NEW WORLD, ROGER CORMAN DROP LAWSUITS

New World Pictures and Roger Corman, who filed multimillion-dollar lawsuits against each other in Santa Monica Superior Court earlier this month, have agreed to go their separate ways. In an out-of-court settlement announced Friday, New World and Corman agreed to “terminate their business relationship” and drop their respective suits.

Corman, who built New World from scratch before selling it to lawyers Harry Evans Sloan and Lawrence Kuppin in 1982, claimed in his $400-million suit that the new owners had broken a clause in the purchase agreement requiring them to distribute Corman’s future pictures. New World sued Corman and his wife Julia for allegedly planning to form their own distribution company in violation of a non-competition clause.

According to Friday’s statement, the non-competition clause “will continue” but the Cormans can distribute their own productions. New World “is freed” from obligations to distribute the Cormans’ films.