As fans eagerly await the release of Martin Scorsese’s latest film, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” set to debut in 2023, it may be time to revisit the catalog of one of the best filmmakers of all time. With such masterpieces under his belt as “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” and “Goodfellas,” and more Academy Award nominations for best director (nine) than any other living director, Martin Scorsese is undoubtedly one of the greats.
Yet even the best directors produce a few duds throughout their careers – and in addition to his many accolades, Scorsese appears on our list of the 25 great directors with the most box office bombs.)
To determine the best (and worst) Martin Scorsese films, 24/7 Tempo developed an index using average ratings on IMDb, an online movie database owned by Amazon, and a combination of audience scores and Tomatometer scores on Rotten Tomatoes, an online movie and TV review aggregator, as of August 2022, weighting all ratings equally. Only feature length films and documentaries directed by Martin Scorsese were considered.
In addition to his quintessential crime and tough-guy films, Martin Scorsese has also directed some family-friendly films including “Hugo” and “Kundun,” as well as a handful of outstanding documentaries, including concert and band films and multiple narratives on film history.
Despite Scorsese being a renowned filmmaker with an AFI lifetime achievement award (which he won in 1997 at age 54) it wasn’t until 2006 that he finally won an Oscar for Best Director – for his biographical crime drama, “The Departed,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio. (Scorsese has directed a handful of the best movies starring Leonardo DiCaprio.)
Click here to see Martin Scorsese’s movies, ranked worst to best
In addition to working frequently with Leonardo DiCaprio and such other notable actors as Joe Pesci and Harvey Kietel, Scorsese is perhaps best known for his longtime association with Robert De Niro, spanning nine feature films thus far. In fact, De Niro’s breakthrough role was in Scorsese’s 1973 film “Mean Streets,” in which he played a ne’er-do-well with a penchant for gambling and starting trouble. (Here are other movie roles that launched Hollywood’s biggest stars.)
33. Boxcar Bertha (1972)
> IMDb user rating: 6.0/10 (9,113 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 33% (5,450 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 52% (23 reviews)
> Starring: Barbara Hershey, David Carradine, Barry Primus, Bernie Casey
Scorsese’s second feature film, “Boxcar Bertha,” is about a radical labor organizer who teams up with a union leader during the Great Depression to destroy a corrupt railroad company by any means possible.
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32. New York, New York (1977)
> IMDb user rating: 6.6/10 (19,281 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 58% (9,841 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 63% (41 reviews)
> Starring: Liza Minnelli, Robert De Niro, Lionel Stander, Barry Primus
The story of two musicians trying to make it big in post-WWII New York City, this musical details the tumultuous relationship between a volatile saxophone player and a lonely lounge singer.
31. Who’s That Knocking at My Door (1967)
> IMDb user rating: 6.6/10 (8,793 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 61% (5,171 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 70% (20 reviews)
> Starring: Harvey Keitel, Zina Bethune, Anne Collette, Lennard Kuras
Scorsese’s directorial debut, this indie drama is about an old-fashioned Italian-American man who wants to settle down and have a family; but when he finds out the girl of his dreams was once raped, his Catholic upbringing prevents him from marrying her.
30. The 50 Year Argument (2014)
> IMDb user rating: 6.6/10 (694 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 61% (50 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 78% (9 reviews)
> Starring: Robert Silvers, Barbara Epstein, W.H. Auden, Isaiah Berlin
This documentary film co-directed by David Tedeschi uses both archival footage and modern interviews to explore the history of the New York Review of Books, highlighting major cultural events that the magazine has covered, as well as the impact of the publication’s often subversive dialogues.
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29. Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
> IMDb user rating: 6.8/10 (66,537 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 70% (38,833 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 72% (109 reviews)
> Starring: Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames
Written by Paul Schrader, who also wrote the screenplay for “Taxi Driver” and co-wrote “Raging Bull,” this dark but compassionate psychological drama portrays the mind-bending emotional toll of working graveyard shifts as a paramedic on the mean and drug-ridden streets of Hell’s Kitchen.
28. Cape Fear (1991)
> IMDb user rating: 7.3/10 (183,201 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 77% (68,903 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 73% (52 reviews)
> Starring: Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis
A remake of a 1962 classic, “Cape Fear” follows a lawyer and his family as they are terrorized by a newly released convicted rapist who spent 14 years behind bars planning his revenge against the public defender who failed to keep him out of prison.
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27. Kundun (1997)
> IMDb user rating: 7.0/10 (27,344 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 79% (11,819 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 75% (61 reviews)
> Starring: Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong, Gyurme Tethong, Tulku Jamyang Kunga Tenzin, Tenzin Yeshi Paichang
Praised for its score and cinematography, this biographical drama portrays the trials of the 14th Dalai Lama, from a childhood of intensive training, to the Chinese invasion and subsequent atrocities, to his eventual exile in India.
26. Silence (2016)
> IMDb user rating: 7.2/10 (105,864 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 69% (25,424 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 83% (285 reviews)
> Starring: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano
Based on the novel by Shūsaku Endō, this epic historical drama follows two Portuguese Jesuit priests who travel to Edo-era Japan during deadly anti-Christian purges in order to track down their mentor, who has either gone missing or renounced his faith.
