Black Widow: Scarlett Johansson And Disney In Legal Battle

American actress, Scarlett Johansson has dragged Disney to court over breach of agreement on Black Widow.

Gatekeepers News reports that American actress, Scarlett Johansson, and the Walt Disney Company are currently in a legal battle following the simultaneous release of her standalone film ‘Black Widow’ in theatres and on Disney plus.

The suit filed on July 29, 2021, read, “Disney intentionally induced Marvel’s breach of the agreement, without justification, in order to prevent Ms. Johansson from realising the full benefit of her bargain with Marvel.”

Johansson’s lawyer, John Berlinski, said he tried to renegotiate the actress’ contract with Disney in 2019 after first expressing concerns about the multi-platform release.

Berlinski said, “This will surely not be the last case where Hollywood talent stands up to Disney and makes it clear that, whatever the company may pretend, it has a legal obligation to honor its contracts.”

Johansson in the court filing on Thursday, said Disney’s decision to send the Marvel movie to Disney Plus at the same time it was released in theaters cost her millions of dollars in backend compensation.

According to her, those bonuses were tied to hitting box office benchmarks that “Black Widow” won’t likely achieve.

Disney in response to this slammed back at the actress’ for showing “callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The entertainment giant in an unusually fiery statement, said, “There is no merit whatsoever to this filing. The lawsuit is especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Although Disney did not provide any information about whether or not Johansson’s pact was renegotiated so that she could share in streaming rental revenue, it stated that the star has already received $20 million for her work and argued that “the release of ‘Black Widow’ on Disney+ with Premier Access has significantly enhanced her ability to earn additional compensation on top of the $20M she has received to date.”

Gatekeepers News earlier reported that the ‘Black Widow’ broke the pandemic era record after it earned over $215 million on its opening weekend, including $80 million at the domestic box office.