Movie Financier TSG Accuses Disney of Depriving It of Millions of Dollars

livemint.com:

TSG Entertainment, which helped co-finance hits including “Avatar: The Way of Water" and the “Deadpool" franchise for Twentieth Century Fox, is suing the studio and its parent company Disney for breach of contract. A suit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court by TSG alleges that the Disney-owned movie studio intentionally withheld profits and cut sweetheart deals to boost its own streaming platforms Hulu and Disney+, as well as its stock price, at the expense of its partners.

TSG also claims that the actions deprived it of cash the financier needed to exercise options to invest more in individual films and that TSG’s efforts to sell its stakes in other movies to fund more investments were hindered. TSG said it spent $3.3 billion over the past decade co-funding more than 140 movies, including critical darlings such as “Hidden Figures," “JoJo Rabbit," “The Shape of Water" and “The Banshees of Inisherin." In the lawsuit, TSG said Disney and the studio “have tried to use nearly every trick in the Hollywood accounting book" to deprive it “of hundreds of millions of dollars." Representatives for Disney weren’t immediately available to comment.

Public battles between entertainment companies and actors and writers over profits are fairly common, but it is rare for a fight between a film financier and a studio to end up in court, as such disputes are normally resolved behind closed doors. Under the terms of a deal between TSG and the movie studio, any dispute gets filed in court first before the two sides agree on a private judge.

By filing in court, both sides will then have the ability to appeal that ruling if they desire. Headed by brothers Chip and Robert Seelig, both Wall Street veterans, TSG has longstanding relations