The “Black Widow” leading actress Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney. She accuses the group of breach of contract.
Los Angeles – Scarlett Johansson, star of the latest Marvel film “Black Widow”, filed a lawsuit against Disney with the Los Angeles Supreme Court on Thursday (07/29/2021). This is directed against the simultaneous publication of the film in the cinema and on the Disney + streaming platform.
Specifically, the point is that the simultaneous start of the film “Black Widow” violated contractual agreements. Johansson has been promised an exclusive film release on the big screen, and according to the contract, her earnings are based to a large extent on the cinema revenues. According to experts, Johansson is missing out on millions of dollars.
Disney had contracted Johansson a share of the box office revenue from the highly anticipated Marvel flick. The film was originally supposed to be released last year, but this has been postponed several times due to the corona pandemic. It finally hit theaters and Disney + at the same time this month. According to Observers, the simultaneous streaming debut is one of the main reasons the film got off to a poor start by Marvel standards. In the first three weeks it grossed just over $ 150 million in US cinemas.
Dispute over “Black Widow”: Disney defends itself against lawsuit by Scarlett Johansson
The lawsuit in Los Angeles court stated, “Disney intentionally indiscriminately breached Marvel for no reason to prevent Ms. Johansson from taking full advantage of her contract with Marvel.”
A Disney spokesman, according to the Wall Street Journal, said Johansson’s lawsuit was unfounded and was “particularly sad and troubling in its callous disregard for the dire and ongoing global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.” The company said it has “fully honored Ms. Johansson’s contract, and also, the release of ‘Black Widow’ on Disney + with Premier Access has significant potential for additional compensation on top of the $ 20 million she has received to date improved. “
“Black Widow” has already made $ 60 million in streaming
“It is no secret that Disney is releasing films like ‘Black Widow’ directly on Disney + in order to increase the number of subscribers and thus boost the company’s share price,” Johansson’s lawyer John Berlinski told AFP. The pandemic is only used as a pretext. There will be more lawsuits “to make it clear to the company that it is legally obliged to keep its contracts”.
Like many Hollywood studios, Disney is increasingly relying on streaming as a source of income. The closure of the cinemas when the pandemic broke out in spring 2020 further accelerated this trend. Shortly after the film started, Disney had announced that “Black Widow” had grossed “over 60 million dollars” on Disney + alone, where the film was available to subscribers for an additional charge of 30 dollars (in Germany for 21.99 euros).
Disney competitor Warner Bros. had also landed a wave of lawsuits last year by releasing all of its 2021 films simultaneously in theaters and on its HBO Max platform. Warner then renegotiated many of his star and filmmaker deals, and reportedly paid $ 200 million to make up for the loss of box office earnings. (sot with afp)
Headline list image: © Walt Disney Studios / image
