Producer Leonora Ann Darby has filed a lawsuit against her Tea Shop Productions colleagues James Harris and Mark Lane, alleging they cheated her out of promised profits from the horror film Obsession, one of the highest-grossing entries in the genre. The breach of contract complaint, lodged in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses the pair of a "seven-year pattern of unequal treatment and broken compensation promises" towards Darby, who says her work was essential to the company's growth and to rescuing Obsession specifically.

Darby claims she was promised a third of the net profits due to Tea Shop on films she lead-produced, but that this deal was reneged on despite her stepping in to salvage Obsession's creative and post-production issues. The film, made on a budget of under $800,000, went on to gross nearly $510 million worldwide following its May release, and Darby says she received only a single $300,000 payment rather than her agreed share. The 135-page, 10-claim filing seeks unspecified damages, a jury trial, and an accounting across several other Tea Shop projects; Harris and Lane are named individually, while distributor Focus Features and fellow executive producer Jason Blum are not defendants.