Top 20 Movies That Led to Huge Lawsuits

2015 saw the release of F. Gary Gray’s “Straight Outta Compton,” a biopic about the rise, peak, and fall of N.W.A. One of the major players in the story is the group’s manager, Jerry Heller. Heller contested his villainous depiction in the film and claimed that his name and likeness was taken without permission. He filed a lawsuit on October 30, 2015 in the Superior Court of Los Angeles. However, Heller passed away just eleven months later from a combined heart attack and car accident, with many, including his lawyer and TMZ, insinuating that the stress of the movie and lawsuit had caused him to suffer the heart attack. His suit was dismissed two years later.

Here’s a warning to all future filmmakers - be really careful that your designs weren’t accidentally lifted from something else. When “The Devil’s Advocate” was released in 1997, sculptor Frederick Hart noticed that the sculpture in Milton’s apartment looked suspiciously like his Ex Nihilo, which is adorned on Washington’s Episcopal National Cathedral. Both Hart and the Cathedral sued Warner Bros., and a judge claimed they had a “substantial likelihood” of winning the case. Warner Bros. settled with the plaintiffs before it went to trial, and they were forced to make digital edits before the movie could be released for sale. Copies that were already produced for rental were adorned with a sticker claiming that there was no relation between the movie sculpture and Hart’s work.

In 2012, a Bruce Willis movie called “Lay the Favorite” bombed hard at the box office, grossing just $1.5 million on a $20 million budget. It was later picked up by both Netflix and Amazon, and it was then that mapmaker Victor Baker pegged it with a lawsuit. Baker makes and sells antique watercolor maps of various locations around the world, and a map of his featuring Curacao can be seen in the movie. The film partially takes place in Curacao, as it features sports betters avoiding American gambling laws. Baker is suing the distributors for statutory damages or the fair market license fee for use of his map.

This romantic comedy/drama served as Ben Stiller’s directorial debut. There’s nothing like getting slapped with a lawsuit on your very first movie! The story concerns the budding romance between a documentary filmmaker and a floundering young adult named Troy Dyer. Writer Helen Childress admitted on the tenth anniversary DVD commentary that she wrote the film based on her own experiences, forcing a man named Troy Dyer, who had attended school with Childress, to come forth with a defamation lawsuit. According to him, he was approached by many clients asking if he was the basis for the fictional slacker. However, the case was settled when Childress proved that Dyer was not the basis for the fictional Dyer. He was Dyer in name only.

This movie stars Anne Hathaway as Gloria, an unemployed, alcoholic writer who unknowingly conjures a giant monster who wreaks havoc in Seoul. Just go with it. The connections to “Godzilla” are obvious, which certainly wasn’t helped by the movie’s pitch at the Cannes Film Festival, which featured photos of Godzilla and was described by director Nacho Vigalondo as “the cheapest ‘Godzilla’ movie ever [made].” Unsurprisingly, Godzilla’s copyright holders Toho took Voltage Pictures to court before the movie was even produced. A settlement was eventually reached in which the setting was moved from Tokyo to Seoul and an agreement that the movie wouldn’t feature an obvious Godzilla derivative.

This romantic comedy stars Jon Favreau and Kristin Davis as unhappy high school sweethearts Joey and Lucy Tanzini. In one scene, Joey… enjoys himself to an old photo of model Irina Krupnik. Krupnik had previously sold the photo to a stock image company, but she never intended it to be used in the movie’s context. As per her lawyer, “[Krupnick] did not contemplate, intend, or consent to the use of her photograph or likeness in a quasi-pornographic context.” She proceeded to launch a defamation suit and demanded $10 million in compensation. But by signing away the rights to the photo, Krupnik lost the ability to dictate how it was used. A judge threw out the case, and Krupnick never saw a dime.

In this case, the elite didn’t win. “The Laundromat” concerns the famous Panama Papers scandal, and more specifically, the involvement of offshore financial services provider Mossack Fonseca. Its founders, Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca, were respectively played by Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas. Two days before the film was scheduled to release through Netflix, both Mossack and Fonseca sued Netflix for defamation and attempted to have the film blocked from release. Netflix called the lawsuit “a frivolous legal stunt” and argued that the movie fell under “constitutionally protected speech.” A Connecticut judge named Janet Arterton moved the case to California, and the movie was released as planned.

