Actor claims he is owed a share of takings from the hit 1993 film, in which he played a cryogenically frozen cop fighting crime in the future

Sylvester Stallone is suing Warner Bros for fraud, alleging that the studio intentionally concealed profits from the 1993 sci-fi film Demolition Man.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the actor filed the complaint through his company Rogue Marble productions. The suit alleges “outright and obviously intentional dishonesty” on the part of Warner Bros in its accounting of the film, with the result being that Stallone and Rogue Marble weren’t paid the profits they were owed.

“The motion picture studios are notoriously greedy,” states the complaint. “This one involves outright and obviously intentional dishonesty perpetrated against an international iconic talent. Here, WB decided it just wasn’t going to account to Rogue Marble on the film. WB just sat on the money owed to Rogue Marble for years and told itself, without any justification, that Rogue Marble was not owed any profits.”

The suit suggests that Stallone was owed 15% of Demolition Man’s gross once the film earned $125m, and 20% if the film earned $200m or more. Demolition Man went on to gross $159m worldwide at the box office, although that number doesn’t factor in home entertainment sales.

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Stallone claims that he first contacted Warner Bros in 2014, asking why he hadn’t received profit participation statements for the film. In response, Stallone says that Warner Bros sent a summary noting that the film had not made a profit and thus no payment was due to the actor. Later, after Rogue Marble had questioned the accuracy of the numbers, a cheque was sent for $2.8m. However, Stallone and Rogue Marble believe they are owed a more significant payout from the film.

The suit goes on to characterise Warner Bros’s business practises as “unscrupulous, unethical and offensive, and causes substantial injury to consumers”, and calls for “an end to this practice for all talent who expect to be paid by WB for the fruits of their labour”.

Demolition Man starred Stallone as a police officer who is cryogenically frozen and wakes up in 2032 to pursue a crime lord, played by Wesley Snipes. The film topped the US box-office charts on its release, and went on to spawn comic book and video game adaptations.

Stallone and Warner Bros have worked together as recently as 2015, when the actor appeared in the Rocky spin-off Creed, for which he received a 2016 Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.