ScarJo/Disney Lawsuit

[jamesbondsmith]

As you may or may not be aware, Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney for lost revenue. Basically from what I understand, her contract said she got a cut of theatrical revenue for Black Widow (which I haven't seen yet, FYI), and the decision to release it on Disney+ cut into the cinema takings, not to mention their taking from this supposedly comes to US$60m.

Obviously, it seems a little callous for a millionaire to be complaining about not making money due to something that is based on public health advice. But Disney do have a history of not respecting payment obligations; they apparently decided that they 'inherited the rights but not the obligations' of the contracts Lucasfilm had made with Star Wars Legends authors, so they didn't pay royalties to those authors.

While I understand the reservations, if they don't have to pay one of the most bankable film stars of the current era, what reason do they have to pay the far less financially stable writers or other creators they work with, who have far less power to contest this?

I feel like they could at least compromise by donating a certain amount to some sort of charity for creatives who have lost income due to Covid. Both parties have bad press from this lawsuit, and this could mitigate multiple issues going ahead. 

[Orlion Blight]

The issue is also, contractually, Black Widow was supposed to get an exclusively theatrical release. By releasing it concurrently on Disney+, Disney opened themselves to a breach of contract suit. The estimated loss of revenue is to demonstrate harm done so the courts will allow the case to move forward. I suspect at that point, it'll get settled out of court for an undisclosed amount that will be less than the estimated loss. 

Basically, by doing it this way, Disney has managed to pay Scarlett Johansson less than if they had renegotiated the contract like her agent was trying to do. Scar-Jo does not want to pay for an expensive lawsuit that she can potentially lose and Disney's legal team has probably all ready done an analysis where Disney stands to gain in this situation. 

[Frustration]

On 7/31/2021 at 11:59 AM, jamesbondsmith said:

Obviously, it seems a little callous for a millionaire to be complaining about not making money due to something that is based on public health advice.

Well it's a lot of money, Losing out on a few thousand you thought you were getting would suck for you, lossing out on tens to hundreds of thousands you thought you were getting would suck, even for a millionaire.

On 7/31/2021 at 11:59 AM, jamesbondsmith said:

But Disney do have a history of not respecting payment obligations; they apparently decided that they 'inherited the rights but not the obligations' of the contracts Lucasfilm had made with Star Wars Legends authors, so they didn't pay royalties to those authors.

Disney has some sketchy deals on it's corperate side that's for sure.

[Elegy]

There's that (absolutely genius, in my opinion) comic writer Don Rosa who worked for Disney (Scrooge McDuck was his main focus) for decades and then retired some time ago due to several reasons, one of them being the way Disney treats artists. Which is why this made me think of him. He has written a bit about it >here<, and the way they've been treating comic artists for ages now is even more ridiculous than the aforementioned Star Wars thing.

I haven't looked deep enough into this case to have a strong opinion on it in particular, so I'll leave it at that for the most part. But I do find it very important that people - especially people with a large audience like Johansson - point out things like this. A bit more awareness for the topic might open the way for changes in the system, one can hope.