King Cake Baby is one of the most famous images in basketball, serving as the mascot for the New Orleans Pelicans. The character was created back in 2009, and nearly ten years later, a near-identical face was used as the killer’s mask in “Happy Death Day.” But that’s not the only connection. King Cake Baby is obviously linked to New Orleans, and “Happy Death Day” was filmed on the campus of New Orleans’ Loyola University. The mascot’s creator, Jonathan Bertuccelli, realized that the mask bore a striking resemblance to his character and sued both Universal and Blumhouse for half of the movie’s profits. The lawsuit was filed in 2019, and as of this video’s publishing, it has yet to be settled.

This movie concerns a historic FBI sting operation, so it’s not really surprising that it was pegged with a lawsuit. What is surprising is that it has nothing to do with the FBI - merely, it concerns… a microwave. Jennifer Lawrence’s Rosalyn claims that she read in a Paul Brodeur article that microwaves zap food of their nutrition. Brodeur is a real figure and has written extensively about microwave radiation, but he never claimed that they suck nutrition from food. He told the court as much in his lawsuit, claiming that the movie defamed and portrayed him as a fear-monger. However, a California appeals court stated that the movie was a “farce” and that audiences were led to mistrust anything that the unhinged Rosalyn claimed.

Real people can be touchy about how they’re depicted in movies. In this case, it wasn’t Jordan Belfort who had a problem, but one of his ex-employees, Andrew Greene. He contends that the character of Nicky Koskoff, played by P.J. Byrne, was based on him and that the movie portrayed him as “a criminal, drug user, degenerate, depraved, and/or devoid of any morality or ethics.” The defamation case lasted over four years before it was thrown out due to a lack of proof. Defamation cases are notoriously hard to win, as plaintiffs must prove both intentional malice and the character’s direct relation to them. As Koskoff was a composite character with little direct relation to Greene, he was not able to prove correlation.

This Bruce Willis-led action thriller concerns a Navy SEAL team sent to rescue a United States citizen from the jungles of Nigeria. Action movies are tricky to film, owing to all the dangerous stunts and pyrotechnics, and sometimes things go wrong. In this case, things went wrong for the movie’s star. Willis was reportedly hit in the head by an unidentified “projectile” during one of the movie’s action scenes, resulting in “extreme mental, physical and emotional pain.” He sought financial damages and compensation, as he was “required to… employ physicians and other medical personnel” to treat his unspecified injury. He claimed that the special effects team acted negligently and exposed the crew to “ultrahazardous activity.”

This incredibly popular Disney film was subjected to not one, but two lawsuits. We’ll talk about the more serious one first. In 2017, musical artist Jaime Ciero sued Disney for copyright infringement, claiming that “Let It Go” borrowed heavily from his song “Volar.” However, the statute of limitations on copyright claims had run out, and the case was “let go” in May 2019. The goofier one involves author Isabella Tanikumi, who claimed that “Frozen” plagiarized her self-published memoir, “Yearnings of the Heart.” She was looking for $250 million in damages. Not surprisingly, District Judge William Martini threw the case out of court, hilariously stating “the two stories are entirely different” and claiming that themes are not covered under copyright.

Apparently Bruce Willis is a living, breathing lawsuit magnet! In the very beginning of “12 Monkeys,” Willis’s James Cole is interrogated on an elevated chair while some weird, futuristic sphere probes him for weakness. Like “The Devil’s Advocate,” this room and set up bore striking similarities to another piece of work - this one being a close approximation of architect Lebbeus Woods’ “Neomechanical Tower (Upper) Chamber.” And, just as “The Devil’s Advocate” would have gone had Warner Bros. not settled, Woods won the case. He was awarded a high six-figure settlement from Universal Pictures in exchange for his work’s use in the film, and the end credits claim that the interrogation room was “inspired” by the architectural work of Lebbeus Woods.

