Following Martin Scorsese's op-ed in which he extrapolated and defended his stance stating that Marvel movies are not cinema and are, instead, "theme parks," several people involved with the Marvel Cinematic Universe chimed in with their thoughts on his negative opinion.
Now, Scarlett Johansson -- who plays Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow -- has shared her thoughts on Scorsese's outlook, conceding that the prolific director may have a legitimate point.
"There's certainly a place for all kinds of cinema right now," she told THR. "People absorb content in so many different ways. I actually didn't totally understand that statement, because I guess I needed some insight as to what it meant exactly. Because to me it seemed a little old-fashioned. But somebody pointed out to me that perhaps what the statement meant was that there's no room for smaller films, because the cinema is taken up by these enormous blockbusters, and smaller movies don't have a chance at the theater, which I hadn't actually considered and think is a valid point."
"But I also feel like there's sort of this shift in how people watch stuff and there's all these platforms for different kinds of [content]," she continued. "Now there's movies and shows and art films and all kinds of stuff getting made that you can watch in all these different ways, and I just feel like it's changing. It doesn't mean it's going away."
Scorsese previously claimed that MCU movies lack "revelation, mystery, or genuine emotional danger" before lamenting the current state of large Hollywood series. "That's the nature of modern film franchises: market-researched, audience-tested, vetted, modified, revetted and remodified until they're ready for consumption," he noted in his op-ed, reiterating his stance that, to him, Marvel movies are simply reductive corporate creations.
Despite his take on the narrative and character quality of Marvel's cinematic offerings, Avengers: Endgame successfully connected with audiences worldwide, surpassing 2009's Avatar to become the highest-grossing movie of all time, raking in approximately $2.8 billion worldwide.