History Main / ContractualObligationProject

* Music/TupacShakur signed a three-album deal with Creator/DeathRowRecords in exchange for them bailing him out of prison. ''Music/AllEyezOnMe'' was released as a double album, which was followed by ''The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory''.

* Creator/ValKilmer didn't want to be in ''Film/TopGun'', but was contractually obliged. He also tried to drop out of ''Film/TheIslandOfDrMoreau1996'' due to his impending divorce but was contractually obliged. Another of the film's stars, Creator/FairuzaBaulk, walked off the set in protest at Creator/RichardStanley being fired and was literally stopped at the airport when trying to leave Australia, being informed that her career would be utterly ruined if she dropped out.

* Creator/SylvesterStallone starred in ''Film/OverTheTop'' purely to fulfill his contract with Cannon Films.

->''"TwoWords: contractually obligated!"''

* Creator/{{Sega}} forced a newly-formed developer called Creator/{{Treasure}} to develop ''VideoGame/McDonaldsTreasureLandAdventure'' in exchange for greenlighting their passion project, ''VideoGame/GunstarHeroes''. Though both games were finished at the same time, ''Gunstar Heroes'' came out two weeks earlier, making it Treasure's proper debut title.

* Creator/{{Sega}} forced Creator/{{Treasure}} to make ''VideoGame/McDonaldsTreasureLandAdventure'' in exchange for greenlighting their passion project, ''VideoGame/GunstarHeroes''.

** While ''Music/BadHairDay'' was in production, Al was similarly approached for ''The TV Album'' to complete the compilation album clause on his contract. Al was more open to it, reporting that the record company was more civil than they had been in other cases. Its cover depicts Al giving a SlasherSmile while blowing up a TV set with dynamite. Al explained that the artwork for ''TV'' and ''Food'' was so "...every time I look at this album that I hate, I'll laugh and I won't hate it".

Note that this is mostly an American trope, due to the way in which Common Law works. Many other countries forbid forcing a person to work against their will unless the person who signed the contract also compromised in some way or another to work in that project. There are a few exceptions to this, especially when divorced people are involved.

Compare with AshcanCopy, which is a project that is greenlit to avoid a penalty because the terms of a contract ''aren't'' being met, and MerchandiseDriven, where the writers of a show are contractually obligated to add elements inspired by real life merchandise in order to advertise it.

* An in-universe example in ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}''. Spider Jerusalem left the City, but is forced to return due to a two-book contract. He eventually declares that one of the books will be an {{Omnibus}} re-release of the columns he's written so far. [[spoiler: And gets out of the second due to info-pollen induced dementia.]]

* For nearly 20 years, Creator/WaltDisney had a distribution deal with Creator/{{RKO}}. By the early-1950s, RKO was crumbling under the erratic leadership of Creator/HowardHughes. In 1953, Disney had formed his own distribution company, Buena Vista, but was still obligated to deliver one more film to Hughes. As a result, Disney compiled segments from his earlier animated anthologies ''WesternAnimation/MakeMineMusic'' and ''WesternAnimation/MelodyTime'', to create ''Music Land'' (1955). This constituted a new film in RKO's eyes, and the deal ended with ''Music Land''. Unsurprisingly, the film is an even bigger OldShame for Disney than its other package movies; it never saw any theatrical reissues nor any home video releases and is not counted as part of the [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon canon]].

* The poster-woman for why this occurs is Creator/KimBasinger, who averted this trope by backing out of ''Film/BoxingHelena'' - and was subsequently sued by Main Line Pictures for breach of contract, initially winning an $8.1 million judgment against the actress (resulting in her bankruptcy) , though they later settled for roughly $3.8 million.

* Music/TheBeatles signed a contract with Creator/UnitedArtists in late 1963 to make three movies, two of which were the very well-received ''Film/AHardDaysNight'' and ''Film/{{Help}}''. The Fab Four was dissatisfied working on the latter film, however, so they agreed to have ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'' made as an easy way to fulfill their contract, since it's an animated movie NotQuiteStarring them. On seeing the end result, however, the band actually ended up enjoying it more than they expected. Many fans have assumed that the cartoon did not satisfy the contract, but ''Film/LetItBe'', also released by United Artists, was not part of the original three-picture deal.

