Known for her successful indie flicks, Chloé Zhao took on her first big-budget film in the form of Marvel’s Eternals. Unfortunately, it earned a modest box office haul and made history as the studio’s lowest Rotten Tomatoes-scoring movie. After returning to directing after a four-year break for Hamnet, Zhao is getting real about the intense pressure that comes with not wanting to lose other people’s money.
At the London Film Festival (via Variety), Chloé Zhao was honest about how “factual and reasonable” stories are favored more than ambiguous ones for the box office. Even though the Beijing native said a movie’s financial success is not a priority to her, she said she still understands why box office returns are important:
