In case you don’t know who Scarlett Johansson is, she’s actually an avenger who sacrificed her life to retrieve the soul stone and save us all from the snap of the mighty Thanos.
To give her a tribute, Marvel decided to make a standalone movie Black Widow. As you can guess, she was the lead star in that movie. That movie was premiered on 29th June 2021.
But only after a month, Scarlett Johansson is now suing Disney for it. So what happened?
Why Scarlett Johansson Is Suing Disney?
As you may know, Black Widow was supposed to release on 24 April 2020. But thanks to Covid-19, it got delayed. So after a long wait, Disney finally decided to release it last month. But you know, Coronavirus is still a huge problem in so many highly populated countries like India. So it’s not possible for every marvel fans to go to theatre to watch this movie.
Because of that Disney decided to release Black Widow movie on its streaming platform Disney+.
But that’s where the problem for Scarlett Johansson started.
In the lawsuit it was mentioned that,
“In the months leading up to this lawsuit, Ms. Johansson gave Disney and Marvel every opportunity to right their wrong and make good on Marvel’s promise, but 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.”
So what does that mean?
Well… She was promised by Marvel Studios that the movie would be a theatrical release and then after a period of time (traditionally 90 days) the movie will be released on streaming services. But because of the pandemic, things didn’t go as planned. So Disney had to release it early in the streaming services.
But why does Scarlett Johansson have a problem with that?
A part of her paycheque was tied to the box office performance of the Black Widow. Which means, she was supposed to receive a small percentage of the overall box office revenue.
But she suffered financial losses because of the dual release of the movie. According to Wall Street Journal, she lost around 20m she has received to date”
“Her legal action was “especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Then Johansson’s attorney John Berlinski responded back by saying,
“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,”
He also added that,
“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,”
The overall situation is kind of weird. But who do you support? Let us know in the comment section down below.
Scarlett Johansson Is Suing Disney Over The Release of Black Widow
In case you don’t know who Scarlett Johansson is, she’s actually an avenger who sacrificed her life to retrieve the soul stone and save us all from the snap of the mighty Thanos.
To give her a tribute, Marvel decided to make a standalone movie Black Widow. As you can guess, she was the lead star in that movie. That movie was premiered on 29th June 2021.
But only after a month, Scarlett Johansson is now suing Disney for it. So what happened?
Why Scarlett Johansson Is Suing Disney?
As you may know, Black Widow was supposed to release on 24 April 2020. But thanks to Covid-19, it got delayed. So after a long wait, Disney finally decided to release it last month. But you know, Coronavirus is still a huge problem in so many highly populated countries like India. So it’s not possible for every marvel fans to go to theatre to watch this movie.
Because of that Disney decided to release Black Widow movie on its streaming platform Disney+.
But that’s where the problem for Scarlett Johansson started.
In the lawsuit it was mentioned that,
“In the months leading up to this lawsuit, Ms. Johansson gave Disney and Marvel every opportunity to right their wrong and make good on Marvel’s promise, but 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.”
So what does that mean?
Well… She was promised by Marvel Studios that the movie would be a theatrical release and then after a period of time (traditionally 90 days) the movie will be released on streaming services. But because of the pandemic, things didn’t go as planned. So Disney had to release it early in the streaming services.
But why does Scarlett Johansson have a problem with that?
A part of her paycheque was tied to the box office performance of the Black Widow. Which means, she was supposed to receive a small percentage of the overall box office revenue.
But she suffered financial losses because of the dual release of the movie. According to Wall Street Journal, she lost around![50 million USD because of the online release. So now you probably know the reason. <h2>How Disney Responded?</h2> <img class="aligncenter size-full" src="https://compote.slate.com/images/ea2504bd-0f8e-49cf-aeee-2c29230f2e9f.jpeg?width=780&height=520&rect=2706x1804&offset=0x138" width="780" height="520" /> <strong>Disney countered by saying,</strong> "The dual release strategy significantly enhanced [Johansson's] ability to earn additional compensation on top of the](https://cleus.co/wp-content/ql-cache/quicklatex.com-35c5ca4ceee9428c0474ecf8f8145a19_l3.png "Rendered by QuickLaTeX.com")
20m she has received to date”
“Her legal action was “especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Then Johansson’s attorney John Berlinski responded back by saying,
“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,”
He also added that,
“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,”
The overall situation is kind of weird. But who do you support? Let us know in the comment section down below.