Scarlett Johansson isn’t too happy about her Marvel film Black Widow being released in theaters and on Disney+ the same day. She recently filed a lawsuit against Disney, alleging that her contract was breached when the studio released Black Widow on Disney+.
The suit reads, “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’s attorney, John Berlinski, said in a statement, “It’s no secret that Disney is releasing films like Black Widow directly onto Disney+ 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. 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.”
A contract is a contract and if Disney broke that contract or any other, you can bet they are going to pay for it. Most people assumed that Disney renegotiated the terms with the talent when they decided to give all of these a simultaneous release in theaters and on Disney+, but that obviously isn’t the case at all.
With big actors making a percentage of money off the box office draw of the films they star in, by putting the film on Disney+ it pulled millions of fans away from seeing the movie in theaters. So, Johansson won’t make as much as she could have.
I don’t have a problem with movies being released in theaters and on streaming services, but the studio should have worked on the details of that with the talent before they made the decision to do it.
I know some people don’t care that these rich and famous actors are losing out on making more money. But, it’s the principle of the thing. There’s a company bigger than they breaking contracts and are trying to take advantage of them, and Johansson is obviously willing and ready to take on the Mouse House for doing that.
Source: Deadline