Martin Scorsese denounces film industry’s box office obsession as ‘repulsive’

Martin Scorsese excoriated the film industry for being overly obsessed with box office returns.

According to an IndieWire report, Scorsese made his remarks Wednesday night following the New York Film Festival”™s screening of “Personality Crisis: One Night Only,” the New York Dolls documentary he co-directed with David Tedeschi. The Oscar-winning filmmaker lamented that “cinema is devalued, demeaned, belittled from all sides, not necessarily the business side but certainly the art.”

“Since the ”™80s, there”™s been a focus on numbers,” he continued. “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.”

Scorsese, who generated controversy by denouncing the Marvel superhero films as “theme parks,” praised the non-competitive nature of the New York Film Festival.

“There are no awards here,” he said. “You don”™t have to compete. You just have to love cinema here.”

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