George Miller claims Warner Bros. owes him money due to lost earnings from his film Mad Max: Fury Road, and he is suing them. Before the film released, there were a few delays, but it was still a huge success and brought in $378 million globally. It also won six academy awards. Miller is hoping to make more sequels in the franchise, and a Furiosa solo movie.
However, the success of the film didn’t mean there weren’t still some setbacks. It still cost the project $200 million between production, marketing, and distribution. $157 million was just for production, however, the goal was $150 million. Warner Bros. would have given Kennedy Miller Mitchell, Miller’s production company, a bonus if they could keep the price tag under that number. Miller claims the company purposefully made his company go over, meaning he didn’t get the bonus.
The Sydney Morning Herald brought the news to us that there was a lawsuit pending. Kennedy Miller Mitchell brought their case to the Supreme Court of New South Wales in September. In the document, the claim is made that Warner Bros. “made a series of decisions” the perpetrated the excessive budget. George Miller says that is those decisions weren’t made, his production company would have been under budget and would have gotten the $7 million dollars it was promised.
Kennedy Miller Mitchell also states that WB went outside their contract when they made a deal with RatPac Entertainment for 12.5 percent of the budget without first going to Kennedy Miller Mitchell. That would have been a decision for Miller’s company to make. Of course, Warner Bros. has made a statement saying they “disagree and will vigorously defend” against the lawsuit. The case is moving forward despite Warner Bros. protests that the venue is “clearly an inappropriate forum” for the case.
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