Actress Scarlett Johansson’s lawyer has accused Disney of launching an “attack against women” and trying to “hide her misconduct” by seeking arbitration in the case of her latest movie, “Black Widow.”
On Saturday, Disney applied to the court to compel Johansson to agree to a private arbitration in the case.
“After initially responding to this litigation with a misogynistic attack against Scarlett Johansson, Disney is now expected to seek to conceal her misconduct through a confidential arbitration proceeding,” John Berlinsky, Scarlett Johansson’s attorney, said in a scathing statement.
In the statement, Berlinsky speculated that “Disney applied for special arbitration because it understands that Marvel’s promise to give “Black Widow” a typical showing in theaters like its other films “had to do with ensuring Disney didn’t break up box office revenues from… In order to promote subscriptions to its platform “Disney Plus”.
He continued, “Disney was well aware of this promise, but nonetheless directed Marvel to violate its pledge, and instead released the film on the Disney Plus streaming service on the same day it was released in cinemas.”
And he added: “But this is exactly what happened, and we look forward to providing the conclusive evidence that proves this.”
Last July, Scarlett Johansson announced that she had started legal proceedings against Disney, claiming in her complaint that the latter’s release of her movie on its digital platform, “Disney Plus” as well as in cinemas at the same time, violated her contract.
Johansson’s compensation suit alleges that her pay was “largely dependent” on the box office earnings of her movie “Black Widow”, which was much lower than expected.
In response to Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit, Disney issued a statement asserting that “there is absolutely no basis for the allegations” and that she “fully complied” with the actress’ contract.
Disney had previously come under fire for disclosing Scarlett Johansson’s $20 million salary for “Black Widow,” a move her agent described as an “attempt to weaponize her success as an artist and businesswoman.”
The movie “Black Widow” is considered one of the films in the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” with the lowest revenue so far, after its global profits amounted to 319.5 million dollars, a number that movie theater owners attribute to its presentation on “Disney Plus”.
The film is the last appearance of Scarlett Johansson in the Marvel films, and it was scheduled to be released in May 2020, but was postponed until last June, and tells the roots of the Russian agent “Natasha Romanov”, before she joined the films of the “Avengers” team. for superheroes.