Black Widow is the latest Marvel movie that has been delayed for over a year because of COVID-19.
Scarlett Johansson, the star of the movie, is not so happy with Disney’s release of Black Widow on its streaming platforms. Johansson is now suing Disney because of a breach in their agreement.
Johansson states in her lawsuit that her salary is largely based on the box-office performance of the film and argues that streaming services impact how much she actually receives.
With Johansson coming at Disney with a lawsuit, many other actresses like Emma Stone and Emily Blunt are considering suing Disney as well. They both recently starred in Disney movies that arrived on the streaming service.
The movies that Disney has been releasing on its streaming service have been led largely by women, but the streaming platform has been withholding the full salary they are guaranteed.
COVID-19 has been a big factor in many companies deciding to release films on streaming services. With the recent lawsuit, many services can change the way they roll out new movies and shows. Actors’ income comes from box-office sales so we might not start to see these new movies on platforms until a couple of months later compared to a couple of days later.
Disney throughout the pandemic has constantly been adding their new releases on their platform. Disney+ has increased the cost of their service to $29.99 plus the subscription cost. This raises the question of whether the actors are being compensated for their movie to be shown on Disney + even if their salary is largely based on box-office performance.
Johansson is undoubtedly not the only actor who is afraid of what the era of streaming services will do to their salary but she is the only one that went public about it. Many people are on her side, and she deserves the full attention since this is only Marvel’s second women lead film out of the 24 films released.