Marvel Studios' Black Widow - Official Teaser Trailer

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by marmalade166, Dec 3, 2019.

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  1. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    Absolutely, but unless she also gets Disney to pay her legal fees, she probably won't see much of that money. I am a bit surprised. Big business will definitely force the public to take legal action before doing the right thing, but a female star of SJ's status is a far cry from Joe Public, and Disney knows she has access to tons of cash and good attorneys. I think this was an oversight on Disney's part rather than a tactic. It will be an expensive oversight.
     
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  2. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Yeah, I think she has a point. 2 years ago when they made the movie and she signed the contract, nobody thought that a worldwide pandemic would shut down most of the theaters in the world. Black Widow was delayed more than a year from theaters, and when it did finally get released, Disney split it between theaters and streaming. As a result, I think Johansson only got half the money she was expecting (which would be much less than the previous Marvel stars received, estimated to be $5M upfront and another $5M-$10M in a percentage of the gross). Robert Downey is said to have made more than $75M for Avengers: Endgame, since he got about $20M upfront and $55M as a percentage of the $2.8 billion dollar gross, but he's an exception at the high end.

    Scarlett Johansson sues Disney over 'Black Widow' streaming release

    Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney over 'Black Widow' Disney+ release - CNN

    Scarlett Johansson Sues Disney Over ‘Black Widow’ Release In Theaters, Disney+ – Deadline

    The 2019 contract wasn't written at a time where a pandemic was a "thing." From now on, I expect all the contracts will be rewritten so it'll say, "by the way, if a pandemic happens and the theaters close, we're going to pay you less money." But the actors' agents won't like that, so they'll say, "if a pandemic happens, we get an automatic bonus of X dollars." It'll be a war between agents and studio execs, with the actors caught in the middle.
     
  3. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    The dirty secret the lawyers point out is that the pandemic is just an excuse at this point. Lots of studios are not doing day-and-date releases. This is about Disney threatening the current business model with streaming. And the day-and-date releases are not the only problem. Giving all the movies away free to subscribers a few months after release is also a problem. WB/HBO Max got slammed by talent half a year ago when they made their streaming decision for this year and I'm surprised it took this long for Disney to start getting similar flak about it. There's no doubt it hurt a lot of other people, but ScarJo is the only one rich and secure enough to take on Disney. And it doesn't hurt that her character was not likely to return in the MCU.
     
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  4. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    As SJ's attorneys allege in their statements and filings, Disney is using the pandemic and theater closures as an excuse to do what they did. "It’s no secret that Disney is releasing films like Black Widow directly onto Disney+ to increase subscribers and thereby boost the company’s stock price – and that it’s hiding behind Covid-19 as a pretext to do so. But ignoring the contracts of the artists responsible for the success of its films in furtherance of this short-sighted strategy violates their rights and we look forward to proving as much in court. This will surely not be the last case where Hollywood talent stands up to Disney and makes it clear that, whatever the company may pretend, it has a legal obligation to honor its contracts.”

    The right thing would have been to renegotiate the contract if the pandemic took them by surprise. The attorneys are alleging this was calculated, but I'm not convinced. Hopefully both parties can avoid going to court if Disney is able to renegotiate after-the-fact. They go to court and the main winners are the lawyers.
     
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  5. Chrome_Head

    Chrome_Head Planetary Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA.
    Unless Disney lawyers decided whatever payout would go to Johansson in the event of a lawsuit would be less than the cost of renegotiating with her.
     
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  6. rikki nadir

    rikki nadir Gentleman Thug

    Location:
    London, UK
    As I believe it was Robin Williams said regarding his voice work in Aladdin, 'When you shake hands with The Mouse, be sure to count your fingers afterwards...'
     
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  7. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    Seems logical enough that if she was going to get a cut of the box office gross, she should get the same cut of the streaming fee gross. Since Widow was not given out free, everyone had to pay for it on Disney Plus. Granted the piracy, password sharing, legal repeat viewing, and people cramming into one living room are earnings-reducing factors that can't be adjusted for.
     
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  8. PH416156

    PH416156 Alea Iacta Est

    Location:
    Europe
    The company insists it "fully complied with Ms. Johansson's contract" and also pointed out that the Premier Access release "has significantly enhanced her ability to earn additional compensation on top of the $20 million she has received to date."

    She got $20M already for Black Widow and god knows how much since 2010. I get that when they started shooting the film, it was a guaranteed mega hit - $1B was a real possibility - but this looks silly for several reasons.

