The world was highly surprised when it was announced yesterday that Scarlett Johansson was suing Disney over their Disney Plus release of Black Widow. The case hasn't been tried yet of course but the mega-company has had their chance to fire back, and it looks like this one is going to get messy. While Disney as a massive corporation must get these sorts of threats often, this is very different and their response is questionable.
Johansson has been a part of the company's Marvel Cinematic Universe since the release of Iron Man 2 in 2010, which is of course at this point over ten years. While appearing in many of the franchise's film, including all of their Avengers films, Black Widow has been more or less a background character with not much emphasis on her backstory or her as a person. Though the character does pass away in Avengers: Endgame, she did get her very own solo film in the recently released Black Widow.
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A lot of people were very excited for this film and it was a big success, both critically and commercially. However, people have felt that it's a bit of a filler film, with low stakes as it's a prequel, and should have been released far sooner than it was. It was also subject to many delays. Most of these of course caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that the world is still dealing with. As many cinemas were closed and lockdowns were in place, Disney delayed the release of this film until July 9, 2021 which is over a year after it was meant to come out. It was put on Disney's streaming service Disney Plus while getting released to theatres simultaneously. That is what Johansson is describing as a breach of her contract.
Johansson filed a lawsuit with Los Angeles Superior Court on July 29, stating that the simultaneous release of Black Widow onto their streaming service as well as theatres was a breach of her contract, as her salary was highly dependent on cinema release. Black Widow did still do well at the box office, but not so much when compared to other MCU works. The film being available on a home streaming service also opens up more windows for illegal pirating and sharing. Some sources say that because of this decision, Johansson will have lost close to $50 million.
Because this was only filed recently and the public of course has not seen the exact points of her contract, this situation opens up to a massively bigger picture. There have been many conversations in recent years regarding equal pay, especially in Hollywood. As it stands, the biggest money-makers in the film industry tend to be white men, some of them even Johansson's colleagues in the MCU. The fact that Disney allegedly cost only the second woman to get her own MCU film $50 million isn't sitting right with people.
What's also not sitting right with people is Disney's response. Disney is of course disputing this lawsuit, which means it's likely to get messy. They have said there is no truth to Johansson's claim, and even went so far to bring up the pandemic. In their statement (via Variety), they say it was "especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic."
This is such a serious accusation, as they are essentially saying that Johansson is being greedy and exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic. It also in many ways, comes off as quite hypocritical. Disney as a company themselves has also been accused of exploiting the pandemic and not giving their employees proper support, and these claims have far more merit than the quite harsh statement they've made in response to this lawsuit.
Most companies suffered financial hardships during the pandemic and unfortunately, that did result in layoffs. As sometimes this was forced, it's unfair to call every company who laid people off during the pandemic unethical. However, most of those companies didn't in turn accuse single people of exploiting or disregarding the hardships that came with COVID. Disney as a company laid off over 30,000 of their Disney Parks and experiences employees because of losses due to social distancing closures and regulations. All of this while also opening Disney World on July 11, 2020, during what many would say was the height of the pandemic.
Disney's response to Johansson comes just days after people find out about another huge group of Disney employees losing their jobs. Disney is closing almost all of their Canadian Disney Stores, leaving only two in Toronto open. This means over a dozen store closures by August 18, which will likely result in a few hundred people losing their jobs. Many other Disney Stores have closed throughout 2021, and an article by Insider has interviews with employees who felt abandoned and taken advantage of by the company. Keep in mind most of these store closures haven't even had a real formal announcement from Disney, including the latest batch of closures in Canada.
Part of being a fan of a company is holding them accountable when things need to change. It's also highly unfortunate that Johansson is the one they are battling. Her character in the MCU was one many women look up to, as there aren't many women in the series, and she was in general treated pretty poorly compared to male counterparts despite being part of nine films. This is going to be a messy lawsuit that might go on for a long time, and more things might continue to come out. With the magnitude that Disney has, it will certainly be an uphill battle for Johansson whether she is in the right or not.