Scarlett Johansson sues Disney over ‘Black Widow’ movie

Scarlett Johansson, American actress and on-screen Avenger, is suing Disney over release of the Black Widow movie.

Johansson has been playing the Marvel comic book character since her appearance in 2010’s Iron Man 2. However, Disney’s decision to release her 2021 blockbuster movie, Black Widow on their streaming platform, Disney Plus on the same day it was released in cinemas seems to have upset the actress.

In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Thursday, the 36-year-old’s attorneys allege that the studio breached the star’s contract. According to them, when Disney decided to release the movie in theaters and Disney plus, it affected the ticket sales. This in turn affected Johansson’s compensation and bonuses, both contractually tied to the box office performance of the movie.

The lawsuit stated,

“As Ms. Johansson, Disney, Marvel, and most everyone else in Hollywood knows, a ‘theatrical release’ is a release that is exclusive to movie theatres. Disney was well aware of this promise, but nonetheless directed Marvel to violate its pledge and instead release the Picture on the Disney+ streaming service the very same day it was released in movie theatres.“

“Disney knew that the cannibalization of [box office receipts] by Disney+ would save Marvel (and by extension, Disney) ‘very large’ amounts of money that it would otherwise owe Ms. Johansson,”

“On information and belief, Disney intentionally induced Marvel’s breach of the Agreement, without justification, in order to prevent Ms. Johansson from realizing the full benefit of her bargain with Marvel”.

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Ticket sales for the movie currently stand at $319 million globally. This means Black Widow is on track to become one of the lowest-grossing Marvel movies of all time.