Scarlett Johansson’s bold move, filing a lawsuit against Disney over “Black Widow,” could be trailblazing. It could also potentially hurt her with projects at that large studio. Will she wind up wearing a Scarlett letter?
All studios for decades and eons have proven to be vengeful when it comes to actors questioning anything. Back around 1990, Alec Baldwin called then Disney chief Jeffrey Katzenberg “one of the seven dwarves” in an interview and was banned from working there for a long, long time. (Alec was angry that his movie, “The Marrying Man” bombed.)
In her complaint, Scarlett alleges that Disney had a lot of time to rectify their decision to put “Black Widow” on Disney Plus, thereby reducing her potential salary.
The complaint reads:
“To maximize these receipts, and thereby protect her financial interests, Ms. Johansson extracted a promise from Marvel that the release of the Picture would be a “theatrical release.”…Disney was well aware of this promise, but
nonetheless directed Marvel to violate its pledge and instead release the Picture on the Disney+ streaming service the very same day it was released in movie theatres… Disney wanted to lure the Picture’s audience away from movie theatres and towards its owned streaming service, where it could keep the revenues for itself while simultaneously growing the Disney+ subscriber base, a proven way
to boost Disney’s stock price. Second, Disney wanted to substantially devalue Ms. Johansson’s agreement and thereby enrich itself. In the months leading up to this lawsuit, Ms. Johansson gave Disney and Marvel every opportunity to right their wrong and make good on Marvel’s promise.“
Johansson says that “ Disney and Marvel largely ignored Ms. Johansson, essentially forcing her to file this action.”
