https://variety.com/2021/film/news/scarlett-johansson-sues-disney-black-widow-1235030582/
shareGood for her.
To sign the deal and then later change the terms of the release sounds like some seriously under-handed shit. Disney really does need to pay her something.
Most likely the streaming income is not counted as part of the box office result in the contract, because this is the first time streaming started as the same time as the theater release.
Johansson's team was probably not happy about that and contacted Disney about this and treated with Disney legal team, so the lawsuit is the only way. And it seems this is the last movie Johansson is doing for Disney anyway.
Scarlett Johansson is in no way an underpaid employee but it shows Disney's total disregard to people working for them.
Sounds like her agent screwed up. Should have anticipated streaming revenues being significant.
But the deal was probably made pre-COVID, expecting everyone would be packing theaters.
It's like the old ABA team owners when they got bought out by the NBA. Most of them got a fair deal and moved on. One pair of owners asked for like 2% of the TV rights of the NBA in perpetuity. TV revenue was so small then the NBA agreed. They made many millions more than the people who negotiated a standard deal.
Johansson's bonus will probably kick in if the streaming income is counted as a part of box office result and will get a bigger share of the profit. I guess all the later on contracts, at least with Disney, will probably have pay per view streaming considered as part of box office result.
shareHer contract was pre-covid so she should be flexible.
She did get a theatrical release and it is a pay per view setup on disneyplus, unlike Pixar's Souls and other movies that were basically free with a subscription.
I think she's extremely greedy and burning bridges.
She got paid 20mil for a movie not many wanted.
yeh think i read somewhere it was SJ who wanted the BW movie. Disney were like 'well ok'.. so it comes out in the middle of a global pandemic, its not that great, and now shes suing them..
shareShe tried to be flexible by reaching out to renegotiate the contract with the foresight Black Widow was going to release to stream the same day as in theaters, but Disney never responded. This is completely on them. If it was Scarlett who breached her contract, Disney wouldn't think twice about suing her.
shareShe's just asking Disney to fulfill its part of the deal, or to compensate for the breaching. That's not being greedy.
shareI paid for a ticket so she got some of my money.
NYT pretty much sided with her argument, that the live streaming the same day hurt ticket sales.
Fox News gave Disney's argument, that she was paid 20m and she didn't take into account covid and people's not wanting to be in a theater, and asking for more money during a pandemic makes her look greedy.
I think live streaming is here to say, future contracts with movie stars will have to take those sales into account.
it used to be a big deal when a star got 20m for a film .. now it they want about 80m
shareJack Nicholson got $68million for Batman 89. Although part of it was a percentage of the box office and merchandise.
shareyes ok that was pretty crazy (and Alec Guinness made about 100m of Star Wars).. but those were amongst the most iconic films of all time. to earn about 80m from like a footnote of a movie just seems kind of wrong.. Disneys statement about how she should be satisfied with 20m sounds about right :)
She will certainly be a persona-non-grata at any shopping mall Disney stores
shareI doubt she'll win, but maybe they'll throw her a small bone to settle.
shareI do not know what to think.
It is Disney's movie they can release it however they want. Is there something in her contract that has her being paid some percentage of the box office sales or ticket sales and by releasing it on streaming does Disney then get to keep all of that money and not pay her?
If that is the case....Disney is kind of screwing her out of money by doing this then I think she has a case.
Pre-covid Scarjo was worried about D+ and BW being released on their, her contract guarantees that won’t happen but then got written confirmation that if they did go down that road they would renegotiate her contract. When her team found out that yes indeed it was getting a same day release on D+ they reached out to Disney and Disney ignored them, forcing them to make a lawsuit.
Disney is trying to paint ScarJo as being greedy and not caring about COVID. When that’s not true at all and she was merely doing exactly what Disney had agreed they would be doing aka renegotiating her contract if it did get released on D+
Not to mention Disney does not care about COVID they have opened parks and releases during peak covid times and locations so they are merely saying that to try and muddy the waters and set up a case for an act of god to show why they breached their agreement with ScarJo.
Disney is 100% the ones in the wrong here.
they probably doing it bc they dont plan to use her again. also i get the impression SJo sort of pushed the BW movie into happening (along with Feige's support) so she could finally get this big RDJ style payday to leave with when Disney were probably not too keen on even doing a BW film for whatever reasons (probably didnt think she was popular or interesting enough for a solo movie) and thats why they been all lax with this D+ thing
shareFans had been pushing for her solo movie way more than ScarJo ever did. Hell pretty much when she made the comment about Budapest fans latched to that and had been wanting a movie around that.
Also considering they have done this with other films and other actresses are now looking at suing it’s seeming way more like Disney just trying to get out of paying people and being dodgy with contracts and agreements.