Well I guess Disney fans shouldn’t be hoping to see Scarlett Johansson up in the growing multi verse anytime soon. Earlier today Variety reported that Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney for breach of contract claiming that the studio has cost her money by having her latest feature Black Widow stream on Disney+ at the same time it was playing in movie theaters.
It is being blamed for a massive drop in ticket sales during week one and has also been blamed by industry analyst for the movie being the most pirated movie of the year. By putting out a perfect digital copy it allowed Pirates to bypass taking an international print and simply downloading the American version and uploading it wherever they pleased.
The breach of contract stems from the idea that Johansson’s salary was very much based on ticket sales at the movies not the overall profits of the movie based on ticket sales and direct video sales together. That means any money Disney made selling the movie on Disney+ did not have to be shared with Johansson in the same way as movie theater profits do.
In response to Johansson‘s lawsuit Disney said she showed “callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
While Disney did have some reason for the reaction it is fair to point out that the movie could have dropped at any point in the next year without throwing off the Disney release schedule at all. While most of the movies built around the Marvel characters are part of a larger narrative this movie was almost purely a flashback. It isn’t as though their next release would have depended on the audiences understanding of what happened in Black Widow. Johanson’s lawyer felt a little different about the move by Disney and according to him he’s not alone.
“It’s no secret that Disney is releasing films like ‘Black Widow’ directly onto Disney Plus to increase subscribers and thereby boost the company’s stock price — and that it’s hiding behind COVID-19 as a pretext to do so,” John Berlinski, an attorney for Johansson, said in a statement to Variety. “But ignoring the contracts of the artists responsible for the success of its films in furtherance of this short-sighted strategy violates their rights and we look forward to proving as much in court. This will surely not be the last case where Hollywood talent stands up to Disney and makes it clear that, whatever the company may pretend, it has a legal obligation to honor its contracts.”
we will keep an eye on this story as it develops.
