety productions and cutting costs. Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting aresuing Paramount Pictures for sexual exploitationand child abuse during the shooting of the 1968 filmRomeo and Juliet. The most notable recent case revolves around thetragic death of Halyna Hutchinson the set ofRust.With all that in mind, take a look at some of the biggest film lawsuits that shook the industry, and audiences and had some major repercussions.
Black Swan
Darren Aronofsky is back in the public spotlight with his filmThe Whale, which has earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Makeup and Hairstyling and Best Actor for Brendan Fraser. The last time the director had a major awards contender was in 2010 withBlack Swan, and while a profitable and critically acclaimed movie, it had some behind-the-scenes controversy.
In 2011, production intern Alex Footman and accounting intern Eric Glatt filed a suit against Fox Searchlight Pictures claiming the studio had the interns do work that should have been done by paid employees. They also said the studio did not provide them with the type of educational experience that labor rules require to exempt employers from paying interns.
The lawsuit set the stage for a slew of class actions and settlements from interns against media companies based on claims that they were doing what should be classified as paid work. With how much Hollywood productions do rely on unpaid interns, it was a very important case. The initial case involvingBlack Swanwas settled in 2016, with Fox Searchlight reaching a settlement with Footman and Glatt.
Straight Outta Compton
Straight Outta Comptonwas a critically acclaimed and financially successful movie about the rap group N.W.A. The movie was produced by former members Dr. Dre and Ice Cube. One person the movie clearly paints in a negative life is Jerry Heller, the band’s former manager. The film highlights how Heller exploited the group, in particular, Eazy-E.
In October 2015, just two months after the movie opened Heller filed a lawsuit against N.W.A, NBCUniversal, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre. Heller protested the depiction of him in the movie and claimed the filmmakers used portions of his autobiography without his permission. The film’s producers filed a countersuit to have the defamation charges dismissed.Heller died in 2016, and a judge threw the case out in 2018.
Avataris the most successful film of all time worldwide, which means there are bound to be people upset and trying to get a piece of the pot.Avatarhas had multiple lawsuits filed against it by writers claiming the movie plagiarized its script. A Canadian restaurant owner named Emil Malak claimedAvatarwas a rip-off of a script he wrote in 1998 titledTerra Incognita, which he sent to Lightstorm Entertainment back in 2002.
The plot is very similar, as it centers on an indigenous tribe with tails and braided hair that lives around a tree that houses their collective memories. Their way of life is threatened when human military forces invade looking for precious minerals. The suit claims there are 45 total elements in common between the two properties, and is seeking $100 million in damages. Malak’s case was dismissed over an inability to prove any timeline onTerra Incognitaand that Cameron had first written an outline forAvataras early as 1996.
However, that 1996 date puts it into conflict with another lawsuit. Bryant Moore filed a suit against the producers ofAvatarseeking a hefty $2.5 billion in damages. Moore claims he submitted two scripts,AquaticaandDescendants: The Pollination, to Cameron’s company Lightstorm in 1994, but both projects were rejected. He claimedAvatarhad quite a bit in common with his two scripts, yet Cameron was able to avoid any issues with notes and drawings he had been making aboutAvatareven before 1994.
Eric Ryder, a former employee of Cameron’s company Lightstorm Entertainment, claimedAvatarwas taken from a story he had written titledK.R.Z. 2068, which was in development at Lightstorm until 2002. Interestingly, the movie was canceled because it was deemed to not have commercial appeal, even though it would have been an environmentally-themed 3D epic about colonization on a lush alien moon. The case was thrown out in 2013, as the judge ruled in favor of Cameron thatAvatarwas an original creation by the filmmaker.
Michigan resident Sarah Deming filed a lawsuit against the production company behind the 2011 filmDriveas well as one against the theater she saw it at. Thelawsuit claimed that Drive’s marketing materialwas misleading, marketing itself as aFast & Furious-type action film instead of a moody character piece. She also claimed the movie was anti-Semitic and promoted criminal violence against members of the Jewish faith.
Related:These Are the Best Movies For Car Lovers
A Michigan judge rejected the class action in March 2012, concluding that there were no misrepresentations. The plaintiff then tried to get the judge removed from the case, claiming they were anti-Semitic bringing the case to the Michigan appeals court. In October 2013, a decision was made by the appeals court that found that the movie did not mislead (as it did contain driving), and that the plaintiff failed to prove any actual violence against members of the Jewish faith from the movie.
While the anti-Semitic claim againstDrivemay have been forgotten about, suing a movie for a misleading trailer certainly hasn’t as in the wake of a lawsuit by fans of Ana de Armas for cutting her scenes out ofYesterdaydespite being in the trailer, a recent case foundpeople can sue studios for misleading trailers.
Back to the Future Part II
Crispin Glover was an important part ofBack to the Future, so when it came time forBack to the Future Part II, it was assumed the actor would be involved. However, the actor declined to return due to the studio not meeting his pay demands, claiming he was being offered less than the other actors. Instead of writing Glover’s character out of the movie, filmmaker Robert Zemeckis used previously filmed footage of Glover from the previous film as well as prosthetics on actor Jerry Weissman to resemble Glover. To help sell the illusion, Weissman’s character is hanging upside down and wearing sunglasses to obscure his appearance.
Glover filed a lawsuit against the producers of the film on the grounds that they neither owned his likeness nor had permission to use it for the film. The case was an important one and considered a major case in personality rights, particularly regarding heavy special effects productions. Following this lawsuit, The Screen Actors Guild Awards implemented a clause stating that producers and actors are not allowed to use methods like makeup and visual effects to reproduce the likeness of other actors.
WhenBoratwas released in 2006, it was a cultural sensation and became a pop culture institution overnight. The movie also courted a great deal of controversy and multiple lawsuits by participants in the movie. There are far too many to mention here, but some notable ones include the University of South Carolina fraternity brothers Justin Seay and Christopher Rotunda for defamation, which was denied in 2007.
Additionally, villagers of Glod, Romania, sued the producers for $38 million in damages, complaining that they were lied to about the nature of the filming, and they were portrayed as incestuous and ignorant. The case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence. The sequel,Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,also faced multiple lawsuits.
Black Widow
One of the most high-profile film lawsuits in recent memory revolves around the first film of the MCU’s Phase 4,Black Widow, and it involves Disney’s decision to release the film both in theaters and their streaming service Disney+ for an additional $29.99 on the same day. On July 08, 2025, just twenty days afterBlack Widowwas released, starScarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit against the Walt Disney Companyciting the simultaneous release breached a stipulation in her contract that the film is released exclusively in theaters and exempted Disney from paying her a major bonus on the backend she would have received.
Related:Black Widow: These Actresses Almost Played Yelena Belova
The lawsuit was a major one that sent ripple effects through not just Disney but the entire industry. The decision to release films simultaneously in theaters and available for purchase at home was a major topic during the COVID-19 pandemic and Johansson being a major star suing one of the biggest entertainment companies showed this was serious business and one every studio might have to deal with.
The suit was settled out of courtin September to an undisclosed sum, and Johansson signed on as both a producer on a reboot ofThe Tower of Terrorand also an unknown Marvel film, but the poor handling of the situation by Disney CEO Bob Chapek was one of many reasons why he was booted from CEO and replaced with his predecessor, Bob Iger.
Twilight Zone: The Movie
Arguably the most infamous and tragic lawsuit revolves aroundTwilight Zone: The Movie. An adaptation of the popular television series the film contained segments from acclaimed filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, George Miller, Joe Dante, and John Landis, featuring a mix of adaptations of classic episodes and original stories. It was Landis' original story that would eventually mark the movie for infamy, as actor Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen were killed in the helicopter crash scene that Landis was filming.
The deaths resulted in multiple lawsuits against the production. Director Steven Spielberg was so disgusted he severed ties with the Landis, and director George Miller was so horrified he departed post-production, forcing Joe Dante to finish his segments. It was found that the production broke many laws in hiring the child actors. First was that the two child actors were hired in violation of California law, which prohibits child actors from working at night (the scene was being shot at 2:30 am) or in proximity to explosions and requires the presence of a teacher or social worker.
To get around all this, the two actors were actually paid under the table to circumvent child labor laws in California. Civil and criminal charges for the film lasted nearly a decade, and while Landis and many others in the production were acquitted of manslaughter, the accident had a major impact on the career of many involved, but fortunately forced various guilds to take serious measures in safety to prevent another incident from happening again. No film production is worth somebody’s life, and that should always be remembered.
