While Rihanna and Alexander Skarsgård have been busy fighting bad reviews aliens at sea in Battleship, Universal has been busy fighting a low-budget production company The Asylum in court over a straight-to-DVD knockoff.
The studio felt that the company’s latest release, American Battleship, was titled to take advantage of their $30 million marketing campaign and the license they paid Hasbro a hefty sum for.
To avoid being taken to the cleaners by the huge corporation, the small production company decided to change the name of their ripoff movie to American Warships. The Asylum also changed the packaging and marketing strategy to please Universal as well.
Perhaps the most ridiculous part of this movie feud is the simple fact that American Warships aired on Syfy the day after Battleship hit theaters. The channel is owned by Universal parent Comcast Corp., so who is taking advantage of who now?
Maybe these ripoffs are actually mutually beneficial for each company. People might watch the crappy version at home to get their appetites ready for the less-crappy version in theaters!
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