title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese was interested in doing a "romantic piece", and he was strongly drawn to the characters and the story of Wharton's text. Scorsese wanted his film to be as rich an emotional experience as the book was to him rather than the traditional academic adaptations of literary works. To this end, Scorsese sought influence from diverse period films that had had an emotional impact on him. In "Scorsese on Scorsese", he documents influences from films such as Luchino Visconti's "Senso" and his "Il Gattopardo" ("The Leopard") as well as Orson Welles's "The Magnificent Ambersons" and also Roberto Rossellini's "La prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV" ("The Taking of Power by Louis XIV"). Although "The Age of Innocence" was ultimately different from these films in terms of narrative, story, and thematic concern, the presence of a lost society, of lost values as well as detailed re-creations of social customs and rituals continues the tradition of these films. It came back into the public eye, especially in countries such as the UK and France, but still is largely neglected in North America. The film earned five Academy Award nominations (including Best Adapted Screenplay for Scorsese), winning the Costume Design Oscar. This was his first collaboration with the Academy Award-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis, with whom he would work again on "Gangs of New York". This was Scorsese's first film to be shot on Super 35 format.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: "Casino" (1995), like "The Age of Innocence" before it, focused on a tightly wound male whose well-ordered life is disrupted by the arrival of unpredictable forces. The fact that it was a violent gangster film made it more palatable to the director's fans who perhaps were baffled by the apparent departure of the earlier film. "Casino" was a box office success, and it received generally positive notices from critics. Comparisons were drawn to his earlier film "Goodfellas", and Scorsese admitted "Casino" bore a superficial resemblance to it, but he maintained that the story was significantly larger in scope. Sharon Stone was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance. During the filming, Scorsese played a background part as a gambler at one of the tables.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese still found time for a four-hour documentary in 1995, titled "A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies", offering a thorough trek through American cinema. It covered the silent era to 1969, a year after which Scorsese began his feature career. He said, "I wouldn't feel right commenting on myself or my contemporaries." In the four-hour documentary, Scorsese lists the four aspects of the director he believes are the most important as (1) the director as storyteller; (2) the director as an illusionist: D. W. Griffith or F. W. Murnau, who created new editing techniques among other innovations that made the appearance of sound and color possible later on; (3) the director as a smuggler—filmmakers such as Douglas Sirk, Samuel Fuller, and Vincente Minnelli, who used to hide subversive messages in their films; and (4) the director as iconoclast. In the preface to this documentary, Scorsese states his commitment to the "Director's Dilemma", in which a successful contemporary director must be pragmatic about the realities of getting financing for films of personal esthetic interest by accepting the need of "making one film for the studio, and (then) making one for oneself."


title: Martin Scorsese

text: If "The Age of Innocence" alienated and confused some fans, then "Kundun" (1997) went several steps further, offering an account of the early life of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, the People's Liberation Army's entry into Tibet, and the Dalai Lama's subsequent exile to India. Not only a departure in subject matter, "Kundun" saw Scorsese employing a fresh narrative and visual approach. Traditional dramatic devices were substituted for a trance-like meditation achieved through an elaborate tableau of colorful visual images. The film was a source of turmoil for its distributor, Buena Vista Pictures, which was planning significant expansion into the Chinese market at the time. Initially defiant in the face of pressure from Chinese officials, Disney has since distanced itself from the project, hurting "Kundun"s commercial profile. In the short term, the sheer eclecticism in evidence enhanced the director's reputation. In the long term, however, it appears "Kundun" has been sidelined in most critical appraisals of the director, mostly noted as a stylistic and thematic detour. "Kundun" was the Scorsese's second attempt to profile the life of a great religious leader, following "The Last Temptation of Christ".


