Until a few days ago, actress Scarlett Johansson promoted her new blockbuster Black Widow, spoke in an interview with Variety magazine about, among other things, that she is proud of the film, that it is an exciting comic book ride and that the premiere of the delayed feature film actually comes at the perfect time. Now that the contractual promotional tour is over, everything is different.
According to The Washington Post, the Hollywood star has filed a lawsuit against the Disney studio, which presented the film in its cinemas on July 10 for a fee of thirty dollars on its streaming service Disney +. The actress claims that such a way of showing does not correspond to her contract with the studio, according to which her fee for the film was linked to earnings in cinemas.
In other words, if it exceeded the $ 1 billion mark in sales, which is not a problem for Marvel comics, the actress would get another percentage of sales, just as other actors in the Avengers movie series, such as Iron Man actor Robert Downey, had Jr.
Disney was to instruct Marvel to break the deal
“In order to protect her financial interests, Johansson received a commitment from Marvel (which belongs to Disney, ed. Note) to be a film for cinemas. Both Johansson and Disney and Marvel know that this means that the film will only go to theaters. Disney knew about the deal, but instructed Marvel to break the commitment and the film was released on Disney +, “writes the actress’ lawyer John Berlinski. in documents sent to the court. According to them, the company bypassed the actress to support its new platform – and according to some websites, it could deprive her of up to $ 50 million, which is approximately one billion crowns.
Disney shares have risen in value due to the growing number of streaming service subscribers at the expense of the actress, which should have led to bonuses for the top management of the entertainment conglomerate. According to its earlier statements, Disney released the film on the stream due to a pandemic, which reduced the possibility of going to the cinema. According to Berlinski, however, its value on the stock exchange is crucial for the company and it uses covid-19 only as a cover – the party allegedly wanted to reach an agreement with Johansson before the launch of Black Widow, but Disney should have ignored it.
According to Disney’s unusually harsh reaction, however, the actress’ lawsuit has no legal basis. “This lawsuit is particularly worrying in its reckless ignorance of the horrific and long-term consequences of the global covidu-19 pandemic. Disney fully complied with the contract with Johansson, and in addition, the release of the film at Disney + significantly increased her chances of receiving another reward in excess of the $ 20 million (roughly 430 million crowns – editor’s note) she has already received, “said a spokesman for the company, which officially revealed the actress basic fee, which is extremely unusual.
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Hollywood is changing
Above all, the dispute reveals the turbulent changes that Hollywood is currently undergoing due to the covid-19 pandemic. When Johansson finalized the film contract in 2019, the traditional 90-day “window” between the cinema premiere and the release on other platforms or media was in place. But the beginning of the pandemic changed everything.
After the cinemas closed, the studios first began to postpone the premieres to a later date, which was also the case with Black Widow, which was originally scheduled to come to cinemas last spring. But then, more and more often, producers started selling films for exorbitant amounts of Netflix, the Apple TV + video library or Amazon.
This is the example of Paramount, which got rid of the comedy Lovebirds and Journey to America 2, the drama Chicago Tribunal, the sci-fi Love and Monsters or most recently the blockbuster The War of Tomorrow starring Chris Pratt in the 200 million Amazon Prime Video video library. dollars.
But even that didn’t shake Hollywood enough. Eight months ago, Warner Bros. announced that it would be releasing all of its movies on the same day in theaters and on its HBO Max service. These were not small titles – pictures like Mortal Kombat, Godzilla vs. Kong, Wonder Woman 1984 or In the Captivity of Demons 3 – next week they will be joined by the comic blockbuster Suicide Squad and in autumn and winter the expected sci-fi Dune or the fourth Matrix.
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Failure in cinemas
The move did not please many filmmakers, such as Christopher Nolan or Denis Villeneuve, who said the studio “devalued” the films, according to Deadline, and had to set aside $ 200 million to compensate the creators and actors. change of contracts. The distribution model probably didn’t pay off financially, but it served as an advertisement for a new streaming network – something that Johansson’s lawsuit has come across, because Disney started to present his films like Mulan or Cruella in a similar hybrid way.
However, Black Widow burned out in cinemas compared to other Marvelos. According to Disney, the film earned a total of $ 218 million (4.6 billion crowns) in cinemas and on the platform in the first weekend, but sales fell by a disastrous 68 percent in the second week, which has never happened in the history of Avengers. In the documents intended for the court, the actress claims that this is due to the staging on the stream, which means that the film will immediately reach the Internet in top quality. According to the TorrentFreak server, Black Widow is to be the most downloaded image in the world since July 10, and according to analysts, it will earn only around $ 350 million (7.5 billion crowns) worldwide, which is an unprecedented failure for Marvel.
Whether pirates are really to blame for not going to the cinema very much at the moment, especially in the United States, is a question. According to the filmmakers, this is the case. The most successful films of this summer so far were Fast and Furious 9 and Quiet Place: Part II, neither of which appeared on the network at the same time. However, Disney’s studio does not reverse, and on Friday it presents a new adventure film Expedition: Jungle worldwide, which copies the Black Widow distribution model. According to the Deadline website, his stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are not planning lawsuits. But maybe only until the end of their promotional tour.
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