* Creator/SamRaimi was obligated to make ''Film/SpiderMan3'' and to add Gwen Stacy as a love interest and ComicBook/{{Venom}} as the main antagonist, despite stating that he doesn't like the latter character. Originally the main antagonists were Sandman and Harry Osborn as the new ComicBook/GreenGoblin. Venom and Gwen were added at the insistence of Avi Arad and the producers (much like an contractual obligation), making the movie messy and the reason why it's the lowest point of the first Spider-Man trilogy. After those problems, Raimi left the studios, so the reboot ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'' was made later.
* Creator/NataliePortman signed onto the first ''Film/{{Thor}}'' because she wanted to work with Creator/KennethBranagh. She also signed under the understanding that Creator/PattyJenkins [[note]] Jenkins would have been the first woman to direct a modern big-budget superhero movie. She would actually end up being that a few years later with ''Film/WonderWoman2017'' [[/note]]was to direct the sequel that ended up being called ''[[Film/ThorTheDarkWorld The Dark World]]''. Jenkins ended up leaving the project a few months after she officially signed on for CreativeDifferences and Portman tried to leave with her. She would later back down once she realized that there was no way out of her two film contract to avoid litigation from Creator/{{Disney}}’s ArmyOfLawyers.

* Creator/EdwardNorton made it clear that his participation in ''Film/TheItalianJob2003'' is a result of contractual obligation, not choice. He signed a three-movie deal with Paramount, of which ''Film/PrimalFear'', his breakthrough movie, was the first. He kept dismissing scripts for the other two (resulting in the contract getting extended from the intended timeline of contract though Norton now only had to do one extra film), until Paramount coerced him into accepting a role in this film. Norton did not hide his misery on the set, [[HostilityOnTheSet clashing with the crew]] throughout it, and when the producer handed out gifts to the cast over the movie's surprisingly strong box office performance, Norton returned the gift with a note stating "Give this to someone you actually like--or someone who actually likes you." He also wasn't happy at how the conditions of the deal meant that he was paid a fraction of what he'd have earned on any other film at that time in his career.

* Following the failure via ExecutiveMeddling of his film ''The Road Back'', Creator/JamesWhale ran out his contract at Universal with a string of B movies. Other than ''The Man In The Iron Mask'' six of his last seven films were critical and commercial failures.
* Creator/ChrisFarley and Creator/DavidSpade were both signed to a two film deal by Paramount. ''Film/BlackSheep1996'' was rushed into production because they wanted to capitalize on the success of ''Film/TommyBoy'' before the contracts expired.

* The series ''Series/{{Helstrom}}'' was commisioned by ''Marvel Television'' for Creator/{{Hulu}} as part of the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' (MCU) in a supernatural horror subfranchise titled ''Adventure Into Fear'' with a standalone ''Ghost Rider'' series (with Gabriel Luna reprising his role) also being developed with many other horror characters also having planned adaptations. However, following a corporate restructuring that had MCU Producer Kevin Feige gaining complete oversight over the Television side of the MCU, the subfranchise was aborted with all the shows cancelled except ''Helstrom'' due to being too far in development, and was allowed to finish production but also declared non-canonical to the MCU in order to fulfil their contractual obligations to the parties involved.

** ... until it came to an end a decade later. They were contractually obligated for one more album after the death of drummer John Bonham, but were unwilling to continue without him, and so released ''Music/{{Coda}}'', an album made up entirely of unreleased songs, mostly from ''Music/InThroughTheOutDoor''. It's generally considered to be their worst album.

* Both ''Naughty Boys'' and ''Service'' by Music/YellowMagicOrchestra were put out solely to fulfil the band's contract with Alfa Records as fast as possible; the group originally planned to dissolve after the release of ''Music/{{Technodelic}}'' thanks to CreativeDifferences, but Alfa still required two more albums. Tellingly, ''Naughty Boys'' and ''Service'' both released the same year, and the latter features a number of Japanese-language comedy skits to pad out the runtime.

** While ''Music/BadHairDay'' was in production, Al was similarly approached for ''The TV Album'' to complete the compilation album clause on his contract. Al was more open it, reporting that the record company was more civil than they had been in other cases. Its cover depicts Al giving a SlasherSmile while blowing up a TV set with dynamite. Al explained that the artwork for ''TV'' and ''Food'' was so "...every time I look at this album that I hate, I'll laugh and I won't hate it".

