The Russo Brothers Defend Watching Movies on Streaming, "The Theater is a Sacred Space, is Bullsh-t"

By Nathaniel Brail

Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic began streaming has taken a major step forward. With no one going into theaters movie studios have pivoted their focus to productions people can enjoy in the comfort of their own home. Some filmmakers have been wholeheartedly against the idea with directors like Christopher Nolan refusing to allow their films to go straight to streaming. Other filmmakers don't really have a problem with the pivot and have even come out in support of streaming. Most recently, Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo have ventured into streaming with films like Cherry and Netflix's The Gray Man. Now, the directors are coming out in defense of the option all the while calling out the directors who think that films should only be in theaters.

"I hate to be juvenile on that level. We love everything about classic cinema, but we've never been precious about that in any way, shape, or form," Anthony told The Hollywood Reporter. "What has always excited us most is [the question], how do you move it forward? This is part of our philosophy in terms of not being precious about theatrical distribution. How do you get away from the old models? How do you reach audiences that haven't been engaged before? That's all the most interesting stuff to us."

"Auteur filmmaking is 50 years old at this point. It was conceived in the '70s. We grew up on that. We were kids, it was really important to us. But we're also aware that the world needs to change and the more that we try to prevent it from changing the more chaos we create. It's not anyone's place to reject the next generation's ideas. We're in crisis right now because everyone's at war with each other. It's sad to see, as guys who grew up loving film. A thing to remember, too, is it's an elitist notion to be able to go to a theater. It's very fucking expensive. So, this idea that was created — that we hang on to — that the theater is a sacred space, is bullshit. And it rejects the idea of allowing everyone in under the tent. Where digital distribution is valuable, other than what I said earlier about how it pushed diversity, is that people can share accounts; they can get 40 stories for the cost of one story. But having some kind of culture war about whether there's value in that or not is fucking bananas to us." Joe Russo added.

Although the directors aren't expected to return to Marvel Studios to direct a new superhero project, they have been pretty vocal about what it would take for them to come back. The most recent Marvel Studios film to hit theater is Thor: Love and Thunder. The studio describes as follows: "The film finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he's ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor's surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher's vengeance and stop him before it's too late."

Thor: Love and Thunder is exclusively in theaters now!

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