Martin Scorsese Laments The Film Industry’s “Repulsive” Obsession With Box Office Numbers At The NYFF Premiere Of His New Doc

Martin Scorsese was at the New York Film Festival last night to introduce his new documentary with David Tedeschi, “Personality Crisis: One Night Only,” about the legendary proto-punk band The New York Dolls. Scorsese in his hometown at NYFF? That’s awesome enough. But IndieWire reports that the director had more than just a conventional intro to his film to share with audience members. On top of that, Scorsese also sounded off on the state of moviegoing, with its “repulsive” emphasis on box office numbers over artistic vision.

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“Cinema is devalued, demeaned, belittled from all sides, not necessarily the business side but certainly the art,” Scorsese said during his intro last night. “Since the ’80s, there’s been a focus on numbers. It’s kind of repulsive. The cost of a movie is one thing. Understand that a film costs a certain amount, they expect to at least get the amount back, plus, again. The emphasis is now on numbers, cost, the opening weekend, how much it made in the U.S.A., how much it made in England, how much it made in Asia, how much it made in the entire world, how many viewers it got.”

But Scorsese wasn’t done there. “As a filmmaker, and as a person who can’t imagine life without cinema, I always find it really insulting,” he continued. “I’ve always known that such considerations have no place at the New York Film Festival, and here’s the key also with this: There are no awards here. You don’t have to compete. You just have to love cinema here.”  

Scorsese’s comments are the latest in his excoriating views on the current state of cinema and moviegoing. Three years ago, he unapologetically likened Marvel movies to “theme parks,” declaring that they aren’t real cinema, which sparked controversy throughout the industry. Now these new comments come soon after Sean Egan‘s called Scorsese “an uneven talent” in his column for The Critic, which prompted filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro to take to Twitter to defend Scorsese.

But what will the ripple effects be of Scorsese’s latest comments? It’s not hard to agree with the filmmaker’s take on the “numbers first” emphasis the industry currently has. That notion is especially explicit post-COVID, with studios wanting to return to 2019 box-office numbers to prove that “movies are back.” However, wouldn’t it be even better if the artistic integrity of the cinematic experience returned in full force too? That’s not to overly denigrate what’s most popular at the movies right now, namely the MCU. But Scorsese doesn’t need to call those movies “theme parks” for it to be evident that it’s primarily finance, not art, that drives those films as productions.  So, how do art and craftsmanship take the forefront to box-office numbers in the contemporary climate, or at least balance out the favored “numbers first” approach to moviemaking?

Showtime handles the release of “Personality Crisis: One Night Only,” so stay tuned for word on its release date. After all, the new doc should suffice as a new Scorsese movie before “Killers Of The Flower Moon” releases next year.