Scarlett Johansson‘s lawsuit against Disney back in 2021 may have had something of a happy ending, with the Black Widow actress allegedly accepting $40 million to settle the case against the Mouse House, but the fact that such action had to be taken at all spoke ominous volumes about the state of the entertainment industry, and they’re all coming to the fore now that SAG-AFTRA has officially gone on strike.
Johansson filed the lawsuit against the company two summers ago after it released Black Widow in theaters and on Disney Plus simultaneously, which breached the actor’s contract and resulted in her losing out on a fair shake of her entitled box office bonus, as a simultaneous release would harm the film’s overall box office performance relative to an exclusive theatrical release.
And now that the SAG-AFTRA strike has helped air the entertainment industry’s dirty laundry with regards to streaming residuals, some folks can’t help but notice just how prophetic Johansson’s lawsuit really was.
For many of us, it may have been clear as day that Disney was up to some unsavory decision-making back then, but given that we now know the truth about the trivial amount that writers and actors are paid from streaming residuals (while the suits continue to nab top dollar, of course), to say nothing of how much the situation has been compounded by the streaming service’s content purging, there’s a whole new perspective to Johansson’s brave endeavor, and it seems as though we owe the star more respect than ever.
