30th July 2021
The moment news broke that actress Scarlett Johansson was filing a lawsuit against Walt Disney for lost earnings it became apparent that they has messed up royally with regards to the release of Marvel’s Black Widow.
The film generated almost $320 million at the ox office alone, on a budget of appx. £200 million this leaves just $120 million in profits, a small percentage of which was to go to the actress who plays Agent Natasha Romanov.
Had Disney decided against releasing Black Widow on their Disney + Premier Access, the earnings taken at the cinema would have been significantly more. The issue is Piracy. The moment a film “goes digital” you can bet your cinema ticket that will have been copied with millions therefore watching it for free. The decision was made to add it to Disney+ too early and when really they should have perhaps waited until mid August or even early September.
There are arguments against of course. Some suggest that the new Marvel series Hawkeye would have contained spoilers for Black Widow however those that wished to watch Black Widow first could simply have waited or gone to the cinema to watch it.
There are simply no excuses for Disney, they rushed it out in the hope that more would join the Disney+ channel. Whilst we don’t have the data we’re pretty certain the increase based on Black Widow alone would not have outweighed those able to stream it via Piracy websites. One could argue that even cinema can be “cam’d” but even casual watchers try to avoid cam versions if they can, instead waiting for a digital copy to be made.
The case against Disney will likely drag on. The full details of which are with Los Angeles County Superior Court. Johansson was responded to with comments that the lawsuit was “sad and distressing” and that there was “no merit” in the accusations but deep down, Disney will know they messed Black Widow up even despite the current epidemic.
Have you seen these?
