Cinema: Scarlett Johansson attacks Disney for the streaming release of "Black Widow"
American actress Scarlett Johansson.
AFP - VALERIE MACON
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
It is perhaps the end of a story that will have lasted 9 films, from 2010 to today.
Scarlett Johansson sues Disney.
The star, who plays Natasha Romanoff in the Marvel Universe, criticizes the studio for not respecting its contract by releasing its blockbuster
Black Widow
both in the cinema and on the Disney + platform, her salary being linked to the film's performances in theaters. .
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With our correspondent in Los Angeles,
Loïc Pialat
On the weekend of its US release on July 9,
Black Widow
grossed $ 80 million in theaters and $ 60 million on Disney +.
The film is rented for $ 30 on the platform and unlike theaters, Disney does not have to share the proceeds with the exhibitors.
Obviously, the strategy does not appeal to these same operators, but it did not delight Scarlett Johansson, the heroine of the film, either.
Like many other stars in Hollywood, the actress' contract includes a percentage of box office results.
The practice makes it possible to reduce the budget of large productions.
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50 million dollars in shortfall
Except that this practice does not take into account the rise of streaming, a recent phenomenon, accelerated by the pandemic.
In Scarlett Johansson's case, the shortfall would amount to $ 50 million, according to the
Wall Street Journal.
Disney says it has thought of spectators preferring to stay at home because of the Covid-19 and denounces an action "
sad and regrettable, with total disregard for the effects of the pandemic
".
This lawsuit could snowball in Hollywood, where studios seek to enhance their streaming platform, sometimes in defiance of theaters.
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Thus, Warner Bros. also opted for parallel releases in theaters and on its HBO Max platform in 2021. But the studio quickly renegotiated the contracts of its main stars and paid tens of millions of dollars in compensation.
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