Guillermo del Toro Calls Present “Most Difficult Moment in History” to Make Movies for Adults

It’s no secret what the biggest movies in the world are at the box office, mostly reboots, sequels, and anything that’s franchise centric like Marvel, Star Wars, and DC. This has become a sticking point for many film fans as the success of blockbusters like Spider-Man: No Way Home results in fewer screens available for films for adult audiences, not to mention how it make way for studios to put all of their focus on blockbusters. No one knows this better than Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro, as his most recent feature film Nightmare Alley became one of the biggest box office bombs of 2021 despite being named one of the Top 10 movies of the year by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute Awards.

Speaking in a new interview the Mexican-born director didn’t shy away from his feelings on the current ecosystem of feautre films, noting how hard it is to get films made for fewer than the four quadrant audiences, but he thinks change is imminent. “Well, every decade or two the audience changes,” del Toro told NME. “In the ’70s, the audience was mostly composed of adults, and then it became a lot younger in the ’80s. That audience matures and changes but right now is probably the most difficult moment in history to make a film for adults. But that doesn’t mean that’s it’s going to be that way. Nothing is permanent.”

Guillermo del Toro’s filmography in a word could be described as niche. Though the celebrated director has multiple Oscars and is a fan-favorite in geek circles due to films like Hellboy, Blade II, and Crimson Peak, his biggest success at the box office was Pacific Rim, a fanboy favorite but not one that set the world on fire like the MCU. All that said, and despite the poor box office performance of his latest, del Toro isn’t deterred and thinks of Nightmare Alley as his best yet.

“Without a doubt this is the movie I’m the proudest of,” del Toro revealed. “I abandoned a certain sense of pageantry and whimsy, and I went for a more sober, older approach to the material in a way that I’m really happy with. Finding a change of register at age 57 was just so exciting for me.”  

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio will be his next feature film as a director and is due out later this year from Netflix.