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The Buchwald v. Paramount lawsuit resulted in a victory for Art Buchwald and his producing partner Alain Bernheim. In 1990, Judge Harvey Schneider ruled that Paramount breached its contract because Coming to America was based on Buchwald's treatment "King for a Day" (originally titled "It's a Crude, Crude World"). In the damages phase, the judge declared Paramount's standard net profit formula "unconscionable." The court awarded $150,000 to Buchwald and $750,000 to Bernheim, totaling $900,000. Paramount appealed, but the case was settled in 1995 for a sum reported to be over $1 million. The settlement included vacating the "unconscionable" ruling, preventing it from becoming a binding legal precedent.
The outcome of the Buchwald v. Paramount lawsuit was a victory for writer Art Buchwald, who successfully sued Paramount Pictures for breach of contract and idea misappropriation related to the film Coming to America.
The case is significant not only for its finding of liability but also for its detailed judicial critique of standard Hollywood "net profits" accounting.
1. Finding of Liability (Breach of Contract):
In 1990, Judge Harvey Schneider of the Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that Paramount had breached an implied-in-fact contract with Buchwald. The court determined that Buchwald’s 1982 treatment, "King for a Day" (or "It’s a Royal Pain in the Neck"), provided the core idea for the film, and Paramount was contractually obligated to pay Buchwald for the use of that idea.
2. Judicial Condemnation of Hollywood Accounting:
The most publicized phase of the lawsuit involved determining damages. Paramount claimed that, under their standard internal accounting definitions, Coming to America—which grossed hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide—had still not earned a net profit.
Judge Schneider rejected Paramount's definition of "net profits," stating that their formula was so one-sided and restrictive that it was "unconscionable" and "contrary to good faith and fair dealing." This ruling was a major legal precedent, exposing and challenging the industry's practices designed to ensure that films rarely, if ever, showed a profit for participants receiving profit points.
3. Final Monetary Award:
Although the judge ruled the studio's accounting practices were unconscionable, the monetary award was based on what Buchwald would have received had the contract been honored, not the full "net profits" of the film.
The court awarded the following damages:
With interest and other minor costs, the total judgment against Paramount was approximately $400,000.
Paramount eventually settled the case outside of court while an appeal was pending, paying Buchwald and Bernheim an undisclosed sum (believed to be close to the full judgment amount) to prevent the legal precedent regarding unconscionable accounting from being fully solidified through the appellate process.
The AI failed to identify the original title 'It's a Crude, Crude World' and instead hallucinated a different title.
The AI significantly underreported the damages awarded to producer Alain Bernheim ($750k vs $200k) and the total judgment ($900k vs $400k).