    Burning bridges with Disney doesn't look like the brightest idea, unless she doesn't want to work with them anymore or she was told the Black Widow character won't be seen again.

    Also, she is pushing 40 y.o., and in Hollywood time that's sunset boulevard for a woman's carreer. Gotta leave the door open to any possibility. Or maybe she'll pull a Cameron Diaz and retire at fortysomething.

    Party time for lawyers!
     
  9. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    Disney's statement is assuming the Premier Access hasn't decreased overall revenue for the film, which the theaters have openly disputed. If the whole idea of whether day-and-date streaming reduces a film's total earning power is what gets litigated here, then it will be very interesting.
     
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  10. Matthew

    Matthew Senior Member

    36 is “pushing 40”?
     
  11. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member

    Literally everywhere in the world, absolutely not.

    In Hollywood, yeah. In comparison, Florench Pugh, her co-star, is 25.

    Granted, so was Scarlett when she was making her Marvel debut in Iron Man 2.
     
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  12. Chrome_Head

    Chrome_Head Planetary Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA.
    And isn’t the implication in the after credits scene that
    Pugh’s Yelena will take over as Black Widow? Or just that she’ll be hunting down Clint in his Disney+ series?
     
  13. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member

    It could go either way, but as so often happens, Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames. There are of course exceptions, but I believe the main point is that she'll be hunting Clint (ironically listed under the exceptions as being called his own code-name a grand total of twice throughout the films), not necessarily replacing Natasha.

    Though, if they carry forward with this Young Avengers concept that's been strongly hinted at, mostly via casting at the time, then it's a distinct possibility. Said Hawkeye series is planned to feature Kate Bishop, who became Hawkeye thanks to Cap and Jessica Jones in the comics (thank you Wikipedia!), so we'll see.
     
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  14. Jord

    Jord Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Netherlands
    Taken from another forum but I completely agree:

    This is a particularly depraved response, to be honest:
    “There is no merit whatsoever to this filing,” Disney said in an unusually fiery statement. “The lawsuit is especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

    One that’s so obviously made in bad faith I don’t even know where to begin.
    I mean, here’s Chapek in November 2020 blasting the California Governor for keeping Disneyland closed at the time…. right as the country moved into its worst case and death spike of the entire pandemic. It’s just a disgusting statement, and I’m shocked no one in leadership stopped it.

    https://deadline.com/2020/11/disney-ceo-bob-chapek-blasts-california-gov-shuttered-disneyland-co-sees-park-closed-at-least-through-year-end-1234613869/
     
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  15. Deuce66

    Deuce66 Senior Member

    Location:
    Canada
    Playing whatever angle suits them at the time, shameless really but not surprising.
     
  16. Slackhurst Broadcasting

    Slackhurst Broadcasting Forum Resident

    Location:
    Liverpool
    Johansson's 37 this year. If she signed up today to do a blockbuster movie, it'd quite likely reach screens just in time for her 40th birthday. It's likely also that she'll never again have as big a payday as was promised to her for Black Widow.
     
  17. Chrome_Head

    Chrome_Head Planetary Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA.
    I'm sure the money is a big part of it, but SJ is a multi-millionaire already. It's may be more about holding Disney to their agreed-upon terms.
     
  18. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    If you listen to some celebrities in long podcast interviews, you'll learn that one thing millionaires think about a lot is how to get more money.
     
  19. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    Can someone explain to me what happened from the scene at the end with Natasha waiting for Ross and his caravan to pull up, and then it skips to 2 weeks later where she is meeting the guy who supplies her things and she has some stealth plane? Why did Ross let her go?
     
  20. beatbro

    beatbro Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    My take on it was Ross thought he had Natasha cornered but she wasn't really at that location and was already far away. Ross didn't let her go, she duped him into thinking she was there.
     
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  21. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    How? We see her standing there. She stays behind to "hold them off" so that the other three (Melina, Red Guard, Yelena) can get away, but what made you think she somehow teleported away?

    There was the scene at the beginning where Ross thought he had her trapped in the building, and it was just a relay of some tracker as she was on a boat elsewhere.
     
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  22. beatbro

    beatbro Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    Sorry, my bad! I was thinking about the first scene not the last.
     
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  23. Isaac K.

    Isaac K. Forum Resident

    I don’t remember her status at the beginning of Infinity War, but I figured that she may have gotten some sort of amnesty for taking down a global assassin network.
     
  24. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    That would make sense.
     
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