Today I would like to tell you about Scarlett Ingrid Johansson, she is one of the most famous actresses in Hollywood, but personally I know her better in the role of Black Widow from “The Avengers” and Olivia from the film “The Prestige “ . The actress managed to fly almost to the very top, since there was a period in her career when she was the highest paid actress in Hollywood. Having received 35 million dollars for one of her roles. And you must agree that this is already a level.
At the start of her career, Johansson had to face a lot of problems and failures, but as they say, without this, the path to the top of popularity is impossible. The actress got her first role in the film “North” in 1994, but this movie became the main failure of Bruce Willis.
In the first half of the 90s, the film was so unneeded that now no one remembers it. Scarlett’s second project was the film “Just Cause” with Sean Connery, but this film also failed at the box office. The actress tried to get into “Jumanji” but lost to Kirsten Dunst at the auditions.
The actress was lucky when she managed to get a role in the film “The Horse Whisperer”, since the director initially wanted to take Natalie Portman for the role in this film, but she refused. And for this reason, they had to pay attention to Scarlett, who was a little younger than the required age, but at the casting looked preferable to older candidates. At the box office, with a budget of 60 million dollars, the film collected 186 million, receiving nominations for the Oscar and Golden Globe awards.
And after that, Johansson was noticed, after which the actress began to be offered more impressive roles. These were not particularly famous films, like “My Brother Babe”, but the actress began to be singled out from the entire cast, called talented, and her career slowly moved forward.
In 2001, the actress’s landmark project was “Ghost World.” The film was unsuccessful at the box office, grossing $8 million with a budget of $7 million, but the film was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe .
Well, the main film quickly began to acquire cult status in America. That same year, Scarlett starred in the new film by the Coen brothers, The Man Who Wasn’t There, but it also performed mediocrely at the box office. And the following year, the actress had her first dangerous box office failure, which was the film Attack of the Spiders.
At the same time, Scarlett made her way into two films at once, thanks to which her career took off. These films were “Girl with a Pearl Earring” and “Lost in Translation”.
With a budget of 4 million, “Lost in Translation” grossed 118 million. The film was showered with various Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. And for the next couple of years, Scarlett appeared in films mainly in the background, some of them seemed to be top marks. 2005 was especially difficult in the actress’s career, because that year she released three films at once: “The Black Dahlia”, “The Island” and “Match Point”, in order to appear in these films, she turned down a role in “Mission Impossible”.
In the end, Michael Bay’s “The Island” was a flop, but here the good audience ratings were the salvation. The actress was saved by Woody Allen’s “Match Point” and this was again a film where Scarlett was not planned, but Kate Winslet dropped out of the film at the last moment and the role went to Johansson. The film collected 85 million at the box office with a budget of 15 million and Scarlett was again nominated for a Golden Globe , and Woody Allen liked the actress so much that he immediately invited her to his next film “Scoop”, which also performed well at the box office, with a budget of 4 million it collected 40 million.
I can’t help but mention one of my favorite films, which I personally have watched five times, is Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige”. It grossed 110 million at the box office with a budget of 40 million. It was followed by the quite successful “The Nanny Diaries”, “The Other Boleyn Girl” and then came another hit by Woody Allen “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” in which Woody Allen already wrote the script, specifically for Scarlett. He should have simply prayed for Johansson, since she brought him three box office hits in 4 years.
True, there was one problem that did not allow the actress to rise to a higher level and finally become a big star – she did not have a really big hit. And she began to look for it at the Marvel studio, for which she even agreed to reduce her fee for previous films – she asked for 2 million, and agreed to appear in the second “Iron Man” for 400 thousand.
For the role of Black Widow, the actress went to the gym, spent a lot of time working out with a trainer, and even participated in the creation of the Black Widow costume. Iron Man 2 made a great box office and Scarlett’s fees soared thanks to this role.
For the film “The Avengers” the actress received a fee of 6 million dollars, and what they did at the box office probably everyone knows. The film collected 1.5 billion dollars with a budget of 220 million. By the way, Scarlett could have appeared next to the Avengers in a big box office failure, since she was signed for the film “Total Recall”, but she refused it because of the Avengers.
Around the same time, Johansson really wanted to get into the film “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, and Sony studio, after Natalie Portman’s refusal, tried to persuade director David Fincher to take Scarlett, but he rejected her because she had too doll-like and cute an appearance and would not be suitable for such a role.
After the Avengers, the actress was drowning in offers and chose projects very carefully, signing up for only small films for a couple of years. Of course, not all of them were successful, for example, “Under the Skin” was of no use to anyone even with its small budget. The film “Hitchcock” was unsuccessful, collecting only 27 million at the box office.
Scarlett returned to expensive cinema in 2014, when two films, Lucy and Captain America: The Other War, were brought to the cinema at once. According to rumors, Luc Besson initially wanted to get Angelina Jolie for the main role in Lucy and even met with the actress several times, but in the end, Jolie refused.
In the summer of 2014, the same day as Dwayne Johnson’s Hercules, the film Lucy was released, and Hercules was instantly trampled, because Lucy took a crazy $458 million at the worldwide box office, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier collected $714 million. Johansson asked for $20 million for Avengers: Age of Ultron, the second Avengers collected a little less money at the box office than the first part, but nevertheless these were huge numbers.
In 2017, Johansson dropped into the film “Ghost in the Shell”, for which the actress received 10 million. As a result, the film sank at the box office. If you do not touch on a couple of low-budget flops like “Under the Skin”, then the ghost was the actress’s first serious failure.
For “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame “ the actress has already received 35 million, since the films were shot simultaneously, so this fee is considered as for one film. ” Jojo Rabbit” also showed itself excellently at the box office, for which the actress received her first Oscar nomination .
Also not unknown was the film “Black Widow”, for which Scarlett received 20 million. At the box office, the film performed poorly, collecting only 379 million with a budget of 200 million. But nevertheless, at the moment, the actress is doing great, she is one of the highest paid actresses of our time. All directors want to see her.
Which film with the actress do you like the most?
