Lawsuit Against Disney Could Have Lasting Impact On Avengers Profits

Disney may have just encountered an Avengers-level threat in Silicon Valley firm Rearden, a company that specializes in computer-generated animation. The said firm has filed a lawsuit against the House of Mouse, along with several other film studios like Paramount and the now-defunct 20th Century Fox over, you guessed it, box office profit. According to Rearden, they should be given a larger share of profit from studios that make use of their CG technology (facial capture, to be specific) because they believe that they're somewhat responsible for them being box office juggernauts in the first place. This, of course, includes Marvel Studios' billion-dollar Avengers film franchise.

Disney has fired back against the lawsuit which has been revised on multiple occasions. Their summer judgment motion states: "There are limitless reasons why consumers pay to see any particular motion picture, including (among many others) stars, script, costumes, and music It is highly speculative to say which of these factors lead people to pay to see a motion picture, but at least these are things that consumers actually see visually or hear aloud."

Disney's attorney Ginger Andres has further asserted that Rearden has yet to establish a well-founded link between the use of CG technology and the reason why consumers patronize films. "Rearden has no evidence that consumers decided to see any of the Motion Pictures at issue here because a third-party vendor, months (or more) before the Motion Picture's release, made temporary RAM copies of software that no consumer saw."

Credit: Marvel Studios

Now, while I don't discount the fact that CG technology does play a crucial role in making films more visually-pleasing and breathtaking, especially the Marvel ones, I don't think that was ever the reason fans were invested in films like Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame, to begin with. If Rearden ends up winning the legal dispute, this could potentially influence other CG companies to follow suit.

In other news, Marvel Studios' only offering for this year WandaVision hits Disney+ this year.

Also Read: Sony Dismisses Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield Casting Rumors for Spider-Man 3