Disney has spun itself into a tangled web with Marvel star Scarlett Johansson. On Thursday, Johansson filed a lawsuit against the Walt Disney Company in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging breach of contract when Black Widow debuted simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+. The suit claims that this day-and-date release model forfeited potential box office revenue in exchange for new subscribers to the company’s streaming platform. (Disney has yet to respond to Vanity Fair’s request for comment. )
“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,” John Berlinski, Johansson’s attorney, said in a statement to Vanity Fair. “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. 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.”
In the hours after Johansson’s suit was made public, Disney released a pointed response. “There is no merit whatsoever to this filing,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement. “The lawsuit is especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 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 $20M she has received to date.”
The journey to Black Widow’s release was prolonged and tedious. Following years of ensemble work in male-dominated MCU films, Johansson was finally tasked with headlining Natasha Romanoff’s own flick. But the COVID-19 pandemic delayed Black Widow’s release several times before its July 2021 premiere. According to Johansson’s suit, she had been promised a wide theatrical release for Black Widow when she inked her deal with Marvel. This contract was also predicated on Johannson’s pay being “based largely on ‘box office’ receipts” that the movie earned from traditional theaters.
In March, Disney announced that Black Widow would premiere both in theaters and on Disney+ for a premium $30 fee. Johansson’s lawsuit claims that this decision “was made at least in part because Disney saw the opportunity to promote its flagship subscription streaming service” and “thereby attracting new paying monthly subscribers, retaining existing ones.” The suit went on to allege that “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.”
Black Widow opened to $80 million at the domestic box office and an additional $78 million abroad, giving theaters a major pandemic-era boost. In a rare move for notoriously tight-lipped streamers, Disney also reported that the film earned $60 million via Disney+. However, in its second weekend Black Widow’s ticket sales dropped 68%. Its total box office haul now sits at around $319 million globally, which makes it one of the lowest-grossing Marvel films ever. “Just as these news outlets predicted and Ms. Johansson feared, the Picture’s box office receipts for its opening weekend were significantly below the opening-weekend performance of Marvel’s previous films,” the suit reads, going on to state, “In short, Disney’s strategy to lure viewers away from the theatres and toward Disney+ worked.”
WarnerMedia and Warner Bros. made headlines last year when they announced that the studio’s entire 2021 theatrical slate would be released day-and-date on the big screen and HBO Max. However, the company later announced that it would guarantee payment regardless of box office sales. Johansson references this strategy in her suit, alleging that she “gave Disney and Marvel every opportunity to right their wrong and make good on Marvel’s promise. Unlike numerous other movie studios, however…Disney and Marvel largely ignored Ms. Johansson, essentially forcing her to file this action.”
Jungle Cruise, Disney’s next simultaneous theatrical and streaming release, debuts this weekend.
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