Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel fell hard at the box office in the autumn – but the director knows just who to blame.
This story contains fruity language.
Ah, we’ve finally got to the bottom of the mystery. A week or so back, whilst promoting his incoming movie House Of Gucci, director Ridley Scott was asked about the disappointing box office performance of his also-recent The Last Duel. The film, starring Jodie Comer, Matt Damon and Adam Driver, was made for nine figures, and grossed less than $30m worldwide.
Scott previously had words with Deadline about the matter, and seemed to aim his ire at superhero films. But in a longer chat with Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, it’s clear the reason he feels The Last Duel faulted: those bloody millennials.
In a bizarre explanation, he told the podcast that what we have today are “the audiences who were brought up on these fucking cellphones”. He explained “the millennian do not ever want to be taught anything unless you’re told it on a cellphone”.
He admits that “this is a broad stroke”, but then throws off another shot say “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”.
He did not elaborate on what he believes the right kind of confidence would be.
And that appears to be why Ridley Scott feels The Last Duel fell hard at the box office. He’s happy with the movie they made, just that bloody audience got in the way a bit.
A millennial, incidentally, is defined as ‘a person reaching young adulthood in the early 21st century’. By my maths, that means Scott is blaming those in their late 30s and early 40s for his film’s box office performance.
The film now lands on Blu-ray in early December, but obviously you can’t plug a physical disc into one of those fucking cellphones, so poor Ridley might be in for a further disappointment there.
Personally, I don’t recall seeing a single advert for the film in the run-up to its release, and this outlet – I’m not grumbling – didn’t get word of a single press screening either. But don’t tell Ridley.
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