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The Black Widow can still fight one more time. This time, though, it’s not the Red Room but the House of Mouse. Scarlett Johansson just quit being a superhero after her last Marvel movie, Black Widow. On Thursday, she filed a lawsuit against Disney for breaking a contract. The actress says that the studio broke the contract they had with her by putting out the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie in theaters.
and on Disney+ at the same time. She says in court documents that the deal made sure the movie would only be shown in theaters and that her pay for the movie was mostly based on how well it did at the box office. The Wall Street Journal says that Johansson thinks Disney cost her about $50 million because the movie came out on streaming at the same time.
A Disney spokesman told the Journal that Johansson’s lawsuit had no basis and was “especially sad and disturbing in its callous disregard for the horrible and long-lasting global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.” The studio said, “We followed Ms. Johansson’s contract to the letter, and the release of Black Widow on Disney+ with Premier Access has made it much easier for her to earn more money on top of the $20 million she’s already gotten.”
Why is scarlett johansson leaving marvel:
As the pandemic in the U.S. threatens to spread for a fourth wave and theater attendance stays low, the final outcome of the lawsuit will likely determine whether studios release major films that have already been made to streaming services. Many star contracts depend on how well their movies do at the box office, so putting a movie on video on demand can cost A-listers millions. Johansson isn’t the first actor to worry about how the changing media landscape will affect her pay. When Warner Bros. decided to put Wonder Woman 1984 on HBO Max, they reportedly had a tough time talking with star Gal Gadot and director Patty Jenkins about their pay. In the end, the studio gave each of them $10 million.
Even though we might not feel sorry for the multi-millionaires who lose out on a big paycheck, these deals will also affect actors with less power and leverage, as well as people who work in other parts of the movie business. Here’s everything you need to know about why Johansson is suing, how Disney treated her while she worked at Marvel Studios, and how the lawsuit could affect Hollywood in the future.
Most studios have either started their own streaming service in the last few years—Disney has Disney+, Warner Bros. has HBO Max, and MGM recently made a deal with Amazon to put some movies on streaming—or made a deal with an existing service to do so. During the COVID-19 pandemic, theaters were closed, so many studios decided to put the big-budget movies that usually do well at the box office on these online formats.
Most notably, Warner Bros. said that it would release 17 movies, including The Suicide Squad, Dune, and The Matrix 4, on HBO Max at the same time as they were shown in theaters. Disney did the same thing with Mulan, Cruella, and now Black Widow, which Marvel fans could watch at home for $30 on Disney+ Premiere Access the same day it came out in theaters.
It can be hard to tell what the studios’ business goals are. For example, Warner Bros. decided to put all of its movies on HBO Max when AT&T ran both WarnerMedia and HBO Max (who has since spun off the service). Even though this plan would hurt the box office earnings of those movies, AT&T might have cared more about the number of streams on HBO MAX. After all, they are a company that offers phone and internet services.
Even in simple situations, like when Disney Studios owns Disney+, the C-Suite might think that putting Black Widow on streaming would get so many people to sign up for Disney+ that they would be willing to give up Black Widow’s box office earnings.
Disney doesn’t usually talk about how much money it makes from streaming, but it did say that Black Widow made $158 million at the box office and another $60 million from sales of the movie on Disney+ Premiere Access. The next Monday, Disney’s stock went up because of the news. But the next week, Black Widow didn’t do well at the box office. Theater owners were very upset with Disney’s decision, saying that the at-home release hurt Black Widow’s chances at the box office.
Many big stars still get two checks for each movie. One is a guaranteed amount, and the other is based on how well the movie does at the box office. But the pandemic has made studios focus less on making money at the box office and more on getting more people to sign up for streaming services. Now we’re seeing the effect on the contracts of actors.
In her complaint, Johansson says that her team contacted the studio in 2019 when they heard that it was thinking about a dual-release model. In an email filed with the court, Marvel Chief Counsel Dave Galluzzi told Johansson’s team that Disney would release the movie in theaters and that if plans changed, “we would need to talk about this with you and come to an agreement as the deal is based on a series of (very large) box office bonuses.” Johansson says that her team did try to renegotiate her contract when they heard that Black Widow would be released in two parts, but Disney didn’t respond.
A lawyer for Johansson, John Berlinski, told the Wall Street Journal, “This won’t be the last time a Hollywood star stands up to Disney and makes it clear that no matter what the company says, it has a legal duty to keep its contracts.”
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