BLACK WIDOW Star Scarlett Johansson Reflects On Legal Battle With Disney; Confirms Her Time In MCU Is Over

BLACK WIDOW Star Scarlett Johansson Reflects On Legal Battle With Disney; Confirms Her Time In MCU Is Over

Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson has opened up on her legal battle with Disney, admitting she was "sad and disappointed" with how the studio handled the matter. The actress also addresses her MCU future!

News
By JoshWilding - May 09, 2023 01:05 PM EST
Filed Under: Black Widow
Source: Variety

With the pandemic still raging in 2021, Disney made the controversial decision to release Black Widow on its short-lived "Premier Access" service on Disney+. While it also played in theaters, this sealed the movie's fate as a box office flop, and for lead star Scarlett Johansson, that was a problem. 

Her contract specified that she be paid millions of dollars in backend compensation, and the method in which Black Widow was released was a clear breach of contract. Why? Well, a guaranteed theatrical release was written into her deal, and when the actress looked to get what she was owed, former Disney CEO Bob Chapek came out fighting, revealing to the world that Johansson has been paid $20 million upfront (a no-no in Hollywood etiquette).

Eventually, the House of Mouse made things right and the Avengers: Endgame star reportedly receive upwards of $40 million according to Variety. 

Reflecting on what happened while talking to the trade, Johansson says, "I was sad and disappointed. But mostly sad. It was such a surreal moment because we were all isolated and just sort of emerging a little bit. I was also really heavily pregnant, too, which in a weird way was amazing timing."

"Suddenly, your entire attention is drawn to this miracle of life. So, I had the most wonderful distraction in the world and soon after had a beautiful baby...I couldn’t even walk through a restaurant without somebody saying, 'Good for you. Stand up for yourself.' I could see that it had a bigger impact. I got support from strangers that have no skin in the game at all."

Johansson and Disney have since patched things up and she remains attached to Taika Watiti's movie based on the Tower of Terror theme park ride.

However, her time in the MCU as Natasha Romanoff is over. "Yeah, I am sad, of course," she says. "I absolutely loved every filming experience I had, working 10 years with Marvel and with that amazing cast, and I love the character Natasha. I have a lot of empathy for her, and it was amazing to build that character over such a long period of time."

"I also feel really good about her story coming to a close. I think she has a lot of dignity in her legacy."

You can read more from Johansson by following the link in the Tweet below.

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MosquitoFarmer
MosquitoFarmer - 5/9/2023, 2:00 PM
I've been smitten with her since Match Point.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 5/9/2023, 2:19 PM
@MosquitoFarmer - dude ‘Don Jon’

Also, buddy (I know, presumptive, but), ho-lee crap and THANK FRIKKIN YOU!!!!!

I girded up the ‘ol loins and took the plunge on what we were discussing Friday and YEEEEAH!

That Lincoln Square IMAX is all manner of worldbending awesome. Went 7:30 Sunday night and boy, that thing absolutely did NOT disappoint. Paid $33 for a tix and had to make the commute from CT but man, COMPLETELY freakin worth it

That escalator ride alone sets the stage and yeah, that thing is the full monty 81’.

Again, thx for the info tip, this definitely is a new go-to for me (and the fam (yeeeeeah, and the fam 😳))
abd00bie
abd00bie - 5/9/2023, 2:43 PM
@MosquitoFarmer - Doesn't she get her head blown off in this movie lol
eddyxx
eddyxx - 5/9/2023, 4:33 PM
@MosquitoFarmer -

@SauronthePower -

For me, it’s The Island. I’ve never seen a more beautiful woman on screen.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 5/9/2023, 7:46 PM
@eddyxx - have never seen

Dude….. ‘Don Jon,’ trust me!
MosquitoFarmer
MosquitoFarmer - 5/9/2023, 7:53 PM
@SauronthePower - Oh man, I’m really glad to hear that! Seeing a movie on that screen is something to behold.
LSHF
LSHF - 5/9/2023, 11:24 PM
@eddyxx - I bought the movie without having seen it because I knew she was going to get lots of screentime looking this way, and that was more than good enough for me.
MosquitoFarmer
MosquitoFarmer - 5/10/2023, 12:46 AM
@eddyxx - Yeah, I got on that boat too, after the fact. But I think at the time I was disturbed by what happened to Michael Clarke Duncan's character, even just in the trailer shot.
WEAPONXOXOXO
WEAPONXOXOXO - 5/9/2023, 2:01 PM
40 million....
She doesn't have to do [frick] all again for Disney.
AmazingFILMporg
AmazingFILMporg - 5/9/2023, 2:03 PM
Disney's last CEO was a big reason marvel stumbled the last 3 years.



