These Don’t “Go To Eleven”! They Go To $400-Million!
Yes, speakers that “go to eleven” so they would be “one louder” is just one of the great gags from “This Is Spinal Tap”- along with, of course, “Hello, Cleveland!”
One of the funniest movies of all time, and a classic piece of “mock documentary” filmmaking thanks to Director Rob Reiner, “This Is Spinal Tap” has entertained people for decades….well, according to some of the people involved in the film, they weren’t fairly compensated for their efforts!
I just read this story about a lawsuit filed over profits from the cult 1984 film – and the $$$ figures are going insane!
According to Deadline.com, Actor/Musician Harry Shearer (with the large mustache on the left above) had filed a lawsuit two years ago seeking $125 million against the company that released the film. The story goes on to note:
“The suit since has added his fellow Spinal Tap bandmates Christopher Guest and Michael McKean and the mockumentary’s director Rob Reiner. That revision in February 2017 also cranked the damages sought to $400 million. The plaintiffs — no drummer among them, for obvious reasons — claim they collected a paltry amount from the film’s music and merchandise since the film’s 1984 release.”
As fans of the movie know, the drummer keeps dying from strange accidents…
Here’s what the original lawsuit alleges:
In his original lawsuit, Shearer claimed that “Defendant Vivendi and its agents, including StudioCanal executive Ron Halpern, have engaged in anti-competitive business practices by manipulating accounting between Vivendi film and music subsidiaries and have engaged in fraud to deprive the Spinal Tap creators of a fair return for their work.”
It added: “According to Vivendi, the four creators’ share of total worldwide merchandising income between 1984 and 2006 was $81 (eighty-one) dollars. Between 1989 and 2006 total income from music sales was $98 (ninety-eight) dollars.” The suit says Shearer and his This Is Spinal Tap co-creators Guest, McKean and Reiner were to split that $179. In fact, the original 1982 production deal had the quartet of creators getting 40% of the net profits — quite considerably more than what was cited on a $2.25 million-budgeted film that has easily made millions over the ensuing decades.
So it seems the Actors/Musicians feel they are due a LOT of money from he success of the film and album releases…you can read a lot more of the story here, thanks to Deadline.com:
Of course, these album covers below weren’t real record releases, just a collection of the covers shown in the film:
These hilarious covers were just one of the reasons the “mockumentary” is so loved – if you want to see more about this hilariously funny movie, click here:
Of course, the companies being sued have denied all claims, so we will let a court decide…
