Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit against Disney is a reaction to a rescaling of studio ambitions during the streaming wars. __ChrisLee reports
Photo: Marvel When word came down that Scarlett Johansson was suing Disney for breach of contract for releasing her star vehicle Black Widow on Disney+ at the same time as the $200 million movie would be hitting theaters, it seemed as though a bilious disagreement had broken out in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — the most public venting of spleen since director Edgar Wright departed Marvel Studios’ adaptation of Ant-Man over “creative differences” in 2014.
A day after Johansson’s claim hit the wire, Gerard Butler filed a lawsuit against Nu Image/Millennium Films alleging he is owed at least $10 million in never-paid back-end bonuses for starring in the action-thriller Olympus Has Fallen. It all seemed to signal an end to a certain status quo surrounding star compensation and studio civility.
According to sources, Johansson feels she should have earned around $70 million from Black Widow — and that the film’s less-than-stellar performance damaged her brand equity . But any discussion of what Johansson is and isn’t owed by Disney must begin with the question of whether or not Black Widow can be considered a hit.
Further [to] our conversation today, it is 100% our plan to do a typical wide release of Black Widow. We have very high expectations for the film and are very excited to do for Black Widow what we’ve just done with Captain Marvel.We totally understand Scarlett’s willingness to do the film and her whole deal is based on the premise that the film would be widely theatrically released like our other pictures.
According to an insider with knowledge of Disney’s C-suite , Chapek and Disney’s chairman of media and entertainment distribution Kareem Daniel are fixated on the bottom line. Which means increasing the number of Disney+ subscribers even if that means the “way talent is taken care of” must suffer. The studio’s priorities: business first, creativity and those who supply it a distant second.
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