Crossroads producer Ann Carli is suing Sony over unpaid profits related to the 2002 teen movie.
The film, written by Shonda Rhimes and directed by Tamra Davis, featured Britney Spears in her first starring role.
In the new lawsuit, filed in New York Supreme Court and viewed by The Independent, Carli claims that she “originated the concept for the motion picture Crossroads specifically as a starring vehicle for pop star Britney Spears.”
Carli says she put together the creative team and pitched the project to Filmco, which has since been acquired by Sony. Filmco was bought by BMG Music shortly after the release of Crossroads, and in 2004 the latter company merged with Sony to form Sony BMG.
She claims she signed a contract that paid her a fixed producer’s fee of $300,000 and also entitled her to 10% of the net profits from the film.
Carli claims that she has not been paid the profit share she is owed, with the lawsuit stating: “For over two decades after Crossroads’ release, Plaintiff received no accounting statements or payments from Sony Music or its predecessors.”
She says she initially believed the film may not have been profitable, which would explain why she had not received statements or payments. However, when Sony announced plans to re-release Crossroads in September 2023 to coincide with the release of Spears’ memoir The Woman in Me, Carli says she inquired after her missing statements.
The lawsuit states that in the same month, Sony Music’s then-Executive Vice President of Business Affairs, Dan Zucker, acknowledged to Carli that her participation in the film had likely been “inadvertently overlooked” amid the multiple mergers and corporate restructurings.
When Carli was eventually provided with a statement for the first time, in December 2023, she says Sony claimed “that the film – which cost only ~$11 million to make and grossed over $60 million at the box office – had ‘net losses’ of $49.7 million.”
She claims this accounting included “massive, unexplained charges” which dwarfed the film’s revenues to create a fictional “loss.”
She also says she learned that other people involved in the film were paid their profit participation, with Rhimes informing her that she “had been paid a sum for her work on the film large enough to place a down payment for her home in the Hollywood Hills.”
Carli is suing for breach of contract, fraud and a demand for accounting. She claims that she is owed “at least $12 million in net profits” based on the film’s initial box office returns, DVD sales and a recent Netflix streaming deal.
She is also requesting interest on the delayed payments over 23 years, for total compensatory damages of approximately $36 million.
The Independent has approached Carli’s lawyers and Sony Music Entertainment for comment.
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