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After almost a ten-month pandemic-imposed delay from its original release date last year, Ridley Scott's The Last Duel finally made it to theaters in mid-October. With massive stars associated with the project, including director Ridley Scott, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Adam Driver, and Jodie Comer, the film reportedly had a budget of $100 million.
Despite the massive star power behind the movie, not many seemed interested in watching it in theaters. Since its release, the film has barely made $10 million in the domestic box office.
Furthermore, even after 38 days of release, the movie grossed just around $27.5 million worldwide. This is critically low after its $100 million budget (probably excluding marketing budget), and its opening in over 3,065 globally.
What did Ridley Scott say about the failure of The Last Duel at the box office?
While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter's WTF with Marc Maron podcast, Ridley Scott was asked about The Last Duel being a box-office dud despite its massive budget. Scott replied:
"I think what it boils down to — what we've got today (are) the audiences who were brought up on these f***ing cell phones. The millennial, do not ever want to be taught anything unless you tell it on the cell phone."
He further added:
"This is a broad stroke, but I think we're dealing with it right now with Facebook. This is a misdirection that has happened where it's given the wrong kind of confidence to this latest generation, I think."
However, Scott came to the defense of the marketing team at Disney (who acquired the film when they bought 20th Century Fox). He said:
"Disney did a fantastic promotion job."
Peoples reactions to Ridley Scott's blame towards millennials for the commercial failure of The Last Duel
Several people on Twitter called out Ridley Scott's blame shift and labeled it as an excuse. Some even deemed the movie uninteresting for general viewers and not just millennials. Meanwhile, a few joked about adding The Last Duel to the list of things ruined by millennials.
What were the likely reasons for The Last Duel bombing?
First, the film's budget seems excessively high for a period piece, considering Ridley Scott could make The Martian for a reported budget of $108 million. Furthermore, the story that the movie covered was not for people of all ages and had a smaller niche audience base in the first place.
Moreover, a significant setback was its release amidst COVID, with Delta variant cases surging throughout multiple countries. While the story is based on the judicial process for r*pe and abuse in medieval times, it might not have been interesting to the general audience.
Despite its box-office failure, it remains to be seen how the film will do one PVOD and streaming.
