The Hollywood Reporter says that Warner Bros. has relinquished its hold on the franchise and the rights are heading back to Paramount.
Paramount now has five years to enjoy those rights, meaning, the studio can move forward on a new film if it chooses to without it being mired in rights nonsense.
A sequel to the 2009 reboot has been languishing due to all sorts of rights complications.
Per THR:
The original Friday was made in 1980 by producer Sean Cunningham with investments from Boston theater owners. Paramount got domestic distribution rights; Warners had international. Eventually, the rights reverted back to Cunningham, who took them to New Line Cinema in the 1990s as part of an attempt to jumpstart a Freddy vs. Jason movie (with the villain from A Nightmare on Elm Street). That process took more than 10 years, and in the meantime, New Line made two other Friday the 13th movies.
When it came time for New Line, now part of Warner Bros., to develop a Friday remake/reboot, it was revealed that Paramount had certain rights to the original and had to be brought in as 50-50 partners. Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes ended up producing 2009’s Friday the 13th, which grossed a respectable $91 million for Paramount and Warners on a budget of less than $20 million.
Warner Bros. offered up its stake in Friday the 13th so it could join Paramount in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar.
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