Rumor Avengers E-Ticket More Dead Than You'd Think

[No Name]

This was worded rather poorly (and harshly), but to me, actually makes a fair deal of sense.

Celebrities that have profits tied to the box office results, are going to want to maximize their return, and to that end, they will all want their movie releases delayed until the theatrical market has rebounded.

But the theatrical market can't rebound, if no one wants their movies released. If no movies get released, the theater industry eventually collapses and the potential to make back any money on a movie vanishes. Additionally with the collapse of the theater industry, hundreds if not thousands of people would be out of work.

It's going to take a long time for the market to recover to 2019 levels, and a lot of people and companies (including Disney) are going to have to suffer losses in the interim to achieve that. Johansson is basically asking to be shielded from those loses, in part because she believes that Disney could have just sat on the film until it could guarantee it would make something above $600M on it.

I think it will be extremely difficult to prove that Disney was malicious in releasing the movie this year, or even that the box office performance was significantly impacted by the Disney+ release. It can be assumed that, during a pandemic, some percentage of people viewing on Disney+ had absolutely no intention of actually going to a physical theater to see it.

If I can put on my tin foil hat for a moment, I am starting to think that she might be doing this for reasons that are not terribly obvious. I can't imagine that the amount she would be owed, if given a portion of the Disney+ numbers, is all that significant compared to the $20M she already received, and I somehow doubt that the figure she would have made, even if the movie made $600M would be all that much more either.

Maybe she really just wanted to burn her bridges with Disney and move on. Maybe she was ultimately put off by the way that Disney and Marvel both treated her character for the course of the last 10+ years. There was a lot of speculation and calls for a standalone Black Widow movie, all the way back to 2010, and it didn't materialize for a DECADE. She could have been the first stand alone female MCU lead, but instead that went to Captain Marvel, who is now lined up to make more standalone movies.

I can absolutely sympathize on that front. Black Widow was a fantastic character and Johansson played it well. She could have easily been elevated to the point of having her own line of movies, as the male heroes were given, but for whatever reason Disney/Marvel didn't see fit. She probably lost out a lot more on those previous decisions than she did on the results for Black Widow.

I can see how Disney would want to paint it that way, but to me, this quickly falls apart, because the simple and obvious solution would’ve been to pay her a fair percentage of the Disney+ revenue. Scarlett Johansson doesn’t care whether the money is made in theaters or on Disney+ if she gets paid the same amount either way. This is Disney being very textualist just to save money.

 

[DanielBB8]

I can see how Disney would want to paint it that way, but to me, this quickly falls apart, because the simple and obvious solution would’ve been to pay her a fair percentage of the Disney+ revenue. Scarlett Johansson doesn’t care whether the money is made in theaters or on Disney+ if she gets paid the same amount either way. This is Disney being very textualist just to save money.

Isn't this the problem? She wants to be paid even though her contract expects the movie to post a profit before she collects. So she claims breach of contract and wants to carve out Disney+ revenue and thus cement the movie's losses. Disney isn't going to let this fly.

 

[No Name]

Isn't this the problem? She wants to be paid even though her contract expects the movie to post a profit before she collects. So she claims breach of contract and wants to carve out Disney+ revenue and thus cement the movie's losses. Disney isn't going to let this fly.

No. The issue is that her contract only considers theatrical profit and not Disney+, which Disney actually gets a much larger percentage of.

 

[DanielBB8]

No. The issue is that her contract only considers theatrical profit and not Disney+, which Disney actually gets a much larger percentage of.

The larger percentage is because revenue is not shared with theater companies so any pure profit can be realized and lumped together with total revenue for profit and loss. Disney will still claim the movie is making exactly THIS MUCH before she will get a cut, not before.

 

[lazyboy97o]

In what regard? Do I think that any pre-pandemic strategy would have been important in 2021? No. Do I think that Disney did some calculating and determined the box office numbers would be BAD and decided to get something on Disney+ too? Maybe. But that already betrays the idea that Disney knew the box office numbers would be bad anyway... or they wouldn't have risked co-releasing on Disney+. Disney would have made far more money themselves if the box office numbers were stronger, so they had a financial interest in seeing a wide box office release just as much as Johansson did.