title: Martin Scorsese

text: "Bringing Out the Dead" (1999) was a return to familiar territory, with the director and writer Paul Schrader constructing a pitch-black comic take on their own earlier "Taxi Driver". Like earlier Scorsese-Schrader collaborations, its final scenes of spiritual redemption explicitly recall the films of Robert Bresson. (It is also worth noting that the film's incident-filled nocturnal setting is reminiscent of "After Hours".) It received generally positive reviews, although not the universal critical acclaim of some of his other films. It stars Nicolas Cage, Ving Rhames, John Goodman, Tom Sizemore, and Patricia Arquette.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: On various occasions Scorsese has been asked to present the Honorary Academy Award during the Oscar telecast. In 1998, at the 70th Academy Awards, Scorsese presented the award to film legend Stanley Donen. When accepting the award Donen quipped, "Marty this is backwards, I should be giving this to you, believe me". In 1999, at the 71st Academy Awards, Scorsese and De Niro presented the award to film director Elia Kazan. This was a controversial pick for the academy due to Kazan's involvement with the Hollywood blacklist in the 1950s. Several members of the audience including Nick Nolte and Ed Harris refused to applaud Kazan when he received the award while others such as Warren Beatty, Meryl Streep, Kathy Bates, and Kurt Russell gave him a standing ovation.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: In 1999, Scorsese directed a documentary on Italian filmmakers titled "Il Mio Viaggio in Italia", also known as "My Voyage to Italy". The documentary foreshadowed the director's next project, the epic "Gangs of New York" (2002), influenced by (amongst many others) major Italian directors such as Luchino Visconti and filmed in its entirety at Rome's famous Cinecittà film studios. With a production budget said to be in excess of $100 million, "Gangs of New York" was Scorsese's biggest and arguably most mainstream venture to date. Like "The Age of Innocence", it was set in 19th-century New York, although focusing on the other end of the social scale (and like that film, also starring Daniel Day-Lewis). The film marked the first collaboration between Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who became a fixture in later Scorsese films. The production was highly troubled, with many rumors referring to the director's conflict with Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein. Despite denials of artistic compromise, some felt that "Gangs of New York" was the director's most conventional film, featuring standard film tropes that the director had traditionally avoided, such as characters existing purely for exposition purposes and explanatory flashbacks.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: The final cut of the movie ran to 168 minutes, while the director's original cut was over 180 minutes long. Even so, the film received generally positive reviews with the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reporting that 75 percent of the reviews for the film they tallied were positive and summarizing the critics writing, "Though flawed, the sprawling, messy "Gangs of New York" is redeemed by impressive production design and Day-Lewis's electrifying performance." The film's central themes are consistent with the director's established concerns: New York, violence as culturally endemic, and subcultural divisions down ethnic lines. Originally filmed for a release in the winter of 2001 (to qualify for Academy Award nominations), Scorsese delayed the final production of the film until after the beginning of 2002; the studio consequently delayed the film until its release in the Oscar season of late 2002. "Gangs of New York" earned Scorsese his first Golden Globe for Best Director. In February 2003, "Gangs of New York" received 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis; however, it did not win in any category.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: The following year, Scorsese completed production of "The Blues", an expansive seven-part documentary tracing the history of blues music from its African roots to the Mississippi Delta and beyond. Seven film-makers including Wim Wenders, Clint Eastwood, Mike Figgis, and Scorsese himself each contributed a 90-minute film (Scorsese's entry was titled "Feel Like Going Home"). In the early 2000s, Scorsese produced several films for up-and-coming directors, such as "You Can Count on Me" (directed by Kenneth Lonergan), "Rain" (directed by Katherine Lindberg), "Lymelife" (directed by Derick Martini) and "The Young Victoria" (directed by Jean-Marc Vallée). At that time, he established Sikelia Productions. In 2003, producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff joined the company. Scorsese also produced several documentaries, such as "The Soul of a Man" (directed by Wim Wenders) and "Lightning in a Bottle" (directed by Antoine Fuqua).


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese's film "The Aviator" (2004) is a lavish, large-scale biopic of eccentric aviation pioneer and film mogul Howard Hughes and reunited Scorsese with actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The film received highly positive reviews. The film was a widespread box office success and gained Academy recognition. "The Aviator" was nominated for six Golden Globe awards, including Best Motion Picture-Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor-Motion Picture Drama for Leonardo DiCaprio. It won three, including Best Motion Picture-Drama and Best Actor-Motion Picture Drama. In January 2005 "The Aviator" became the most-nominated film of the 77th Academy Awards nominations, nominated in 11 categories including Best Picture. The film also garnered nominations in nearly all the other major categories, including a fifth Best Director nomination for Scorsese. Despite having the most nominations, the film won only five Oscars. Scorsese lost again, this time to director Clint Eastwood for "Million Dollar Baby" (which also won Best Picture).


