AMC Settles The Walking Dead Lawsuit For An Eye-Popping Figure
"The Walking Dead" and its spin-off zombie-centric properties, such as "Fear the Walking Dead" and "Talking Dead," have become a flagship franchise for AMC. The massive success of the series, along with prestige programs such as "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad," helped cement the network as one of the premier creators of original dramatic content and have likely made the channel a fair amount of cash.
However, the co-creator of the original series, Frank Darabont, has made it clear that he feels the profits from the show have not been fairly distributed. Darabont filed a lawsuit against "The Walking Dead" and AMC after he was fired from the show in 2013, alleging denial of "profit participation," according to The Hollywood Reporter. That suit has been fighting its way through the courts for years, although Darabont and his talent representatives also included in the filing, Creative Artists Agency, got some bad news when a similar lawsuit that was filed by the comic book's creator, Robert Kirkman, was not successful.
While that case went AMC's way, it looks like their luck finally ran out while dealing with Darabont and CAA. The case has finally been settled, and AMC looks to be out a pretty solid chunk of change. Here is the eye-popping amount that AMC spent to settle a long-running "The Walking Dead" lawsuit.
AMC paid $200 million to settle the lawsuit
As reported by Variety, the case was finally settled when AMC agreed to pay Frank Darabont and CAA a total of $200 million. While this is somewhat lower than the original $260 million that the plaintiffs initially pursued when the suit was filed in 2013, it still represents a victory that Darabont and CAA may have thought was out of their grasp after AMC was victorious in the lawsuit brought by Robert Kirkman.
Variety noted that AMC was forced to disclose the payment in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing as the settlement "will essentially wipe out the company's free cash flow for 2021." However, making a deal with Darabont bought out the former showrunner's rights to any future "Walking Dead" projects that AMC may wish to pursue, creating a more straightforward pathway for the network to keep expanding what has become their biggest franchise.
The original "The Walking Dead" is coming to a close as it makes its way through Season 11, but AMC has big plans for continuing the show well past that ending point. Multiple shows are in the pipeline, including "Tales of the Walking Dead," a spin-off focused on Daryl and Carol, and the somewhat disappointing "The Walking Dead: World Beyond." While settling with Darabont may have set AMC back a step, the network is clearly banking on the coming slate of related projects to establish projects well into the future.