Martin Scorsese Says “Perfect Storm” Barbenheimer Came at the Right Time for Cinema

Martin Scorsese is part of the majority of people who think Barbenheimer was a “wonderful” thing.

During an interview with the Hindustan Times, the Oscar-winning director explained that the combination of the drastically different movies and the summer box office sensation they caused was truly “something special.”

“It seemed to be, I hate that word, but the perfect storm,” he told the publication. “It came about at the right time. And the most important thing is that people went to watch these in a theater. And I think that’s wonderful.”

Scorsese admitted he hasn’t seen Barbie or Oppenheimer yet, but that he’s a fan of both Christopher Nolan and Margot Robbie, as well as Killers of the Flower Moon cinematographer, Rodrigo Prieto, who also shot Greta Gerwig’s record-breaking film.

“The way it fit perfectly — a film with such entertainment value, purely with the bright colors, and a film with such severity and strength, and pretty much about the danger of the end to our civilization — you couldn’t have more opposite films to work together,” he continued. “It does offer some hope for a different cinema to emerge, different from what’s been happening in the last 20 years, aside from the great work being done in independent cinema.”

The filmmaker also defended the somewhat controversial runtime of Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro, Brendan Fraser and Jesse Plemons, which clocks in at three hours and 26 minutes.

While Scorsese pointed out they aren’t trying to make a blockbuster hit with the AppleTV+ film, he emphasized that it is a movie that should be watched on the big screen in order for viewers to truly immerse themselves in it.

“People say it’s three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours,” he said. “Also, there are many people who watch theater for 3.5 hours. There are real actors on stage, you can’t get up and walk around. You give it that respect, give cinema some respect.”

Killers of the Flower Moon hits theaters Oct. 20.