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Re: Movie news, trivia and other snippets

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Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney - accusing the company of breaching her contract when it offered the film Black Widow on its streaming service at the same time as it was released in theatres.

The actress's earnings are based partly on the Marvel film's box office takings and, in court papers, she said the movie was intended for initial release exclusively in cinemas.

Instead, the dual release had resulted in her earning less than she would have otherwise, she argued.

So when Black Widow debuted on 9 July in theatres, the company had also released it on streaming for a $30 (£19 in the UK) charge.

The lawsuit alleged that Disney wanted to "keep the revenues for itself while simultaneously growing the Disney+ subscriber base, a proven way to boost Disney's stock price".

"Second, Disney wanted to substantially devalue Ms Johansson's agreement and thereby enrich itself."

The suit seeks unspecified damages to be determined at trial.

Disney said there was "no merit" in the claims, insisting that it complied with Johansson's contract.

https://news.sky.com/story/scarlett-...nemas-12367590

Re: Movie news, trivia and other snippets

This is similar to what happened with Christopher Nolan and HBO Max.

I think some of the actors and creators on these films get a certain % of the box office and when Warner/Disney put them straight into their streaming platform that income is circumvented and goes to the studios instead.

Good for her to challenge them and all the actors/directors/other guilds need to fight back. Disney and others are trying to cut more and more people out of the income by dominating not only the production but also the distribution.

This is probably going to get bigger and messier as more and more creators fight back.

---------- Post added at 09:23 ---------- Previous post was at 09:13 ----------

This is especially nasty from Disney:

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

Re: Movie news, trivia and other snippets

yeah, if they acted in good faith all they needed to do is tweak her contract to give her the agreed % from Disney+ as well and then if the film didn't do as well as expected and she didn't the amount she wanted Disney have lived up to their commitments. Going forward imagine contracts will have to have a clause which includes release on any and all platforms on primary release date and not just a theatrical release. I hope she gets something out of it.

Re: Movie news, trivia and other snippets

I think SJ now sees her big earners are a thing of the past and wants one last big payday to end her term as a Marvel Hero. I can in part understand her concern when her none Avenger roles have been hit and miss to say the least.

On the other side of that with an estimated net worth of $165 million dollars I do not think she will ever need to worry about money

Re: Movie news, trivia and other snippets

Nor do Disney. The point is if she thinks her contract hasn't been met she is entitled to challenge it.

Re: Movie news, trivia and other snippets

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Originally Posted by Damien (Post 36087969)

Nor do Disney. The point is if she thinks her contract hasn't been met she is entitled to challenge it.

It would appear she does have a point.

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Johansson legal team said that representatives for the actress were worried that “Black Widow” would debut on Disney Plus even before coronavirus brought life to a standstill. As part of the suit, they share emails from the star’s management group that asked the studio to guarantee that “Black Widow” would premiere exclusively in cinemas. In response, Marvel Chief Counsel Dave Galluzzi promised a traditional theatrical bow, while adding “We understand that should the plan change, we would need to discuss this with you and come to an understanding as the deal is based on a series of (very large) box office bonuses.”

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/s...ow-1235030582/

Re: Movie news, trivia and other snippets

exactly, Disney haven't acted in good faith. They obviously decided tprelease the film on Disney+ in order to maximise their revenue and profit (coronavirus or not) and ScarJo is entitled to some of that. They should have been upfront with her from the start and told her what the plan is and offered to amend her contract accordingly to reflect streaming revenue. I admire her for taking a stand and getting this sorted now because it will make other distributors think twice in the future before they screw actors over.

Re: Movie news, trivia and other snippets

Hmmm, vastly overpaid actors complaining they dont get enough ..... not really going to get much sympathy from most people.

Still, *if* they broke her contract, they will have to take the consequences.

Re: Movie news, trivia and other snippets

If it was a general moan about salary I’d have little sympathy but what it comes down to is a potential shift in the way influence and earnings are divided up as the big studios shift to blended release strategies. Ultimately this has the potential to affect the earnings of filmmakers who are far less wealthy and influential than Ms Johansen and on that basis it is well worth shining a light on it now. I suspect Disney knows it has been caught with its pants down here, hence its rather unsavoury attempt to hide behind the pandemic and pretend it’s saving the planet rather than trying to enrich itself at the expense of those who actually make its films.

