A group of major Hollywood studios has filed a sweeping lawsuit accusing artificial intelligence company Midjourney, Inc. of orchestrating a “calculated and willful scheme” to unlawfully profit from their intellectual property. In the complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles on June 11, Disney Enterprises, Marvel Characters, MVL Film Finance, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox Film Corporation (collectively “Disney”), along with Universal City Studios Productions and DreamWorks Animation (collectively “Universal”), allege that Midjourney’s image-generating AI service engages in massive copyright infringement by reproducing and distributing unauthorized images of their most famous characters.
Setting the stage in their complaint, Disney and Universal (the “plaintiffs”) describe decades of creative investment and technological innovation behind their entertainment properties – including Star Wars, Marvel, Frozen, The Simpsons, Minions, Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, and many others – which they claim form some of the most valuable and recognizable intellectual property portfolios in the world. According to the plaintiffs, these iconic works and characters are at the core of their businesses, and are protected by extensive copyrights registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
A Commercial AI “Vending Machine” Built on Copyrighted Characters
According to the complaint, Midjourney operates an AI-powered image-generation platform that functions as a kind of “virtual vending machine” for infringing content. By submitting simple text prompts – such as “Darth Vader walking around the Death Star” or “Bart Simpson riding a skateboard” – users can obtain high-quality images that directly depict copyrighted characters owned by Disney and Universal. The plaintiffs argue that Midjourney’s system is trained on “innumerable unauthorized copies” of their copyrighted works, and reproduces their intellectual property with stunning accuracy, all without permission or compensation.
Far from being a passive technology, the plaintiffs allege, Midjourney actively selects which copyrighted materials to include in its training data and markets its ability to generate recognizable pop culture characters to attract subscribers. Despite being notified of the infringement and being asked to implement safeguards, Midjourney, according to the complaint, refused to take corrective action and instead expanded its offerings, including teasing an upcoming AI-powered video generation service that plaintiffs claim will similarly exploit their intellectual property.
The lawsuit details Midjourney’s rapid growth and substantial financial success. Founded in 2021, Midjourney reported $300 million in revenue in 2024 and, as of 2025, has attracted millions of paying subscribers across several subscription tiers. According to the complaint, Midjourney charges subscription fees ranging from $10 to $120 per month, depending on the level of GPU processing time allocated to generate AI images. The plaintiffs argue that Midjourney’s entire commercial model rests on its “bootlegging” of copyrighted characters that took decades of investment and creativity to develop.
“Piracy is piracy,” the complaint states bluntly, “and whether an infringing image is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing.”
Unlawful Copying on a Massive Scale
The plaintiffs point to numerous examples of infringing outputs allegedly generated by Midjourney’s platform, which include characters such as Yoda, Darth Vader, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Elsa, Buzz Lightyear, Minions, Shrek, Toothless, and others. In each case, the complaint includes side-by-side comparisons of Midjourney-generated images and the original copyrighted characters, demonstrating the close resemblance and clear copying of expressive elements.
The lawsuit alleges that Midjourney has engaged in both direct infringement – by reproducing, displaying, and distributing infringing images – and secondary infringement by enabling its users to generate and share infringing outputs. Plaintiffs also highlight Midjourney’s failure to adopt reasonable technical safeguards that would prevent users from generating outputs featuring copyrighted characters, despite the company’s demonstrated ability to restrict other types of content such as nudity and violence.
A Threat to the Creative Industry
Beyond the individual financial harm to Disney and Universal, the plaintiffs frame Midjourney’s conduct as a broader threat to the entertainment industry. They argue that Midjourney’s unauthorized use of copyrighted characters undermines the incentive structure of U.S. copyright law, which has supported generations of investment in film, television, animation, and related creative fields.
“The American motion picture industry has created millions of jobs and contributed more than $260 billion to the U.S. economy,” the complaint states, warning that unchecked AI-powered infringement could destabilize the entire creative sector.
THE BOTTOM LINE: The lawsuit comes at a time when generative AI platforms like Midjourney are under increasing legal scrutiny for their reliance on copyrighted training data and their ability to produce unauthorized outputs. As the entertainment industry faces rapid technological change, the case may serve as a pivotal test for how U.S. copyright law applies to AI-generated content — and for whether companies like Disney and Universal can effectively protect their intellectual property against emerging AI tools.
The case is Disney Enterprises Inc. et al. v. Midjourney Inc., 2:25-cv-05275 (C.D. Cal.).
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