...my respect for their opinions on film and their right to voice those opinions doesn't protect them from being pretty clearly wrong in this instance.

I mean, they are not engaging in legitimate film criticism here. Media criticism, corporate criticism, cultural criticism maybe. And those things are important. But if you're going to talk about something not qualifying as cinema then you should: a) name a specific movie, not a genre or studio, b) have actually seen that movie, and c) provide specific examples of a film's artistic failures.

They both seem to be mad about money and distribution. Well, I hate to break it to Coppola, but Iron Man doesn't have his money. Del Toro has his money. Eastwood has his money. The Farrelly brothers (Green Book) have his money. Mid-budget movies for adults are getting made, just not by him.

And as for Scorsese...lord. This man wanted like $125M to make a 3.5 hour, nostalgia-driven gangster movie that would rely heavily on CGI *perfected* in large part by Marvel movies (Guardians 2, Capt Marvel), and has the nerve to blame Marvel movies for not being able to get it financed and screened? There are no Marvel movies in theaters right now. No Star Wars, no Frozen 2. He took the cash from Netflix and is dropping this movie at a time where it would have to compete for screens with, what, Maleficent? Marvel didn't push him out of the theaters - he wanted to make what should've been a cable miniseries and call it a movie and have it be eligible for Oscars.

I love both of these guys and I hope the Irishman is fantastic. And I think most of the Marvel people have been right in responding mostly with kindness (i.e. we love these guys, they've earned the right to think whatever they want, we stand by our obviously very popular work, not everything has to be for everybody). But...woof. Somebody go get Statler and Waldorf out of the balcony.