Ridley Scott still makes a lot of movies. You know what else he does? He makes a lot of movies that stink it up at the box office. And we’re talking about some major, blockbuster, high-cost shit here like Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, and pretty much all of the Alien movies he’s done recently. But it’s the piss-poor $28M earned by The Last Duel that has him riled up right now, and casting blame on those who thinks are responsible.
Speaking on the WTF podcast, Scott blasted folks younger than him for having short attention spans or whatever…
“I think what it boils down to — what we’ve got today [are] the audiences who were brought up on these fucking cellphones. The millennian [sic] do not ever want to be taught anything unless you’re told it on a cellphone.”
Scott would go on to add, “This is a broad stroke, but I think we’re dealing with it right now with Facebook. This is a misdirection that has happened where it’s given the wrong kind of confidence to this latest generation, I think.”
The director doesn’t blame Disney or its 20th Century Studios for the problem, saying they did a “fantastic promotion job.”
I don’t know why we give a shit when Scott, or anyone of his generation, makes a statement like this. Obviously, he’s not hurt by The Last Duel‘s failure. His film House of Gucci opens tomorrow. The only thing he’s doing is drawing bad attention to himself and making sure those young people don’t show up for his next movie.
That said, he’s not completely off-base, either. The Last Duel was a tough sell to anyone who wasn’t in it for the drama or because of its Oscars prospects. Stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck aren’t box office giants anymore, and reviews were good but not overwhelmingly so. Honestly, I’d rather see him do more stuff like that than what he’s been doing lately with All the Money in the World or House of Gucci, but that’s just me.
