Ridley Scott Blames His Latest Movie Bombing At The Box Office On Facebook And Millennials, Rather Than Pandemic And Poor Marketing

from the no,-no,-it's-the-kids-who-are-wrong dept

I will admit that, until this morning, I had never heard of Ridley Scott's movie The Last Duel. It was released this fall in theaters only, which is a bold move while we're still dealing with a raging pandemic in which most people still don't want to go sit in a movie theater. And so, the box office results for the movie were somewhat weak. Indeed, it's now Scott's worst performing movie at the box office.

The issue, as many pointed out, was that The Last Duel was targeted at older movie-goers. A historical period piece film about a duel in France? Not exactly a hit among the youth market, and older folks are still the most concerned about COVID (which makes sense, considering it's a lot more deadly the older you get).

A few weeks ago, Scott admitted he was disappointed in the movie's performance at the box office, but compared it to Blade Runner, which also didn't immediately set the world on fire when it was released, and is now a classic.

But, now, having thought about it some more, Scott has decided that it must be Facebook and the kids these days who are at fault for not wanting to see his two and a half hour period piece epic. Going on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, Scott insisted that he had no problems with the way the film was marketed, but ripped into "millennials" (who, um, aren't as young as he seems to think they are) and... Facebook. Because if we've learned anything these days, it's that no matter what goes wrong with your life and plans, you can always blame Facebook for those failures:

“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 said.

“This is a broad stroke, but I think we’re dealing with it right now with Facebook,” Scott added. “This is a misdirection that has happened where it’s given the wrong kind of confidence to this latest generation, I think.”

I honestly don't even know what any of that means. People had "the wrong kind of confidence" and that's why they didn't want to sit in an enclosed theater for nearly 3 hours to watch a movie about two French guys fighting in the 14th century? And it's because Facebook didn't tell them to go? Does that mean that the movie's social media marketing wasn't well done? Or what?

Not everything is the fault of Facebook (or millennials). Sometimes, people just don't want to watch your movie.

Filed Under: marketing, millennials, ridley scott, social media, the last duel
Companies: facebook

Ridley Scott Warns That Gadgets Are Ruining The Movies

from the you-may-have-that-backwards,-actually dept

Two years ago Italian writer and director Roberto Benigni was so upset by plans to offer full-length movies on mobile phones, that he called the idea blasphemous. That seemed like a bit of an overreaction, to be sure. However, he seems to have some company. Famed director Ridley Scott has apparently stated that watching films on mobile phones and computers is killing cinema. Unfortunately, it seems that he has it backwards. He's blaming the wrong thing when he says things like: "We try to do films which are in support of cinema, in a large room with good sound and a big picture. But we're fighting technology." As we've pointed out time and time again, people want to go out to the theater, but they want the experience to be enjoyable. They don't want to be treated as if they're criminals. So, the problem isn't that people can watch movies on gadgets like mobile phones and computers -- but that the theater industry has done its best to drive people away from actually wanting to go to the theaters. Despite Scott's claims, the massive success of home theater systems lately shows that people really do want to see films on big screens with good sound systems. The problem isn't that the movies are available on tiny screens, but that the theater industry has completely given up in giving people what they want.

Filed Under: gadgets, movies, ridley scott