An executive producer on Obsession is suing the film’s production company for allegedly shutting her out of the film’s huge box office haul.

Leonora Ann Darby is suing her colleagues, producers Tea Shop Productions co-founders James Harris and Mark Lane, for allegedly cutting her out of an agreed one-third share of the net profits after Curry Barker’s horror film became a huge hit, having now grossed over $500 million worldwide against a $750,000 budget.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Aug. 28, claims that her exclusion from the promised profits “arises from a seven-year pattern of unequal treatment and broken compensation promises by two older male film producers to a younger female producer whose labour was material to the growth of their company and who rescued their biggest film, the global hit Obsession.”

Although she was credited as an executive producer, Darby claims she acted as a lead producer on Obsession as the function is internally understood at Tea Shop Productions, having “rescued” the film by pushing to restore the edit to writer-director Curry Barker after it had been given to a new editor and calling for reshoots, among other key contributions.

The suit claims, “Darby’s notes on the opening relational set up between the lead male and female characters, the character arcs in the first two acts and her strong recommendation (which was adopted) to fully commit to the film‘s supernatural elements, including making the One Wish Willow a real element that functioned as intended in the real world of the film (with the iconic ‘money scene’ thus confirming this), critically resulted in a new pathway for the film.”

Darby also alleges that she played an instrumental role in getting the film ready in time for its world premiere in TIFF’s Midnight Madness section, where it was purchased by Focus Features. While other renowned indie distributors like NEON and A24 tried to secure the Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette-led film, Barker was attracted to Focus Features’ promise of a worldwide release, which ultimately helped Obsession achieve synchronised, global internet virality and turn it into an event film.