While many found Johansson’s only solo MCU film — which is set between the events of Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Avengers: Endgame (2018) — to be “low stakes”, others were inspired by Marvel newcomer Florence Pugh’s performance as Yelena Belova, and are looking forward to seeing more of the character in upcoming Marvel Studios projects like Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye.
What nobody was expecting, though, was for leading lady Johansson to sue The Walt Disney Company for $50 million, citing breach of contract. Seemingly, when the Disney+ streaming platform launched in 2019, Johansson’s camp had a clause added to her contract — Black Widow had to receive an exclusive theatrical release since much of her salary was based on box office performance.
Now, Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek has made public comments regarding the Black Widow debacle for the first time during Disney’s Q3 earnings report call.
Chapek referred to Black Widow as the “top-performing film of 2021” and said:
We adopted a strategy for releasing the films that consisted of releases direct to Disney+ and hybrid of theatrical with “Cruella” and “Jungle Cruise” and it performed well at the box office since the start of the pandemic. We have the distribution teams determining the right strategy to enable us to reach the broadest possible audience. Just to reiterate, distribution decisions are made on a home-by-home basis based on the global market health conditions and consumer behavior. We will continue to utilize all available oceans, learn, and innovate accordingly while always do what we believe in the best interest of the film and the best interest of our constituents.”
Credit: Screenshot via ‘Entertainment Tonight’
It is fascinating that Chapek, and seemingly Executive Chairman Bob Iger as well, are staying the course in regard to their commitment to Black Widow‘s release strategy.
Chapek did not specifically comment on the lawsuit, which could be due to the fact that litigation is ongoing.
In Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller “Black Widow,” Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down [Taskmaster and Dreykov (Ray Winstone)], Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.
Scarlett Johansson reprises her role as Natasha/Black Widow, Florence Pugh stars as Yelena, David Harbour portrays Alexei/The Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz is Melina. “Black Widow” — the first film in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — is directed by Cate Shortland and produced by Kevin Feige.
What do you think about Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit?
Credit: Marvel Studios
