AMC Global Media has agreed to pay $120 million to settle a lawsuit brought by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and the show's other lead producers, closing out a profit-sharing dispute that had been building toward an October trial. The company disclosed the settlement Tuesday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, describing it as a resolution of breach-of-contract claims tied to the original series and its first spinoff, Fear the Walking Dead.

Under the terms, AMC will pay $85 million by September 18 and a further $35 million by January 31, 2027. That second payment will count as an advance against future profit participation, meaning Kirkman and his co-plaintiffs retain an ongoing stake in the franchise rather than cashing out entirely. AMC said it will absorb an $85 million charge tied to the deal in its September quarter.

A Legal Fight Nearly a Decade in the Making

The producers who brought this case — Kirkman, Mazzara, Alpert, Eglee and Hurd — filed their complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court in November 2022, and the case was later moved to federal court over jurisdictional questions. Their argument centered on modified adjusted gross receipts, commonly shortened to MAGR, the accounting formula networks use to determine what participants are owed once a show turns a profit. AMC tried to get the case dismissed in 2024; a federal judge declined, and the dispute was headed toward trial before both sides reached the agreement announced this week.

The case turned on how AMC calculated the 'modified adjusted gross receipts' owed to profit participants.

Not the Franchise's First Profits Fight

This is the second major profit-sharing settlement AMC has paid out over The Walking Dead in five years. Director Frank Darabont and his former agency, CAA, sued the network in 2013 after Darabont was fired as showrunner, arguing AMC undercounted the show's profits. That case, later consolidated with a 2018 follow-up suit, was settled in 2021 for roughly $200 million. Kirkman and his fellow producers were not part of that agreement, and their own claims — filed the following year — argued that AMC's accounting practices shortchanged them in much the same way.

“amicable resolution of all their remaining claims and litigation”

Both sides framed the outcome in similarly cooperative terms this week, saying in a joint statement that they had reached an amicable resolution and looked forward to continuing to share in the franchise's success. Neither AMC nor representatives for the producers offered further comment beyond the SEC filing and the joint statement.

Part of a Broader Pattern in Hollywood

The settlement lands amid a wider run of profit-participation disputes between studios and the creators of hit franchises, many of them tied to how revenue is counted once shows move from traditional broadcast into streaming and licensing deals. Disney paid $269 million in 2010 after a jury sided with the creators of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in a similar dispute, and stars and producers of Bones reached a settlement with 20th Century Fox Television in 2019 after a judge initially awarded them $128.5 million in damages, later reduced to $50 million. Industry observers have pointed to these cases as evidence that profit-sharing formulas written for a broadcast-era business model are increasingly hard to apply cleanly to streaming revenue.

The Walking Dead remains AMC's most successful franchise, with spinoffs and a recently signed streaming deal extending its reach.

What Comes Next for AMC and the Franchise

The Walking Dead remains the most commercially successful property in AMC's history, and the network has continued investing in its future even as the lawsuit played out. In July, AMC signed a $500 million streaming licensing deal with Netflix covering the franchise, underscoring how much value the property still holds nearly sixteen years after the original series premiered. AMC still faces at least one related legal matter: Fear the Walking Dead co-creator Dave Erickson filed a separate suit in California state court last year, arguing he has not received any profit payments despite tens of millions of dollars having been distributed to other participants on that series.

For now, this week's settlement removes the largest outstanding legal threat tied to the franchise's flagship series, and it gives Kirkman and his fellow producers a continued financial stake as AMC leans further into licensing and streaming deals built around the property they created.

WRITTEN BYTheo Bancroft

Theo Bancroft explores the places where fashion meets art, music, and identity — and finds the stories that live at those intersections. He reports on subcultures, archival revivals, and the creative undercurrents that quietly drive the industry forward before anyone else notices.