Disney’s unprecedented public move in Scarlett Johansson battle

The entertainment giant just made an unusual public move in its public legal battle with Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson.

Disney is opening up about Black Widow’s streaming numbers amid its ongoing legal battle with Marvel star Scarlett Johansson.

In a court filing last Friday, the company revealed that the film has made more than $170 million in streaming and online revenue as of August 15. Black Widow was made available to Disney+ subscribers for $34.99 via its Premier Access tier on July 9, the same day the Marvel film hit theatres. It also made over $500 million at the box office worldwide so far, placing Black Widow’s total earnings closer to the $700 million mark.

Disney added that Black Widow’s opening weekend performance was “more than other Marvel Cinematic Universe films, including Thor: The Dark World; Ant-Man; Ant-Man and the Wasp; and Guardians of the Galaxy”.

The star is suing Disney for an alleged loss of earnings. Picture: Jay Maidment

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Although Disney+ rarely discloses exact streaming numbers, the company made an exception in hopes of settling its legal dispute with Johansson. On July 29, the Black Widow star filed a lawsuit against Disney, alleging that the company “intentionally induced Marvel’s breach of agreement, without justification, in order to prevent [her] from realising the full benefit of her bargain with Marvel.”

According to the complaint, Johansson’s representatives attempted to renegotiate her contract after learning about the simultaneous release strategy for Black Widow, but both Disney and Marvel were unresponsive. Sources told The Wall Street Journal that Johansson lost over $68 million because of the Disney+ release, a claim Disney is clearly trying to mitigate with these new revelations about streaming revenue.

The Walt Disney Company blasted Johansson’s lawsuit as having “no merit whatsoever” back in July, and has since demanded that the lawsuit be moved behind closed doors.

Disney have publicly hit back at Johansson’s claims. Picture: Marvel

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“Why is Disney so afraid of litigating this case in public?” Johansson’s lawyer, John Berlinski, said in a statement to CNN Business.

“Because it knows that Marvel’s promises to give Black Widow a typical theatrical release ‘like its other films’ had everything to do with guaranteeing that Disney wouldn’t cannibalise box office receipts in order to boost Disney+ subscriptions,” Berlinski continued. “Yet, that is exactly what happened – and we look forward to presenting the overwhelming evidence that proves it.”

This story originally appeared on Decider and is republished here with permission.

Originally published as Disney’s unprecedented public move in Scarlett Johansson battle