The legal battle over the title of “Lee Daniels‘ The Butler” created “a massive pain in the ass” — but the Weinstein Company’s distribution chief Erik Lomis is convinced the name change won’t hurt at the box office when it hits theaters Friday.
During the three-week dispute with Warners Bros. — which claimed that it had the right to “The Butler” title and ultimately prevailed — the Motion Picture Assn. of America forced the Weinsteins to take down its website and Facebook page for the film, and nearly all of the promotional materials had to be recalled and reworked with the new name.