I am just not at all sure that the Disney+ release actually hurt the box office numbers. Black Widow still had the best box office numbers of any movie in the past 12 months. Admittedly some of this is anecdotal on my part, as I was one of those people who bought on Disney+, and I absolutely know I would not have gone to a theater to see it otherwise.

That Disney would want the biggest box office is not a given. Disney wants whatever generates the most total revenue and that could very well involve a smaller box office. Disney gets a larger cut of Premier Access, so there’s an amount of cannibalization of the box office that Disney prefers.

 

[el_super]

I can see how Disney would want to paint it that way, but to me, this quickly falls apart, because the simple and obvious solution would’ve been to pay her a fair percentage of the Disney+ revenue. Scarlett Johansson doesn’t care whether the money is made in theaters or on Disney+ if she gets paid the same amount either way. This is Disney being very textualist just to save money.

Her camp is suggesting she is out somewhere between $50M-$65M. I'm guessing here they were expecting about 10% of the domestic gross. I haven't seen updated numbers, but if shes expecting 10% of the Disney+ money, it's still no where near the $50M she seems to be expecting from this. Not sure if the $5M would cover her legal fees in this case...

That Disney would want the biggest box office is not a given. Disney wants whatever generates the most total revenue and that could very well involve a smaller box office. Disney gets a larger cut of Premier Access, so there’s an amount of cannibalization of the box office that Disney prefers.

Yes and no right. There's are still huge problems with streaming, including making less per-person and the higher levels of piracy.

Streaming still made less money than the box office in the case of Black Widow.

 

[TP2000]

Lol @ rethemed shortcut

It's funny because it's true.

No one in SoCal is talking about this thing, let alone raving about it. A handful of neckbeard vloggers got saliva on their chins over it on YouTube Live on July 17th, and then that was it.

I'm sure the Ant Man Gimmick Restaurant is nice. I'm sure the Spiderman D Ticket That's Totally Different From Midway Mania is a gas.

And it's got to be great operationally having that shortcut reopened from Cars Land and the Food Festival to Mission:Breakout.

But my sense is... this didn't light the world on fire. Nor did it elevate DCA's brand in the competitive SoCal marketplace.

But it still cost them a lot of money. Money they don't have as much of now.

Blame the pandemic and Sacramento? TDA better find someone to blame, and quick.

 

[mickEblu]

It's funny because it's true.

No one in SoCal is talking about this thing, let alone raving about it. A handful of neckbeard vloggers got saliva on their chins over it on YouTube Live on July 17th, and then that was it.

I'm sure the Ant Man restaurant is nice. I'm sure the Spiderman D Ticket That's Totally Different From Midway Mania is a gas.

And it's got to be great having that rethemed shortcut reopened from Cars Land and the Food Festival Booths to Mission:Breakout.

But my sense is.... this didn't light the world on fire. Nor did it elevate DCA's brand in the competitive SoCal marketplace.

Blame the pandemic and Sacramento? TDA better find someone to blame, and quick.

I was there a week or so after it opened. The land sucks

 

[truecoat]

The Black Widow movie was really just filler. It didn't advance an overall Marvel story, just filled in some BW backstory that really wasn't needed. In a non pandemic world, this movie does better but still not the levels Scar Jo would have wanted.

 

[CaptinEO]

It's funny because it's true.

No one in SoCal is talking about this thing, let alone raving about it. A handful of neckbeard vloggers got saliva on their chins over it on YouTube Live on July 17th, and then that was it.

I'm sure the Ant Man Gimmick Restaurant is nice. I'm sure the Spiderman D Ticket That's Totally Different From Midway Mania is a gas.

And it's got to be great operationally having that shortcut reopened from Cars Land and the Food Festival to Mission:Breakout.

