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MrBeast’s $100M Day in Court

The yearslong legal feud between YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson and restaurateur Robert Earl is headed back to court this week, with Donaldson arguing that he’s defending his brand and personal integrity—and Earl insisting that Beast Industries cares only about cash.

mrbeast jimmy donaldson
The more consequential point of contention has to do with MrBeast’s finances: Donaldson’s big YouTube stunts are expensive—some of his videos cost millions of dollars to produce—and his business has razor-thin margins. Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for YouTube
Eriq Gardner
October 21, 2025

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Jimmy Donaldson, a.k.a. MrBeast, is back in court this week as part of his ongoing legal battle with Robert Earl—the cigar-chomping hospitality impresario best known for founding Planet Hollywood and, more recently, launching a ghost kitchen built to sling celebrity-branded meals. Back in 2020, Donaldson’s Beast Industries had partnered with Earl’s Virtual Dining Concepts in what seemed, at the time, like a match made in pandemic-era heaven: a YouTube star with hundreds of millions of followers, and a delivery model that didn’t require anyone to leave their homes.