Peter Guber publicly complains that his profits from The Deep never materialized despite huge box‑office returns

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Peter Guber publicly complains that his profits from The Deep never materialized despite huge box‑office returns

Peter Guber / The Deep (1977) / 1970s

The Deep was one of the landmark commercial successes of 1977 — earning tens of millions domestically and more than $100 million worldwide — yet producer Peter Guber, who had shepherded the project after leaving Columbia to form Casablanca FilmWorks, publicly complained in May 1978 that he had not received his promised profit participation. The complaint came amid a common late‑1970s pattern in Hollywood: producers and talent signed on for backend participation only to find studio accounting, distribution deals and cross‑company arrangements eating into or obscuring reported profits. Guber’s grievance is emblematic of the era’s contractual battles between independent producers and major studios over net vs. gross participations and helped cement the reputation of opaque studio accounting that would spawn many later disputes and lawsuits industry‑wide.