‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Screenwriter Settles Profits Lawsuit Over Alleged Bait-And-Switch

Bohemian Rhapsody Screenwriter Anthony McCarten has settled a lawsuit claiming he hasn’t seen his share of the profits from the hit Freddie Mercury biopic, despite it grossing more than $900 million at the box office.

McCarten decided to dismiss the lawsuit against producer GK Films on October 31. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The two-time Academy Award nominee (Darkest hour, the theory of everything) received sole “screenplay by” credit for the film. Under his deal with GK Films, he is entitled to “(an) amount equal to 5% of 100%” of the net proceeds, which was defined as the company’s standard definition, according to the complaint filed in 2021 with the Los Angeles Superior Court.

But McCarten claimed he didn’t make a profit, as accounting statements from Fox’s 20th Century Studios show a $51 million deficit for the film. He disagreed with calculating net proceeds using Fox’s standard definition instead of GK Films’. As a result, the distribution fees, which are normally deducted, eat up his share.

McCarten, who was frustrated with the low fixed fees in his deal, was reportedly told by then-CEO of GK Films, Denis O’Sullivan, that the company will “take care of you successfully.” He said he understood this to mean he would get five percent of what GK Films earned for the film, with the difference between the company’s actual and net proceeds being its home video royalties and its unrecovered development costs. “And there was no question that GK Films’ definition of ‘net proceeds’ would be more favorable to him than whatever a major studio called the net profit definition,” said the complaint, which noted that McCarten’s attorneys dealt directly with GK Movies negotiated and not with Fox.

The lawsuit accused Graham King’s GK Films of breaching its obligation to negotiate in good faith, claiming it “never even provided any definition (of itself or of Fox)” of the net proceeds. “Worse, it is not even clear that GK Films ever had a standard definition for any film,” Dale Kinsella, an attorney for McCarten, wrote in the complaint. “It was also not the intention to develop such a definition.”

Bohemian Rhapsody was a box office unicorn, earning over $900 million worldwide against a mid-budget budget of around $55 million. It sat in “development hell” for years, the lawsuit alleged, before King hired McCarten to rewrite the script. In 2016, the film was accelerated at Fox.

Most studios have converted their net profits into net revenues. This way, the lawsuit alleged, studios would not have to reconcile their excessive profits with accounting statements showing deficits of tens of millions of dollars.

“The parties have resolved the matter,” Nicholas Soltman, McCarten’s attorney, said in a statement.

GK Films did not respond to requests for comment. Fox was not named in the complaint.