A few weeks back, Scarlett Johansson made waves when she sued Disney over releasing her new movie Black Widow in both theaters and on Disney+, where people could watch it at home for an extra $30 fee. The problem is that her allegedly allegedly provided that Disney wouldn’t release the movie to streaming — her salary was tied to box office receipts, which she is alleging are lower than normal because of Disney’s decision to release the movie on streaming.
All told, Johansson is suing Disney for breach of contract and asking for up to $50 million (it’s worth noting that she got paid a flat fee of $20 million for doing the movie at all).
It’s a sticky situation, because on the one hand, I can easily believe that Disney would violate Johansson’s contract; according to the letter of the agreement, they probably owe her money, and it’s fine to go after it.
On the other hand, the letter of the agreement is stupid because it already provides for laughably unjustifiable amounts of money going to one person, and suing to get even more looks especially bad when the movie was released on streaming in the first place to give people options at a time when going to theaters was risky thanks to COVID-19.
But back on the first hand, maybe suing will create a precedent where filmmakers who actually need the money could more easily get a cut of streaming profits. But back on the second hand, future contracts might have included streaming clauses anyway; we’ve known it’s the wave of the future for awhile.
Elizabeth Olsen: Scarlett Johansson is “so tough” for going after Disney and Marvel
So I ping pong back and forth on this. One person who is definitely in support of Johansson is her Marvel sister Elizabeth Olsen, who plays Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlett Witch. “I think she’s so tough and literally when I read that I was like, ‘good for you Scarlett,'” Olsen said during a joint interview with Jason Sudeikis with Vanity Fair.
Sudeikis is also behind Johansson. “It is appropriately bad-ass and on brand,” he said. Personally, I think these two are boiling a complex issue down a bit too much, but I did like what Olsen had to say about how COVID has affected the theater industry in general:
"I’m worried about a bunch of things. Not worried on Scarlett’s behalf. But I’m worried about small movies getting the opportunity to be seen in theaters. That was already a thing pre-COVID. I like going to the movies and I don’t necessarily want to see only an Oscar contender or a blockbuster. I would like to see art films and art house theaters. And so I do worry about that, and people having to keep these theaters alive. And I don’t know how financially that works for these theaters. I do hope that there’s some sort of solution that the larger companies are coming together to keep, at least in L.A. this is going to happen. But I do think it’s going to be how it kind of used to be when studios owned theaters. And I have a feeling that we might go back to that being the only way to keep them alive with such expensive real estate. But when it comes to actors and their earnings, I mean, that’s just, that’s just all contracts. So it’s either in the contract or it’s not. What about you? Are you worried about Scarlett?"
The future is going to be interesting.
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h/t The A.V. Club