James Cameron’s “Avatar” was a technical marvel, but its story was very derivative. So derivative, in fact, that it was subjected to numerous lawsuits. No more than six separate writers claimed that Cameron snatched their ideas or aspects of their published stories for the movie. Some cases were more substantial than others, and many of these lawsuits were eventually dropped. But it wasn’t just the story that proved controversial. The physical design of Pandora drew the attention of artist William Roger Dean, who claimed that Cameron stole aspects of his paintings - most notably the Hallelujah Mountains sharing similarities with his work “Floating Islands.” However, a judge threw the case out, claiming, “Plaintiff does not have a monopoly on the idea of floating or airborne land.”

The first “Hangover” was a universally beloved comedy. The second was far more divisive, and it was subjected to three separate lawsuits. One involved Louis Vuitton suing over a knockoff handbag seen and referred to in the film, claiming it was “trademark dilution.” They lost that one. The second involved stuntman Scott McLean, who suffered a horrible and debilitating brain injury while filming a car stunt. That case was settled out of court. Finally, Stu’s mock Mike Tyson face tattoo was subjected to a copyright infringement case by Tyson’s tattoo designer, S. Victor Whitmill. This case, too, was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Product placement is all too common in blockbuster movies. As the budget for “Die Hard 2” increased, Fox and Black & Decker reached an agreement - the power tool manufacturer would fork over $20,000 in exchange for John McClane using their latest tool, the Univolt cordless drill, on screen. The company was excited about the promotion and even created a tie-in marketing campaign around the tool. However, the scene was cut from the final edit without Black & Decker’s permission, and the company was cheesed. They sought $150,000 in damages and won, with 20th Century Fox settling out of court. But the best part about this story? Black & Decker never actually paid the agreed-upon $20,000.

Hedy Lamarr was a popular Hollywood actress throughout the late ‘30s and ‘40s, starring in movies alongside Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart. In “Blazing Saddles,” Harvey Korman plays a character named Hedley Lamarr. You see the issue. Lamarr sued Warner Bros. over misuse of her name for $100,000 - about $500,000 today. Director Mel Brooks decided not to fight it, and Warner Bros. settled out of court for an undisclosed, albeit admittedly small, sum. They also issued a tongue-in-cheek apology for “almost using her name.” This lawsuit is even winkingly referenced in the movie itself by Brooks’s character The Governor.

Sometimes cases prove so important that they change the way filmmaking is done forever. Case in point - the replacement of Crispin Glover in “Back to the Future Part II.” Glover was asked to return as George McFly but reportedly demanded too much money. Rather than bow to his demands, the producers told him to “make like a tree and get out of here” and replaced him with actor Jeffrey Weissman. Weissman wore various prosthetics to make him look like Glover, resulting in a lawsuit in which the real Glover claimed that they had used his likeness without permission. The case was settled out of court, and various clauses were inserted into the Screen Actors Guild claiming that actors’ likenesses cannot be replicated.

It’s claimed that Sylvester Stallone was inspired to write “Rocky” after watching a boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner, in which Wepner went fifteen rounds before losing in a technical knockout. Apparently Wepner was OK with this fact for over 25 years, but something snapped in 2003 that inspired him to launch a lawsuit against Stallone. He sought $15 million, claiming Stallone used his name “to promote the ‘Rocky’ movies… for commercial purposes without [his] consent and without compensation.” The suit was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum in 2006 - the same year that “Rocky Balboa” was released.

Is this the most sued movie ever? Let’s go through the list! The villagers of Glod, Romania sued, claiming that the movie made them look incestuous. A South Carolina resident claimed that Sacha Baron Cohen made crude comments about him. Driving instructor Michael Psenicska sued over use of his image in promotional material. The man who runs away from Borat in New York sued over “public ridicule... and humiliation.” Two of the frat brothers launched a defamation lawsuit. Singer Esma Redžepova sued over use of her song, even though the filmmakers had received permission. Funnily enough, this was the only lawsuit to kind-of “win,” as she had not been notified by her production house. She was awarded just €26,000 of her €800,000 suit.