There has been quite a bit of back-and-forth between Disney and Scarlett Johansson, who plays Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The star recently filed a lawsuit against Disney over her most recent outing as the super spy in this month’s “Black Widow.” And after more than a week of responses in the media and in legal filings, Disney is now seeking arbitration according to the Wall Street Journal.
Johansson’s lawsuit alleges that by releasing the film on Disney+ simultaneously with the theatrical release, “Disney intentionally induced Marvel’s breach of the agreement, without justification, in order to prevent Ms. Johansson from realizing the full benefit of her bargain with Marvel.” Johansson reportedly took a partial back-end deal, in which her salary for the film was derived from the box office sales which, the lawsuit alleges, were undercut by the Disney+ sales.
After multiple delays in release due to the COVID-19 pandemic shuttering theaters nationwide, it was announced in March that “Black Widow” would be one of several films pushed through to the Disney+ streaming service as a Premiere Access title. Despite an $80 million opening in the US and Canada and $60 million garnered from Disney+ sales, the film still sits at $359 million worldwide. With $174 million total domestic take as of press time, this makes “Black Widow” the 2nd lowest-earning marvel film ever, behind “The Incredible Hulk.”
In the Wall Street Journal, Disney released figures touting that Johansson had already earned $20 million from her deal. Previously, Disney attorney Daniel Petrocelli had called the lawsuit a lost cause because the contract is iron clad. “We treated Disney Premier Access (revenue) like box office for the purposes of the bonus requirements in the contract,” Petrocelli told Variety. “No amount of public pressure can change or obscure the explicit contractual commitments. The written contract is clear as a bell.”
Disney’s arbitration would make the case confidential and the details would not become publicly available even after the case ends, which Johansson’s lawyer John Berlinski decried as Disney’s attempt to “hide its misconduct from the public in a confidential arbitration,” according to the Wall Street Journal article.
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I love how disney tried to make her look bad by saying “how dare you ask for more money during a pandemic” as disney company absolutely overpriced for everything little thing. Even the streaming you have to pay a subscription plus an addition $30 just to watch the movie in your house and if you cancel your subscription it disappears! No disney you are the corporate greed machine that the founders would all spit upon.
Disney probably just wants to settle and move on knowing they are in the wrong.
Pay up Disney. You look terrible here.
There are two sad truths. Even if the movie was released only in theathers it would remain as the lowest earning movie because of covid. And Disney+ releasing it does not hurt by itself but rather that it enabled piracy. All those movies released in Disney+ Premier Access and in HBO Max have found themselves pirated in hours after release -sigh-
Not simply “because of covid”. That contributes. The piracy and password sharing contributes. But there is superhero fatigue at the box office also. This was never going to be a billion dollar film. Those days are over for the next few years at least. Main stream audiences moved on after Endgame.
This is all Chapek’s fault.
Unfortunately, it also shows what we knew all along: the magic is gone at Disney and replaced by greed and vengeance.