A legal battle between Walt Disney and Scarlett Johansson over the distribution of the Marvel superhero film Black Widow has been resolved.
Johansson filed a lawsuit against Disney two months ago, alleging that it violated her contract by releasing the film on its Disney+ streaming service while it was still in theatres. She claimed that the ruling deprived her of prospective revenue. The arrangement between Disney and Johansson is still being worked out.
Johansson also expressed her delight at having addressed her problems with the entertainment mogul and expressed her eagerness to work with him again in the future. Johansson played the Russian assassin-turned-Avenger superhero Black Widow in the film, and she has now appeared in nine Marvel flicks.
In July, she filed a complaint in Los Angeles County Superior Court. It said that she was assured that Black Widow would be a “theatrical release” by Marvel Studios, which is controlled by Disney.
She took this to suggest that a “window” of time would pass before it was streamed, which she stated had historically lasted 90 days.
Black Widow, which opened in theatres and on Disney+ on July 9th, established a box office record for a movie during the coronavirus pandemic in its first weekend, grossing $218 million (£161 million), although box office receipts dropped drastically after that.
According to the film tracking firm Box Office Mojo, it has now grossed more than $378 million worldwide.
In its first 20 days of release, the picture also made nearly $60 million in streaming purchases, according to Disney.
Several major Hollywood studios chose to circumvent cinemas, which had been shuttered in many cases, and instead broadcast films online throughout the pandemic.
Now that most theatres have reopened, Disney and Warner Bros. have decided to continue with their dual release plan for their blockbuster pictures.
In 2018 and 2019, Johansson led Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s highest-paid actresses, with pre-tax earnings believed to have reached $56 million in the year to June 2019.
