Gerard Butler Filed A $10 Million Over Profits From “Olympus Has Fallen”
The movie stars are revolting! The movie stars are revolting! Mickey Mouse is currently in the gym, doing crunches, working on his footwork, and punching a bag held by Coach Goofy, because he’s preparing for his upcoming legal tussle with Scarlett Johansson over Disney releasing Black Widow on its streaming service the same day it was released in theaters. Mickey may have to step up his training because there’s a chance star of Cruella Emma Stone may tag-team in by filing her own lawsuit against Disney too. But while ScarJo’s lawsuit is over her losing out on multi-million dollar box office bonuses thanks to Disney’s simultaneous release of Black Widow on Disney+, Gerard Butler’s lawsuit has nothing to do with shit like that. His lawsuit takes us back to a simpler time in 2013 when we were free of both COVID-19 and a zillion streaming services. Gerard is suing because he believes he was cheated out of $10 million in profits from 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen. Good luck to those producers, because one of the Rules of Life is: Never ever mess with a dude who fucked in a Porta-Potty at Coachella.
Variety reports that on Friday, Gerard hit Nu Image/Millennium Films with a lawsuit, claiming that the shady, scheming producers pocketed millions from profits for Olympus Has Fallen while his ass got a pile of dust in bonuses. Gerry realized something in the milk was FRAUD when he started getting irregular accounting statements from producers. So Gerry’s legal team ordered an audit of the movie’s profits and discovered that he was cheated out of nearly $10 million in backend compensation. I feel Gerard Butler’s rage because despite living on Grindr, I haven’t received backend compensation in years and I’m mad about it too!
According to Gerry’s lawsuit, his contract states that he’s entitled “to 10% of net profits, plus 6% of domestic adjusted gross receipts above $70 million and 12% of foreign adjusted gross receipts above $35 million.” His production company also should’ve gotten 5% of net profits. Olympus Has Fallen, which had a budget of $70 million, made almost $99 million at the domestic box office and $71 million at the international box office. The lawsuit accuses producers of cooking the books to cheat him out of millions. Who knew that Gerry’s one-night-stand turned rival Brandi Glanville worked in the accounting department at Millenium Films?!
According to the suit, Butler hired an auditor who found that domestic receipts were understated by $17.5 million, and producers’ receipts were understated by $12 million, including the $8 million that went to the executives.
The suit also claims that the producers deducted the full cost of foreign publicity from foreign receipts, even though foreign distributors picked up half the cost. The suit also claims that Nu Image/Millennium instructed distributors to deduct certain expenses, such that receipts would be underreported.
Deadline adds that the lawsuit also claims that producers never reported earnings to the Directors Guild of America’s Producers Pension and Health Plan.
“Producers have earned tens of millions of dollars from Olympus, but refuse to pay Butler a penny of the profits promised to him in the parties’ agreement,” according to the lawsuit. It adds that instead “Producers embarked on a scheme designed to grossly misrepresent the finances of the Film to Butler, so that Butler would believe that no such payments were due.”
The suit notes the same producers’ federal court suit alleging they “failed to report the profits of Olympus to the Directors Guild of America’s Producers Pension and Health Plan.”
“It appears the the Producers’ modus operandi is to hide the profits from Olympus in order to keep those profits for themselves,” it added.
Gerry is suing over fraud, breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, intentional interference with contractual relations and accounting. And he wants a jury trial.
So basically, this looks like some good ole’ Hollywood accounting shit. I am patiently waiting for Kreacher the house-elf to sue over profits of Harry Potter 5, which took a $167 million loss on paper even though it made $942 million worldwide. But this story about Gerry’s lawsuit reminds us that there have been THREE Fallen movies. Olympus Has Fallen was followed by 2016’s London Has Fallen (which made around $206 million worldwide) and 2019’s Angel Has Fallen (which made around $147 million worldwide). A fourth one, Night Has Fallen, is in the works, but I don’t know if this lawsuit affects future Fallen movies. I hope not, because I, for one, can’t wait for an 80-year-old Gerard Butler to star in 2049’s I’ve Fallen…And I Can’t Get Up.
Pic: Wenn.com