title: Martin Scorsese

text: "No Direction Home" is a documentary film by Scorsese that tells of the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on American popular music and the culture of the 20th century. The film does not cover Dylan's entire career; it focuses on his beginnings, his rise to fame in the 1960s, his then-controversial transformation from an acoustic guitar-based musician and performer to an electric guitar-influenced sound and his "retirement" from touring in 1966 following an infamous motorcycle accident. The film was first presented on television in both the United States (as part of the PBS "American Masters" series) and the United Kingdom (as part of the BBC Two "Arena" series) on September 26 to 27, 2005. A DVD version of the film was released the same month. The film won a Peabody Award and the Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video. In addition, Scorsese received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program, losing to "Baghdad ER".


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese returned to the crime genre with the Boston-set thriller "The Departed", based on the Hong Kong police drama "Infernal Affairs" (which is co-directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak). The film continued Scorsese's collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio and was the first time he worked with Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, and Martin Sheen.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: "The Departed" opened to widespread critical acclaim, with some proclaiming it as one of the best efforts Scorsese had brought to the screen since 1990's "Goodfellas", and still others putting it at the same level as Scorsese's most celebrated classics "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull". With domestic box office receipts surpassing million, "The Departed" was Scorsese's highest-grossing film (not accounting for inflation) until 2010's "Shutter Island".


title: Martin Scorsese

text: "The Departed" earned Scorsese a second Golden Globe for Best Director, as well as a Critics' Choice Award, his first Directors Guild of America Award, and the Academy Award for Best Director. Presented with the latter, Scorsese poked fun at his track record of nominations, asking, "Could you double-check the envelope?" The award was presented by his longtime friends and colleagues Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. "The Departed" also received the Academy Award for the Best Motion Picture of 2006, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing by longtime Scorsese editor Thelma Schoonmaker, her third win for a Scorsese film.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: "Shine a Light" captures rock and roll band The Rolling Stones' performing at New York City's Beacon Theater on October 29 and November 1, 2006, intercut with brief news and interview footage from throughout their career. The film was initially scheduled for release on September 21, 2007, but Paramount Classics postponed its general release until April 2008. Its world premiere was at the opening of the 58th Berlinale Film Festival on February 7, 2008. "Marty did an amazing job of making us look great…" observed drummer Charlie Watts. "It's all in the edits and the cuts. That's a movie maker rather than a guy just shooting a band onstage… It's not "Casablanca", but it's a great thing to have from our point of view, not being egotistical. It's a document."


title: Martin Scorsese

text: In 2009, Scorsese signed a petition in support of director Roman Polanski, who had been detained while traveling to a film festival in relation to his 1977 sexual abuse charges, which the petition argued would undermine the tradition of film festivals as a place for works to be shown "freely and safely", and that arresting filmmakers traveling to neutral countries could open the door "for actions of which no-one can know the effects."


