The pandemic has affected pretty much all parts of life, hasn't it? Even the simple small treats we'd afford ourselves once in a while have been vastly affected, like going to the cinema. Going to see a movie once in a while seemed like the perfect way to get away. But now with the pandemic, films have been suffering from theatre closures and audience hesitation to return to the familiar dimly lit halls and cushy seats. Perhaps the most obviously affected film by this unfortunate change is Black Widow.
Scarlet Johanssen finally got her own Marvel film, and it kind of flopped. That wasn't a judgement on the quality of the movie though, people who have seen Black Widow on the whole really enjoyed it as it's another MCU addition after all. But due to its double-edged release strategy debuting the film on Disney+ and cinemas at the same time, it underperformed at the box office.
Here is the trailer for Black Widow...
You may know Scarlett Johansson has been out for blood following the Disney+ release because it apparently ate into her profits from the film. Now according to Wall Street Journal (via TheGamer) she's hoping for $100 million from Disney because of this release issue, and Disney's representatives just didn't get back to her.
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Disney has said that after Johansson asked for $100 million (based on the $1.2 billion her legal team says the film would have made in a non-pandemic world and a $20 million starting salary) they just messed up and no one replied. Disney CEO Bob Chapek passed the responsibility of negotiating with Johansson to other employees and miscommunication meant that no one was responding or following up on the actresses' legal team's requests. This is what led to the public handling of the situation that we're seeing now.
As Black Widow only made a total of $372 million in the box office and another $60 million on Disney+ it doesn't seem likely that Johansson is going to get that $100 million. However, this will at least change the way Disney will have to handle dual releases in the future if it wants to try them again, though its most recent MCU addition Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has been far more successful.
Featured Image Credit: MarvelTopics: TV and Film, Marvel