Award-winning Scottish actor Brian Cox has slammed Marvel, saying the film industry is in a “very bad way” and the movie giant is to blame.
The 78-year-old actor, best known for his starring role in HBO’s Succession, said the financial appeal of comic book adaptations had left the film industry struggling.
Brian said that high-paying, high-grossing films had made actors “party time” as they could earn huge amounts of money, leading to the demise of cinema.
The actor himself had reaped the rewards of this when he starred in Marvel’s X2: X-Men United, playing Dr. William Stryker, the man responsible for the creation of Wolverine.
Speaking at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Brian said: ‘What’s happening is that television is doing what film used to do.
Actor Brian Cox, 78, says cinema has gone “very wrong”
The star says Marvel is to blame and mentioned Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman (pictured) in Deadpool & Wolverine as an example.
The Scottish actor spoke from experience, having played Dr. William Stryker in Marvel’s X2: X-Men United.
“I think cinema is in a very bad place. I think it’s lost its place, in part, because of the bombastic element between Marvel and DC and all that. And I think it’s starting to implode. It’s losing its thread.”
The Hollywood Reporter He said he talked about Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman from Deadpool & Wolverine and that the films are “making a lot of money that will make everybody happy, but in terms of work, it gets diluted afterwards. You’re just getting the same old thing… I mean, I’ve done those kinds of (projects).”
Brian also said: ‘So it’s become a bit of a party time for certain actors to do these things.
‘When you know that Hugh Jackman can do a little bit more, Ryan Reynolds… but it’s because they take that route and it’s box office.
“They make a lot of money. There’s no denying that’s how they are.”
Brian told the crowds that television was becoming more popular because “you have the honor of telling the story over time.”
The times He reported that since 2008, Marvel had released 33 films and that they had dominated the box office.
Avengers: Endgame grossed nearly $3 billion (£2.3 billion) and became the highest-grossing film of the past decade.
Three other Marvel films also made the top 10.
Spider-Man has been made nine times in different forms, with actors including Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland starring, and Shameik Moore lending his voice to the animated version.
There have been three Guardians of the Galaxy films, and Robert Downey Jr. starred in three Iron Man films before his character appeared in all four Avengers crossovers.
The crossover, which brought together characters from different Marvel franchises, stars Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth.
Samuel L Jackson holds the record for most leading roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having appeared as the character Nick Fury 15 times since 2008.
Brian’s comments come just months after Disney “killed some projects” amid the implosion of Marvel’s superhero movies.
Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors in March that the entertainment giant was focusing on creating quality movies that audiences wanted to see.
Superhero movies like The Marvels and last year’s Ant-Man sequel lost money, along with new releases like Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Haunted Mansion were also panned by critics, the latter averaging a particularly poor 37 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Iger said Disney has “already canceled some projects that we didn’t think were strong enough” while trying to back more promising ones.
“You have to kill things you don’t believe in anymore. And that’s not easy in this business. Because either you’ve started, you have some… costs,” he said at an investor conference.
It’s a relationship with your employees or with a creative community. And it’s not an easy task, but you have to make those difficult decisions.
“We have indeed made those difficult decisions, but we have not made them public.”
Iger gave no hint as to which projects were scrapped, but insisted it was simply because they didn’t live up to his high standards.
“You have to analyze everything you do, everything you believe in. And you have to accept that good is not good enough. Basically, you have to strive for perfection.”
How Marvel Made Billions: Complete List of the Studio’s Movies and How Much They’ve Made Since 2008
While it’s difficult to put a figure on the ever-growing box office revenues that Marvel films have generated, it currently stands at $13.9 billion.
Topping the list of 18 films is Marvel’s The Avengers, released in 2012, which grossed $1,518,812,988 worldwide.
In second place is another film from the same franchise, Avengers: Age of Ultron, which grossed $1,405,403,694 after its release in 2015.
Iron Man 3 sits in third place for the studio, grossing $1,214,811,252 since its 2013 release.
Topping the list of 18 films is Marvel’s The Avengers (pictured), released in 2012, which grossed $1,518,812,988 worldwide.
And Black Panther, released last week, is already breaking records after grossing a whopping $426,751,965 in theaters.
Here’s the full list of Marvel movies and how much they grossed in theaters:
- Marvel’s The Avengers (2012): $1,518,812,988
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) – $1,405,403,694
- Iron Man 3 (2013) – $1,214,811,252
- Captain America: Civil War (2016) – $1,153,304,495
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) – $880,166,924
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) – $863,732,512
- Thor: Ragnarok (2017) – $853,456,806
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) – $773,328,629
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) – $714,264,267
- Doctor Strange (2016) – $677,718,395
- Thor: The Dark World (2013) – $644,571,402
- Iron Man 2 (2010) – $623,933,331
- Iron Man (2008) – $585,174,222
- Ant-Man (2015) – $519,311,965
- Thor (2011) – $449,326,618
- Black Panther (2018) – $426,751,965
- Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) – $370,569,774
- The Incredible Hulk (2008) – $263,427,551
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