It has been close to five months since the release of Black Widow, a Marvel movie starring Scarlett Johansson, who plays Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, in her first solo movie. This movie was a relative success, considering the pandemic, and had a revenue of $379.6 million. However, upon the release of Black Widow, issues arose. Johansson accused and later filed a lawsuit against Disney for breaching the contract that she and Disney signed by releasing the movie on Disney+ (the subscription service Disney offers) while the movie was in theaters. Black Widow was available on Disney+ for viewers to watch, but they had to pay an extra fee to watch the movie. This would have led to a substantial loss of profit for Johansson because of the releasing of the movie in two places. In July, Johansson sued Disney for breach of contract, alleging that, “the dual-release strategy for Black Widow had reduced her compensation, which she said was to be based in part on box office receipts from an exclusive run in cinemas.” While the movie, at the theaters, had a profit of over 380 million dollars, the subscription service alone had a profit of over $60 million.

Disney, on the other hand, stated that there was “no merit” to the lawsuit, which was filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, and that they had followed their contract. Disney even went on to say that the lawsuit was a “callous disregard” for the dangers of the pandemic and the risks that are posed to the audience in the theaters. 

This lawsuit, as well as the subsequent back and forth between the two parties, was closely followed by Hollywood, the public, and other subscription services. It was already known that this lawsuit had the potential to set a precedent on how subscription services should proceed in the future when offering their movies on their service. 

Finally, in September, this lawsuit was resolved, with both sides stating that they were happy for the successful resolution of this lawsuit. However, what exactly came out of this resolution has not been disclosed. 

Johansson, in particular, stated that she was happy with the outcome and looked forward to working on several upcoming Disney projects. She plans to produce and star in a movie based on the popular Disney ride, Tower of Terror.

This lawsuit may be a premonition for the many issues arising in the Hollywood scene. For one, more and more companies are providing a subscription service that offers the movies and TV shows that fans love, but sometimes with an added cost. This allows fans to watch movies from their home and not have to go outside. While these services bring in more profit for the companies, they prove to hurt the actors themselves, due to the fact that they lose revenue from the movie itself.

Another problem is the seemingly more obvious disparity between men and women’s salaries in the movie industry. In 2017, a comparison of the highest paid men and women actors discovered that women were paid an average of 38% of a men’s salary. For men, the average salary paid was $57.4 million, while women only got $21.8 million. While there are other factors that affect the salary paid to actors, it is an unavoidable fact that women are paid less than men in the movie industry.

In short, it seems as if these subscription services will become the new normal, and therefore, it can be assumed that clauses will be added to contracts to account for the profit gained through the streaming services. However, the most important takeaway is whether or not this particular lawsuit is due to the absence of this clause or the gender pay gap between men and women. After all, Black Widow is the second Marvel movie to star a female protagonist and the first Marvel movie to have a female director. Perhaps it is only possible to find the answers to these questions when more movies with women in prominent roles come out. 

 

written by Srinidhi Raghavan

edited by Sarasi Rout and Tryphena Pilli

References:

[Black Widow Movie Poster]. (n.d.). Https://Www.Imdb.Com/Title/Tt3480822/. https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjRmNDI5MjMtMmFhZi00YzcwLWI4ZGItMGI2MjI0N2Q3YmIwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTkxNjUyNQ@@._V1_.jpg

Richwine, L. (2021, October 1). Disney Resolves Dispute with Scarlett Johansson over ‘Black Widow’ Movie. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/disney-resolves-dispute-with-johansson-over-black-widow-movie-2021-10-01/

Pedace, R. (2021, March 24). Exploring the Data on Hollywood’s Gender Pay Gap. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/exploring-the-data-on-hollywoods-gender-pay-gap-127414