Disney vs Scarlett Johansson is just the start of growing pains for Hollywood and streaming

And it follows other expressions of discontent over the past year, as top actors and directors have resented studios prioritizing streaming in a way that threatens the theatrical model and the way that actors traditionally share the income from big hits. Unlike box office totals, it’s harder to clearly measure this against streaming service subscriptions.

The lawsuit comes at a pivotal time for Hollywood as the industry faces a time of questions about how the public will watch entertainment in the future and how those who create it will be compensated.

“We are in a bit of a transition period where the contracts that were made did not anticipate this type of change in strategy,” Michael Nathanson, media analyst at MoffettNathanson told CNN Business. “I think from now on every new contract will have to include language that finds a way to compensate talent for the potential of a live watch on video, a live watch on streaming.”

Hollywood upside down

Disney (SAY) isn’t the only one pushing this change forward, and Johansson isn’t the first star to be upset by the switch to streaming, either.

Warner Bros. (like CNN, a unit of WarnerMedia) surprised the talent by announcing plans to simultaneously release its entire 2021 movie slate on its streaming service, HBO Max. Paramount has uploaded several of its streaming movies, including “Coming 2 America” ​​and “Infinite”, with the Hollywood Reporter claiming that the latter’s star Mark Wahlberg, was not notified of the change.

Other issues have arisen as studios have moved their main blockbusters to streaming as the pandemic continues. For example, Warner Bros. would have paid star Gal Gadot and director Patty Jenkins each over $ 10 million when the studio released “Wonder Woman 1984” on the HBO Max streaming service as well as in theaters in December.

“It has been a tumultuous year since theaters reopened, and with the day and date erasing the release windows, and in some cases shattering them irreparably, the present and future state of Hollywood of Hollywood has failed. never been so upset, ”Jeff Bock, a senior analyst at the entertainment research firm, Exhibitor Relations, told CNN Business.

Studios argued they needed leeway to survive an evolving business, a process seriously exacerbated and accelerated when the pandemic shut down theaters in 2020 and virtually cut entire revenue streams.

Disney’s statement in response to Johansson’s lawsuit suggests the company has no plans to turn around in this fight. The company responded on Thursday by saying it had fully complied with its contract and that there was “no merit in this deposit.”

But historically, the big players tend to find some form of accommodation.

The nature of the changes, however, has implications that go far beyond the stars alone, and could affect the relationship between studios and the major guilds that represent actors, writers, and directors.

Talent vs Studios: a story as old as time

Hollywood history shows that this kind of litigation often ends up in court.

In 1943, the actress Olivia de havilland Warner Bros. sued, arguing that his seven-year contract violated employment law and forced him to take on roles he was not interested in. De Havilland won the lawsuit a year later after a fierce lawsuit that upended the old studio system, establishing the right of performers to become free agents.

The battlefield shifted to television in the 1990s, when the producers of “Home Improvement” and the producer and star of “The X-Files” continued Disney and Fox, respectively, for what they argued was self-operation as studios became vertically integrated or, more simply, production companies and networks were owned by the same entities. All of these cases were settled out of court.

Two decades later, questions about the benefits in such cases persist.

In 2019 Disney settled a subsequent lawsuit brought by the “Home Improvement” team, arguing that the studio had underestimated them on the benefits of syndication rights, for an undisclosed sum.

That same year, the stars of “Bones”, David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel, settled a lawsuit against Fox for the profits of this series, after an arbitrator awarded $ 178 million to the producers and stars of the series.

The problem, as studio executives have pivoted to prioritizing streaming, is that it’s not always clear how to measure success: Studios have been less than transparent about publicly sharing data that would indicate how many how much money they make with their releases and how many people are watching them.

Do subscribers sign up for Disney + because they want to see “Black Widow”, given the range of content available on the service? Difficult to know precisely.

“As a talent and representative of talent, how do you measure and how do you monetize success? Nathanson said. “The metrics need to change… The box office is an easy metric. The data comes out. It’s really hard with streaming to know what’s a success and what’s not.”

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