The news about Disney has blown up the last couple of days as Scarlet Johansson filed a lawsuit against Disney for “breach of contract” over their choice to release ‘Black Widow’ simultaneously on Disney+ and in theaters. She claims this will impact her potential earnings from the film.
According to Comicbook.com Dwayne Johnson and his Seven Bucks Productions company “have no intention of battling Disney for any anticipated loss of dollars” from the day-and-date release of Jungle Cruise.”
Johnson has been doing other projects with Disney as of late, including their ‘Behind the Attraction’ series for Disney+. I’m sure he worked out a deal ahead of time given his production company was involved in the “Jungle Cruise” movie.
Now that doesn’t mean that Emily Blunt won’t go after Disney as well. Right now there are rumors from What I’m Hearing newsletter written by former THR editor Matthew Belloni, Emma Stone and Emily Blunt are “weighing their options.” Although Emily Blunt is likely waiting to see how the ‘Jungle Cruise’ performs. It might outperform ‘Black Widow’ but I would be very surprised if it did.
As of now it’s simply rumor about Emma Stone and Emily Blunt, but it is raising eyebrows about how Disney is going to handle deals involving Disney+ moving forward. Contracts for ‘Black Widow’ and ‘Jungle Cruise’ would have been in play before the pandemic as those films were pushed back. It sounds like some of the payment was to be based on box office performance.
Since it has only impacted animated films and female led movies, except for ‘Jungle Cruise’ it would be interesting to know how the contracts applied to other actors and actresses or was it just the women. Because if it was that seems a bit problematic given all the focus Disney has put on diversity and inclusion. But it’s likely just that they were pushing more into female led properties and these ladies got caught up in it.
However, if reports are true, Disney had no problem giving Johnson and his film company options back in May when they were discussing putting “Jungle Cruise” on Disney+ Premier Access.
Johnson may have already gotten an adjusted payout due to “options.”
Who knows, but this could get ugly.
What do you think? Comment and let us know.
Source: Comicbook.com
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