MGM Wins Appeals Court Ruling Over Jim Caviezel Film 'Madison'

The 2005 movie's backers claimed they lost tens of millions of dollars via a botched distribution plan.

An appeals court has sided with MGM in a long-running battle over the 2005 Jim Caviezel flop Madison, ruling that the backers of the film shouldn't have sued the distributor in Illinois.

But the movie flopped, grossing just $500,000 in theaters when MGM released it in only 15 markets on 93 screens -- "a small fraction of what Madison LLC reasonably would have been expected to earn had MGM met its obligations," according to the opinion. The film's backers lost tens of millions of dollars, they claimed.

But in a 42-page ruling issued in late September and obtained by THR, the appellate court overturns the trial court, ruling that MGM shouldn't have been sued in Illinois. "We find that MGM Distribution did not in fact have sufficient miminum contacts with Illinois to support the exercise of specific personal jurisdiction in this case," the ruling states. The case was then remanded back to the trial court, but having lost on the jurisdiction issue, the plaintiffs will have to figure out if they want to refile the case elsewhere.

MGM was repped in the appeal by Marty Katz and a team at L.A.'s Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton.

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