Willem Dafoe Says Record-Breaking U.S. Box Office Should Be ‘Spread Out a Little Bit’: ‘The Audience Comes Mainly From Three Huge Movies’ — SkimNews
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- Willem Dafoe told the Zurich Film Festival that the record-breaking $4.76 billion U.S. summer box office is too top-heavy, saying the audience comes 'mainly from three, four huge movies' and that success needs to be 'spread out a little bit.'
- Dafoe specifically named Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' and Destin Daniel Cretton's 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' as the films driving the record summer.
- Tenzing, a Jennifer Peedom–directed chronicle of the 1953 first ascent of Mount Everest, opens in limited U.S. theaters Oct. 9 and streams globally on Apple TV on Oct. 16.
- In the film, Dafoe plays Colonel John Hunt alongside Tom Hiddleston as Edmund Hillary and Genden Phuntsok as Tenzing Norgay.
- Reflecting on his Green Goblin role in Sam Raimi's 2002 'Spider-Man,' Dafoe said friends initially mocked the part as 'not cool' and a 'terrible movie,' but he trusted Raimi's vision; the Green Goblin remains, he said, 'probably' the most consistent point of audience recognition he receives.
- The production shot on real mountains with safety teams monitoring avalanche risk; Dafoe described high-altitude challenges including fatigue, hunger, and 'no toilet.'
Why it matters: Dafoe, a rare actor who has spanned Raimi's 2002 'Spider-Man' and arthouse auteurs, is publicly backing an industry worry that the $4.76 billion summer total masks dangerous reliance on a few mega-hits — while his own new film lands on Apple TV+ just a week after a limited U.S. theatrical bow.
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