I thought they said earlier (as in before all this legal drama started) starting with Shang Chi and going forward there was going to be a 45 day window between theatrical release and Disney+ release?
Spoilers Black Widow grade and discussion thread
- Thread starter The Nth Doctor
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I'm not sure that's actually a thing or not but would probably have to do more with her suing Disney for millions.
There may be some principle involved but I wouldn't say it's not the money! I'm kind of shocked that these contracts don't cover that. Netflix and Amazon and Hulu, etc. aren't exactly new at this point you would've thought there'd be a clause or something just in case.
Nope - 'Black Widow' was the only MCU film planned to do the Hybrid release. I guess earlier in the year (before the Delta variant really reared its head in the U.S.) they figured by September movie theatre attendance would be back up to near pre-pandemic levels - but it was planned to be 'only in theatres' long before the lawsuit.
Well remember when RDJ got north of 100 million for endgame and infinity war? Most frim the back end?
Alot of actors/actress take a lower wage up front for a % on the back. Granted Hollywood accounting sometimes jerks that around.
Scarlett was banking on her last outing being a billion+ barn burner so took some points on the back. But with covid that went up in smoke, and made worse by D+ same day release.
There probably wasn't anything in the contract for streaming on its own site because it didn't exist when she signed years ago.
Alot of actors/actress take a lower wage up front for a % on the back. Granted Hollywood accounting sometimes jerks that around.
Scarlett was banking on her last outing being a billion+ barn burner so took some points on the back. But with covid that went up in smoke, and made worse by D+ same day release.
There probably wasn't anything in the contract for streaming on its own site because it didn't exist when she signed years ago.
In most early cases, I believe you could treat the streaming deal as equivalent to a syndication contract. The trouble came when the production company owned the streaming platform. Disney+ isn't going to negotiate a fair market deal with Disney Studios for streaming rights. Though, that begs the question why Disney+ isn't treating its premiere access sales the same as those earlier streaming sales to Netflix. It also makes me wonder if network/cable tv show producers should be starting a class action suit against streaming channels that don't pay royalties.
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Interesting: how does the Winter Soldier program (umambogiously HYDRA, ostensibly Soviet, and possibly Leviathan) relate to the Red Room program (possibly HYDRA originally, essentially Soviet, and definitely Leviathan)? The overlap seems implied even with the Red Room's own air carrier and fleet of VTOL aircraft.
HYDRA became the most powerful clandestine organisation on the planet, but it consisted of many cells/chapters worldwide who may have ended up having their own agendas (Alexander Pierce remained a HYDRA loyalist unto death, but influenced heavily by American geopoliticism and not really a Nazi like Red Skull, while Dreykov could've splintered from the parent HYDRA organisation largely because he was a creature of the Kremlin who wanted to "win" a Cold War that ended abruptly).
The growing HYDRA schism on both sides of the falling Iron Curtain came to a head when the Winter Soldier was seized completely from the crumbling Leviathan branch of HYDRA by their US colleagues lurking within SHIELD, while the fully independent Red Room group launched its tit for tat with its theft and destruction of most Winter Soldier assets in the North Institute.
HYDRA became the most powerful clandestine organisation on the planet, but it consisted of many cells/chapters worldwide who may have ended up having their own agendas (Alexander Pierce remained a HYDRA loyalist unto death, but influenced heavily by American geopoliticism and not really a Nazi like Red Skull, while Dreykov could've splintered from the parent HYDRA organisation largely because he was a creature of the Kremlin who wanted to "win" a Cold War that ended abruptly).
The growing HYDRA schism on both sides of the falling Iron Curtain came to a head when the Winter Soldier was seized completely from the crumbling Leviathan branch of HYDRA by their US colleagues lurking within SHIELD, while the fully independent Red Room group launched its tit for tat with its theft and destruction of most Winter Soldier assets in the North Institute.
An alternate ending has been released (really just a deleted scene that gives Nat a different final moment), although only those who've coughed up the dough for the Premier Access can watch it at the moment.
