A few days ago we once again had to realise that the film industry just doesn't seem to have the ability to learn from their mistakes.
In 2014 when the Sony hack exposed that A-list actresses Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence got considerably less for American Hustle than their male co-stars, public apologies and "we will do better"s followed.
In 2018 when it was revealed that 4-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams got a salary for the reshoots of All The Money In the World, that was 0.07% of what her male co-star, Mark Wahlberg got for the same reshoots, public apologies and "we will do better"s followed.
And now here we are in 2021 and the biggest female movie star on the planet has to sue the studio she made 9 films with because in spite of their history, shared success and all the billions of dollars their films made, the studio still thought they can get away with screwing her out of her bonuses. Let's keep in mind that this is what this major studio dares to pull on a global movie star, imagine what they do to the contracts of relative unknowns, off-screen talent and non-creative staff.
While I don't think this lawsuit will have a big impact on how the theatrical window / streaming release patterns have been changing lately, I absolutely think it will have a big impact on how studios will treat their talent from now on. When Warner Bros. announced that their 2021 feature lineup will be available on HBO Max the same day, they knew what had to be done and they did it : reached out to the reps of the major talent behind those films and negotiated pre-release bonuses for them to make up for the lack of BO-related bonuses that the same day streamer releases clearly annihilated. Denzel Washington got his bonus, Gal Gadot got her bonus and the list goes on.
Disney should have done exactly the same for the talent behind the feature films they put on Disney+. They didn't because they are infamously cheap and big enough to think they can get away with it. They most likely will not. Disney is about to find out that they can’t expect to win a war they started by not honouring their contract with one of their biggest stars and further fuelled by having the audacity to attempt to shame her into submission with the pandemic.
What Disney got very consciously wrong in order to turn the public opinion against Johansson, is this : the lawsuit doesn’t claim the pandemic is their fault, but that Disney+ side hustle of theirs that is pure profit for them while screws over theatres and talent, IS definitely their fault. Nobody demanded a 12-week window but a Paramount-style 45 days would have been more than warranted and as the leggy run of A Quiet Place 2 proved, it would have been actually the wise decision, too. Unless of course boosting their streamer service had been more important for Disney all along than doing right by their talent and the theatrical business that was in dire need of an exclusive run of a film of Black Widow’s stature. F9 was granted an exclusive theatrical run and will probably end around 700M worldwide. Considering that F9 had bad reviews, a weaker brand than Marvel and less of a four-quadrant quality than Black Widow, had latter gotten an exclusive theatrical run, it would have most likely made at least that 700M and probably a lot more. At the moment it is looking at 350-400M at best.
Based on their statement released last week, CAA is already officially on Johansson's side. They do represent pretty much everyone on the A-list. Some other A-listers Emma Stone and Emily Blunt are also reportedly considering legal action. Creatives all over town are reportedly supporting Johansson and understand completely that this is all on Disney.
And of course if / when this goes to court, all their dirty laundry will be aired. It will be probably brought up that it is curious how Disney was willing to sacrifice the exclusive theatrical runs of female star vehicles (Mulan, Raya, Cruella, Black Widow, Jungle Cruise (two-hander)) while they kept a theatrical window for male star vehicles (Free Guy, Shang-Chi). And if it turns out that the only male co-lead in those 5 films, Dwayne Johnson, did get a pre-release bonus to make up for the same-day streamer release while the 5 female leads, including 3 A-listers, got nada, that will be only oil to the fire.
It will be probably brought up that their cheapskate ways are nothing new and probably ALL the anecdotes that can be easily proven, will be brought up, as well. The time when Dan Stevens was denied a rental car upgrade that would have accommodated her small children while filming Beauty and the Beast. Or when Lily James couldn’t fly with her mother to the Cinderella premiere because Disney only bought one first-class ticket. Those kind of anecdotes. And with CAA representing so many former and current Disney stars and are now officially on the other side, my guess is they have many, MANY more incredibly embarrassing anecdotes like that about Disney's penny-pinching ways which is all the more ridiculous considering the company assets are worth how much again ? $200B+ ?
Then of course all the inconvenient questions will be asked : if Disney doesn’t even respect the contracts of superstars like Scarlett Johansson, Emma Stone and Emily Blunt and can’t even respect the then-relative-unknown actors who played titular characters in huge hits of theirs (Lily James, Dan Stevens) then what about the rest of their casts and crews ? If this is how they treat their stars how do they treat the supporting players ? The unknown cast members ? The off-screen talent ? The non-creative staff ? What about their contracts and compensations ?
And that will be the moment when Disney will finally realise that they messed with the wrong crowd and they should have never gone to court and they should have just settled out of court, followed WB's example and quickly compensated everyone who had been financially negatively impacted by their Disney+ side hustle, before ALL their talent realised that they were not alone, teamed up and took them to the cleaners.
At this very moment, it is still not too late. Disney CAN still make this all go away. But it will cost them. And it will cost them a lot more now than it would have months ago when they still had the chance to do the right thing.
I guess that will be a lesson learned here. IF they are smart. And you know, considerably less shameless than they were last week when they released that disgusting attempt at a gendered character assassination just because a woman had the nerve to tell them they have to honour the contract they both signed.
They insinuated Johansson was insensitive to the pandemic at a time when Disney was under fire for firing tens of thousands of their employees citing the pandemic as the reason AND at the same time opening their theme parks too early by pandemic standards.
They also insinuated that Johansson should essentially sit down and shut up since she already got a nice upfront pay check worth 20M. Revealing this number was not only unprofessional but clearly a tactic to rile up the public to scream from the rooftops that "she already got 20M ? what else does she want ?" but this whole thing is a lot bigger than just one salary and one woman.
This case is essentially about how major companies have no problem violating the contract of a woman while they would never EVER do that to her male counter-part. Or at least I don't see Disney pulling this nonsense on Robert Downey Jr who reportedly made $50M+ at least 5 times with Marvel movies.
It is not about whether Johansson needs this money or not. She clearly does not. But if she is still owed this money, it should be paid.
It IS that simple.
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