Re: Movie news, trivia and other snippets

On a related note

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Gerard Butler, who starred in the 2013 action movie Olympus Has Fallen, which turned into a franchise, has sued the film’s producers including Nu Image and Millennium Film in a profits dispute over the original pic.

In the filing today in Los Angeles Superior Court, Butler and his legal team claim he is owed more than $10 million in profits after it ordered an independent audit, which it said found the defendants “understated their own receipts and profits by over $11 million, including by failing to report approximately $8 million in payments to Producers’ own senior executives.” (Read the filing here.)

Olympus Has Fallen, directed by Antoine Fuqua, centered on disgraced Secret Service agent Mike Bannon (Butler), who becomes trapped inside the White House after a terrorist attack and works to rescue the president from kidnappers. It grossed $170.3 million at the global box office.

The lawsuit filed by Greenberg Glusker on behalf of Comrie Inc., Butler and his G-Base Entertainment claims Butler has seen zero of that total from the film’s producers, defendants Nu Image, Millennium and Padre Nuestro Productions. The complaint cites fraud, breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, intentional interference with contractual relations and accounting, and seeks a jury trial

https://deadline.com/2021/07/gerard-...ts-1234806894/

Re: Movie news, trivia and other snippets

good for him, I hope he gets something out of it, I flipping love that film

Re: Movie news, trivia and other snippets

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Anthony Mackie will officially suit up in Marvel Studios’ upcoming “Captain America 4” movie, co-written by “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” head writer Malcolm Spellman.

Mackie first appeared as Sam Wilson (aka the Falcon) in 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” and reprised the role in five subsequent movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers passed on Captain America’s shield at the end of “Avengers: Endgame,” Wilson officially assumed the mantle over the course of the Disney Plus series, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”

Re: Movie news, trivia and other snippets

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Disney+’s “Ironheart” series may still be pretty far off, but the heroine herself is not. Dominque Thorne’s Riri Williams will make her debut in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” according to an individual with knowledge of the project.

Disney’s “Ironheart” series was first announced at its Investor Day in December, revealing that Dominique Thorne will play Riri Williams, a young Black woman who takes over the mantle of Iron Man. “She started shooting, I think, this week before her Ironheart series,” Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige told ComicBook.com.

In the comics, Williams is a Black teen prodigy attending MIT who builds her own suit by reverse-engineering Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit design. Williams is also a genius like Tony, if that’s not immediately clear. In the comics, Pepper Potts mentors Riri in a similar fashion to how Tony took Peter Parker under his wing in the MCU, providing her with resources and a suit AI.

https://www.thewrap.com/marvels-iron...y-plus-series/

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Disney has filed a motion to force Scarlett Johansson into a private arbitration to address whether she is owed millions from the hybrid release of “Black Widow.”

In the motion, attorney Daniel Petrocelli also argues that Disney lived up to its obligation to give the film a “wide theatrical” release, but that nothing in the contract required the release to be exclusive to theaters.

Johansson filed a bombshell lawsuit on July 29, arguing that the decision to simultaneously release “Black Widow” in theaters and on Disney Plus cannibalized the film’s box office revenue and cost her tens of millions of dollars.

In the motion to compel arbitration, Petrocelli argued that “Black Widow” actually performed well, considering the ongoing pandemic. The film opened on July 9 and grossed $80 million domestically in its opening weekend — well below pre-pandemic Marvel standards, but $10 million more than Universal’s “F9” — which was an exclusive theatrical release.

Disney also notes that it agreed to add streaming receipts to the box office total for purposes of calculating Johansson’s backend participation, despite not being required under the contract to do so.

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/d...on-1235046169/

that's interesting because if they did that right off the bat then I can't see how she can argue she is losing out. By releasing it on Disney+ they made more money from it than they would have done as a sole cinema release and if they offered to pay her the Disney+ revenue as well then she would have got more money than she would have otherwise. Disney can't help it if they film didn't rake in $1bn at the boxoffice.

Re: Movie news, trivia and other snippets

Spider-Man:No Way Home teaser trailer

Re: Movie news, trivia and other snippets

flipping well excited, can't wait