Following a David and Goliath struggle, the producers of a hit movie have won the right to damages after the High Court found that they understandably took the view that their contractual rights had been flagrantly ignored by the film’s much larger distributors.
The producers granted exclusive rights to the distributors to promote, advertise and exploit the film, which took £2.7 million at the box office. However, the producers terminated the agreement on grounds that the distributors had failed in their obligation to provide monthly statements of profits yielded by the venture.
The Court found that the producers reasonably felt that they had been treated with contempt by the distributors and were therefore entitled to withdraw from the deal. Although the producers had failed to establish some of their alleged heads of loss, they were entitled to damages in respect of the distributors’ refusal to deliver up master tapes of the film after the contact came to an end.