Captain Marvel broke $1 billion at the box office last week. Now, star Brie Larson has reacted to the news.
"I’m very grateful to have broken this glass ceiling of normalizing the concept that women can also make a billion dollars," she said at the Women in the World conference. "I don’t know why that was so hard to comprehend in the first place. It’s just like we’re human, whatever. If people needed this to be another reminder this decade [that minority groups can open movies and make a billion dollars] then great, I’m here, I did it."
The end of Larson's statement seems to allude to fellow Marvel film Black Panther, which was led by a cast of predominantly black cast, crushed box office records and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. It's been a big year for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to embrace diversity, and Larson feels both films' success helps reverse a narrative that has been baked into the movie industry for decades.
"We put unnecessary pressure on ourselves," Larson said. "I understand film history. I know that the film industry started with a majority of women. It started with women filmmakers. This weird idea that women maybe can’t open movies or are not important to storytelling or the female story is not high art, it’s bogus. I don’t want to for a second buy into it."
Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Captain Marvel stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Jude Law as Yon-Rogg, Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser, Djimon Hounsou as Korath the Pursuer, Gemma Chan as Minn-Erva, Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau, Algenis Perez Soto as Att-Lass, McKenna Grace as a young Carol Danvers and Annette Bening as the Supreme Intelligence. The movie is in theaters now.
(via IndieWire)