Martin Scorsese Rails Against Box Office Obsession: It’s ‘Repulsive’ and ‘Really Insulting’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Martin Scorsese railed against box office numbers during a recent appearance at the New York Film Festival (via IndieWire).

The Oscar-winning filmmaker called the industry’s obsession with box office grosses both “repulsive” and “really insulting.” Scorsese praised the festival for championing filmmaking at a time when “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.

It’s kind of repulsive,” Scorsese said. “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.

As a filmmaker, and as a person who can’t imagine life without cinema, I always find it really insulting.” Scorsese 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.