title: Martin Scorsese

text: On October 22, 2007, "Daily Variety" reported that Scorsese would reunite with Leonardo DiCaprio on a fourth picture, "Shutter Island". Principal photography on the Laeta Kalogridis screenplay, based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, began in Massachusetts in March 2008. In December 2007, actors Mark Ruffalo, Max von Sydow, Ben Kingsley, and Michelle Williams joined the cast, marking the first time these actors had worked with Scorsese. The film was released on February 19, 2010. On May 20, 2010, the film became Scorsese's highest-grossing film. In 2010, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that Scorsese was supporting the David Lynch Foundation's initiative to help 10,000 military veterans overcome posttraumatic stress disorder through Transcendental Meditation; Scorsese has publicly discussed his own practice of TM.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese directed a television commercial for Chanel's then-new men's fragrance, "Bleu de Chanel", starring French actor Gaspard Ulliel. Filmed in New York City, it debuted online on August 25, 2010 and was released on TV in September 2010.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese directed the series premiere for "Boardwalk Empire", an HBO drama series, starring Steve Buscemi and Michael Pitt, based on Nelson Johnson's book "Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times and Corruption of Atlantic City". Terence Winter, who wrote for "The Sopranos", created the series. In addition to directing the pilot (for which he won the 2011 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing), Scorsese also served as an executive producer on the series. The series premiered on September 19, 2010, and was broadcast for five seasons.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese directed the three-and-a-half-hour documentary "" about the life and music of former Beatles' member George Harrison, which premiered in the United States on HBO over two parts on October 5 and 6, 2011. His next film "Hugo" is a 3D adventure drama film based on Brian Selznick's novel "The Invention of Hugo Cabret". The film stars Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee, and Jude Law. The film has been met with critical acclaim and earned Scorsese his third Golden Globe Award for Best Director. The film was also nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning five of them and becoming tied with Michel Hazanavicius's film "The Artist" for the most Academy Awards won by a single film in 2011. "Hugo" also won two BAFTA awards, among numerous other awards and nominations. "Hugo" was Scorsese's first 3D film and was released in the United States on November 23, 2011.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese's 2013 film, "The Wolf of Wall Street", is an American biographical black comedy based on Jordan Belfort's memoir of the same name. The screenplay was written by Terence Winter and starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort, along with Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey, and others. The film marked the fifth collaboration between Scorsese and DiCaprio and the second between Scorsese and Winter after "Boardwalk Empire". It was released on December 25, 2013. The film tells the story of a New York stockbroker, played by DiCaprio, who engages in a large securities fraud case involving illicit stock manipulation, by way of the practice of "pump and dump". DiCaprio was given the award for Best Actor-Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at the 2014 Golden Globe Awards. The film was also nominated for Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy as well. "The Wolf of Wall Street" was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio, Best Supporting Actor for Jonah Hill, Best Director for Martin Scorsese, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Terence Winter but did not win in any category. In a 2016 critics' poll conducted by the BBC, the film was ranked among the 100 greatest motion pictures since 2000.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese and David Tedeschi made a documentary about the history of the "New York Review of Books", titled "The 50 Year Argument". It screened as a work in progress at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2014 and premiered in June 2014 at the Sheffield Doc/Fest. It was also screened in Oslo, and Jerusalem before being shown on the BBC's "Arena" series in July and at Telluride in August. In September, it was screened at the Toronto and Calgary International Film Festivals, and the New York Film Festival. It aired on HBO on September 29, 2014.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese directed the pilot for "Vinyl" written by Terence Winter and George Mastras, with Mick Jagger producing and Mastras as showrunner. The series stars Bobby Cannavale as Richie Finestra, founder and president of a top-tier record label, set in 1970s New York City's drug-and sex-fueled music business as punk and disco were breaking out, all told through the eyes of Finestra trying to resurrect his label and find the next new sound. Filming began on July 25, 2014. Co-stars include Ray Romano, Olivia Wilde, Juno Temple, Andrew Dice Clay, Ato Essandoh, Max Casella, and James Jagger. On December 2, 2014, "Vinyl" was picked up by HBO. The series lasted one season. Scorsese has acted as executive producer of several indie films, like the 2014 "The Third Side of the River" (directed by his protege Celina Murga), another 2014 film "Revenge of the Green Dragons" (co-directed by Andrew Lau, whose film "Infernal Affairs" inspired "The Departed"), as well as "Bleed for This" and "Free Fire".