My personal take on the flick:
As a big-time MCU fan, I never thought that the character of Natasha Romanoff cried out for a solo outing. From Iron Man 2 to Endgame, she was mostly just the Responsible Token Female of the ensemble, apart from the deeply odd hint of star-crossed romance with Bruce Banner. Maria Hill, Lady Sif, and (at least until her baffling heel turn in CAatWS) Sharon Carter all seemed like less known, and therefore more intriguing, candidates for the franchise's first female solo outing - not counting TV's Agent Carter or Jessica Jones. (And that's not even mentioning the excellent female characters of Agents of SHIELD!) And now, of course, she doesn't even get that first solo status.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, Black Widow feels about as inessential as an MCU flick can get. There are two big problems here: one, the movie makes a big deal out of Natasha believing in her found Avengers family, even during their post-Civil War split period, but, when she discovers that the quasi-little sister she either thought was dead or willingly still part the Red Room program was in fact only recently freed from its clutches, which were even more restrictive than she knew, instead of feeling overwhelming sympathy for her, as well as guilt over not having sought her out sooner, she barely reacts to their reunion (which, for some reason, involves a badly edited fistfight). If she's all about found families now, and the last time she saw Yelena as a kid, she was fiercely sticking with her, why is she so frosty towards her in the present, except to facilitate snarky banter?
Problem Two is there's no good story reason for Steve Rogers not to be in this flick - she enriched his last two solo outings, so why not have him return the favor? Showing the perpetual leader Cap voluntarily taking a backseat/supporting role to his good friend's personal mission could have been fascinating.
The Russian prison escape was also deeply odd - if Natasha is so concerned about civilian casualties now, why not stealthily extract Alexei Shostakov, rather than cause all kinds of violence and mayhem spectacularly busting him out? That said, once the adoptive family is reunited, the movie finally gets going, and while the flying/helicarrier aspect of the Red Room was completely unnecessary and OTT, it was also fun, and I'm a sucker for Unexpected Cavalry to the Rescue moments.
Ultimately, then, for all its faults, I quite enjoyed the epis - er, movie. As far as solo women-starring superhero flicks go, it's definitely better than the merely watchable Captain Marvel (the weakest MCU film so far), and much better than the mediocre Wonder Woman 1. (Haven't seen Birds of Prey or WW84, and don't plan to.) And while the post-credits stinger is perhaps the franchise's very lamest, I do look forward to more of Florence Pugh's Yelena - ideally with more of Harbour and Weisz in tow, of course!
Grade: B
As a big-time MCU fan, I never thought that the character of Natasha Romanoff cried out for a solo outing. From Iron Man 2 to Endgame, she was mostly just the Responsible Token Female of the ensemble, apart from the deeply odd hint of star-crossed romance with Bruce Banner. Maria Hill, Lady Sif, and (at least until her baffling heel turn in CAatWS) Sharon Carter all seemed like less known, and therefore more intriguing, candidates for the franchise's first female solo outing - not counting TV's Agent Carter or Jessica Jones. (And that's not even mentioning the excellent female characters of Agents of SHIELD!) And now, of course, she doesn't even get that first solo status.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, Black Widow feels about as inessential as an MCU flick can get. There are two big problems here: one, the movie makes a big deal out of Natasha believing in her found Avengers family, even during their post-Civil War split period, but, when she discovers that the quasi-little sister she either thought was dead or willingly still part the Red Room program was in fact only recently freed from its clutches, which were even more restrictive than she knew, instead of feeling overwhelming sympathy for her, as well as guilt over not having sought her out sooner, she barely reacts to their reunion (which, for some reason, involves a badly edited fistfight). If she's all about found families now, and the last time she saw Yelena as a kid, she was fiercely sticking with her, why is she so frosty towards her in the present, except to facilitate snarky banter?
Problem Two is there's no good story reason for Steve Rogers not to be in this flick - she enriched his last two solo outings, so why not have him return the favor? Showing the perpetual leader Cap voluntarily taking a backseat/supporting role to his good friend's personal mission could have been fascinating.
