For the last few years, the dominance of comic book movies in theaters has been a point of contention amongst the film community. Renowned director Martin Scorsese has been known as one of the vocal critics against its popularity as he is concerned about what it means for the future of cinema.
There are a lot of arguments that can be made on both sides regarding the value of comic book movies as the dominant genre in theaters, but there is no denying that today's general audience will always gear towards them due to the kind of entertainment that they deliver.
However, we've also seen recently that its staying power might not last for too long since some of the recent releases have underperformed at the box office and it remains to be seen if the dominoes will continue to fall soon.
Now, the aforementioned director has addressed the dominance of comic book movies once again and he is doubling down on his concerns.
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Martin Scorsese Asks the Audience to 'Fight Back' Against Comic Book Movie Culture
Speaking with GQ, Scorsese opened up once again about the dominance of comic book movie culture where he expressed his concerns about its danger to the audience's perception of cinema.
"The danger there is what it’s doing to our culture. Because there are going to be generations now that think movies are only those—that’s what movies are," he said.
When the interviewer suggested that his concerns were already happening, he responded by encouraging everyone to "fight back" by supporting filmmakers such as Christopher Nolan and the Safdie brothers.
"They 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. And you’ll have, you know, the Safdie brothers, and you’ll have Chris Nolan, you know what I mean?" Scorsese continued.
"And hit ’em from all sides. Hit ’em from all sides, and don’t give up. Let’s see what you got. Go out there and do it. Go reinvent. Don’t complain about it. But it’s true, because we’ve got to save cinema."
It should be noted though that Nolan has directed comic book movies in the past with the Christian Bale-led The Dark Knight trilogy and the second film is hailed as one of the best in the genre.
Whether you agree with Scorsese's sentiments or not, his concerns are not wrong if you look at the type of films that dominated the box office in the last couple of years and it could portray a grim look at the future of cinema if it continues to dominate.
However, if you look at the films that have done well this year, the director's concerns might have some resonance amongst the public already since Nolan's three-hour biopic Oppenheimer has grossed more than $900 million while Greta Gerwig's Barbie is currently the highest-grossing with $1.4 billion.
Comic book movies are no longer the dominant genre that they used to be if you look at the charts so Scorsese's issues might have already started to get resolved. Of course, it's still too early to tell since we won't be able to find out if the trend continues until the next few years.
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