Scarlett Johansson apparently made $40 million from her Black Widow lawsuit agreement with Disney. Johansson surprised Hollywood soon after the long-awaited launch of Natasha Romanoff’s first solo film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She moved to sue Disney because the studio opted to release Black Widow in theatres and on Disney+ as a Premier Access film at the same time. According to the Black Widow complaint, Disney’s action violated Johansson’s contract, causing her to lose up to $50 million.
In the public spotlight, the Black Widow legal drama became acrimonious, with Johansson’s lawyers and Disney executives issuing a flurry of strongly phrased comments. Due to the seriousness of COVID-19 and the fact that she was already paid $20 million to star in and produce Black Widow, Disney sought at one time to make Johansson look like the bad guy in this circumstance. However, the majority of Hollywood and outside onlookers agreed with Johansson. After Johansson and Disney decided to resolve their disputes before the matter went to court, the Black Widow lawsuit is officially over.
The parameters of the deal between Johansson and Disney were not initially released, but Deadline has now disclosed how much money the Black Widow star received from Disney. According to the report, Disney will pay Johansson $40 million to settle the claim. Johansson is apparently not going to get the entire cash in one go, but will instead be paid in installments by Disney.
Johansson’s $40 million settlement from the Black Widow case is a significant victory for the former MCU actress. The $50 million in lost earnings cited by Johansson’s team was done depending on how well the film would do at the box office in a non-pandemic scenario. Black Widow has so far grossed $387 million at the box office, but Premier Access sales on Disney+ are expected to boost the film’s total well beyond $500 million. That’s still a lot less than what Black Widow was projected to make before COVID-19. Johansson is a huge celebrity who could have helped the film become the latest $1 billion MCU smash. Disney appears to be compensating Johansson as though the film met those expectations.
Now that Johansson has gotten the big paycheck she deserved for Black Widow, everything involving her and Disney should be easy sail from here. She’s still slated to appear in Disney’s Tower of Terror film, which leaves the door for Johansson to reprise her role as Black Widow in the MCU in the future. Moreover, Johansson’s $40 million Black Widow deal may assure that Disney pays its stars more fairly in the future, something that already appeared to be in the works with Emma Stone agreeing to film Cruella 2 and Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt planning their Jungle Cruise 2 comebacks. According to Screen Rant.