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese directed "The Audition", a short film that also served as a promotional piece for casinos Studio City in Macau and City of Dreams in Manila, Philippines. The short brought together Scorsese's long-time muses Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro for the first time under his direction. The short film featured the two actors, playing fictionalized versions of themselves, competing for a role in Scorsese's next film. It was Scorsese's first collaboration with De Niro in two decades. The film premiered in October 2015 in conjunction with the grand opening of Studio City.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese had long anticipated filming an adaptation of Shūsaku Endō's novel "Silence", a drama about the lives of two Portuguese Jesuit priests in Japan during the 17th century. He had originally planned "Silence" as his next project following "Shutter Island." On April 19, 2013, financing was secured for "Silence" by Emmett/Furla Films, and filming began in January 2015. By November 2016, the film had completed post-production. It was written by Jay Cocks and Scorsese, based on the novel, and stars Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson, and Adam Driver. The film was released on December 23, 2016. Scorsese was recognized as an Italian citizen by "jus sanguinis" in 2018.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: On January 10, 2019, "Variety"s Chris Willman reported that Scorsese's long-anticipated documentary of Bob Dylan's 1975 tour, the Rolling Thunder Revue, would be released by Netflix: """ captures the troubled spirit of America in 1975 and the joyous music that Dylan performed during the fall of that year. Part documentary, part concert film, part fever dream, "Rolling Thunder" is a one of a kind experience, from master filmmaker Martin Scorsese." On April 25, 2019, it was announced that the documentary would be released on Netflix on June 12, 2019, with a concurrent theatrical engagement in twenty American, European, and Australian cities the night before, and an extended theatrical schedule in Los Angeles and New York so that the film will qualify for award consideration. After years of development, principal photography on Scorsese's crime film "The Irishman" began in August 2017, starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino. The film had its world premiere at the 57th New York Film Festival on September 27, 2019. It received a limited theatrical release on November 1, 2019, followed by digital streaming on November 27, 2019, on Netflix. In January 2020, "The Irishman" received ten Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Pacino and Pesci.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: On December 29, 2020, the trailer for Scorsese's documentary series "Pretend It's a City" was released. The series features Fran Lebowitz and Scorsese as they delve into her personal beliefs and thoughts on New York City. The project was released January 8, 2021 on Netflix. This is Scorsese's second documentary featuring Lebowitz, the first being "Public Speaking" (2010) which was released on HBO.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: In July 2019, Scorsese started scouting locations in preparation for the 2020 filming of his next film "Killers of the Flower Moon", a film adaptation of the book of the same name by David Grann. Scorsese will be teaming up with Leonardo DiCaprio for the sixth time and Robert De Niro for the tenth time. In December 2019, Scorsese's frequent cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto confirmed that "Flower Moon" was gearing up to start principal photography in March 2020, which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, it was announced that filming for "Killers of the Flower Moon" had been postponed indefinitely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, that the potential cost of the film had ballooned to $200 million, and that Scorsese was in talks with Netflix or Apple Inc. to produce and distribute, with Paramount Pictures involved as a partner. On May 27, 2020, Apple bought the production and distribution rights to the film, which will be released theatrically by Paramount and streaming on Apple TV+. Principal photography commenced in April 2021.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: In November 2021, Scorsese was set to direct a biopic feature about rock band the Grateful Dead for Apple Studios featuring Jonah Hill. In July 2022, it was announced Scorsese would direct an adaptation of David Grann's non-fiction novel "The Wager" for Apple Studios, reteaming once again with DiCaprio.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: In October 2022, Scorsese and David Tedeschi premiered their collaborative film "Personality Crisis: One Night Only", at the New York Film Festival. The film is a documentary about David Johansson, featuring both contemporary concert footage shot for the project as well as archival footage.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Several recurring filmmaking techniques are identifiable in many of Scorsese's films. He has established a filmmaking history which involves repeat collaborations with actors, screenwriters, film editors, and cinematographers, sometimes extending over several decades, such as that with recurring cinematographers Michael Ballhaus, Robert Richardson, and Rodrigo Prieto.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese is known for his frequent use of slow motion, for example, in "Who's That Knocking at My Door" (1967) and "Mean Streets" (1973). He is also known for using freeze frames, such as: in the opening credits of "The King of Comedy" (1983), throughout "Goodfellas" (1990), "Casino" (1995), "The Departed" (2006), and in "The Irishman" (2019). His blonde leading ladies are usually seen through the eyes of the protagonist as angelic and ethereal; they wear white in their first scene and are photographed in slow motion—Cybill Shepherd in "Taxi Driver"; Cathy Moriarty's white bikini in "Raging Bull"; Sharon Stone's white minidress in "Casino". This may be a nod to director Alfred Hitchcock. Scorsese often uses long tracking shots, as seen in "Taxi Driver", "Goodfellas", "Casino", "Gangs of New York", and "Hugo". MOS sequences set to popular music or voice-over are regularly seen in his films, often involving aggressive camera movement and/or rapid editing. Scorsese sometimes highlights characters in a scene with an iris, an homage to 1920s silent film cinema (as scenes at the time sometimes used this transition). This effect can be seen in "Casino" (it is used on Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci), "Life Lessons", "The Departed" (on Matt Damon), and "Hugo". Some of his films include references/allusions to Westerns, particularly "Rio Bravo", "The Great Train Robbery", "Shane", "The Searchers", and "The Oklahoma Kid". Slow motion flashbulbs and accented camera/flash/shutter sounds are often used, as is the song "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones heard in several of Scorsese's films: "Goodfellas", "Casino", and "The Departed".


