By Maria Katrina Segui
In a recent statement, actress Scarlett Johansson’s agent said that her client was taken aback by Disney’s response to the ongoing lawsuit involving the movie Black Widow.
The agent shared in an interview with The Wrap that Johansson was “shocked by the tone” of Disney’s statement, which claimed that the actresses’ lawsuit was “especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Johansson has filed a lawsuit against Walt Disney Company over a contract breach for releasing the highly-anticipated superhero film on its streaming platform, Disney+.
According to Johansson, her contract for Black Widow under Disney’s Marvel Entertainment guaranteed an exclusive theatrical run with her earnings solely coming from the box-office performance of the film. The dual release allegedly reduced the actress’ compensation to more than $50 million.
“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,” the suit said.
Johansson’s lawyer, John Berlinski also told CNN, “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,” he added.
Meanwhile, the media giant countered the actress’ statement saying the suit “has no merit whatsoever.”
“Disney has fully complied with Ms. Johansson’s contract and furthermore, the release of Black Widow on Disney+ with Premier Access has significantly enhanced her ability to earn additional compensation on top of the $20 million she has received to date,” a Disney representative said in a statement.
Releasing movies both on theaters and on streaming platforms has recently become a strategy for major film studios to gain more profits and as a way to win back viewers as the pandemic also took its toll on the film industry. Suicide Squad, for instance, will debut both in cinemas and HBO Max next month.
The theatrical debut of the long-awaited Black Widow movie was delayed many times due to the pandemic and was finally released on July 9, garnering over $319 million at the box office worldwide, becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of 2021.