Coogler’s Oscar-nominated “Black Panther” or
the deconstructionist delight of “Spider-Man:
Into the Spider-Verse.”
But — and this is Scorsese and Coppola’s main
point — there is so much more. As vast as
Marvel’s “cinematic universe” is, it doesn’t hold
a candle to the actual cinematic universe. And
they would like to divert some of the spotlight
on Marvel elsewhere.
“There’s a generation that thinks cinema is a
blockbuster”, Scorsese told me in June when he
was releasing his semi-fictional documentary
“Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story.”
Scorsese was most bothered by the sight of
large, multi-screen cinemas playing one movie
(“Endgame”) on 11 of its 12 screens.
“We have to fight back at this practice of
overwhelming the market with the blockbuster,”
said Scorsese. “The — how should I put it? — the
regular film, that’s being edged out. It’s got to go
someplace. It has to go someplace because you
know why? There are people that are going to
continue to make them.”
The concern for the suffocation of “the regular
film,” the non-blockbuster, is justified. Comic-
book movies, sequels and remakes make up
nine of this year’s top films at the box office
(the lone exception is Jordan Peele’s “Us”) and
that’s been roughly the case for years now.
Netflix and other streaming services are, for now,
bankrolling a large percentage of the industry’s
larger budget original films, including Scorsese’s
upcoming “The Irishman.”
Some have sought to portray Scorsese
and Coppola as out of touch, too old to be
connected to the pop culture of today. But it
would be hard to find two filmmakers who have