Martin Scorsese Calls on Theater Owners to Bring True Indie Films ‘Back to the Multiplex’

thewrap.com:

Martin Scorsese sat down one-on-one at CinemaCon with Leonardo DiCaprio, the star of his new film “Killers of the Flower Moon” about the past and future of cinema.The new film, which tells the story of the murder of Osage natives in the 1920s by oil tycoons looking to take over their resource-heavy land, is the first Scorsese film since 2016’s “Silence” to get a full theatrical release.

It comes out at a time when escapist films have been making money as much as ever at the box office while smaller, independent films have largely struggled to find their way back.

Despite this, Scorsese expressed his hope to movie theater owners in attendance that they can find a way to bring back those smaller films to the biggest multiplexes around the world “for the good of all of us.” “I know the big movies bring in the big audiences.

I remember in the 1950s that there were films like ‘Ben-Hur’ and ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ and they were so much fun but there were other movies that could run in theaters that were beautiful and at least somewhat comfortable,” Scorsese said. “But I want to call on you to think about this: someone must find a way to bring independent films back into the multiplex,” he said. “It’s going to make a difference to the movies that you show in your theaters in the coming years…one of these people who sees them, whether they’re 19 or 15 or 25, they’ll become artists and novelist and musicians and filmmakers and maybe one of them might make the next blockbuster that will carry theaters and this industry through the next crisis.”Scorsese is a living example of the power movies can have to influence the next generation of filmmakers.