Martin Scorsese on Franchise Films, Streaming: “Content Is Something You Eat and Throw Away”

Legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese has made it very clear in recent years that he’s passionate about not just his craft of filmmaking, but it’s current state and its future as well. His 2019 comments about Marvel movies being more akin to a theme park ride than “cinema” helped fuel a debate about movies that is still ongoing. Now, the Killers of the Flower Moon director is urging young filmmakers to reinvent cinema as opposed to merely making content, something he called “something you eat and throw away”.

During his Screen Talk at the BFI London Film Festival (via Variety), Scorsese said that the future of cinema is in the hands of young filmmakers now and they are in a “period of reinventing” due to technology, but that he hopes that includes more “serious” films.

“I’m afraid the franchise films will be taking over the theaters,” Scorsese said. “I always ask the theater owners to create a space where younger people would say, ‘We want to see this new film,’ which is not a franchise film, in a theater and share with everybody around them. So that they want to go to the theater, that it’s something inviting that doesn’t get them to say they could see it at home. Because the experience of seeing a film with other people is really still the key, I think. But I’m not sure that can be easily achieved at this point.”

When he was asked by director Edgar Wright about filmmakers being seen as “content providers”, Scorsese likened content to junk food, commenting “content is something you eat and throw away.” He went on to add, “But if you want to have an experience that can enrich your life, it’s different.”

Scorsese Recently Explained His Comments on Franchise Films and Culture

Speaking with GQ UK, Scorsese also elaborated a bit on what he feels is the real issue with franchise films — not that they exist, but that they take up so many movie screens to the point that other types of films don’t really get a chance.

“The danger there is what it’s doing to our culture,” Scorsese said of the franchise films that tend to take up movie theater screens. “Because there are going to be generations now that think movies are only those – that’s what movies are. [Audiences] already think that. Which means that we have to then fight back stronger. And it’s got to come from the grassroots level. It’s gotta come from the filmmakers themselves.” Scorsese referenced Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan and Uncut Gems filmmakers the Safdie brothers, who create the opposite of what the 80-year-old filmmaker dismissed as “manufactured content.”

“Hit [moviegoers] from all sides. Hit ’em from all sides, and don’t give up. Let’s see what you got. Go out there and do it. Go reinvent. Don’t complain about it. But it’s true, because we’ve got to save cinema,” Scorsese said. “I do think that the manufactured content isn’t really cinema.”

Jessica Lange Also Recently Commented About Franchise Films

Scorsese isn’t alone with concerns about franchise films. American Horror Story alum and Oscar winning actor Jessica Lange also recently announced that she’s planning to retire, largely due to the impact of franchise films and a corporate profit-driven system.

“I don’t think I’ll do this too much longer,” Lange said. “Creativity is secondary now to corporate profits. The emphasis becomes not on the art or the artist or the storytelling. It becomes about satisfying your stockholders. It diminishes the artist and the art of filmmaking.”

“I’m not interested in these big comic-book franchise films,” Lange continued. “I think that they’ve sacrificed this art that we’ve been involved in … for the sake of profit.”

What Is Killers of the Flower Moon About?

Directed by Scorsese and written for the screen by Scorsese and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Dune), Killers of the Flower Moon is based on David Grann’s bestselling book of the same name. You can read a description of the film below:

“The film is set in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror. Based on a true story and told through the improbable romance of Ernest Burkhart and Mollie Kyle, Killers of the Flower Moon is an epic western crime saga, where real love crosses paths with unspeakable betrayal.”

Killers of the Flower Moon stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, and Brendan Fraser. 

Killers of the Flower Moon currently has a 97% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes after debuting at the Cannes Film Festival. Early reactions have praised Scorsese’s “masterpiece” (Rolling Stone) as the filmmaker’s “most innovative and best movie in decades” (GQ), with DiCaprio delivering “the best performance of his entire career” (IndieWire).