Scarlett Johansson's lawyer accusing Disney of launching an "attack against women" and trying to "hide its misconduct" by recently seeking to arbitrate a more recent revenue case.
On Saturday, Disney filed a motion with the court to compel Scarlett Johansson to agree to private arbitration in the case, according to Russia's Sputnik news agency.
Disney's request put it in the crosshairs of Scarlett Johansson's attorney, John Berlinsky, who said in a scathing statement: "After initially responding to this litigation with a misogynistic attack on Scarlett Johansson, Disney is now expected to seek to conceal her misconduct by a confidential arbitration procedure.
"Disney has applied for special arbitration because it understands that Marvel's promise to give "Black Widow" an exemplary showing in movie theaters, like its other films, "has to do with ensuring Disney didn't break up box office revenues from... In order to boost subscriptions to its "Disney Plus" platform.
He continued, "Disney was well aware of this promise, but nevertheless directed the company" Marvel "to violate its pledge, and instead put the film on the streaming service "Disney Plus" on the same day it was released in cinemas.
And he added: "But this is exactly what happened, and we look forward to providing the conclusive evidence that proves this."
And Scarlett Johansson announced last July that she had started legal proceedings against "Disney", and claimed in her complaint that the latter's release of her movie on its digital platform, "Disney Plus", as well as in cinemas at the same time, violated her contract.
Johansson's compensation suit alleges that her pay was "largely dependent" on the box office earnings of her movie "Black Widow", which was much lower than expected.
For its part, Disney issued a statement confirming that "there is absolutely no basis for these allegations" and that it "fully complied" with the American actress' contract.
The movie "Black Widow" is considered one of the films in the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" with the lowest revenue so far, after its global profits amounted to 319.5 million dollars, a number that movie theater owners attribute to its presentation on "Disney Plus".
