Black Widow may be available on 4K, Blu-Ray, and DVD soon, but the fallout from the movie’s dual release will only get more interesting after Disney’s lawyers were forced to make the film's streaming earnings public as part of an effort to move Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit to private arbitration.
It’s now been nearly a month since Johansson’s attorneys began legal proceedings that seek proper compensation for the MCUstar, who claims to have been given the short end of the stick due to Disney not properly renegotiating her contract in the light of Black Widow releasing simultaneously in theaters and on Disney Plus. Although Black Widow is far from being the only movie that suffered at the box office due to a parallel streaming premiere, most studios did compensate their actors with buyout deals for missed theaters earnings.
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As reported by Deadline, Disney’s representatives filed a motion to have the trial moved to confidential arbitration in New York instead of the public Los Angeles Court where the controversy is currently being handled. To back up their petition, Disney’s lawyers argued that Johansson would actually be paid for the revenue generated by Black Widow'sstreaming sales because this makes up part of the numbers “used to calculate any additional compensation,” even though Marvel Studios was allegedly not legally obligated to do so.
The motion then specifies that, as of August 15, Black Widow had earned “more than $367 million in worldwide box-office receipts and more than $125 million in streaming and download retail receipts.” Disney’s defense also added that Johansson’s attorney’s purposely omitted suing Marvel Studios to avoid arbitration and gain publicity for the case since Marvel Studios is the company she actually signed her contract with, not its parent company Disney.
Johansson’s lawyers addressed this motion filed by Disney, calling it nothing short of an effort from the media giant to try “to hide its misconduct in a confidential arbitration,” a statement that comes after her representatives dubbed Disney’s response as “misogynistic.” Accounting for Disney Plus sales, Black Widow would barely beat out the first Thor movie as the worst-performing MCU film of all time, a matter some have attributed to it being a Natasha Romanoff flashback better suited to Disney Plus' series format, besides the obvious difficulties derived from the pandemic.
Black Widow received mostly positive reviews and still holds a “Fresh” 80% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, though most of the criticism directed towards the film stems from it being called too little too late for the most famous female Avenger. With Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings just around the corner, everyone will soon find out just how right Disney’s strategy was all along.
Black Widow is now playing in theaters and on Disney Plus with Premier Access.
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Source: Deadline
