Jun 05, 2025 11:35 AM IST

The film industry is undergoing a quiet crisis. Movie theatres, once bustling, are steadily emptying out. The reasons are many: the dominance of streaming platforms, rising ticket prices, a decline in original storytelling — and, increasingly, an audience that seems less interested in watching than multitasking.

You’d expect the staunch defenders of cinema to rally behind the communal experience. But one of its greatest champions, Martin Scorsese, has quietly taken a different stance. The man who gave us Taxi Driver (1976), Goodfellas (1990), and The Irishman (2019) now avoids theatres altogether. Not because he’s turned his back on cinema, but because he feels today’s theatergoing experience has.

In a recent candid conversation with longtime friend and film critic Peter Travers, Scorsese revealed the real reason he no longer watches movies in public. Travers recounted: I asked the maestro why he doesn’t see movies in theatres anymore, and he went all raging bull about audiences who babble on phones during the movie, leave to order snacks and vats of soda, and keep up a noise level loud enough to drown out the actors. “Come on, Marty,” I said, “we couldn’t keep our mouths shut when we were kids.”  His eyes darkened. “Yeah, maybe,” he conceded, “but when we talked, it was always about the movie and the fun we had chewing over the details.”

Instead of subjecting himself to scores of ennui-inducing conversations, Scorsese has created his own cinematic sanctuary. His home is a cinephile’s dream: a screening room outfitted with pristine equipment, walls lined with vintage posters, shelves stacked with film memorabilia, and screening spaces where he curates and revisits films in solitude. For a long time now, Scorsese has described his private screening environment as “a vital part of his life.” There, he can engage with cinema on his own terms — without the glare of a phone or the crunch of popcorn underfoot.

Scorsese's words carry a bittersweet weight. One of cinema’s most passionate voices now watches from the sidelines — not out of contempt, but out of love for what used to be.