Martin Scorsese is sick of hearing about how much money movies make and says it's 'really insulting' to cinema

Martin Scorsese said at the New York Film Festival on Wednesday that cinema is being "belittled."
He thinks the "focus on numbers" — a movie's box office performance — is "repulsive" and "insulting."
The theatrical business is under the microscope as it tries to recover from the pandemic.

Martin Scorsese lamented the obsession with movies' box office performance during the New York Film Festival on Wednesday.

The acclaimed director of classics including "Taxi Driver" and "Goodfellas" said the festival was "particularly important" right now, as cinema was being "devalued, demeaned, belittled from all sides."

"Since the '80s, there's been a focus on numbers," Scorsese said. "It's kind of repulsive. The cost of a movie is one thing. A movie costs a certain amount, they expect it to at least get that amount back, plus. I get it. But, the emphasis is now on numbers — the opening weekend, how much it made in the USA, how much it made in England, how much it made in Asia, how much it made in the entire world, how many views it got."

Scorsese added: "As a filmmaker, and as a person who can't imagine life without cinema, I always find it really insulting."

His comments come amid intense scrutiny of box office takings. The theatrical industry is struggling to fully recover from the pandemic amid a drought in movie releases and Cineworld, the world's second-largest theater operator that owns Regal, filed for bankruptcy last month.

US box office for the year stands at $5.8 billion through this past weekend, according to Comscore, compared with $11.4 billion for 2019.

With only a few franchise tentpoles due for release this year, including "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" next month, 2022's box office is sure to be well below pre-pandemic levels.

Scorsese's most recent scripted feature, "The Irishman," was released by Netflix. His next, "Killers of the Flower Moon," will be from Apple. Neither company reports box-office numbers.

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