Mandating d+ shows and flooding the market. Publicly arguing with marvels star and taking the power out of feiges hands really hurt Disney overall🤡
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 5/9/2023, 2:11 PM
@AmazingFILMporg - As long as we have the talent such as Ryan Coogler, Jon Favreau, and others sticking around we should be in for some treats. Marvel Studios survived Perlmutter, Victoria Alonso, and it will survive the damage that Bob Chapek did as well.
Matchesz
Matchesz - 5/9/2023, 2:28 PM
@SonOfAGif - Ryan Coogler isnt really all that and Jon Favreau is with disney now. Marvel has.. James.. no wait.. the Russo.. no.. uhhh
McMurdo
McMurdo - 5/9/2023, 5:01 PM
@AmazingFILMporg - iger is a hack too. He's just less of a hack than chapped ass er chapek
AmazingFILMporg
AmazingFILMporg - 5/9/2023, 5:21 PM
@McMurdo -



Iger led Disney when it dominated every studio times 3.


Remember when they had like 7 films hit 1 billion in one year?



No studio in Hollywood history has ever done that. The top ten films ever at the boxoffice are littered with Disney films ..lol



Are you high?🤡
Tonic24k
Tonic24k - 5/9/2023, 5:30 PM
@McMurdo - You certainly don't know a thing about Iger if you think he's a hack. Sorry man, this remark is just asinine.
AmazingFILMporg
AmazingFILMporg - 5/9/2023, 6:25 PM
@Tonic24k -


It's crazy to type out a comment like that. No other studio comes close to Disney when he was their leader. Literally no studio comes close.



I just don't understand his logic. He might be sour that Iger is pushing back against disantis?
StSteven
StSteven - 5/9/2023, 8:11 PM
@AmazingFILMporg - I've been saying this same thing quite a bit since Iger came back (although in my case probably MUCH lengthier and unnecessarily sprawling), and I'm glad that other folks are acknowledging that the vast majority of the issues that people have had with Disney recently, particularly the MCU, are as a result of his poor leadership (and Alonso apparently was making things worse). I mean, it's not hard to see the timeline here (granted in Alonso's case she had been in her position since the MCU began).

Chapek was I believe the former president of Disney Parks, and he was a numbers guy (kinda like Zaslav) brought in after Iger retired to keep the success that they currently had going continue AND also helm the launch of D+ (a rather daunting task for anyone I'm sure). And his approach was to take what been successful (i.e. the MCU) and to just generate more of it, and we saw what happened.

It's similar to how if a restaurant comes up with a particular cut of meat (say Angus steak) that seems to be very popular and then suddenly they have 6 different versions of it, burgers, tacos, etc. It's all business to them. And if you have someone like Feige (who would be the head chef in this scenario) speak up and say "Um, maybe we shouldn't be doing this" you have Chapek who comes back with "Shut up and go crank out some Angus sliders!". One is about the dollar signs, the other is about the quality of the material. Hence, quantity over quality.

Iger has always been a big Feige fan and I think (hope/pray) that now that he's back Feige will be able to get back to doing what he does best and not have to oversee like 6 different Marvel productions at the same time. Hence, quality over quantity.
StSteven
StSteven - 5/9/2023, 8:23 PM
@AmazingFILMporg @Tonic24k - Iger is generally considered to be one of the most successful and sharpest businessmen in the US (if not globally) and (I'm trying to be objective and not get political here) DeSantis picked the wrong company to start a pissing contest with. I understand that DeSantis went after Disney because he was basically did what he did because Disney pissed him off with their response to one of his controversial bills and so he retaliated and now he's in too deep to back down, but man oh man did he pick the wrong fight here. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out in the end, but so far Disney and their cadre of (I'm sure the most expensive lawyers on the planet) have been outstepping him at every turn so far. So if it comes down do DeSantis vs. Iger, my money is on Iger. But as Ken Watanabe said in "Godzilla": "Let them fight".
Tonic24k
Tonic24k - 5/9/2023, 9:13 PM
@StSteven - @AmazingFILMporg - His book is amazing. I highly recommend it. It's also given me so much perspective into my own career. The guy is remarkable.
AmazingFILMporg
AmazingFILMporg - 5/9/2023, 9:25 PM
@Tonic24k - will check it out. He should run for office.🖖🏼
AmazingFILMporg
AmazingFILMporg - 5/9/2023, 9:35 PM
@StSteven -


