The one Martin Scorsese movie everyone hated except the British: “Rejected hands-down”
Alongside the likes of Francis Ford Coppola and Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese emerged as one of the main filmmakers of the New Hollywood era, taking inspiration from many European directors who were making waves in arthouse spheres during the 1960s. His first film, an indie drama named Who’s That Knocking at My Door, was released in 1967, and while it might not have become an instant success, it marked one of many collaborations with Harvey Keitel.
Mean Streets came next, also starring Keitel, but it also marked the first collaboration between Scorsese and Robert De Niro. The pair would become an iconic director/actor pairing, with Scorsese then casting De Niro in ten more feature films, from Taxi Driver to Raging Bull to Casino to The Irishman. However, there was one that became a surprising flop – something Scorsese has never really forgiven his fans for.
Even in a TikTok video posted by his daughter, Franscesca, Scorsese lamented the reception of one of his films released decades prior, clearly unable to let go of the fact that “people hated it when it came out,” calling it “the flop of the year.” Of course, he was referring to The King of Comedy, a divisive release that has since been re-evaluated and considered a Scorsese/De Niro classic. It even served as a significant inspiration for Todd Philips’ Joker, which starred De Niro as a talk show host as an homage to The King of Comedy.
For some reason, the movie, released two years after the Oscar-winning Raging Bull, was not received excitedly by fans. Made on a budget of $19million, the movie only grossed $2million, and while many critics had good things to say about the film – drawing parallels to Taxi Driver with its themes of obsession – it just didn’t seem to interest movie-goers in America.
Yet, the movie found better success in Britain, with Scorsese discussing the film’s reception across the pond in an interview with Deadline. “People are human beings, what can I say? We all go off the rails. Maybe some don’t if they’re lucky, but most do. There was extraordinary unspoken trust between us [Scorsese and De Niro] that was tested a number of times, but primarily it all came together, finally in Raging Bull, and then another excursion out into the very, very far edge with The King of Comedy, which was rejected hands down by everybody except the English, in 1983.”
He added, “It was reviled, except for a couple of good reviews in America. A lot was expected by that point with the combination of De Niro/Scorsese, because of Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull. So then they see King of Comedy…maybe it was the wrong audience.”
Perhaps British audiences just got the use of satire and dark humour better than other audiences. We’ll never really know why the film flopped so hard in America, because The King of Comedy is a great film. It follows a man who is obsessed with a comedic talk-show host and wants to be just like him, and in many ways, the movie was ahead of its time with its commentary on parasocial relationships, and what happens when this is taken to the extreme.
