#20. Drive
If you want to see a movie you probably saw the trailer first and you thought it was cool. This happened to Sarah Deming, who saw the trailer for Drive, and thought she would like this Fast and Furious-style movie. So she went and purchased a ticket and sat down at the movies.
Turns out this movie is nothing like Fast and Furious. So naturally, Deming was very upset, since she felt like she was lied to. So she decided to sue Drive for having a misleading trailer, her demands were that the theater refund her ticket, and at the end they did!
#19. The Dark Knight
The character of Batman has been delighting people across the world since around 1939. He has comics, TV shows, movies, and even video games. But there is something else with a story longer than Batman’s. And that is Batman, a city in Turkey. Yes, that is the real name.
When The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan was released in 2008, the city of Batman sued them for using their name without permission. The mayor of Batman blamed the film for the city’s high crime rated and said: “There is only one Batman in the world.”
#18. Inside Out
The year was 1999 and Damon Pourshian was writing a script about the anthropomorphized emotions inside the mind of a little boy, and he named it Inside Out. He then made a short film version of said script and, according to him, sent it to Disney and Pixar. He later would be ending up suing them for copying both his title and idea.
You probably know how the 2015 movie Inside Out is about the anthropomorphized emotions of a little girl. Pretty similar, right? But this wasn’t the only lawsuit involving this movie. Carla J. Masterson, an author, thought the movie might have borrowed elements of two of her books.
#17. Avatar
The incredible and mesmerizing worlds that appear in Avatar emerged from the mind of James Cameron. This vision of his managed to get to the top of the box office and become the second highest-grossing film of all time, behind Avengers: Endgame. But some people don't think it was really his vision.
Well, artist Roger Dean didn’t think so. Dean is mostly known for designing the famous album covers for Yes and Asia. He also sued James Cameron for copying his pieces of art for the design of Pandora. Cameron probably was just influenced by Dean’s work, and the judge ruled in favor of Cameron.
#16. The Conjuring
James Wan’s The Conjuring was based on the true story of Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, a married couple of paranormal investigators who are working on one of their cases in a spooky house. The movie did pretty well, but what happened with the people who live in that house now?
Well,Norma Sutcliffe and Gerald Helfrich are those people. They sued Warner Bros over the movie because they said that since it was released, lots of people come to visit and harass them and sometimes even vandalize the property. They didn’t see success from this suit but they are still pleading their case online.
#15. 12 Monkeys
This hyperactive sci-fi story came from the peculiar brain of Terry Gilliam. It features a lot of crazy scenes. One of which features Bruce Willis being interrogated by a strange sphere that is able to explore his weaknesses. Pretty unique, right?
It was Lebbeus Woods who thought that the device was suspiciously similar to his Neomechanical Tower Chamber piece, so he sued. And he was successful, as Universal Pictures had to pay him a big sum and give credit to him.
#14. Tomorrowland
The name Tomorrowland has been owned by Disney since 1970. So there was no problem at all when they released Tomorrowland starring George Clooney in America. But one music festival was not happy when they tried to sell it outside of America.
The European electronic music festival Tomorrowland tried to expand to the states, but Disney stopped them and made them change their name to TomorrowWorld. So when Disney tried to release the movie in Europe, the festival got its revenge and sued them for using their already owned name.
#13.The Wolf of Wall Street
Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street starring Leonardo DiCaprio is full of cussing, obscenities and overall madness. It was based on the real-life story of Jordan Belfort. This movie would then generate an insane lawsuit that could easily be another Scorsese film.
Embodied in the movie as Nicky “Rugrat” Koskoff and played by P.J. Bryne, Andrew Greene sued the movie because of his resemblance to the character. His character is ridiculed because he wears an awful toupee. Greene said that nobody ever requested his approval for this character to be shown in the movie.
#12. Borat
Fake documentary movie Borat, produced by Sacha Baron Cohen, caused controversy just for its production methods. Even though they lied to the subjects about both the real identity of the star and the authenticity of the film, they couldn’t have ever anticipated that many lawsuits.
Romanian town Gold sued for being represented wrong. The etiquette teacher sued them for destroying her business, the driving instructor sued because he was lied to about the authenticity of the film, and finally, the frat bros sued for being forced to get drunk.
#11. The Hangover Part II
If you’ve ever seen Mike Tyson you probably noticed his face tattoo, which was designed by S. Victor Whitmill. There was no problem when Tyson made a cameo on the first movie. But the sequel had Whitmill a little upset.
In this second movie, Ed Helms is seen with the same exact tattoo. So Whitmill thought that it was a replication of his work being used without his permission, so he sued Warner Bros. They ended up settling, but Whitmill still tried to stop the movie from being released.
