If there’s one thing certain sections of the media love to do, it’s blame millennials for ruining countless industries after they’ve spent their lives frittering money away on avocado toast and lattes instead of funding the diamond and real estate business. How dare they.
According to Ridley Scott, they can’t tear themselves away from their cellphones long enough to prevent his latest blockbuster historical epic The Last Duel from bombing at the box office, a bizarre theory that had a hole blown through it just weeks later when Scott’s own House of Gucci landed the highest-grossing opening weekend for a drama since 2019.
Perhaps the real issue is that audiences weren’t particularly sold on the idea of a trip to the theater so they could watch Ben Affleck with bleached eyebrows trying to sweep a rape accusation aimed at Adam Driver and his questionable accent under the rug in 14th Century France, all while Matt Damon and a prosthetic scar lurk in the background demanding justice.
That’s not to say The Last Duel is a bad movie, because it’s a dramatically satisfying and suitably brutal one, but it was never going to make a dent at the box office in the age of COVID-19. Luckily, it’s now streaming on Disney Plus via the STAR expansion for international customers and has already jousted its way onto the most-watched list as per FlixPatrol.
