Disney CEO Bob Iger Fires Back at Scorsese and Coppola Over Marvel Criticism and Defends the Talent
As you know, legendary filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola have been stirring the pot and riling up fans, actors, and filmmakers over their criticism on Marvel movies. Scorsese said they aren’t cinema, and Coppola called them despicable.
Well, now Disney CEO Bob Iger has responded to these criticisms and respectfully fires back at them. While speaking at the Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference in Laguna Beach, California, he said:
“I reserve the word ‘despicable’ for someone who committed mass murder. These are movies. They want to bitch about movies, it’s certainly their right."
He also defends the talented people who work on these films saying:
“Well, it doesn’t bother me. Except I’m bothered on behalf of the people who worked on those movies. I don’t take it personally. Well, they don’t see how the audience is reacting to them, first of all. They have the right to their opinions. Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese are two people I hold in the highest regard. In terms of the films they’ve made, the films I like. The films we’ve all watched. But when Francis uses the words ‘those films are despicable?’
“To whom is he talking? Is he talking to Kevin Feige who runs Marvel? Or Taika Waititi, who directs, or Ryan Coogler who directs for us? Or Scarlett Johansson or Chad Boseman? I could name a number of people, Robert Downey Jr.?”
He goes on to call them out for being disrespectful, saying:
“I don't know. I don't understand. It seems so disrespectful to all the people that work on those films who are working just as hard as the people that work on their films and are putting their creative souls on the line, just like they are. You telling me Ryan Coogler making Black Panther is doing something some how or another less than what Marty Scorsese or Francis Ford Coppola have ever done on any one of their movies? Come on. Yeah, I said it.”
Iger goes on to say that he doesn’t get the criticism. He explains that these Marvel films bring in money to the movie theaters, which, in turn, allows those theaters to screen other smaller films that aren’t as big or successful. He makes a pretty good point. After all, the movie theaters have to stay in business to screen movies!
“I don’t quite get what they’re trying to criticize us for, when we’re making films that people obviously are enjoying going to. Because they’re doing so by the millions. And frankly, the motion picture distribution business or the theatrical exhibition business as it’s known world wide, has relatively thin margins. And when those theaters run movies, not just like ours because there are others out there too, that do exceedingly well for them and they make a lot of money on them. That actually gives them the ability to run other films that might not be as successful, but there are people in different places that want to see them.”
At the end of the day, making a movie isn’t easy. It doesn’t matter if it’s a big-budget film or a low-budget indie, there’s a ton of hard work and time that goes into a film production. You’d think filmmakers like Coppola and Scorsese would understand and respect that.
What do you think of Bob Iger’s response to what Scorsese and Coppola had to say about Marvel movies?