#10. Up
It’s most likely that you are aware of Pixar’s logo and how it features a lamp instead of an I, and you’ve seen the animation and how the lamp jumps on top of the I. But did you know that the lamp is based on a real one designed by Luxo? Luxo welcomed the free promotion, until the release of Up on Blu-ray.
With the Blu-ray release, Pixar included a Luxo toy lamp. And Luxo sued them, saying that Pixar was selling Luxo’s products without permission. They reached an agreement after some time: Pixar can use Luxo in their logo but they can’t sell physical Luxo products.
#9. The Basketball Diaries
In its attempt to reach bold realism, 1995’s The Basketball Diaries, where Leonardo DiCaprio plays a young heroin addict, shows a lot of shocking scenes.But there’s one that stands out: a disturbing scene where DiCaprio’s character fantasizes about shooting up his classmates.
A shooting at Heath High School occurred in 1997 and Jack Thompson, a former lawyer and activist, decided to sue the film and video games like Resident Evil and Doom two years later for being the cause of the attack. But in 2001, the case was dismissed.
#8. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
If you’ve ever seen a Resident Evil movie, you probably know that the saga has lots of well-accomplished action sequences, and this delighted fans over the years. In the final movie, Milla Jovovich’s stunt double Olivia Jackson suffered an awful injury, which was the result of the production’s negligence, according to her. So she sued everyone involved.
Jackson was told she had to shoot a normal fight scene but when she arrived to set, they told her she actually had to do a complex motorcycle stunt. Because that day the weather was horrible, everything went wrong and because of the accident, she had to have her arm amputated.
#7. Captain Philips
In this movie starring Tom Hanks, we see how Captain Philips rescues his crew from an almost impossible situation. A hijacking by Somali pirates led by Barkhad Abdi. This movie is based on a true story, but accordingly, to Captain Philips’ real-life crew, it didn’t happen exactly like in the movie.
The crew said, in form of a lawsuit, that the real Captain Philips was nothing but self-centered and what he really did was not listen to his crew and he steered directly into pirate waters just so he could save some time and money. It was concluded by the attorney that the real heroes of the story were the crew and not Philips.
#6. Black Swan
This dance-centered psychological horror by director Darren Aronofsky features Natalie Portman and how her character pushes herself past the point of no return, while she tries to reach greatness.
Alexander Footman and Eric Glatt never received pay or credit after working on the movie more than 40 hours per week for a year. So naturally, they sued the production company for fair pay, and a judge ruled in their favor.
#5. Straight Outta Compton
Featuring well-known celebrities like Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E, Straight Outta Compton shows us the rise of N.W.A, a hip-hop group. Not so much of a celebrity, their manager Jerry Heller is featured in the story. But Heller was not happy at all with Paul Giamatti’s performance.
He claimed the film makes him appear as a villain and sued the studio for $110 million. This time, the producers countersued saying that Heller’s story was not eligible for defamation since it is a matter of public record.
#4. Coming To America
In 1982, humorist Art Buchwald wrote a movie about a young African leader who comes to America, and he called it King for a Day. He then pitched it to Paramount Pictures, and he wanted Eddie Murphy to star and John Landis to direct. Paramount ended up passing and it ended there.
Years later Paramount released a movie starring Eddie Murphy and directed by John Landis. And as you might expect, it was about a young African leader who comes to America. Naturally, Buchwald sued the studio and since he had lots of evidence, they had to pay him $900,000.
#3. Pain & Gain
Marc Schiller, a businessman, was kidnapped and tortured by the Sun Gym gang in 1994, who were a group of bodybuilders who turned to crime. They even tried to murder him but failed. Schiller escaped and was able to testify. Seeing his story in Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain, he felt awful.
He watched how his captors, played in the movie by Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg, and Anthony Mackie, showed sympathy and humanization. And meanwhile, his character was shown as a creep who deserved what was happening to him. Schiller decided to sue for defamation of character.
#2. Colossal
Starring Anne Hathaway as an alcoholic woman whose episodes are linked to the city being attacked by some giant monster, Colossal was apparently pitched as “Godzilla meets Being John Malkovich”.
It even was called a low-budget Godzilla by its director Nacho Vigalondo. So naturally, Godzilla’s studio, Toho, sued in 2015 claiming that Colossal''s studio stole the imagery for the iconic monster. In the end, they decided to withdraw from the formal lawsuit and Colossal was released.
#1. Frozen
Jeniffer Lee and Chris Buck’s Frozen is based on The Snow Queen, a fable by Hans Christian Andersen. But there was someone who disagreed with this, author Isabella Tanikumi. She strongly believed that Frozen was based on her life, so she went and sued.
Isabella Tanikumi even wrote an autobiography where she cited 18 similarities between her real-life story and Frozen. One of these similarities being that they both are about sisters who experience trauma in snowy mountains. But a judge said that they were not similar at all and threw out her lawsuit.