Its a blockbuster — of a lawsuit.
Movie mogul brothers Harvey and Robert Weinstein say Smaug the Dragon — in the form of Warner Bros.’ — has greedily stolen their share of the riches from the wildly popular “Hobbit” series.
In their $75 million Manhattan Supreme Court suit the Weinsteins and Miramax claim Warner Bros. New Line Cinema division reneged on a 1998 deal that exchanged the rights to the film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” for 5 percent of ticket sales.
“This is a case about greed and ingratitude,” the Weinsteins snarl in their suit, filed Wednesday.
The 1998 agreement that sold Warner Bros. the rights to bring the tome to the big screen said the Weinsteins and Miramax would split the 5 percent cut of “the first motion picture based on the books,” according to court papers.
The deal specifically excluded any remakes or sequels.
After the critical success of “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Warner Bros. “unilaterally” decided to divide the adaptation of “The Hobbit” into three parts released over three consecutive years, the suit says.
The first piece, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” made $1 billion last year.
The second installment, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” is set to be released this Friday, but Warner Bros. has allegedly refused to share revenue for the second and third editions, saying they are remakes and thus excluded.
The suit calls that interpretation “outrageous” and “absurd.”
Warner Bros. counters that the Weinsteins got what they agreed to. “The agreement speaks for itself — it expressly provides that Miramax be paid only on the ‘first’ Hobbit motion picture, and that any disputes about ‘payment’ are subject to arbitration. Nothing could be clearer,” said spokesman Paul McGuire.
The plaintiffs say they plunked down $10 million to develop the film adaptation of Tolkien’s works before selling the rights to Warner Bros.