Black Widow was released both in theaters and on the SVOD Disney + platform in July 2021. This caused a drop at the box office for two reasons.
In July 2021, a few days after the release of Black widow (prequel dedicated to the Marvel heroine), the star of the film Scarlet Johansson, announced to sue Disney. The complaint denounced a breach of agreement: part of the remuneration of the actress was to be based on box office receipts, but, outside France, the film was released simultaneously on Disney +, the video platform to on demand (SVOD). Finally, Disney and Scarlet Johansson reached an agreement: this one received compensation of 40 million dollars.
But the simultaneous release of Black widow on Disney + was even more expensive than that to the giant Hollywood firm. Based on information from Deadline, in early January 2022, the shortfall would reach $ 600 million.
Piracy favored by simultaneous release on Disney +
The first reason for this loss on expected income is the simple consequence of accessing the film on a streaming platform: this results in “ a free fall at the box office »From the weekend following the release. In all of Disney’s history for the Marvel movies, Black widow thus suffered “ the worst fall of second weekend ”, Amounted to 68%.
But to this we must add another problem: piracy. The Disney + series are admittedly the most pirated in 2021, but this arises in different terms for feature films. When a film is released in theaters, it does not immediately end up on illegal downloading and streaming platforms. Or, it is found in terribly mediocre qualities – “HD cams” for example, that is to say the cinema screen captured by a camcorder or a smartphone. The very poor video and audio quality of these formats makes viewing difficult, a sort of natural obstacle to piracy. The clean copies are not distributed for several months.
When a movie like Black widow released directly on Disney +, we immediately find – the same evening or the next day – clean copies, in 4K, in several languages, on piracy sites. This contributes very strongly ” to the erosion of the box office “, remember Deadline. It turns out that around 20 million pirated copies of Black widow have been recovered around the world.
It is the combination of these two box office drops, both caused by a simultaneous release on Disney + and in the cinema, which causes an estimated loss of 600 million dollars.
To this, we must add that the Disney + Premier Access option, which allows access to certain Disney + films more expensive than others, such as Mulan Where Black widow (but not in France), obliges Disney to share a share of the income with the platforms which allow access to application (such as Google Play, Amazon Fire Stick…). The commission charged is estimated at 15%
This adds new elements to this debate that has agitated the film industry for several months: many actors and actresses, like filmmakers (like Denis Villeneuve), firmly oppose simultaneous streaming and big screen releases. This is as much for artistic reasons as it is for economic reasons.