The 2004 film “Fahrenheit 9/11” remains the biggest grossing documentary of all time with $119 million in domestic box office receipts. But it took nearly eight years for the principals behind the film to figure out who gets every last nickel of its profits.
Michael Moore and Hollywood titan Harvey Weinstein have settled a lawsuit filed by the controversial director, who alleged that “financial deception” resulted in him being rooked out of millions in profits from the hit documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11.”
Details of the Moore/Weinstein settlement agreement were not disclosed in a “notice of conditional settlement” filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Moore’s Westside Productions company sued Weinstein, his brother Robert, and the pair’s Fellowship Adventure Group last February in the midst of the Weinsteins’s Academy Awards campaign for “The King’s Speech” (which eventually copped the “Best Picture” Oscar).
Moore claimed in his lawsuit that he was owed a minimum of $2.7 million in connection with “Fahrenheit 9/11.” In denying Moore’s claim, the Weinsteins branded their former collaborator as greedy, noting that the filmmaker has pocketed more than $20 million from the 2004 film.
Moore, a staunch supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement, hasn’t been able to match the success of “Fahrenheit 9/11.” His latest film, 2009’s “Capitalism: A Love Story,” brought in $14 million.