Joe Russo Claims That Harvey Weinstein Was The One Who Started Vilifying Mainstream Movies: ‘Popular Films Were Winning Oscars Before The Mid-Nineties’

Joe Russo claims believes that Harvey Weinstein is to blame for alienating blockbuster features from awards season. During an interview with The Sunday Times, the Avengers: Infinity War director spoke about how there appears to be a barrier between features that present well at the box office and the ones that are actually nominated for awards. Russo claims that this particular trend “was started by Harvey Weinstein,” going on to explain that Weinstein “vilified mainstream movies to champion the art films he pushed for Oscar campaigns.” Russo stated that popular films were winning in awards season up until the mid-nineties, “then Weinstein started mudslinging campaigns… It affected how audiences view the Oscars, because they’ve not seen most of the movies.”

Russo continues, “We’re in a complicated place. Things we should all be enjoying collectively, we instead punch each other in the face over. Like this argument that Marvel movies were killing cinema,” Russo concludes his statement with, “Well, Marvel movies seemed to be keeping cinemas open for quite a long time.” Russo and his brother, Anthony, directed four of the most successful films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame are, respectively, the sixth and second highest-grossing films of all time. The brothers have decided to go back to the franchise after a six-year break, directing two more Avengers films. Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are set to release in 2026 and the latter to release in 2027.

Russo gave his critique on the film industry in general, as it is experiencing hardships because of declining profits and the real threat of AI. Russo believes that this is due to Hollywood’s lack of compromise, stating, “The film space has become divisive… Everything is about who can be the loudest—who can clickbait the most.”

The Russo brothers’ new film starring Milly Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, The Electric State is streaming now on Netflix.