The Russian prison escape was also deeply odd - if Natasha is so concerned about civilian casualties now, why not stealthily extract Alexei Shostakov, rather than cause all kinds of violence and mayhem spectacularly busting him out? That said, once the adoptive family is reunited, the movie finally gets going, and while the flying/helicarrier aspect of the Red Room was completely unnecessary and OTT, it was also fun, and I'm a sucker for Unexpected Cavalry to the Rescue moments.
Ultimately, then, for all its faults, I quite enjoyed the epis - er, movie. As far as solo women-starring superhero flicks go, it's definitely better than the merely watchable Captain Marvel (the weakest MCU film so far), and much better than the mediocre Wonder Woman 1. (Haven't seen Birds of Prey or WW84, and don't plan to.) And while the post-credits stinger is perhaps the franchise's very lamest, I do look forward to more of Florence Pugh's Yelena - ideally with more of Harbour and Weisz in tow, of course!
Grade: B
Disney wants to litigate this case behind closed doors, to which Scarlett's lawyer asked, "why is Disney so afraid to litigate this case in public?"
https://www.google.com/amp/s/deadli...ck-widow-response-arbitration-1234819262/amp/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/deadli...ck-widow-response-arbitration-1234819262/amp/
125 million from Disney+ That pretty much a quarter of what it's made overall, expect it's actually not since Disney don't have to share it with theaters.
Since it's now one of the few big budget releases of this year (or last) that's actually made a profit they should throw some cash her way to make the bad publicity go away.
Since it's now one of the few big budget releases of this year (or last) that's actually made a profit they should throw some cash her way to make the bad publicity go away.
That's not how Disney works. They see the entire year and a half of the COVID-19 crisis as eating into profits they should have had for that time. Their current management is all about profit so they're going to do whatever they can to recoup and maximize whatever profit they see. As they see it Scarlett Johansson was paid a huge salary and she should be happy with what she got. At this point they see it as her taking away profit during a time where they're already hurting in that area.
So no they're going to do their best to make an example of her so that future talent knows their place in the Disney hierarchy.
I finally got to see this movie this week and - being rather late to the thread - I won't go into a super-detailed review that I'm sure would echo lots of other people's observations but I do have to say that I really, really enjoyed this film. Far more than I expected to based on the trailers and my previous interest in Natasha as a character.
It doesn't quite crack my MCU top 10, but that's only because it (appropriately for the character) doesn't really feel like a superhero movie to me and my heart belongs to the superhero stuff first and foremost. What it does feel like, imo, is very much a sort of mcu version of a Bond film. And as a 'Bond' film, I think it's incredibly well made, great action, lots of fun and one of my favorites of that genre.
It doesn't quite crack my MCU top 10, but that's only because it (appropriately for the character) doesn't really feel like a superhero movie to me and my heart belongs to the superhero stuff first and foremost. What it does feel like, imo, is very much a sort of mcu version of a Bond film. And as a 'Bond' film, I think it's incredibly well made, great action, lots of fun and one of my favorites of that genre.
Having finally seen it for myself - at the cinema - and already being unhappy about Endgame, I will never fault Ms. Johansson for that choice.
Downey's threat to walk back then covered Johansson, too.
As I thought would happen Disney decided that coughing up the extra cash was better than suffering the reputational damage.
https://deadline.com/2021/09/disney-black-widow-lawsuit-scarlett-johansson-rsettlement-1234847437/
https://deadline.com/2021/09/disney-black-widow-lawsuit-scarlett-johansson-rsettlement-1234847437/
Good.
Now do the authors.
Now do the authors.
If SJ truly thought this was an ethical issue, she would have fought for others besides herself; but maybe she did and I am judging hastily.
Disney probably realize they didn't have much of a defense to go with given the nature of the contract and what they changed with respect to the release of the film. 90+% of all lawsuits like this settle, and that they came to an agreement is no surprise whatsoever and probably better for everyone involved in the long run.
Not like Disney will hurt for the money. Despite complaints no one stops buying.
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