AMC Settles Walking Dead Profits Fight for $120 Million, Averting October Trial
Five producers of The Walking Dead will receive $120 million from AMC Networks to settle a profits dispute that began nine years ago, ending the fight weeks before a federal trial was set to open in Los Angeles.
Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert, Charles Eglee and Glen Mazzara reached the settlement on Friday, according to Variety. AMC disclosed the terms in a securities filing: $85 million due this month, with the remaining $35 million to follow by 31 January 2027. The settlement entity is AMC Global Media, also referred to as AMC Global Networks, per The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.
The payout cuts into AMC's cash projections. The company now expects $150 million in free cash flow for the year, down from a previously forecast $220 million, according to the filing.
The producers first sued AMC in 2017. They argued the network used a definition of "modified adjusted gross receipts" — the formula that determines how profit participation is calculated — that was designed to shortchange them, even as the show and its spinoffs generated billions in revenue. The complaint echoed earlier allegations from Walking Dead creator Frank Darabont and his agency, CAA, who had accused AMC of the same accounting manoeuvres.
AMC had won a ruling in 2022, when a judge found the producers were not cheated and that the network had used a standard definition of the receipts term. But the fight did not end there. After AMC settled with Darabont and CAA for $200 million, the producers' lawyers filed a new lawsuit arguing that the Darabont deal should trigger a payout under their "most favoured nation" clause — a contract provision guaranteeing them terms no worse than anyone else's.
AMC called the suit a cash grab and noted the producers had already received $70 million under their agreement. In 2024, a federal judge refused to throw out the producers' complaint, allowing the case to move toward trial. The parties had been preparing to appear before Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha in Los Angeles, with the trial scheduled to begin on 27 October after repeated delays.
The Walking Dead profits saga has now cost AMC a combined $320 million across two settlements. The first, with Darabont and CAA, closed in 2021. This second closes the chapter for the five producers who helped build the franchise into the highest-rated cable drama of its era.
One thread remains open. Dave Erickson, a showrunner on the spinoff Fear the Walking Dead, filed a similar lawsuit against AMC last year. AMC has sought to push that claim into arbitration, and the case is still pending.