But my sense is... this didn't light the world on fire. Nor did it elevate DCA's brand in the competitive SoCal marketplace.

But it still cost them a lot of money. Money they don't have as much of now.

Blame the pandemic and Sacramento? TDA better find someone to blame, and quick.

Reminds me of Pixar Pier as well. The Disney letdowns don't work as well as the park thinks they do. They believe people "eat up" anything they make if it has the right characters attached to it.

 

[DanielBB8]

Will Shang-Chi be delayed?

Will Shang-Chi Be Delayed Amidst Rising COVID Cases?

Late Friday night, Paramount pulled Clifford The Big Red Dog from its release schedule, citing concerns over the hesitance of movie-goers and the rising number of cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant. The movie was previously set to hit theaters on September 17th, and Paramount is scrambling to...

comicbook.com

 

[Tamandua]

Disney cutting ties with Scarlett Johansson, canceling the Tower of Terror movie. This is a warning shot to any other talent that they will be blacklisted from working with Disney if they don't fall in line.

 

[D.Silentu]

If she is responsible for dissuading them of a Tower Of Terror movie, the next drink I have will be raised in toast to her!

 

[mickEblu]

If she is responsible for dissuading them of a Tower Of Terror movie, the next drink I have will be raised in toast to her!

She hates what they did to DCAs TOT so she did everything in her power to stop movie tie ins from ruining Orlando’s version. Bravo ScarJo

 

[CosmicDuck]

Has anyone actually heard anything new on the Avengers E-ticket front? Or any rumors, credible or otherwise? I know them removing the concept art from the new Disneyland Paris hotel probably says all that needs to be said.

As a Disney parks and a Marvel Studios fan (yes we do exist, there are dozens of us - dozens!) it's very distressing to see how the Consumer & Parks treats the most popular IP on the face of the planet after owning it for a decade. People love the brand, and it's crazy to not treat it with the love and attention they do with Star Wars or their other properties. If only for selfish fiscal reasons, it is unequivocally the most popular thing under the sun and has been for a decade strong with no signs of stopping.

Anyway, I've been around the parks block enough times to know there was never going to be a chance I was going to see a Marvel e-ticket unless they broke ground. But I will admit that the concept art unveiling and clearing of the backlot had my hopes up, even for a moment. So I'll take even the smallest crumb of good news.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Haven’t heard a thing and probably won’t for a long time, if not never.

I’m expecting for this project to be cancelled, if it hasn’t already been cancelled. Disney loves to just keep quiet when they cancel projects. If it gets built at some point (and it’s actually a worthwhile attraction), great. If it doesn’t, I will have already expected it not to and therefore won’t be disappointed.

 

[CosmicDuck]

Haven’t heard a thing and probably won’t for a long time, if not never.

I’m expecting for this project to be cancelled, if it hasn’t already been cancelled. Disney loves to just keep quiet when they cancel projects. If it gets built at some point (and it’s actually a worthwhile attraction), great. If it doesn’t, I will have already expected it not to and therefore won’t be disappointed.

Fair enough. Though in a world where Disney is tiering attractions and visibly assigning a $$ to their value, an IP-centric e-ticket probably isn't as bad of an idea today as it was 10 months ago in the middle of the pandemic.

 

[Tha Realest]

Disney puts the kibosh on anything not past a point of no return, construction-wise. Which means nothing new is on the horizon for after late 2022.

Meanwhile, Universal is chugging along and will have an entire new park - with Nintenoland and who knows what else? - ready a year or two after that.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Disney puts the kibosh on anything not past a point of no return, construction-wise. Which means nothing new is on the horizon for after late 2022.

Meanwhile, Universal is chugging along and will have an entire new park - with Nintenoland and who knows what else? - ready a year or two after that.

Possibly 2023?

Do you have any other Universal fairy tales to tell?

 

[D.Silentu]

I believe there is a D23 event in November. I imagine if this project has any momentum at all we'll hear about it then. Personally, my fingers are crossed.