Scott Derrickson: "One Day Somebody's Going To Make A Bad Marvel Studios Movie But It Ain't Gonna Be Me!"

12/05/2016 03:56 pm EST

Calling Marvel's Doctor Strange a success would be an understatement. The film introduced a new hero to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a standalone film and has topped some sequels among the same franchise, such as Iron Man 2, at the worldwide box office.

Prior to Doctor Strange, director Scott Derrickson had little experience with films as large. His Exorcism of Emily Rose film was a massive success but a film which was made a considerably smaller budget. The Day The Earth Stood Still was a big budget film but not one which Derrickson particularly enjoyed working on (though he says he learned more from it than anything else) and it was not nearly as successful or well received as his latest production.

Going into Doctor Strange, the director gunned hard for the job, spending $45,000 of his own money to get the gig, but in doing so added a bit of pressure to himself.

"Marvel Studios has never made a really bad movie," Derrickson said. "This is our fourteenth film; thirteen well-reviewed movies, thirteen financial hits in a row. No one has done that. Not even Pixar has done that. No one has a better track record than them."

"I was living with that pressure, but I also weighed that very carefully before I really signed on for the job," Derrickson said. "I was like, 'I'm going to take this, I am going take the responsibility, and I tried to approach it the way I did with Sinister.'"

With Sinister, Jason Blum offered Derrickson complete control over the film.

"As the day has gotten closer to the release, I was just horrified, I was so scared," Derrickson said. "It was hard not to be. It was hard not to be nervous, and that went, and Marvel, those guys are artists, you know? They really care about their movies, and they get so nervous, too, which just makes me more nervous. Then I get more nervous, and that makes them more nervous, and then we're all nervous together."

However, as we all know the story goes, Doctor Strange became a critical hit prior to release. The film was Certified Fresh ahead of hitting theaters.

It was the night of the film's release that Derrickson finally felt the weight being lifted off of his shoulders. He and Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige attended a screening of Strange on the University of Southern California campus, where they would also participate in a Q&A.

Prior to taking the stage, Feige asked Derrickson how he felt, after years of hard work and preparation for his film to finally release and become a success.

"I said to him, 'Well, Kevin, I feel relieved! That's how I feel!'" He said, 'Yeah, yeah.' I said, 'Here's how I feel: I feel like, one day, somebody's going to make a bad Marvel Studios movie, but it ain't gonna be me!'"

"He laughed pretty hard at that, which I considered a big win!" Derrickson said. "That's still how I feel; I still just feel really relieved, more than anything, that it worked."

To date, Doctor Strange has earned over $634 million worldwide.

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Doctor Strange is now playing in theaters.

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