Avengers director criticised for making ‘pathetic’ dig at Martin Scorsese

Avengers co-director Joe Russo is being slammed for making a “pathetic” dig at Martin Scorsese in which he questioned the Oscar-winning director’s success at the box office

On Friday (28 October), Russo, who directed Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame alongside his brother Anthony, appeared to mock the Taxi Driver filmmaker in response to a TikTok shared by the director’s daughter, Francesca.

In the video, Scorsese could be seen talking to his dog Oscar and, in reply, Russo seemed to allude to the fact that his Avengers films sits above Scorsese’s output at the box office.

Russo said in the Instagram clip: “Oh look, he’s got a Schnauzer. I love Schnauzers. and his name is Oscar; it’s really cute.”

The camera then pans out showing Russo holding his own Shnauzer, to whom he says: “Alright, come on, Box Office.” He captioned the post: “It appears we have the same muse…”

While Scorsese typically finds awards success with his films, the director’s works typically don’t perform as well at the box office as superhero films and sequels. To date, Scorsese’s biggest box office hit is 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street, which made $389.8m. Meanwhile, Russo’s Avengers: Endgame crossed the $1bn mark and, for a brief time, was the highest-grossing film ever.

But following the sly dig, Russo was called “pathetic” for the video, which has been widely shared on X/Twitter.

Many are pointing out that Russo’s film was recently surpassed as the biggest of all time following the re-release of James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar, as well as the fact that he’s failed to match the heights of his Avengers films in the following years. His last two films, Cherry and The Gray Man , starring Tom Holland and Ryan Gosling, respectively, released straight to streaming and were critically mauled.

Film critic Sean Burns wrote: “I guess THE GRAY MAN is no longer the most embarrassing thing directed by Joe Russo,” while @generalquixote called it "a cheap and petty dig". Another scorsese fan called it “one of the most embarrassing things i’ve ever seen”.

Meanwhile, @jbromovies wrote: “Bold talk from a guy whose only theatrical releases are IPs built by other people. Also the director of Gray Man.”

Find more reactions to Russo’s video below:

In the past, Scorsese has critcised superhero films, comparing them “theme parks” – comments that riled up some of the stars and directors of such films.

He also told British GQ: “I do think that the manufactured content isn’t really cinema... What I mean is that, it’s manufactured content. It’s almost like AI making a film.”

The director’s latest film, Killers of the Flower Moon, has received acclaim, and is expected to be in the running for Best Picture at the 2024 Oscars. The film, an adaptation of David Grann’s non-fiction book, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone.

Find The Independent’s five-star review of the film here.