Pundits were surprised a couple of months ago when Scarlett Johansson, the star of Black Widow, sued Disney for tens of millions of dollars, claiming that the studio had reneged on her contract by releasing her first solo Marvel movie in both theaters and on Disney+, where people could watch it at home for an extra fee. She claimed she lost out on as much as $50 in profit sharing payments, the idea being that the movie would have made more if it was released only in theaters. We can argue about whether that’s true — although Shang-Chi is coming up on it, Black Widow is the highest-grossing movie of the year to date, in addition to making $125 million on Disney+ — but that was the argument.
Things got really ugly really fast, with Disney revealing that ScarJo was already paid a $20 million flat fee for Black Widow and accusing her of showing “callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.” It was uncomfortable all around, with Marvel boss Kevin Feige said to be “embarrassed” over how Disney handled the situation.
But it’s all come to an end now. Variety reports that the parties have settled out of court. We don’t know the terms of the settlement, but I’m going to assume it involves ScarJo getting a boatload of money.
Scarlett Johansson is “happy” to settle with Disney
“I am happy to have resolved our differences with Disney,” Johansson said in a statement. “I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve done together over the years and have greatly enjoyed my creative relationship with the team. I look forward to continuing our collaboration in years to come.”
Disney Studios Content chairman Alan Bergman also weighed in. “I’m very pleased that we have been able to come to a mutual agreement with Scarlett Johansson regarding Black Widow,” he said. “We appreciate her contributions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and look forward to working together on a number of upcoming projects, including Disney’s Tower of Terror.”
It was probably always going to end this way. With the pandemic warding people away from theaters, many studios tried duel release strategies with their movies, but so far Johansson is the only star who sued over the matter. Going forward, I expect studios to cover this kind of thing thoroughly in contracts with actors so there’s no opportunity for anyone to be caught by surprise.
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