Last week, we found out that Disney and Scarlett Johansson had come to a settlement agreement over the Black Widow star's breach of contract lawsuit, and there's a chance the success of another Marvel Studios movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, may have played a part.
Johansson claimed that Disney basically decided to sacrifice Black Widow's full box office potential by sending the Cate Shortland-directed MCU adventure to streaming and theaters simultaneously, and the fact that Shang-Chi - which skipped a Disney+ release for a theatrical-only run - performed so well may have given the actress the leverage she needed to force a settlement.
According to industry insider Matthew Belloni (via Puck News), “It didn’t help Disney’s overall cause that Shang-Chi, a ‘lesser’ Marvel title starring a largely unknown actor that was released over the usually dormant Labor Day weekend, has stormed past Black Widow at the box office. The difference? Shang-Chi was a theatrical exclusive, of course."
It's certainly a valid point. While Black Widow still did pretty well all things considered, the movie would almost certainly have grossed more and not suffered such a massive second-week drop if audiences were unable to stream it from home. The argument that a film featuring Natasha Romanoff should hypothetically perform better than the big-screen debut of a lesser-known character may also hold some weight, but MCU fans' excitement to get a glimpse into the future of this shared world (Black Widow was a prequel, after all) needs to be taken into account.
What do you guys make of this? Do you agree with Belloni's assessment? Drop us a comment down below.
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.