‘Doctor Strange’ director rouses the trolls after daring to praise ‘Barbie’ and ‘Captain Marvel’ in the same sentence

The overlap between the people who despise Captain Marvel and the folks denigrating Barbie for being “woke propaganda” is there for all to see, so it’s not a shock to find Marvel Cinematic Universe veteran and Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson lighting a fire under both camps with a single sentence.

Taking to Twitter in order to remark on the astonishing box office performance of Greta Gerwig’s toyetic spectacular, the horror veteran made a point of noting that it’s on course to secure one of the biggest worldwide opening weekends for any feature that isn’t a sequel, remake, or reboot.

If you exclude sequels and remakes, BARBIE’s 300M worldwide opening is the 3rd largest ever — only BLACK PANTHER and CAPTAIN MARVEL opened bigger. So if you also exclude MCU origin movies, BARBIE is number 1.

— N O S ⋊ Ɔ I ᴚ ᴚ Ǝ ᗡ ⊥ ⊥ O Ɔ S (@scottderrickson) July 22, 2023

A fairly innocuous analysis on the runaway success of the newest blockbuster IP on the block, or at least, so you would think. Right on cue, Derrickson was bombarded by – and responded to – a string of replies trying to root out technicalities that would erase both Barbie and Captain Marvel from this particular conversation.

If you don’t see the significant point, I can’t help you.

— N O S ⋊ Ɔ I ᴚ ᴚ Ǝ ᗡ ⊥ ⊥ O Ɔ S (@scottderrickson) July 23, 2023

Naturally, Barbie‘s long and illustrious history as the star of countless direct-to-video or straight-to-TV movies was swiftly brought up as a means to blow his reasoning apart.

Also weren’t all those direct to video Barbie productions 1 hour? If so, that makes them TV shows not films.

— N O S ⋊ Ɔ I ᴚ ᴚ Ǝ ᗡ ⊥ ⊥ O Ɔ S (@scottderrickson) July 22, 2023

The age-old question of whether or not any theatrically-released installment in the MCU is a sequel also reared its head.

I didn't exlude IP. And no, underlying IP doesn't make a film a sequel.

— N O S ⋊ Ɔ I ᴚ ᴚ Ǝ ᗡ ⊥ ⊥ O Ɔ S (@scottderrickson) July 22, 2023

Not even The Super Mario Bros. Movie was safe from finding itself dragged into the debate.

There was a globally released Mario Bros movie in the 90s starring Jon Leguizamo and Bob Hoskins. The 2023 film is a reboot.

— N O S ⋊ Ɔ I ᴚ ᴚ Ǝ ᗡ ⊥ ⊥ O Ɔ S (@scottderrickson) July 22, 2023

All Derrickson was trying to do was shine a light on just how monolithic Barbie‘s success has been right out of the gate, but there’s always going to be an unsavory subset ready and willing to try and tear it down.

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