Rumor: M-She-U Head Kevin Feige Is "Angry and Embarrassed" Over Disney's Vengeful Attack on Scarlet Johansson

Before getting to that, in further evidence the comic book movie craze is over, The Suicide Squad -- DC's latest offering -- has come in below Birds of Prey, which itself was a huge flop.

After debuting to $6.7M from five overseas markets last weekend, Warner Bros/DC's The Suicide Squad moved into wide offshore release this session, taking $35M from 69 total international box office markets. This is a touch below the like-for-like opening of 2020's disappointing Birds Of Prey ($36.6M at today's rates) and under the $40M we were seeing coming into the frame. The offshore cume is now $45.7M and the global total, with domestic’s debut, is $72.2M.

"The Suicide Squad" has underperformed very modest expectations of a $30 million domestic opening weekend.

The recently released follow-up to 2016's Suicide Squad pulled in a modest $26.5 million domestic and a slightly more impressive $42.7 million international, for a worldwide weekend gross of $72.2 million. This is a slight drop from predictions that suggested it would see a $30 million-plus opening. In comparison, another recent comic adaptation, Black Widow, earned $80 million in its first weekend. Its second weekend looked more similar to The Suicide Squad with $26 million. Meanwhile, even Space Jam: A New Legacy broke past the $30 million debut mark by a small amount.

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Some are hopeful that the film still stands a chance to bring back some of its hefty $185 million budget, especially because of the largely positive reviews.... But second-week drops are always common and have been even worse during the pandemic. Black Widow saw the massive drop of -67% on its second weekend, so we aren't holding out too much hope for this one.

It's free on HBOMax so obviously that seriously cuts into box office, and they don't get any rental money from that. And of course covid fears and new masking mandates have been a drag on ticket sales. (As they were for Birds of Prey, which was released near the beginning of covid panic.)

Gary Buechler from Nerdrotic and our own Anna Puma liked the movie. Buechler noted that while the movie might be decent, the public doesn't like James Gunn, who, until his own cancellation, was himself quite the little cancel culture warrior.

I don't know how much that has to do with it. I hope it does have a lot to do with the poor sales.

On to the Johansson/Disney lawsuit:

Nerdrotic pointed out that the scorched-earth nastygram they issued about Scarlet Johansson -- calling her "greedy" and "callous" in dismissing the horrors of covid -- is very similar to the defamatory statement they released when they fired Gina Carano, claiming, falsely and libelously, that she had disparaged people based on their "cultural and religious identities."

But now Kevin Feige says he's angry.

Following the filing of the lawsuit, a Disney spokesman responded, "There is no merit whatsoever to this filing. The lawsuit is especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic."

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Johansson's agent Bryan Lourd fired back, "I want to address the Walt Disney Company’s statement that was issued in response to the lawsuit filed against them yesterday by our client Scarlett Johansson. They have shamelessly and falsely accused Ms. Johansson of being insensitive to the global COVID pandemic, in an attempt to make her appear to be someone they and I know she isn't."

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Now, a new rumor claims that Kevin Feige is upset with Disney's response and treatment of Scarlett Johansson as well.

As reported by Salon, former The Hollywood Reporter Matt Belloni recently detailed in his industry newsletter What I'm Hearing that Feige is "angry and embarrassed" by Disney.

Belloni wrote, "[Feige is] a company man, and prone to corporate showdowns or shouting matches. But I'm told he’s angry and embarrassed."

"He lobbied Disney against the day-and-date plan for Black Widow, preferring the big screen exclusivity and not wanting to upset his talent," Belloni added.

He also noted, "When the s**t hit the fan, the movie started tanking, and Johansson's team threatened litigation, [Feige] wanted Disney to make this right with her."

I hate this cowardly culture of leaking stuff to the press instead of just saying it in your own voice. I hated it when Bill Kristol and the Ahoy Boys would attack Trump for being mean.

Meanwhile, they're doing all this underhanded sneaky shit, organizing coordinated leaks and the like.

