There are a number of legal battles around the way Warner Bros handled the money for Smallville. One such battle, the one between the production company Tollin/Robbins Productions and Warner Bros has now been settled.
We don’t know the details of the settlement but the suit was aiming to take $100 million from Warner. Tollin/Robbins Productions was due to take a share of the profits that Smallville made. In the suit Tollin/Robbins suggested that when Warner sold the rights to show the Superman series on the networks WB and CW that they collaborated with their sister networks in such a way as to reduce profits. In essence, the claim was that Warner paid themselves to air Smallville in such a way that reduced the apparent profits of the show.
The same suit also made allegations that the royalty payments to DC Comics – also a sister company belonging to the same group – were too generous.
There’s another case, one between the exec producers Miles Millar and Alfred Gough over pretty much the same issues which has not yet been settled.
More details at Hollywood Reporter.
