Disney Ceo Bob Iger has spoken out in regards to the recent comments from filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas) and Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather) stating whether or not superhero movies are “cinema” or not.

Scorsese has compared them to theme park rides, while The Godfather filmmaker flat out called them despicable. Iger was blunt and to the point with his response during the Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference on Tuesday.

“I reserve the word ‘despicable’ for someone who committed mass murder,” Iger stated. “These are movies… I’m puzzled by it. if they want to bitch about movies, it’s certainly their right.”

Iger also went on to say that he would be happy to put Scorsese and Coppola’s films against MCU movies helmed by Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok)and Ryan Coogler (Black Panther). “It seems so disrespectful to all the people that work on those [Marvel] films who are working just as hard as the people who work on their films. … Are you telling me Ryan Coogler making ‘Black Panther’ is somehow doing something that is less than what Marty Scorsese or Francis Ford Coppola has ever done on any one of their movies?”

He ended the discussion by saying. “There I said it.”

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He added that the film business has “relatively thin margins” and that such successful superhero movies such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe allow the industry to distribute and exhibit other types of films, like the ones Scorsese and Coppola support.

Source: WSJ