Dwayne Johnson Was Once Slapped With $200 Million Lawsuit for Stealing Concept of “Ballers” From Scrapped TV Show

WWE’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is a highly revered personality in both wrestling and Hollywood. Johnson channeled his on-screen charisma from WWE into the silver screen and established himself as one of the most successful actors in the world. With a staggering net worth of $800 million, acting has proven to be a fruitful pursuit for Johnson. After his rise to the top, Johnson co-founded his entertainment TV company, Seven Bucks Productions. 

Today, working with Johnson is a dream for many up-and-coming actors. As successful as he is in the entertainment industry, he was once engulfed in a huge controversy involving his TV show, HBO’s own, Ballers.

The comedy-drama series made it to TV in 2015 with the executive producers being Dwane Johnson, Mark Wahlberg, and others. Much like Game of Thrones, Ballers became a mainstay show on HBO. However, it was soon hit with a lawsuit on the grounds of stealing ideas from another TV show project. 

When Ballers was slapped with a $200 million lawsuit

It is not uncommon to deal with legal cases in the entertainment industry. In 2015, HBO’s Ballers featuring Dwayne Johnson found itself in the thick of things when they had to wrestle with another TV Show project called Off Season in a court of law with $200 million at stake.

The writers of Off Season claimed that they had almost signed a deal with Johnson and Wahlberg in 2009 in hopes of evolving the idea into a TV show but it never came to fruition.

Following the release of Ballers on TV, the writers of Off Season accused the makers of Ballers of having stolen and included their ideas in the TV show. 

As per the jury- “Plaintiffs are informed and believe and on that basis allege, that the more recent work, Ballers, borrows heavily from the Materials and that certain aesthetic elements, including, without limitation, physical appearance of the characters and their vehicles, and plots, scenes, as well as storylines are virtually identical to the Materials that the Defendants had access to.”

According to Deadline, the plaintiffs claimed that the show wasn’t just a copy of their idea but was “virtually identical”.

The report stated that the characters, storylines, scenes, and incidents in Ballers were notably similar to the project of Off Season.

The fact that the defendants had direct access to their materials made it look like Ballers was indeed a copy of the Off Season TV project. The lawsuit persisted for two years until a decision was reached. 

The lawsuit was eventually disqualified

In 2017, a new report from Deadline stated that the lawsuit against The Rock’s TV Series was dropped as after a series of investigations, the judge claimed that the similarities between Ballers and Off Season “did not rise to the standard of copyright infringement.

The report also stated that the show portrayed “general expressions” and nuances that are common to see in any project involving football players. 

“The judge noted that the similarities between Ballers and Off Season did not rise to the standard of copyright infringement but merely had general expressions that you might find in any project where football players were a primary element.”

The charges were ultimately disqualified and The Rock and Wahlberg were relieved as their reputation and a lot of money were on the line. The series concluded in 2019 after producing five seasons.

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