25. Shutter Island (2010)
> IMDb user rating: 8.2/10 (1,196,306 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 77% (2,374,639 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 68% (260 reviews)
> Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Mortimer, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley
In this neo-noir psychological thriller set in 1954, a U.S. Marshal investigates the disappearance of a patient at a psychiatric facility; but the deeper he gets, the more sinister his surroundings become, until his own sanity comes into question.
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24. Gangs of New York (2002)
> IMDb user rating: 7.5/10 (420,322 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 81% (294,464 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 73% (216 reviews)
> Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jim Broadbent
Amid Protestant and Catholic feuds in Civil War-era New York City, “Gangs of New York” portrays the story of Amsterdam Vallon, a second-generation Irish-American who seeks vengeance against the Five Points gang leader who killed his father.
23. The Age of Innocence (1993)
> IMDb user rating: 7.2/10 (56,608 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 75% (23,984 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 84% (58 reviews)
> Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder, Linda Faye Farkas
Newly engaged to a demure young woman, a wealthy attorney in 1870s New York runs into complications when he meets his fiancée’s heiress cousin, a social outcast due to her decision to separate from her abusive husband.
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22. The Color of Money (1986)
> IMDb user rating: 7.0/10 (78,707 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 73% (46,136 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 89% (47 reviews)
> Starring: Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Helen Shaver
A sequel to Robert Rossen’s 1961 film “The Hustler,” “The Color of Money” follows the veteran pool hustler “Fast Eddie” Felson as he finds a promising young protégé and takes him on the road to teach him the tricks of the trade.
21. Shine a Light (2008)
> IMDb user rating: 7.2/10 (11,510 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 74% (37,318 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 86% (126 reviews)
> Starring: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood
Documenting a 2006 Rolling Stones concert at the Beacon Theater, “Shine a Light” comprises concert footage from the band’s A Bigger Bang tour as well as archival interview footage to capture the on-stage energy and off-stage personas of the legendary Stones.
20. The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
> IMDb user rating: 7.5/10 (54,844 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 84% (35,938 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 81% (58 reviews)
> Starring: Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Paul Greco
A religious drama based on a controversial 1955 novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, this film portrays Jesus Christ as a man who struggles with the essential human experiences of lust, doubt, fear, and above all, the desire to live.
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19. The Aviator (2004)
> IMDb user rating: 7.5/10 (345,866 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 79% (207,698 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 86% (227 reviews)
> Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, John C. Reilly
A biographical drama based on the life of billionaire aviation pioneer and director Howard Hughes, “The Aviator” chronicles his rise to fame as a film producer while detailing his mounting struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
18. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
> IMDb user rating: 7.3/10 (22,621 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 82% (9,864 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 88% (33 reviews)
> Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Kris Kristofferson, Mia Bendixsen, Alfred Lutter III
Newly widowed, a 35-year-old housewife sells her belongings and decides to move back to her hometown by car, with her precocious 11-year-old son in tow. Along the way, she attempts to pick up work with one of her only marketable skills: singing.
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17. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
> IMDb user rating: 8.2/10 (1,265,388 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 83% (181,234 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 79% (286 reviews)
> Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey
Based on a memoir of the same name, this biographical drama chronicles the corrupt rise and inexorable fall of Jordan Belfort, a scheming New York stockbroker with a penchant for drugs and profits at any cost.
16. Hugo (2011)
> IMDb user rating: 7.5/10 (313,007 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 78% (82,996 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 93% (229 reviews)
> Starring: Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Christopher Lee, Ben Kingsley
Scorsese’s first film shot in 3D, Hugo is a PG-rated adventure film about a young Parisian orphan who lives in the walls of a train station in the 1930s, maintaining the clocks and hiding the secret of an automaton left behind by his late father. Despite critical acclaim and five Academy Awards, the movie was a box office flop.
15. Rolling Thunder Revue (2019)
> IMDb user rating: 7.6/10 (5,646 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 0% (00 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 93% (95 reviews)
> Starring: Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, Martin von Haselberg
Scorsese’s second film on Bob Dylan utilizes modern interviews and archival footage from Dylan’s ’75-’76 Rolling Thunder Revue tour, which allowed the stadium-filling performer to get back to smaller venues that would afford more intimacy with his audience. The film contains fictionalized accounts that blur the line between documentary and fabrication.
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14. Mean Streets (1973)
> IMDb user rating: 7.2/10 (104,686 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 84% (54,874 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 95% (65 reviews)
> Starring: Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, David Proval, Amy Robinson
Set in Manhattan’s Little Italy, “Mean Streets” is the story of a devout Italian-American who tries to stay out of trouble but feels responsible for his younger friend Johnny, a brash gambler who is constantly in debt to dangerous loan sharks.