* Creator/NatalieWood didn't want to be in ''Film/TheGreatRace'', but Creator/WarnerBros talked her into it. Wood was unhappy with her career and her personal life, having recently divorced from Robert Wagner in April 1962. Warner asked Creator/TonyCurtis if he would give a percentage of his film royalties to Wood, as an enticement, but Curtis refused. He said, "I couldn't give her anything to make her want to do the movie." Instead of more money, Warner promised Wood that if she completed ''The Great Race'', she could star in ''Inside Daisy Clover'', a role she greatly wished to have. Wood agreed, thinking that filming would be brief on Edwards' movie.

* Monty Hall hosted the 1979-80 revival of ''Series/BeatTheClock'' because CBS [[http://www.gameshowforum.org/index.php/topic,28600.msg350149.html#msg350149 had him under contract at the time]]. Up until that point, they hadn't found any work for him, so they forced him to host.

Similar to MoneyDearBoy except for the creator's goal in many instances is to avoid losing money as a result of [[ScrewedByTheLawyers getting sued for breach of contract, incurring legal expenses, and (in the worst-case scenario) having to pay damages]].

* Creator/ValKilmer didn't want to be in ''Film/TopGun'', but was contractually obliged. He also tried to drop out of ''Film/TheIslandOfDrMoreau1996'' due to his impending divorce but was contractually obliged. Another of the film's stars, Fairuza Baulk, walked off the set in protest at the original director being fired and was literally stopped at the airport when trying to leave Australia, being informed that her career would be utterly ruined if she dropped out.

* Creator/ValKilmer didn't want to be in ''Film/TopGun'', but was contractually obliged. He also tried to drop out of ''Film/TheIslandOfDrMoreau1996'' due to his impending divorce but was contractually obliged.

* Creator/GenevieveBujold made ''Film/{{Earthquake}}'' and ''Film/{{Swashbuckler}}'' purely to fill out her contract with Universal Studios.

* Creator/GenevieveBujold made ''Film/{{Earthquake}}'' and ''Swashbuckler'' purely to fill out her contract with Universal Studios.

* Geneviève Bujold made ''Film/{{Earthquake}}'' and ''Swashbuckler'' purely to fill out her contract with Universal Studios.

* Following the failure via ExecutiveMeddling of his film ''The Road Back'' acclaimed director James Whale ran out his contract at Universal with a string of B movies. Other than ''The Man In The Iron Mask'' six of his last seven films were critical and commercial failures.

** While ''Music/BadHairDay'' was in production, Al was similarly approached for ''The TV Album'' to complete the compilation album clause on his contract. Al was more open it, reporting that the record company was more civil than they had been in other cases. ''The TV Album'' cover depicts Al giving a SlasherSmile while blowing up a TV set with dynamite. Al explained that the artwork for that and ''The Food Album'' was so "...every time I look at this album that I hate, I'll laugh and I won't hate it".

* During the 2010s, Creator/{{Sega}} signed a deal with Creator/{{Nintendo}} to make three ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' games for them: Of which came ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld'', ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games]]''... and ''VideoGame/SonicBoom''. While the former two had smooth enough developments, the third was outsourced to another company called Big Red Button whose engine wasn't compatible with the UsefulNotes/WiiU system. Rather than scrap the project and do something else, Sega pretty much forced the company into completing the game to fulfill their obligation to Nintendo. The fact that the game was Big Red Button's first (and at the current, only) game which would be savaged by critics and games didn't help matters.

Works [[WordOfGod creators say they did mainly to fulfill a contractual obligation.]]

* When Music/MarvinGaye got divorced in 1977, he agreed to give his ex-wife half the proceeds from his next album. The result was ''Here, My Dear'', which was panned by critics and fans alike (although critics praised it in retrospect, making the list in ''Magazine/RollingStone''[='=]s [[UsefulNotes/RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime 500 Greatest Albums of All Time]] at #456). Rumors that he intentionally made a bad album that wouldn't sell soon arose; other accounts suggest that she was going to get the money regardless, possibly making this an aversion.
* ''Music/AxisBoldAsLove'' by The Music/JimiHendrix Experience was a contractual obligation album because the Experience was required to release two albums in 1967. Despite this, it is regarded as a classic and was listed at #83 in ''Magazine/RollingStone''[='=]s [[UsefulNotes/RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime 500 Greatest Albums of All Time]].

** When the release of ''Music/{{Alapalooza}}'' had to be delayed, Scotti Bros. attempted to release a compilation album called ''Al Unplugged''. When Al heard that this meant swapping out the electric instruments in the songs in favor of synthesized acoustic-sounding parts, he put an end to it. The label then pitched ''The Food Album'' which Al accepted because he "hated it slightly less." Al commissioned Creator/MrLawrence to design the album cover (a monster getting his last licks at the remains of Al's skeleton with an apple in its jaws) to illustrate how the label had "[bled] his catalogue dry".
** As ''Music/BadHairDay'' neared completion, Al was similarly approached for ''The TV Album'' to complete the compilation album clause on his contract. Al was more open it, reporting that the record company was more civil than they had been in other cases. ''The TV Album'' cover depicts Al giving a SlasherSmile while blowing up a TV set with dynamite. Al explained that the artwork for that and ''The Food Album'' was so "...every time I look at this album that I hate, I'll laugh and I won't hate it".

* The only reason Creator/{{Freeform}} still airs the fundamentalist Christian show ''Series/The700Club'' is because it is under contract with televangelist Pat Robertson to do so, back when it was owned by his Christian Broadcasting Network, under the name CBN Satellite Service. Robertson has allegedly refused Disney's monetary offers to take his business elsewhere; it's likely that he's doing it out of spite in response to the network's "satanic" direction since the TurnOfTheMillennium. It gets around the issue by scheduling it in undesirable slots and airing ContentWarnings which generally [[TakeThat mock the show]].

* The only reason Creator/{{Freeform}} still airs the fundamentalist Christian show ''Series/The700Club'' is because it is under contract with televangelist Pat Robertson to do so, back when it was owned by his Christian Broadcasting Network, under the name CBN Satellite Service. It gets around the issue by scheduling it in the graveyard slot and airing ContentWarnings which generally mock the show.

* The only reason why Creator/{{Freeform}} airs ''Series/The700Club'' is because of a contract Creator/{{Disney}} negotiated with Pat Robertson. Freeform begrudgingly schedules the show at unpopular time slots and puts up a sarcastic ContentWarning before and after each airing. Robertson has refused Disney's monetary offers to take his business elsewhere; it's likely that he's doing it out of spite in response to the network's "satanic" direction in the TurnOfTheMillennium.

** When the release of ''Music/{{Alapalooza}}'' had to be delayed, Scotti Bros. attempted to release a complication album called ''Al Unplugged''. When Al heard that this meant swapping out the electric instruments in the songs in favor of synthesized acoustic-sounding parts, he put an end to it. The label then pitched ''The Food Album'' which Al accepted because he "hated it slightly less." Al commissioned Creator/MrLawrence to design the album cover (a monster getting his last licks at the remains of Al's skeleton with an apple in its jaws) to illustrate how the label had "[bled] his catalogue dry".

** As ''Music/BadHairDay'' neared completion, Al was similarly approached for ''The TV Album'' to complete the compilation album clause on his contract. Al was less begrudging about it, reporting that the record company was more civil than they had been in other cases. ''The TV Album'' cover depicts Al giving a SlasherSmile while blowing up a TV set with dynamite.

** When the release of ''Music/{{Alapalooza}}'' had to be delayed, Scotti Bros. attempted to release a complication album called ''Al Unplugged''. When Al heard that this meant swapping out the electric instruments in the songs in favor of synthesized acoustic-sounding parts, he put an end to it. The label then pitched ''The Food Album'' which Al accepted because he "hated it slightly less."
** As ''Music/BadHairDay'' neared completion, Al was similarly approached for ''The TV Album'' to complete the compilation album clause on his contract. Al was less begrudging about it, reporting that the record company was more civil than they had been in other cases. ''The TV Album'' cover depicts Al giving a SlasherSmile while [[WriterRevolt blowing up a TV set with dynamite]].