Martin Scorsese calls out Hollywood’s focus on box office numbers; calls it “kind of repulsive”

Acclaimed Hollywood filmmaker Martin Scorsese slammed Hollywood for its “repulsive” and “really insulting” obsession with box office numbers. According to Variety, during a recent appearance at the New York Film Festival, the Oscar-winning director called out Hollywood's incessant focus on box office figures and numbers, saying it is "repulsive" and "really insulting." He said, “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… 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 said.

“As a filmmaker, and as a person who can’t imagine life without cinema, I always find it really insulting,” he added. “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 is known for directing feature films like Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, Goodfellas, The Irishman and The Wolf of Wall Street. The acclaimed director won an Oscar for 2006's The Departed. He is currently in post-production on his $200 million Western drama Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.

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