By DAVID BRADLEY-RASLAD and RICHARD MCCARTHYPublished Aug 06, 2018 05:31:47President Donald Trump is calling for the cancellation of Iron Man III after he claimed the movie would cost taxpayers $100 million to make and would not bring in as much revenue as expected.
The Hollywood Reporter has learned Trump made the comments at a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a group of top business leaders.
Iron Man 3 will be the second film to be rebooted for a new audience, following the success of the 2014 film, which earned $1.8 billion worldwide and grossed more than $200 million.
The president’s comments to a meeting Friday are the latest in a string of controversies over the film, and come as the movie has been renewed for a second weekend and is slated for release in October.
The report comes after Trump recently told reporters he had been watching Iron Man for a year.
He later tweeted a picture of himself reading a news article about the project.
The news of the president’s comment on the film came during a press conference held in New York City, where Trump also met with business leaders in an effort to revitalize the economy.
The president said the movie’s popularity is due to a lack of a budget.
“You know, we’ll have to look at it.
We’ll have a look at the numbers and see if it can bring in money,” he said.
“And then we’ll see if there’s anything that can be done.”
He also said the film was a “total disaster,” adding, “We’ll see what happens.”
Iron Man, starring Christopher Meloni and Anthony Mackie, hit theaters in June 2014.
Its $1 billion production budget made it the highest-grossing film of all time.
It was released in theaters around the world and earned more than the $1 trillion global gross of the original, The Avengers.
Critics, however, have been critical of the film for being overly violent and over-the-top.
The film also faced backlash for its depiction of superheroes as violent.