And I'm like: You're just as mean and nasty. You're just effeminate and cowardly about it. How can that possibly be claimed to be "better"?

Only the most effete cowards could possibly view their effete cowardice as somehow "elevated" and a "sign of good breeding."

I can't help notice that the supposed "Good Guys" at Disney -- Feige, Jon Favreau -- never step out from behind the anonymously-planted story and say with their own voice that they disagree with Disney or Lucasfilm.

Anyway, I listened to this podcast by Viva Frei (now a candidate for the Canadian parliament, btw) and Robert Barnes and gleaned the following.

The written contract between Johanson (actually between her "loan-out corporation," a corporation that contracts out her services to others) did not specifically promise an "exclusive theatrical release," but merely a "widespread theatrical release."

That may sound fatal to her case, but no: In emails between her and Disney about the possibility of releasing the movie on streaming, the Disney representative wrote something like, "If we do this, obviously the contract would have to be negotiated."

This is strong evidence that what was actually intended in the contract -- what the "meeting of the minds" contemplated -- was an exclusive theatrical release. Which is good for her. Disney is on-record assuming that "widespread theatrical release" was synonymous with "exclusive theatrical release."

One thing I said is that Disney must have at least cut Johanson in on the streaming revenue. I just didn't think they could possibly try to cheat her out of that.

Viva Frei and Robert Barnes say no, they didn't. They did brazenly cheat her out of those revenues. They mention that Warner Bros. was put in the same position, and, to buy off the talent that their streaming releases of their movies would harm, took the hit and paid out one billion dollars to the various people who were supposed to get a cut of theatrical revenue.

Disney apparently has decided to say "F*** the people we have contracts with."

One wrinkle to the Johanson suit: She's claiming that Disney didn't do this just to work around covid and maximize profits. She says -- and this is obviously true -- that Disney's main focus is increasing subscriptions on their streaming service, a service she does not share in the revenue of.

So she alleges that Disney sacrificed a theatrical release which she would share in the profits of to run the film on Disney+ to increase (or maintain) subscribers. Revenues she does not participate in. She alleges self-dealing on their part, reducing her revenue to increase their own.

And she wants a big cut of that revenue she says she's partly responsible for.

Then again, maybe that cut won't be so big. Even among streaming titles, Black Widow is still only the third most watched movie. After HBO's The Tomorrow War, starring Johanson's Marvel colleague Chris Pratt, as well as Pixar movie called Luca.

One more point they make: Disney does not want to settle with Johanson because they don't want to settle with anyone else. Emma Stone is reportedly considering suing because they did the same thing to her movie, Cruella.

But Johnanson is counting on the fact that Disney does not want to disclose its streaming ratings, and that their desire to keep these ratings private -- because they're lower than they want the public to believe -- will force them to pay her $50 million or more.

Whatever the merits and prospects of the lawsuit, this much seems undebatable: the MCU has suffered its first full flop. The shill media are no longer attempting to portray this as a Yass Slay Kween hit.

Black Widow may be the Solo of Marvel, the movie that shows that the public no longer has much interest in a franchise.

Meanwhile, RazorFist says this is it, this is finally the moment when the comic book movie craze finally begins its long-anticipated decline:

Speaking of woke comic book movies: "Y the Last Man" was a comic book. Not a super-hero one, but a social science-fiction movie about all the men on earth dying off.

Except for one: Y, the Last Man.

You'd think that this would be viewed as a catastrophe but crazed woke feminist Amber Tamblyn thinks a world without men is pretty cool:

Despite their attempt to be #Woke, the trans extremists are angry that the comic book was written by a cis- man, and doesn't include "trans women" (who are actually men, and who would, presumably, die off due to whatever catastrophe killed off all the biological males).

Last reason to close your wallets to Hollywood, and Disney in particular:

Disney made Gonzo a "non-binary" cross-dresser for The Muppet Babies.

The Muppet... Babies. A show aimed at kids just slightly older than babies.

posted by Ace at 02:34 PM

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