13. Public Speaking (2010)
> IMDb user rating: 7.6/10 (1,956 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 84% (1,063 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 92% (12 reviews)
> Starring: Fran Lebowitz
This documentary about author and public speaker Fran Liebovitz utilizes extemporaneous monologues and footage from public speaking events to shine a light on the sardonic New Yorker’s worldview and her experiences with a host of other famous artists.
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12. After Hours (1985)
> IMDb user rating: 7.7/10 (64,467 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 87% (22,235 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 89% (56 reviews)
> Starring: Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, Thomas Chong
When a mild-mannered office worker decides on a whim to take a cab to SoHo and drop in on an eccentric and attractive woman he met in a coffee shop, a hellish comedy of errors ensues.
11. Casino (1995)
> IMDb user rating: 8.2/10 (488,082 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 93% (285,398 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 79% (68 reviews)
> Starring: Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods
Based on the lives of real-life casino executive and sports bettor Lefty Rosenthal and mobster Anthony Spilotro, “Casino” displays both the glamor and the dark underbelly of Vegas in the ’70s and ’80s as two best friends become embroiled in a struggle for money and power.
10. The King of Comedy (1982)
> IMDb user rating: 7.8/10 (96,294 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 90% (27,126 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 89% (62 reviews)
> Starring: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Diahnne Abbott, Sandra Bernhard
A satirical comedy about celebrity worship, “The King of Comedy” portrays the lengths that a delusional aspiring stand-up comedian is willing to go in order to perform his routine for the talk show of his idol, a successful comedian and entertainer played by real-life “King of Comedy” Jerry Lewis.
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9. The Irishman (2019)
> IMDb user rating: 7.8/10 (351,546 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 86% (1,057 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 95% (453 reviews)
> Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel
Based on a nonfiction book detailing the confessions of mob associate Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, this epic crime drama is told in flashbacks that include Sheeran’s alleged involvement in the 1975 disappearance of union leader Jimmy Hoffa.
8. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005)
> IMDb user rating: 8.4/10 (11,817 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 95% (5,000 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 88% (17 reviews)
> Starring: Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Dave Van Ronk, Maria Muldaur
This three-and-a-half-hour documentary explores Bob Dylan’s rise to fame, from his childhood in Minnesota to his New York City folk stardom to the controversial movement toward electronic rock that would alienate many of his fans. The film includes interviews with numerous musicians and paints a thorough portrait of the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene.
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7. Raging Bull (1980)
> IMDb user rating: 8.2/10 (335,751 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 93% (131,523 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 93% (76 reviews)
> Starring: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent
“Raging Bull” is based on the memoir of vicious middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta. The Academy Award-winning film portrays the self-destructive rage that helped LaMotta in the ring but destroyed his family and personal life.
6. My Voyage to Italy (1999)
> IMDb user rating: 8.2/10 (3,226 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 87% (3,029 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (20 reviews)
> Starring: Martin Scorsese
This intimate four-hour documentary, narrated by Scorsese himself, delves into the director’s favorite Italian films; the ones that have influenced him the most, including clips of many neorealist works from Robert Rossellini, Luchino Visconti, Vittorio de Sica, and other pioneers of post-war Italian cinema.
5. The Departed (2006)
> IMDb user rating: 8.5/10 (1,241,061 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 94% (738,191 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 90% (283 reviews)
> Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg
Based loosely on Boston’s real-life Irish mob, the Winter Hill Gang, this crime drama follows an undercover cop who infiltrates a gang in Boston while attempting to keep his identity secret from a mole in the police department.
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4. Taxi Driver (1976)
> IMDb user rating: 8.2/10 (761,825 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 93% (260,919 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 96% (94 reviews)
> Starring: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks
After returning from service in Vietnam, Travis Bickle is unstable and adrift as he works nights as a taxi driver on the decrepit streets of New York. Full of undirected rage, he decides to make the world a better place by rescuing a child prostitute from her pimp.
3. The Last Waltz (1978)
> IMDb user rating: 8.2/10 (17,111 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 94% (13,902 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 98% (50 reviews)
> Starring: Robbie Robertson, Muddy Waters, Neil Young, Van Morrison
Often hailed as one of the greatest concert films ever made, “The Last Waltz” covers the 1976 farewell performance of Canadian-American rock group The Band at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. Joining them on stage are over a dozen special guests including Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchelll, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, and Neil Young.
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2. A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995)
> IMDb user rating: 8.5/10 (4,924 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 95% (1,000 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (13 reviews)
> Starring: Martin Scorsese, Allison Anders, Kathryn Bigelow, Francis Ford Coppola
This British Film Institute production is a personal look at Scorsese’s favorite classic films. It utilizes narration and clips from dozens of early American films as he describes the various roles a director can play in culture, as well as his reactions to the films from the perspective of both a director and a cinephile.
1. Goodfellas (1990)
> IMDb user rating: 8.7/10 (1,070,370 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 97% (430,048 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 96% (103 reviews)
> Starring: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco
Real-life New York mobster Henry Hill is the subject of this biographical crime drama based on the book “Wiseguy” by Nicolas Pileggi. “Goodfellas” portrays the story of Hill’s rise through the ranks of the organized crime world and his descent into drug addiction and unsanctioned dealing.
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