There are a lot of famous actor-director duos, such as John Ford and John Wayne, Wes Anderson and Bill Murray, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, and many, many others. But there are none more famous, iconic, or have a more ricy and deep history than Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro.

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The duo has a relationship dating back close to 50 years, and in that time they have worked together nine times (and there’s even a tenth movie in production.) But though several of those movies are incredible and iconic, their box office performances come as a huge surprise.

Mean Streets (1973) - $41,131

Robert De Niro smiling and standing near a bar counter in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets

Though it originally had a different title, which is one of the interesting facts about the movie, Mean Streets has become iconic for many reasons. Mean Streets is the first movie where Scorsese introduced his fast-paced style, it was the first of many of the director’s gangster movies, and, of course, it was his first collaboration with Robert De Niro.

The movie proved that the pair had a great dynamic and perfectly understood what each other were trying to do, and even though it didn’t make much money 47 years ago, it has since become much more successful.

The Irishman (2019) - $968,853

the irishman Cropped

When it comes to box office success, The Irishman is an outlier as it is a Netflix original movie, but it was given a limited theatrical release just so it was able to compete for awards.

Netflix keeps its numbers fairly close to its chest so it's impossible to know how many people actually watched it, but being one of the longest American movies ever, The Irishman’s run time may have put many viewers off.

The King Of Comedy (1982) - $2,536,242

The King of Comedy (1982)

The King of Comedy was Scorsese’s first major box office bomb, and it’s hard to pin down exactly where it went wrong with audiences, as the movie was critically acclaimed and it was right off the heels of Scorsese and De Niro’s previous collaboration, Raging Bull.

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Now, the movie’s shocking box office performance is generally chalked up to the movie being ahead of its time. The terrible performance of the movie is pretty ironic given that it was the primary influence for Joker, which is the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time.

New York, New York (1977) - $16,400,000

Jimmy plays the trumpet while Francine since in New York, New York

Scorsese created New York, New York as a homage to some of his favorite movies such as The Red Shoes, and the movie was a break from his gritty gangster movies.

It was unfortunate that such a film did not perform better.

Raging Bull (1980) - $23,402,427

Robert De Niro punching an opponent in Raging Bull (1980)

Raging Bull led to another underwhelming worldwide box office intake for the director and actor, possibly due to the violence of its subject matter.

However, in the time since, Raging Bull has become one of the most iconic movies of all time and Jake LaMotta is arguably De Niro’s best role. The movie also marks the director’s first time working with Joe Pesci, to which the three became the best filmmaking trio Hollywood has seen.

Taxi Driver (1976) - $28,441,292

Robert De Niro sporting a mohawk in Taxi Driver

It’s hard to believe that Scorsese and De Niro, who together are iconic and make premium, well-crafted movies, have had so many box office failures when working together, as Taxi Driver is the first movie on the list to actually be a major success.

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The movie is one of the best thrillers of the '70s and arguably one of the greatest movies ever made, and with a budget of less than $2 million, it was the biggest financial success the actor-director duo wouldn’t see again until 14 years later.

Goodfellas (1990) - $46,924,181

Henry, Jimmy, and Tommy in Goodfellas

The movie is the most kinetic and thrilling movie that Scorsese and De Niro ever worked on together, and it’s one of the reasons why Goodfellas is one of the best gangster movies ever.

The movie will forever be a part of pop culture, as it completely changed the way audiences looked at gangster movies and has an influence on every gangster movie that has been released in its wake. Though the movie only made double it’s budget, Goodfellas, more than any other movie the two made together, has left a legacy.

Casino (1995) - $116,112,375

Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci in Casino

Off the success of Goodfellas, the trio of Scorsese, De Niro, and Pesci teamed up just five years later for Casino, which is somewhat of a spiritual successor to Goodfellas.

The movie is even more of an epic than the 1990 gangster classic, as Casino is three hours long, spans years, and with a huge budget of $40 million, has some of the best set pieces and set and costume design in a Scorsese movie. It resulted in a massive box office intake of almost $120 million, more than double that of Goodfellas.

Cape Fear (1991) - $182,291,969

Max Cady laughing in the movie theater in Cape Fear.

Of all of the classic movies that Scorsese and De Niro have worked together on, the highest-grossing movie of them all comes as a huge surprise. Cape Fear is by no means a bad movie, and it’s actually a great movie, but it in no way reaches the heights Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, or Raging Bull, and general audiences would probably not even know that it’s a Scorsese movie.

Regardless of who was at the helm and regardless of its average reviews, the movie made a lot of money.

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