Why is Disney being sued by Scarlett Johansson?
“It is tantamount to handing each moviegoer a free DVD on their way out of the theatre."
Scarlett Johansson
Avengers Star Scarlett Johansson has sued Disney via her company Periwinkle Entertainment, Inc. a "loan-out" company through which she has offered her acting services for the picture "Black Widow". The case was filed in the county of Los Angeles for Intentional interference with contractual relations and Inducing breach of contract and demanded a jury trial.
The complaint stated that Ms. Johansson has generated billions of dollars for Marvel Studios, and its parent company Disney. Marvel and Johansson agreed that her compensation for starring in the latest Marvel cinematic universe movie “Black Widow” would be based on Box office receipts generated by the picture. Disney promised that the release of the picture will be a “wide theatrical release”.
The Clause in the agreement read -
Lender shall furnish Producer the services of Artist to perform the role of ‘Black Widow’ / ‘Natasha Romanova’ in the theatrical motion picture currently entitled ‘Black Widow’ (‘Picture’). For the avoidance of doubt, if Producer in its sole discretion determines to release the Picture, then such release shall be a wide theatrical release of the Picture (i.e., no less than 1,500 screens).
The agreement also stated that there will be a theatrical “window” of 90-120 days during which the film will be exclusive to the theatres and will not be released on any streaming services to maximize box office collections. It was also stated in the complaint that of the seven Marvel studios films in which Ms. Johansson starred prior to "Black Widow" none had a theatrical window shorter than 96 days and none were released on the same day on Streaming platforms. Marvel studios previous movies had uninterrupted theatrical windows between 82 to 159 days, with an average uninterrupted window of 117 days.
