Although Martin Scorsese continues to be outspoken in his distaste for Marvel movies, the auteur—as it turns out—is a fan of the cultural phenomenon known as Barbenheimer. According to the Wolf of Wall Street helmer, the dual release of Barbie and Oppenheimer earlier this summer was “something special” for box offices and movie-goers alike.
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“I do think that the combination of Oppenheimer and Barbie was something special. It seemed to be, I hate that word, but the perfect storm,” Scorsese said in a new chat with The Hindustan Times. “It came about at the right time. And the most important thing is that people went to watch these in a theater. And I think that’s wonderful.”
“The way it fit perfectly – a film with such entertainment value, purely with the bright colors – and a film with such severity and strength, and pretty much about the danger of the end to our civilization – you couldn’t have more opposite films to work together,” he added. “It does offer some hope for a different cinema to emerge, different from what’s been happening in the last 20 years, aside from the great work being done in independent cinema.”
Both of the films made a killing at the box office, with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie making tallying a staggering $1.47 billion worldwide. Christopher Nolan’s R-rated Oppenheimer, on the other hand, inches closer to the billion-dollar benchmark with its $939 million global haul.
What’d Martin Scorsese say about Marvel?
Doubling down on his previous comments about Marvel movies not being “cinema,” Scorsese said last month that the films are nothing more than content.
“The danger there is what it’s doing to our culture,” Scorsese said in an extensive piece with GQ UK. “Because there are going to be generations now that think movies are only those – that’s what movies are. [Audiences] already think that. Which means that we have to then fight back stronger. And it’s got to come from the grassroots level. It’s gotta come from the filmmakers themselves.”
Barbie is now available wherever movies are sold. Oppenheimer, however, won’t receive a streaming or home media release date until much later this year.
