Judge to Disney: Pay up $319 Million for Millionaire lawsuit

Back in July a jury told Disney they owed the creators of the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire concept $319 million. That’s a lot of phone-a-friends. This was seen as the biggest court statement against “Hollywood Accounting” that is famous for properties that rake in hundreds of millions of dollars over production costs showing a loss when the final accounting is done.

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Judge to Disney: Pay up $319 Million for Millionaire lawsuit

Disney loses $270 Million Millionaire case, will appeal (duh!)

The Walt Disney Company was unable to convince a jury that it’s convoluted accounting practices that strips the profit from any production was just the way of doing business. The result is that they now owe British production company Celedor $270 million as their share of profits in the “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” franchise. Oops

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Disney loses $270 Million Millionaire case, will appeal (duh!)

Millioniare could cost Disney

The LA Times takes a closer look at the Hollywood accounting practices and legal contract doctrine that might leave Disney on the hook for millions of dollars when it comes to profits it should have paid out to the creator of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Even more amazing, they manage to use plain English to explain it. Roman Silberfeld, a lawyer for Celador, said “Millionaire” generated $515 million in revenue from license fees for its run in prime time starring Regis Philbin on ABC and in new episodes starring Meredith Vieira for TV stations over the last eight years, not including $70 million in merchandising revenue.

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Millioniare could cost Disney