The only bad move he has made was hiring chaepeck. That's it💪
StSteven
StSteven - 5/9/2023, 10:41 PM
@Tonic24k - Yeah, I've heard great things about his book. I mean, the guy oversaw Disney through their most profitable period EVER (and that's saying a lot for a company that is just turning 100 years old). I am SO glad that Disney offered him whatever it took to get him back, and I can't even imagine how much it cost them. But here you have a great example, from a business perspective (and I'm going to use business jargon here because you sound like someone in industry like myself (even though I really HATE business jargon)), of a company that actually LISTENED to their customers (i.e. us) and identified what could potentially be the start of of a real problem for their brand, particularly their number one profit center (Marvel). So they did a re-org and pivoted from the quantity over quality focus and hopefully we'll all see their ROI with this renewed approach (okay, admittedly I threw some business jargon in there just for the sake of it but you get my point).

Basically, in "Cave-Man" terms: "Old Bob good. New Bob bad. Fire New Bob. Get Old Bob back." And that's what they did. We'll see how it pans out across Phases 5, 6, & 7, but if everything starts to pick up (which GotG Vol.3 is indicating that it is), then I guess they identified the problem and dealt with it in a timely manner, which should be an example for other companies of their size in their same industry. No naming any names. Don't have to at this point.
StSteven
StSteven - 5/9/2023, 10:47 PM
@AmazingFILMporg - Honestly, I don't know how much say Iger had in promoting Chapek to being his replacement. I'm guessing that it was more of a Board of Directors thing, where they were looking for someone who could they thought could juggle the monetary aspect of it with their burgeoning streaming service and I'm assuming that Chapek had a good record of profitably with the parks. I doubt the Iger was able to single-handedly able to name his successor. But I don't really know. That's just how big corps like Disney usually work. Just like "Who fired Chapek?" Wasn't Iger. So it had to be the BoD. Just my guess.
GhostDog
GhostDog - 5/9/2023, 2:07 PM
CoHost
CoHost - 5/9/2023, 2:08 PM
The Marilyn Monroe of our time. Both even studied at the same acting school.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 5/9/2023, 2:21 PM
@CoHost - let’s hope ScarJo has enough sense to avoid the Kennedy’s 🤷‍♂️
PartyKiller
PartyKiller - 5/9/2023, 2:58 PM
@CoHost - More like the Cheryl Ladd of our time.
MaxPaint
MaxPaint - 5/9/2023, 3:59 PM
@CoHost - More like Sophia Loren for me.
McMurdo
McMurdo - 5/9/2023, 5:02 PM
@CoHost - wtf
NoAssemblyReqd
NoAssemblyReqd - 5/9/2023, 2:19 PM
If they hadn’t confirmed that Yelena got blipped, we could have gotten some of their further adventures during the 5 years after Infinity War.
VictorAlonzo
VictorAlonzo - 5/9/2023, 2:27 PM
Extra 20 million💵 for complaining over a 💩 film? 😐






Poor thing... 🙄
Tonic24k
Tonic24k - 5/9/2023, 5:35 PM
@VictorAlonzo - Was definitely not a shit film... It wasn't top 10...but definitely not a shit film. These complaints are pretty dramatic.

Also, she didn't "complain". She took issue with how the pandemic affected her contract because otherwise, the D+ release would have severely diminished her compensation. And it was handled rather amicably between both parties.
VictorAlonzo
VictorAlonzo - 5/9/2023, 5:55 PM
@Tonic24k - thank you for giving me my opinion! 😃 Can you remind me: which scene was my favorite?
Tonic24k
Tonic24k - 5/9/2023, 9:11 PM
@VictorAlonzo - You didn't position it as your opinion, did you? Nope
VictorAlonzo
VictorAlonzo - 5/10/2023, 6:26 AM
@Tonic24k -
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