Sir Ridley Scott blames millennials ‘brought up on cell phones’ for new film’s flop

Sir Ridley Scott has blamed the failure of his historical epic, The Last Duel, on millennials who only want to learn via their mobile phones.

The Last Duel, set in 14th-century France, is a career-worst box office performance for the veteran British director.

With a reported budget of $100 million ($76 million), it has made only a fifth of that back in ticket sales. In the UK, the film took only £326,000 on its opening weekend.

Sir Ridley said the problem did not lie with Disney, the studio, which did a “fantastic” job of promotion and advertising.

“I think what it boils down to - what we’ve got today - is audiences who are brought up on these f---ing cellphones. The millennian [sic] do not want to be taught anything unless you’re taught it on your cellphone.

“This is a broad stroke. But I think we’re dealing with it right now with Facebook. There is a misdirection that has happened, where it’s given the wrong kind of confidence to this latest generation,” he told the Marc Maron podcast in the US.

The Last Duel starred Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Jodie Comer, and is based on a true story. Damon plays Jean de Carrouges, a French knight, who fought a duel against his erstwhile friend Jacques Le Gris over the rape of de Carrouges’ wife.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, more than 80 per cent of the US audience at the opening weekend was over the age of 25. Older audiences have been the most reluctant to return to cinemas post-lockdown, further denting the film’s box office takings.

The Last Duel garnered largely good reviews from critics. However, Sir Ridley said he did not read them, after a particularly harsh review from The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael in 1982.

He explained: “I made a film called Blade Runner. It was my third movie. Pretty ---ing good. I was killed. I was killed by Pauline Kael, who didn’t even meet me.

“She had never met me and I suddenly read this article in The New Yorker, which is a very classy magazine. I read it, and there’s a four-page series of insults. I framed it. It’s in my office right now.”

Sir Ridley added: “I never read critique ever again because she was so wrong. I was just way ahead of her.”

In her review, Kael said Blade Runner was so soulless that “if anybody comes around with a test to detect humanoids, maybe Ridley Scott and his associates should hide.”

The film did not perform well at the box office, but is now regarded as a classic.

Sir Ridley, 83, confirmed this week that Blade Runner and Alien, his 1979 film, are being turned into 10-part television series.

He also has another film out this weekend, House of Gucci. It stars Lady Gaga as Patrizia Reggiani, convicted of hiring a hitman to murder her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci, an heir to the fashion fortune.

The Co Durham-born director said his remaining ambition is to make a Western, as he grew up watching them.