Former Disney CEO Bob Iger recently discussed the lawsuit over Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow.
In the entertainment industry, COVID has made a huge impact with studios now releasing films on streaming services and bypassing theaters completely. Black Widow was one of the biggest movies to receive a simultaneous release. Bob Iger might’ve exited Disney, but he still played a role in the decision to send it to streaming. The move notably resulted in a lawsuit from Scarlett Johansson over her pay.
A settlement was eventually reached between Scarlett Johansson and Disney. In the aftermath, former Disney CEO Bob Iger talked about the Black Widow situation with The New York Times:
“That’s a very good question. Rather than be specific about her, who I like a lot personally, and I think she’s really talented. Everything is changing really fast. It’s incredible what technology is doing to disrupt existing businesses, business models, business practices, including how people get paid. All of a sudden, we get to a point where digital media really transforms the movie business. And many films, which at one point— and we can put Covid aside, but at one point would have just gone through that process. Go to the big theater first, and then they immediately go to streaming. They skip all those steps.”
Bob Iger continued to explain more about the changing landscape and the decision to release Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow on Disney Plus alongside a theatrical release:
“So there, the digital streamer— Netflix or Disney— typically is paying a flat fee for the film, right? And then, it stays on that platform sometimes forever, meaning it doesn’t have any other life. So the revenue that is associated with it, one, is very different in terms of where it comes from. But two, it’s not like there’s direct revenue attributed to that film… So the whole industry right now is struggling to contend with how people are paid in this new world order. And what was happening with Scarlett was that there was a— first of all, Covid was really disrupting what already was a business that was being disrupted. And so first, the decision was made to delay, delay, delay, then ultimately, the decision was made to skip the movie theaters, then go directly to service. And obviously, that created tension.”
Here is the synopsis for Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow:
In Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller “Black Widow,” Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.
Directed by Cate Shortland from a script written by Eric Pearson based on a story by Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson, the Marvel film stars Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, O-T Fagbenle, Olga Kurylenko, Ray Winstone, Olivier Richters, and Rachel Weisz.
Black Widow is available on home media formats and Disney Plus. Stay tuned to Heroic Hollywood for all the latest news surrounding Bob Iger and the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
Source: The New York Times
