Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead producers lose legal battle vs AMC
By Dan Selcke
Just days before Robert Kirkman is going to talk about The Walking Dead at Comic-Con@Home, he loses his multimillion-dollar lawsuit against AMC.
Okay, I’ll try to bullet point this for you. A few years back, Robert Kirkman — the guy who wrote The Walking Dead comics — and several Walking Dead executive producers (former and current) filed a lawsuit against AMC. Essentially, they alleged that AMC wasn’t sharing the profits from the show with them in the way they’d agreed in their contracts, with Kirkman also arguing that the network wasn’t giving him enough in the way of licensing fees. If the plaintiffs won, AMC would potentially have to pay them millions upon millions of more dollars.
But they didn’t win. Or at least, winning now looks a lot less likely. After an eight-day mini-trial, Los Angeles Superior Court judge Daniel Buckley ruled against the plaintiffs on each of the seven issues they’d raised, reasoning that the plaintiffs had agreed to let AMC figure out how to calculate profits and license fees back when they and their very fancy Hollywood lawyers had signed their contracts. “Ultimately, Plaintiffs’ effort to avoid the plain language of the agreements is unavailing,” Buckley wrote.
And Buckley reserved special attention for Kirkman, using the testimony of his own expert witness against him. “Plaintiffs’ own expert, Kenneth Ziffren, conceded that he ‘can’t point to any revenue, money,’ to which Mr. Kirkman was deprived,” Buckley wrote, possibly while smirking.
What does this mean? Well, it means that Kirkman and the other executive producer plaintiffs won’t have as many millions of dollars as they otherwise would have…but they’re probably all pretty rich anyway, so let’s not shed too many tears for them. Also, funnily enough, Deadline points out that the show hasn’t turned a profit since 2018 — ratings have been falling for a while — so for all we know the network needs that money to keep the show aloft.
It seems like a weird time to be going all in on Walking Dead spinoffs like World Beyond, doesn’t it? Whatever, that’s another issue.
The outcome here also has implications for a similar case filed by former Walking Dead showrunner Frank Darabont in New York, and AMC attorney Orin Snyder clearly knew it. “Today’s decision is a total victory for AMC,” Snyder said. “As the court found, these plaintiffs had the most sophisticated lawyers and agents in Hollywood and they got what they bargained for. We are now turning our attention to the trial in New York — which involves very similar claims by CAA and Frank Darabont — secure in the knowledge that the first court to hold a trial on these issues ruled completely in AMC’s favor.”
By the way, AMC has Walking Dead panels running at Comic-Con@Home all tomorrow, and Robert Kirkman has his own at 4:00 p.m. CST. So those just got a lot more interesting…
The Walking Dead: 8 theories on what caused the zombie outbreak. dark. Next
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels