Black Widow

[GeneChing]

JANUARY 10, 2018 3:00PM PT
Marvel’s Standalone ‘Black Widow’ Movie Gains Momentum With Jac Schaeffer Writing
By Justin Kroll @krolljvar J
Film Reporter


CREDIT: COURTESY OF FILM FRAME/MARVEL

Marvel is finally pushing ahead with the highly anticipated “Black Widow” standalone movie starring Scarlett Johansson, with Jac Schaeffer penning the script.

Sources say this is still very early development, as the film has no greenlight, but naming a writer is the closest the studio has come to moving forward on a standalone pic. Marvel President Kevin Feige met with several candidates before tapping Schaeffer, and Marvel execs met with Johansson to discuss what they wanted from a “Black Widow” writer.

Schaeffer is an up and coming scribe who broke out with her Black List script “The Shower,” a comedy about an alien invasion during a baby shower which caught the eye of Anne Hathaway, who quickly attached herself to star in the pic.

Hathaway was so impressed with her work that she soon tapped Schaeffer to write “Nasty Women,” a new female-centric take on “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” that also stars Hathaway.

Marvel had no comment.

Fans of the character have been pushing for her to get own movie since she first appeared in “Iron Man 2” and with the latest phase of Marvel films coming to a close, Marvel saw this as the best time to move forward with the project.

Johansson has appeared as the character in six films, the next one being this summer’s “Avengers: Infinity War.”

Schaeffer is repped by Verve and Writ Large.

Surprised this is taking so long...

[@PLUGO]

Origin story flashback to the Soviet era

Possible romance with Dare Devil???

[David Jamieson]

Origin story flashback to the Soviet era

Possible romance with Dare Devil???

Yeah Man! These two were an item in the comic books at one time.
I remember them being in a few together back when I was a kid.

[Jimbo]

Black Widow started out as a super-villainess, against Iron Man as well as Spider-Man. The first time I heard of her was way back in The Amazing Spider-Man #86. I still have that issue in storage; I wonder how much it's worth.

In the mid-'70s they made her a heroine and teamed her with Daredevil. IIRC, she had co-billing with DD in his own magazine (similar to Captain America and the Falcon).

[@PLUGO]

According to the Hollywood Reporter . . .

The search saw Marvel meet with over 70 potential directors. Marvel Studios’ Black Widow standalone movie has its director. Cate Shortland, the Australian director perhaps best known for the Nazi drama Lore, has signed on to direct Black Widow, Marvel’s action-adventure project that will star Scarlett Johansson.

The move caps off a search that lasted over half-year as the studio met with over 70 directors in order to find its ideal candidate. A female filmmaker was the priority even as the search stalled at one point and the studio looked at male directors.

The hunt narrowed in June with Amma Asante (Belle, A United Kingdom) and Maggie Betts (Novitiate) being the finalists alongside Shortland. Melanie Laurent (Galveston) and Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry) were also in the next-to-final mix.

Shortland, who does not have agency representation, had a fan in Johansson, who pushed for the helmer. The actress admired Shortland’s handling of the female lead in Lore, a critically acclaimed 2012 drama that tells of a young woman who leads her siblings through Germany as the Allied army rolls in. Her most recent film is Berlin Syndrome, a 2017 thriller that stars Teresa Palmer.

Jac Schaeffer wrote the most recent draft for Widow. She also wrote the upcoming femalecentric remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Nasty Women.

Johansson’s Widow is reportedly set before the events of the first Avengers movie and sees the actress reprise the Russian spy turned super heroine. The movie will be Marvel’s second female-focused film after Captain Marvel, which is due to open March 8.

[GeneChing]

OCTOBER 11, 2018 6:15am PT by Tatiana Siegel, Borys Kit
Scarlett Johansson Lands $15 Million Payday for Black Widow Movie



That salary is what Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth each earned for playing Captain America and Thor, respectively, in this year's 'Avengers: Infinity War.'

Stick around the Marvel Cinematic Universe long enough and you'll start to make real money.

Scarlett Johansson, who has appeared in six movies as Black Widow, is finally landing a $15 million payday for an upcoming stand-alone film centered on the Marvel superheroine, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

That salary is what Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth each earned for playing Captain America and Thor, respectively, in this year’s Avengers: Infinity War. Evans and Hemsworth also nabbed that same $15 million payday for Captain America: Civil War and Thor: Ragnarok, respectively, as well as the upcoming fourth Avengers film.

Marvel typically doesn't open up its wallet for first outings — Robert Downey Jr. included, as he took home only $500,000 for the first Iron Man. Johansson pulled down a low-seven figure salary for the first Avengers movie in 2012 (compared to Downey's $50 million) after making her debut in 2010's Iron Man 2. Still, Chadwick Boseman nabbed a seven-figure paycheck to star in Black Panther ($2 million, according to sources, which well tops Downey's first showing). Boseman's salary is expected to go up significantly for a Black Panther sequel. And Brie Larson, whose Oscar win for 2015's Room figures into her deals, will be paid some $5 million for next year's Captain Marvel movie (Larson landed a generous payday but in exchange signed a seven-picture deal that locks her into multiple franchises.)

Although the numbers would be astronomical, even debilitating, for most studios, they make sense when factoring in the appeal of Marvel movies, now 10 years into their cinematic universe. While talent deals add to more than $100 million of Infinity War's budget, it helps business affairs executives sleep easier knowing each Avengers movie easily crosses the $1 billion worldwide mark, with Infinity War grossing an astounding $2 billion. And Marvel typically allows its actors to share in the upside of a film, including bonuses of up to several million dollars based on the film's performance.

Multiple knowledgable sources confirmed Johansson's Black Widow pay figure to THR. A Marvel spokesperson, in response to this story, said in a statement: "Marvel Studios disputes the accuracy of these numbers, and as a matter of policy, we never publicly disclose salaries or deal terms."

Ultimately, it appears that Evans, who announced that Avengers 4 will be his last film as Captain America, is leaving while the going is good.

She's worth it for this. Maybe even more. This will do well, guaranteed.

[GeneChing]

THREADS
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[GeneChing]

[GeneChing]

I wouldn't bet on this right now. There's still plenty of time to push it back.

ENTERTAINMENT
‘Black Widow’ isn’t delayed, but MCU Phase 4 could still be in trouble
MCU Phase 4 Timeline
By Chris Smith @chris_writes
March 12th, 2020 at 3:19 PM



Marvel’s Black Widow will launch on May 1st in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly because Disney can’t really afford to delay any of its movies and TV series. Postponing Black Widow might delay other shows since all the stories are connected.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a limited TV series for Disney+, should follow in August, but the coronavirus outbreak already has had an impact on the show’s production.
Similarly, other MCU Phase 4 TV series that are in production might be affected by delays caused by the new disease.
Watching a brand new movie in cinemas might be a thing of the past until the coronavirus pandemic is under control, at least in those regions seeing a surge in daily infections. Sony is one of the tech giants that’s been among the first to withdraw from events that draw plenty of crowds, including MWC, PAX East, and GDC, to minimize COVID-19 transmission risks. Avoiding large gatherings of people is one of the things you can do to protect yourself against infection, and Sony is acutely aware of that. It’s also very aware that the coronavirus will have a significant impact on certain sectors of the economy and its bottom line, and the company is already taking measures to protect its business. The company delayed two movie releases, including the brand new James Bond as well as Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway. The delay of No Time to Die was particularly surprising, given that it’s one of the most highly anticipated films of the year.

Not all studios can afford to do the same thing with their upcoming 2020 creations, and that includes Disney’s Marvel. Earlier this week, Marvel released the final trailer for Black Widow, reiterating plans to release the first MCU Phase 4 flick on May 1st, as previously announced. Unlike Sony, which might have plenty of wiggle room with its movie releases, Disney might be forced to go forward with Marvel movies regardless of any potential financial hit.

As I explained before, Disney has no choice but to launch Black Widow on schedule, and the same goes for The Eternals in November. That’s because the films are just two titles of the 14 MCU Phase 4 stories scheduled to be released in 2020 and 2021, of which two more are supposed to launch on Disney+ later this year.
Black Widow will be followed by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in August, with WandaVision set to start streaming at some point this winter after Eternals hits theaters. All these stories are intertwined, and Marvel has to release them in order. Events from Black Widow might ripple through Falcon as well as other films and TV series. That same goes for each title that follows the standalone Black Widow film.

Black Widow would easily conquer the box office during its launch weekend, but the coronavirus might hurt its overall take. Even so, the film is tracking for a huge opening weekend — $90 to $130 million, an estimate says. Things could change down the road but no matter what happens, Black Widow will surely open on May 1st.
That said, the coronavirus might still ruin the MCU going forward, and I’m not even referring to Disney’s bottom line. Plenty of the upcoming MCU Phase 4 films are in pre-production or shooting right now, and the pandemic might significantly affect some or all of them. One such example is The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Disney has just halted shooting in Prague over coronavirus fears, as Deadline reported:

The show has been shooting for months in Atlanta, but they began a short shoot in Prague last Friday that was to be completed in about a week. Today, the studio shut down the production and called everybody home to Atlanta. No word at the moment whether the show will return to Prague, but it seems unlikely.

The same might happen with other TV series that are in the works, especially if they’re shooting in places where local governments have started enforcing stricter rules and restrictions. Any such delays might force Disney to delay the actual launch of the Marvel series on Disney+.


Image Source: YouTube

Not to mention that there’s always the chance that some of the stars involved in these huge Marvel projects, as well as the crew working on them, could get infected. Anyone testing positive for COVID-19 will have to be quarantined in a hospital until they recover.

If that’s not enough, there’s even a rumor going around that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier plot would have featured a pandemic threat. That’s something Disney has removed from the script over the actual novel coronavirus outbreak, which has just been declared a pandemic — from MurphysMultiverse’s report from a few weeks ago:

By the time The Falcon and The Winter Soldier streams in August, it is likely that the disease will have met the criterion to be considered a true pandemic (the last global pandemic was the H1N1 virus which killed as few as 151,000 and as many as 575,000 people worldwide, according to the CDC). From what I’ve been hearing, Disney may be proactively trying to get ahead of what could be a potential disaster for the studio by rewriting and, as a result, reshooting parts of the series, with a heavy emphasis on the season’s first couple of episodes.

Given all the significant connections between all these movies, and considering Black Widow is already locked, there may be elements in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier script that can’t be altered too much. But it’s absolutely clear that the coronavirus will have an impact on this Disney+ original show, and the pandemic might similarly affect other Phase 4 TV series set to start streaming next year.

Aside from the two TV series scheduled to hit the streaming service in 2020, eight other MCU Phase 4 shows should launch on Disney+ next year, starting with Loki in early 2021. And if Black Widow does get delayed, we might see all other Phase 4 pushed back accordingly.



Chris Smith started writing about gadgets as a hobby, and before he knew it he was sharing his views on tech stuff with readers around the world. Whenever he's not writing about gadgets he miserably fails to stay away from them, although he desperately tries. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

THREADS
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covid-19

[GeneChing]

BOX OFFICE MARCH 17, 2020 10:07AM PT
‘Black Widow’ Release Pulled Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
By REBECCA RUBIN
News Editor, Online
@https://twitter.com/rebeccaarubin


CREDIT: COURTESY OF MARVEL

Disney’s “Black Widow” is the latest tentpole to shift its release date because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Marvel superhero adventure, starring Scarlett Johansson, was slated to hit theaters May 1. The studio also pulled “The Personal History of David Copperfield,” the Dev Patel-led drama from its Searchlight banner, and Amy Adams’ “The Woman in the Window,” a 20th Century title, which were supposed to debut May 8 and April 15, respectively. It’s unclear when any of the films will be released.

Disney has already delayed “Mulan,” “The New Mutunts” and “Antlers,” but held off on postponing “Black Widow” in hopes that it wouldn’t have to scrap another big film. But the move was inevitable since movie theaters in multiple states, including New York, New Jersey Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington, have been ordered to close. Only AMC Theatres has given a timeline on how long its locations might be closed, estimating six to 12 weeks for venues nationwide.

Multiple studios have pulled movies in wake of coronavirus, including Universal’s “Fast & Furious “entry “F9,” MGM’s James Bond installment “No Time to Die” and Paramount’s “A Quiet Place 2.”

Theaters across North America aren’t entirely shuttered yet, but exhibitors expect that could happen soon. Multiplexes in China, Japan, Italy and other areas greatly impacted by the novel virus have seen mass closures, resulting in billions of dollars in lost revenues. On Sunday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that public gatherings involving more than 50 people be called off for the next eight weeks.

While an exact budget for “Black Widow” has not been revealed, Marvel movies typically cost somewhere in between $150 million and $200 million. In addition to Johansson, “Black Widow” also stars Florence Pugh, David Harbour, O-T ***benle, William Hurt, Ray Winstone, and Rachel Weisz. It was directed by Cate Shortland, and follows Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff in the events after “Captain America: Civil War.”

THREADS
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[GeneChing]

BY KYLIE HEMMERT ON SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

Black Widow Release Date Pushed Along With Eternals, Shang-Chi & More!


Walt Disney Studios has announced new release schedules for a number of movies, including Black Widow, previously dated for November 6, 2020, and now moving to May 7, 2021, and Eternals, previously dated on February 12, 2021, and now scheduled to release on November 5, 2021.

Death on the Nile has shifted to December 18, 2020, moving back from its October 23, 2020 release. The Empty Man has moved up to the October 23, 2020 release from its December 4, 2020 slot, and Shang Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings will now release on July 9, 2021, from its original release date of May 7, 2021. An Untitled Disney Event Film that was previously dated for July 9, 2021 has been removed from the schedule.

Additionally, Deep Water will now release on August 13, 2021, moving back from its November 13, 2020 release date, with West Side Story moving back to December 10, 2021, from its previous release date of December 18, 2020. The King’s Man will now premiere on February 12, 2021, moving up from its February 26, 2021 release date. An Untitled 20th Century film previously dated on August 13, 2021 has been removed from the schedule.

Eternals will now open against Paramount Pictures’ Clifford the Big Red Dog, Warner Bros.’ Elvis, and Sony’s untitled Spider-Man: Far From Home sequel. Death on the Nile will open against Paramount’s Coming 2 America and Warner Bros. Dune, while Shang Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings will now open against Universal’s The Forever Purge. The King’s Man will open against Universal’s Marry Me and Paramount PIctures The United States vs. Billie Holiday.

Scarlett Johansson returns as Natasha Romanoff, a spy and assassin who grew up being trained by the KGB before breaking from their grasp and becoming an agent of SHIELD and an Avenger. The film is expected to be set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, but before Avengers: Infinity War.

Black Widow will also feature a star-studded cast including Golden Globe nominee David Harbour (Stranger Things, Hellboy) as Alexei aka The Red Guardian, Florence Pugh (Fighting with My Family) as Yelena Belova, Academy Award-winning actress Rachel Weisz (The Favourite) as Melina and O-T ***benle (The Handmaid’s Tale) as Mason. The movie was directed by Cate Shortland (Lore) from a script written by Jac Schaeffer (The Hustle).

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[GeneChing]

Jul 9, 2021 4:35pm PT
‘Black Widow’s’ China Delay Rings Alarm Bells for Hollywood

By Rebecca Davis


Jay Maidment / Courtesy of Marvel Studios
The U.S. film industry is heaving a sigh of relief that “Black Widow” is poised to become the highest grossing domestic debut of the post-pandemic era, marking America’s return to moviegoing in force.

The Scarlett Johansson-starrer is projected to earn around $80 million in its North American opening weekend, beating out “F9” last month. It will also premiere in 46 overseas markets, bringing in an expected $50 million.

China, however, isn’t on the roster.

The picture for “Black Widow” is far from rosy in the world’s largest film market, where politics are proving once again to trump profit, and piracy may destroy its box office odds before it manages to reach Chinese shores.

Although China’s censorship authorities approved “Black Widow” for release back in March, Marvel has yet to offer any indication of a release date for the key territory. (Hong Kong, meanwhile, was actually one of the first territories in the world to release it on July 7, thanks to its Asia time zone.)

A belated China release could spell trouble. Disney Plus does not operate in China. When the streaming service released the film online for a $30 fee in other territories Friday, it unleashed an easily pirated, high-definition version of the film that reached Chinese consumers within hours.

Popular on Variety
“From today on, all kinds of pirated versions of ‘Black Widow’ will begin to spread rapidly,” one film blogger wrote in resignation. “Even if it is released theatrically later, this will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the box office.”

As of Friday morning, Variety found scores of pirated videos and torrents already available on unauthorized Chinese file sharing and streaming sites, although their initial origins are unclear. On certain illegal sites powered by online gaming ads, many are available to stream for free without any registration or download procedures via a single click.

Many pirated copies are listed as 1080p HD or 4K quality, or equipped with Dolby Atmos sound. Most come already outfitted with Chinese subtitles, which are often created by groups of fast-acting volunteers or fans before the official translation is released.

On one of the major fan-generated subtitle websites, at least nine different versions of Chinese “Black Widow” subtitles were available on the front page alone. They can be downloaded separately to pair with different versions of the pirated film. The site declares that “subtitles are only used for language learning purposes; the copyright belongs to the film production.”

The same piracy issue plagued Disney’s $200 million live-action “Mulan” in China, tanking hopes that the China-set retelling of a classic Chinese folk tale with an Asian cast would become a breakout hit there. It garnered a lackluster $23 million opening weekend and $41 million cume, albeit with significant capacity restrictions on cinemas due to COVID-19.

Death Sentence for ‘Black Widow’ in China?
From a purely economic point of view, China’s delay of surefire commercial hit “Black Widow” makes little sense, particularly since its box office has been on the downswing since June, when it hit a record monthly low.

The country notched a number of box office records earlier this year off local holiday blockbuster hits, but rescheduled Hollywood tentpoles and a diminishing pool of moneymaking local productions have slowed business down. The film industry’s political obligations for July are slowing it further.

Generally, Beijing tends to program Hollywood blockbusters sparingly in the key moviegoing month of July to carve out space for local productions. This year, its resistance to scheduling foreign films has been exacerbated by the critical 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party’s founding on July 1. The occasion has been accompanied by an ongoing, months-long period of militant censorship across all media that will last through the end of the month and likely into fall.

With those factors in mind, local reports have long been predicting a death sentence for “Black Widow’s” China prospects.

“The possibility of a simultaneous release is approaching zero. In this special [July] tribute month, even ‘main melody’ [propagandistic] movies like ‘Chinese Doctors’ are facing strict censorship, let alone Hollywood films,” a blogger wrote pessimistically in June.

Beijing considers it politically paramount for the Party’s propaganda tribute films to reign over their competitors this month. Though the melodramatic titles were widely promoted, they have unsurprisingly not proved popular enough to drive Marvel-level ticket sales.

China’s major July titles are the political history films “1921” and “The Pioneer,” which have grossed just $58 million (RMB376 million) and $15.4 million (RMB100 million) so far, respectively, since their July 1 debut. The most commercial blockbuster of the bunch is the Bona Film-backed pandemic blockbuster “Chinese Doctors.” It had a muted $14.4 million opening Friday, taking what would have been “Black Widow’s” slot had it opened day-and-date with the U.S. and emerging a poor substitute.

Unverifiable local reports speculate the “Black Widow” may not release in China until mid-August, when there may be a sudden influx of Hollywood films that could end up cannibalizing each other’s box office.

Disney did not respond to a request for comment on the movie’s release date circumstances or piracy concerns.

Release Date Limbo
The “Black Widow” situation highlights the growing challenges Hollywood is facing in the post-pandemic era, as Beijing and Washington view each other with growing suspicion and new digital distribution models upend decades-old practices.

Increasingly, foreign films are finding themselves in release date limbo or unexpectedly pulled due to China’s ever-changing political winds and local programming priorities. (For instance, censors approved Pixar’s “Luca” in late May, but it has yet to set a debut.)

When theatrical windows of at least three months were still observed, digital or Blu-ray releases did not heavily impact a film’s China box office, since imports are only allowed to play in Chinese theaters for one to two months anyway, no matter how successful.

If Hollywood’s pandemic-era embrace of previously unthinkable modes of online distribution are here to stay, piracy will be a growing problem. It will become increasingly important for films seeking to guarantee the strongest possible China sales to release there before other territories or open simultaneously with their streaming debut.

A growing number of tentpoles with guaranteed Chinese audiences have already taken this approach, such as “Avengers: Endgame,” which gave China a two-day head start on the U.S., or “F9,” which was prompted by the pandemic to premiere an unprecedented full month ahead of domestic.

Locking in a China date has grown increasingly difficult as bureaucratic processes and priorities grow stricter and more opaque, meaning that companies may have to initiate censorship review processes even earlier.

Warner Bros.’ “Dune” may avoid a “Black Widow”-esque conundrum. Had the film debuted Oct. 1 as originally planned, it would have run into China’s highly political National Day holiday that same day, when it would have been elbowed out of a day-and-date release and put off for perhaps the next two weeks in order to give new nationalistic blockbusters time to sell.

Whether or not the decision to move it to Oct. 22 was intentionally made with the China market in mind, it bodes well.

“Maintaining good relations to secure release dates, combatting piracy, and deploying strong tactics to shore up word of mouth will be the most critical tasks for Hollywood revenue-share films going forward, particularly for films planning to release simultaneous both in theaters and online,” a well-regarded local film industry outlet said. “Otherwise, more and more revenue-share films will repeat the mistakes of ‘Mulan’ and ‘Black Widow,’ bringing down Hollywood’s China profits.”

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[GeneChing]

Been wondering when this shoe might drop...

Movie Theater Owners Blame Marvel’s ‘Black Widow’ Box Office ‘Collapse’ on Disney Plus Launch

By Rebecca Rubin


Courtesy of Marvel Studios
Movie theater operators did not mince words in asserting that Disney left money on the table by putting Marvel’s “Black Widow” on Disney Plus on the same day as its theatrical debut.

Disney announced in March that “Black Widow,” among several of its 2021 films, would premiere simultaneously on the studio’s subscription-based streaming service — for a premium $30 price — and on the big screen while the struggling movie theater industry regained its footing. On July 9, “Black Widow” opened to $80 million in the U.S. and Canada, setting a COVID-era box office record. Disney padded the film’s final weekend tally by reporting the Scarlett Johansson-led comic book adventure collected an additional $60 million worldwide on Disney Plus. That pushed its global haul past $200 million.

Ten days after its domestic debut, the National Association of Theatre Owners, the industry’s main lobbying arm, released a fiery statement that takes aim at “Black Widow’s” rollout. For measure, NATO seemed to like “Black Widow,” calling it “such a well-made, well-received, highly anticipated movie.” Still, the group says the $200-million budgeted “Black Widow” underperformed at the box office and on Disney Plus.

“Despite assertions that this pandemic-era improvised release strategy was a success for Disney and the simultaneous release model, it demonstrates that an exclusive theatrical release means more revenue for all stakeholders in every cycle of the movie’s life,” the statement said.

Of course, cinema operators have a vested interest in preserving some sort of theatrical window. The pushback from NATO comes at a time when the movie business is still struggling to recover from the pandemic. Crippling efforts, film exhibitors say, is the fact that Hollywood studios are no longer putting their movies exclusively on the big screen. Prior to COVID, new releases had to play in theaters for at least 75 days before moving to premium video-on-demand. Now, that’s no longer the case. Many buzzy titles to premiere in the past 18 months, including “Wonder Woman 1984,” “Godzilla vs. Kong” and “Cruella,” were also available concurrently on various streaming services. The two highest-grossing movies of the year, “A Quiet Place Part II” and “F9,” were initially only available to watch at multiplexes.

Hollywood studios and movie theater operators have a historically contentious relationship, with the pandemic shifting the power overwhelmingly in favor of film distributors. Yes, studios need movie theaters to generate profits on mega-budgeted tentpoles, but COVID proved that without compelling content to show on the big screen, movie theaters don’t have as much to offer. The hot-and-cold factions recently got in a public spat when several theater chains, including AMC and Regal, threatened to boycott Universal’s movies after the studio flirted with the idea of day-and-date releases. They finally set aside that particular feud in the name of money. Theater owners were similarly miffed when Warner Bros. announced its entire 2021 film slate would premiere on HBO Max and in theaters on the same day.

Without a hybrid release, NATO predicts that “Black Widow” would have secured a much larger opening weekend, somewhere north of $92 to $100 million. And while the film soared past the opening weekends of recent releases like “A Quiet Place 2” and “F9,” its ticket sales quickly dropped off. In its sop****re outing, “Black Widow” collected $26 million, a huge 69% decline. Or, as NATO put it, a “stunning second weekend collapse in theatrical revenues.”

Disney declined to comment. However, insiders say the company is attempting to reach customers at every comfort level while the world emerges from COVID. It’s also worth noting the pandemic hasn’t entirely abated, and even vaccinated people have expressed hesitations about returning to the movies. Adding to anxieties, the highly contagious Delta variant has driven a spike in infections and forced Los Angeles, the largest moviegoing market in the country, to reinstate its mask mandate. Despite actor Vin Diesel’s loud proclamation, cinema isn’t entirely back just yet.

In the case of “Black Widow,” NATO claims its financial upside isn’t as robust as some initially perceived. When it comes to box office grosses, studios have to split the profits 50-50 with movie theater owners. (Disney tends to get a more favorable split due to its box office dominance.) It gets an even larger chunk of change from digital transactions. However, NATO highlights, the studio doesn’t get to keep all of the money from online rentals. Approximately 15% of revenue goes to the various platforms, like Roku and Apple TV, through which consumers can access Disney Plus. Per NATO, early analysis of the film also failed to consider that its release on Disney Plus cuts into downstream revenues.

“It ignores that Premier Access revenue is not new-found money, but was pulled forward from a more traditional PVOD window, which is no longer an option,” the statement reads. “Combined with the lost theatrical revenue and forgone traditional PVOD revenue, the answer to these questions will show that simultaneous release costs Disney money in revenue per viewer over the life of the film.”

NATO adds, “Piracy no doubt further affected Black Widow’s performance, and will affect its future performance in international markets where it has yet to open.” According to the website TorrentFreak, “Black Widow” was the most pirated movie of the week. All the while, Disney Plus subscribers have the ability to share their password with other households, potentially limiting the number of individual transactions. NATO says Disney isn’t alone in these particular threats. It was also the case for other day-and-date releases, such as “Godzilla vs. Kong” and “Mortal Kombat,” two Warner Bros. titles that premiered on HBO Max. “How much money did everyone lose to simultaneous release piracy?” NATO asks. It’s one of many pressing inquiries that may remain unanswered.

“The many questions raised by Disney’s limited release of streaming data opening weekend are being rapidly answered by ‘Black Widow’s’ disappointing and anomalous performance,” NATO said. “The most important answer is that simultaneous release is a pandemic-era artifact that should be left to history with the pandemic itself.”

[GeneChing]

Last nail in the coffin for ScarJo as Natasha?

Scarlett Johansson Sues Disney Over Black Widow
Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson has sued Marvel parent company Disney for breach of contract regarding the film’s streaming release.

By Alec Bojalad
|
July 29, 2021
|

Photo: Marvel
And just like that the blockbuster streaming era got a lot more complicated.

Black Widow star and longtime Marvel Cinematic Universe actress Scarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit against Disney on Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court. The claim alleges that her contract was breached when Disney released Black Widow on Disney+ in addition to its theatrical release.

According to Johansson’s representation, her contract guaranteed an exclusive theatrical release for Black Widow, which would be advantageous to the star given that she was set to receive a certain percentage of the film’s theatrical gross. The suit argues that by making the film available on Disney+, Disney was cutting her out of that opportunity.

“Disney intentionally induced Marvel’s breach of the agreement, without justification, in order to prevent Ms. Johansson from realizing the full benefit of her bargain with Marvel,” the suit reads, in part.

Black Widow is the first Marvel film to receive a simultaneous streaming and theatrical release. The Natasha Romanoff-centered movie was first slated for a May 1, 2020 debut before being delayed to July 9, 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The film’s availability in two different mediums combined with lingering COVID-19 concerns in North America did seem to have an appreciable effect on its box office performance.

While Black Widow opened to a pandemic era record $80 million during its first weekend of release, it quickly sank in its second, dropping a staggering 70%. As of now, it appears to be in line to match the grosses of early Marvel films like Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor rather than the studio’s more recent hits like Spider-Man: Far From Home.

As far as streaming numbers go, most data is provided by the streamer or studios themselves and should therefore be taken with a grain of salt. But per Disney, the film earned around $60 million in Disney+ “Premier Access” purchases. If Johansson’s contract didn’t factor in streaming income, then that is indeed a big chunk of money to miss out on. In fact, a source close to Johansson reportedly told the Wall Street Journal that Disney’s decision to launch the film on streaming cost Johansson more than $50 million. The complaint indicates that Johansson’s representatives reached out to Disney to amend the contract after learning of the dual release strategy, but received no response.

This lawsuit is the first bit of major litigation to arise from studio’s dipping their toes into the streaming waters but it almost certainly won’t be the last. The pandemic hastened a move to dual releases on streaming that was likely on its way anyway. Some studios, however, seem a bit better prepared than others. When WarnerMedia (at the time owned by AT&T, now on its way to combining with Discovery, Inc.) announced its intentions to release Warner Bros. entire 2021 slate of movies on streaming service HBO Max, they re-negotiated deals with its actors to cut them in on the new stream of income. Ultimately, WarnerMedia paid more than $200 million to talent as part of the new deals. While Disney didn’t endeavor to do the same is anyone’s guess.

Currently Disney does not have plans to release future Marvel Phase 4 films on Disney+ at the same time as theatrical. September 3’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is slated for 45-day exclusive theatrical access. By the time Eternals rolls around on November 5, however, the Marvel Studios may have to face the decision to launch on Disney+ again if infection rates continue to rise.

As for Scarlett Johansson’s relationship with the MCU – this is likely the bitter conclusion to it. The actress has been a major part of Marvel’s Avengers team since Iron Man 2 in 2010. Though Natasha Romanoff died in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, the character was able to return just two films later as part of a prequel. The events of Disney+ series Loki also introduced the multiversal possibilities of Marvel character variants, so no actor is ever truly ruled out for a future film. Until now probably…depending on how the Mouse Empire feels about being sued.


Written by

Alec Bojalad | @alecbojalad

TV Editor at Den of Geek and Television Critics Association member. Based in Cleveland, Ohio. Very upset about various sporting events.

[GeneChing]

ENTERTAINMENT MOVIES
DUNE, NO TIME TO DIE AND BLACK WIDOW ARE ALL DELAYED UNTIL 2021. HERE’S WHAT THAT MEANS FOR THE FUTURE OF MOVIES
Dune, No Time to Die and Black Widow Are All Delayed Until 2021. Here’s What That Means for the Future of Movies

Timothée Chalamet in Warner Bros.' now delayed sci-fi epic 'Dune' Warner Bros.
BY ELIANA DOCKTERMAN
OCTOBER 6, 2020 12:35 PM EDT
Movie theaters are in trouble.

It’s been a lackluster year at cinemas, to say the least. Movie theaters have sat empty during spikes in the COVID-19 pandemic. Movie houses in the two biggest markets in the U.S., New York City and Los Angeles, remain closed as those cities fight to keep infection numbers under control. Over the summer, Hollywood looked to Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated Tenet as a savior of the moviegoing experience, but when the film finally premiered after numerous delays, it trickled out to little fanfare. (It has managed to bring in $300 million, mostly from overseas, though that box office total falls far short of the rest of Nolan’s films.) Still, theater owners have been pinning their hopes on a resurgence in moviegoing this fall.

But in the last two weeks, as case numbers have risen across the U.S. and it has become increasingly apparent that people simply do not feel safe going to the movies, studios have begun to push the last of their 2020 films to 2021, dashing those hopes. On Monday, Cineworld—which owns Regal Cinemas, the second largest theater chain in the U.S.—announced that all of its 663 cinemas in the U.S. and Britain would close temporarily, affecting around 40,000 employees. AMC, the largest theater chain in the States, will stay open, though the company’s stock fell 10% following its rival’s statement on Monday.

Mooky Greidinger, the CEO of Cineworld, said on Sky News, “It’s the wrong decision from the studios to move the movies to next year,” and exhibitioners have squarely laid the blame on the producers of the latest Bond film, No Time to Die. Back in March, the film’s producers were among the first to anticipate that the spread of the coronavirus would wreak havoc on theaters and delayed the release of the Daniel Craig movie from April until November. On Friday, No Time to Die abruptly shifted dates again to April 2, 2021. “This isn’t the right time,” Craig said in an interview with Jimmy Fallon on Monday. He even cast doubt on the ability of movie theaters to reopen in the spring. “Fingers crossed April 2 is going to be our date.” Cineworld employees say that No Time to Die’s date shift is what compelled the theater chain to close.

But studios can hardly be blamed for a logical business move—not to mention a wise public health decision. The few movies that have released in theaters across the world this summer, including Tenet, Mulan and X-Men: New Mutants, have not performed well. Health experts have warned for the last several months that sitting inside with strangers for prolonged periods of time—even at a distance—is unsafe, especially if ventilation is poor and those strangers are taking off their masks to eat popcorn and sip soda. “It’s just about the last thing I’d do right now,” one epidemiologist told The A.V. Club. For many would-be moviegoers, the risk is too high.

And so studios, unwilling to take huge financial hits on films that might succeed in theaters in the future, are bumping their slates. Bond moved. Disney delayed Black Widow from May 2020 until November 2020, and now has pushed the film’s premiere again until May 7, 2021. Dune, originally set for December 2020, will move to Oct. 1, 2021. There are still a few holiday movie holdouts, including Disney and Pixar’s Soul and Warner Bros.’ Wonder Woman 1984, but it’s likely those movies will move as well.

Regal, which like AMC has billions of dollars of debt, is left with little recourse. Smaller theaters face even grimmer prospects. Meanwhile, streamers like Netflix are offering thousands of hours of content to consumers at home, competition which terrifies an industry dependent on fans packing theaters. Here’s what all these delays mean for the future of your favorite franchises and the fate of the moviegoing experience.

Could any of the delayed movies still end up on streaming or VOD this year?

Studios, especially those with their own affiliated streaming services, could send some fare straight to streaming this year. WarnerMedia, for instance, owns both Warner Bros. and HBO Max. So it makes perfect sense that Warner Bros. has decided to release its Anne Hathaway movie The Witches, based on the Roald Dahl children’s book of the same name, straight to HBO Max rather than debut it in theaters. That movie, directed by Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Cast Away), is one of the larger offerings, along with Mulan, to pivot to streaming this year.

Similarly, Disney could send a movie like Pixar’s Soul, which is currently still slated for Nov. 20, 2020, to Disney+. Disney would likely charge viewers an extra fee on top of the Disney+ subscription for a period of time, as they did when Mulan debuted on the service.

Other studios that don’t have an obvious outlet for their films would have to cut a deal with a streaming service. MGM, which produces the Bond films, has no streaming service, and while they cut a deal with Universal for the international streaming rights for Bond, Universal’s only streaming outlet is the newly-launched Peacock, which hasn’t built up an adequate enough subscriber base to attract audiences to a big release like the latest 007 movie.

And regardless, don’t expect movies like No Time to Die or Wonder Woman 1984 to ever go straight to VOD. Studio executives believe those films are dependent on the immersive, cinematic experience and lose much of their power when watched for the first time at home, possibly even on a phone. What’s more, action movies cost hundreds of millions of dollars to produce, and it’s not clear whether studios can turn a large profit or even recoup their costs when they send these films straight to streaming.

There’s mixed evidence that big-budget movies can succeed financially on streaming. If Netflix’s self-reported numbers are to be believed, some of its splashy superhero movies, like The Old Guard starring Charlize Theron, are massive hits: Netflix reported that movie was watched by 72 million households in the first month of its release. Netflix depends on subscriptions, not streaming purchases, so it’s hard to say directly how much money Netflix made from The Old Guard. Disney offers a less optimistic data point: Mulan made $33.5 million in its opening weekend from Disney+ subscribers. That’s a lot of money for a streaming movie. But Mulan, which was also saddled with controversy, likely cost over $200 million to make, and scored a lackluster opening weekend overseas: It was one of Disney’s worst-performing remakes at the Chinese box office.

What does it all mean for 2021 at the movies?

Right now, 2021 is looking very crowded. Studios have shifted many of their most anticipated films from 2020 to 2021, including Black Widow, Dune, The Eternals, Fast & Furious 9, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, In the Heights, Morbius, No Time to Die, A Quiet Place Part II, Top Gun: Maverick, West Side Story and many more. There are only so many weekends per year, and it’s not like theaters will magically reopen their doors on Jan. 1. So in order to make room for all the 2020 movies, studios will be forced to either compete with one another for dwindling box office returns on the same weekend or bump some of their 2021 movies to 2022.

Those dominos have already begun to fall. Dune moved to the 2021 weekend that was already occupied by the Robert Pattinson starrer The Batman, and the latest caped crusader reboot shifted to March 4, 2022. The long-awaited Avatar sequel moved from December 2021 to December 2022 in order to make room for one of Disney’s other movies, the third Tom Holland Spider-Man flick. Halloween Ends has shifted from October 2021 to October 2022. Matrix 4 is a unique case, as its release was actually moved up from April 2022 to December 22, 2021. DC movie The Flash was pushed from June 3, 2022 to November 4, 2022, and Shazam 2 has moved from that November 2022 slot to June 2, 2023. The untitled Indiana Jones movie we were supposed to get next summer won’t debut until July 2022. And Black Adam and Minecraft have been taken off the schedule entirely.

Things may yet shift again if there is no widespread distribution of a vaccine by spring 2021. But studios are incentivized to hold out for the theatrical release of their movies. A few films have cut their losses and headed straight to VOD, like Trolls World Tour. That children’s movie made nearly $100 million in the first week of rentals, more than the previous Trolls film had made in that time in theaters. But franchises like Marvel and Fast & Furious expect to make billions, not millions, in theaters: Furious 7 grossed $1.5 billion globally, and Captain Marvel raked in $1.13 billion.

Many filmmakers, too, fervently believe in the theatrical experience and want to do their part to keep those communal gathering spots in business. When director John Krasinski announced that A Quiet Place II would shift its release date, he wrote on Instagram, “One of the things I’m most proud of is that people have said our movie is one you have to see all together….As insanely excited as we are for all of you to see this movie…I’m gonna wait to release the film til we CAN all see it together! So here’s to our group movie date!”

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