Warner Bros. Discovery And DC Comics Getting Sued By 'Superman' Estate Over Release Territories
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Legal drama is cropping up ahead of the release of the newest Superman film. The Schuster Estate, with Mark Warren Peary acting as executor, officially filed a suit against DC Comics, DC Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Discovery on January 31, 2025. The Plaintiff, Peary, and the Schuster Estate are alleging that DC and Warner Bros. Discovery do not have the right to release the upcoming Superman film in several markets as they do not own the international copyright. They are also seeking damage relief and a declaration of rights under five claims. The territories in question are Canada, Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, all of which make a fair impact when it comes to international box office numbers.
This all centers around international copyright issues. The co-creators of Superman, Joe Schuster, and Jerry Siegel, passed away in 1992 and 1996 respectively. The pair had sold their rights to the character to the company that would become DC Comics in 1938; this action gave the company international control over Superman and related imagery. Copyright law varies by country, and in a majority of the territories in question, the rights would be returned to a dead author’s estate 25 years following their death; Shuster’s Estate would have been eligible in 2017, and 2021 in Canada.
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From 2017 to the present, these countries have repeatedly produced Superman content and imagery, allegedly violating the Plaintiff’s copyright. Domestic copyright issues have been litigated multiple times over the years between the co-creators, their estates, DC Comics, and Warner Bros. With this latest case, a new aspect of rights issues is being brought to the courts. On the subject of the suit, a Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson stated (via Deadline), “We fundamentally disagree with the merits of the lawsuit, and will vigorously defend our rights.”
Superman is currently scheduled to hit theaters on July 11, 2025. This will be the first film installment in James Gunn’s DCU reboot, and the latest to its first chapter, Gods and Monsters. Starring David Corenswet as the titular character, the film follows Clark Kent as he comes to terms with who he is as a Kryptonian and how he was raised in his adoptive family on Earth. Whether or not the lawsuit will shift the film’s release has yet to be confirmed at this time.
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