Disney Accused Of Withholding Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars From Avatar2 Financier

California(USA), 16/08/23: Leading film financier TSG Entertainment has filed a contract breach lawsuit against Disney, saying that Disney’s actions prevented it from spending further in Avatar: The Way of Water and cost it millions of dollars.

According to the Wall Street Journal, TSG Entertainment, which also helped finance Twentieth Century Fox’s ‘Deadpool’ franchise, is suing the studio and its parent company Disney for claimed violation of contract.

TSG said in the lawsuit that Disney employees “have tried nearly every trick in the Hollywood accounting book” to keep monies that TSG believes it is owed. According to the lawsuit, the Hollywood behemoth withheld profits and cut arrangements in order to promote its streaming services and stock price.

TSG has assisted in the co-financing of about 140 films produced by 20th Century Fox, which Disney acquired in 2019. These films include Avatar: The Way of Water.

Since 2012, the business has invested over $3.3 billion in the studio’s programming.

The suit said, “At its root, it is a chilling example of how two Hollywood behemoths with a long and shameful history of Hollywood Accounting, Defendants Fox and Disney, have tried to use nearly every trick in the Hollywood Accounting playbook to deprive Plaintiff TSG — the financier who, in good faith, invested more than $3.3 billion with them — out of hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Disney had yet to respond to the case. TSG claimed that when it attempted to sell its ownership in other films it had sponsored back to Disney or a third party, it was denied.

The suit alleged, “The consequence was that TSG’s share of defined gross receipts was dramatically reduced, further eroding TSG’s ability to generate liquidity for future productions, and frustrating TSG’s ability to realise the benefit of its agreement with Fox.”