Black Widows was Disney’s next big card to make their new streaming platform the focal point of their future releases, however, they ran into a stone in the way, Black Widow herself.
A few days ago it was reported that Scarlett Johansson, the actress who gives life to Black Widow, decided to sue Walt Disney Co. before the Superior Court of Los Angeles, alleging that its contract was broken when Disney decided to release its latest film simultaneously in theaters and streaming.
The actress assured that within her contract it was guaranteed that the premiere of the new Black Widow movie would be exclusive in cinemas, and that his salary would be based largely on the film’s box office earnings.
“Disney intentionally induced Marvel to breach the agreement, without justification, to prevent Ms. Johansson from realizing the full benefit of her deal with Marvel,” the lawsuit says.
It should be noted that, since 2019, the actress expressed her concerns that the film would end up being released on Disney Plus as part of the launch strategy, so it was sought that both Disney and Marvel guaranteed that it would be exclusive to theaters.
As proof of this, an email sent in March 2019 was presented to Dave Galluzzi, Marvel’s lawyer, who assured that the release would be according to a traditional model in theaters.
“We understand that if the plan changes, we would have to discuss this with you and come to an agreement. Understanding, since the deal is based on a series of (very large) box office bonuses ”
The independence of the actresses?
John Berlinski, a lawyer representing Johansson, said that this case could be the beginning of a dozen future lawsuits that Disney could face for the same reasons.
“This surely won’t be the last case where Hollywood talent takes on Disney and makes it clear that whatever the company is trying to do, it has a legal obligation to honor its contracts,” he said.
And as a prophecy, that seemed to become a reality when rumors began to surface that the star of Cruella, Emma StoneI’d be seriously considering suing the mouse company.
Also, another name that came up in the conversation was Emily Blunt, who could resort to the same situation after the release of his tape Jungle cruise this weekend, which – like other productions – will end up becoming a simultaneous premiere in both theaters and Disney Plus on Premier Access.
Disney’s harsh response
The company’s lawyers responded quickly to Johansson’s lawsuit where, in an attempt to undermine the actress’s image and statements, they decided to make her salary public, to make it clear that it was not hampered by the hybrid launch. .
Given this, the actress’s manager assured that Disney revealed the actress’s salary figures for the last two Marvel films in “an attempt to weaponize her success as an artist and businesswoman.”
“Disney’s direct attack on his character and everything else they implicated is beneath the company that many of us in the creative community have successfully worked with for decades,” said Bryan Lourd, co-chair of the Creative Artists Agency. and manager of the actress.
It should be noted that Johansson would be suing the tarón company for about 50 million dollars, claiming that he lost much more as a result of the hybrid premiere strategy, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The problem for the cinema
In accordance with The Numbers The Marvel Cinematic Universe was the highest grossing film franchise in the world as of November 2020, with total worldwide box office revenue of $ 22.56 billion. Of the 23 films in the series, the average income was estimated at US $ 980.5 million per film.
Also, despite high production budgets, most productions generated box office revenues that exceeded one billion dollars, including ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’, ‘Iron Man 3’, ‘Captain America: Civil War’ or ‘Avengers: Endgame’, the latter had the highest cost (356 million dollars), but raised more than 2.700 million dollars worldwide.
However, with the arrival of streaming, these numbers could change mainly in movie theaters, as demonstrated by the premiere of Black Widow, which managed to raise about 80 million dollars in theaters in the United States and Canada, as well as 78 million more for the international theatrical release, during its first opening weekend.
Also, you must add the rents in the Disney Plus Premier Access, which generated 60 million dollars more to achieve the 215 million dollars in a single weekend.
However, just a week later, box office revenues plummeted, reporting an 80 percent drop in ticket sales during its second week of release, inflaming the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO), who He directly blamed Disney Plus for causing audiences to no longer want to visit movie theaters.
The uncertain future of streaming
There is no doubt that Johansson’s actions are the beginning of a new war between the production companies and the stars, but above all against Premier Access and all those systems that streaming platforms hoped to implement to shorten the windows with the rooms. cinema.
Recently, the CEO of Disney, Bob Chapek, stated that the production house planned to change its content distribution strategy, where the windows would be reduced, that is, the time between movie premieres and streaming launch, which undoubtedly it is a new challenge for the industry.
It is important to note that until recently, most movies that were shown in theaters lasted at least 90 days before moving to other distribution channels, however this changed. The reason? The consumer.
“The consumer is probably more impatient than ever before, particularly since now they have had the luxury of having a whole year titles at home almost the moment they want them. I’m not sure there is going to be a setback. But we really don’t want to do anything that could slow down the theatrical screening, ”explained the Disney CEO.
Although, this could become a recurring problem within the film industry, because like Disney, there are more and more platforms that seek to reduce the windows between the world of streaming and cinema screens, despite that the movie chains continue to advocate for their window of exclusivity.
Despite this, Johansson’s decision to sue Disney is the first of many problems regarding the decisions of, in this case Disney, to advance within simultaneous premieres, especially at a time when streaming became a key for Hollywood and film.