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese usually has a quick cameo in his films ("Who's That Knocking at My Door", "Boxcar Bertha", "Mean Streets", "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore", "Taxi Driver", "The King of Comedy", "After Hours", "The Last Temptation of Christ" (albeit hidden under a hood), "The Age of Innocence", "Gangs of New York", "Hugo"), he is also known to contribute his voice to a film without appearing on screen (e.g. as in "The Aviator" and "The Wolf of Wall Street"). In "The Age of Innocence", for example, he appears in the non-speaking role of a large format portrait photographer in one of the passing scenes of the film. He provides the opening voice-over narration in "Mean Streets" and "The Color of Money"; plays the off-screen dressing room attendant in the final scene of "Raging Bull", and provides the voice of the unseen ambulance dispatcher in "Bringing Out the Dead". He also appears as the director of fictional newly formed Vatican Television in the Italian comedy "In the Pope's Eye".


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Guilt is a prominent theme in many of his films, as is the role of Catholicism in creating and dealing with guilt ("Who's That Knocking at My Door", "Mean Streets", "Raging Bull", "Bringing Out the Dead", "The Departed", "Shutter Island", and "The Irishman"). In a similar manner, Scorsese considered "Silence" a "passion project": it had been in development since 1990, two years after the release of his film "The Last Temptation of Christ", which also contained strongly religious themes. When asked why he retained interest in a project dealing with strong theological themes for over 26 years, Scorsese said,As you get older, ideas go and come. Questions, answers, loss of the answer again and more questions, and this is what really interests me. Yes, the cinema and the people in my life and my family are most important, but ultimately as you get older, there's got to be more ... "Silence" is just something that I'm drawn to in that way. It's been an obsession, it has to be done ... it's a strong, wonderful true story, a thriller in a way, but it deals with those questions.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: More recently, his films have featured corrupt authority figures, such as policemen in "The Departed" and politicians in "Gangs of New York" and "The Aviator". He is also known for his liberal usage of profanity, dark humor, and violence.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese's interest in political corruption as depicted in his films was expanded further in his 2019 film "The Irishman". Richard Brody writing for "The New Yorker" found the main interpretation of the film to be a dark allegory of a realist reading of American politics and American society stating: The real-life Hoffa... (was) a crucial player in both gangland politics and the actual practical politics of the day, and the movie's key through line is the inseparability of those two realms. "The Irishman" is a sociopolitical horror story that views much of modern American history as a continuous crime in motion, in which every level of society—from domestic life through local business through big business through national and international politics—is poisoned by graft and bribery, shady deals and dirty money, threats of violence and its gruesome enactment, and the hard-baked impunity that keeps the entire system running.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese often casts the same actors in his projects, particularly Robert De Niro, who has collaborated with Scorsese on nine feature films and one short film. Included are the three films ("Taxi Driver", "Raging Bull", and "Goodfellas") that made AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies list. Scorsese has often said he thinks De Niro's best work under his direction was Rupert Pupkin in "The King of Comedy". After the turn of the century, Scorsese found a new muse with younger actor Leonardo DiCaprio, collaborating on five feature films and one short to date. Several critics have compared Scorsese's new partnership with DiCaprio with his previous one with De Niro. Frequent collaborators also include: Victor Argo (6), Harvey Keitel (6), Harry Northup (6), Murray Moston (5), Illeana Douglas (4), J. C. MacKenzie (4), Joe Pesci (4), Frank Vincent (3), Barry Primus (3), and Verna Bloom (3). Others who have appeared in multiple Scorsese projects include Daniel Day-Lewis, who had become very reclusive to the Hollywood scene, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe, Ben Kingsley, Jude Law, Dick Miller, Liam Neeson, Emily Mortimer, John C. Reilly, David Carradine, Barbara Hershey, Kevin Corrigan, Jake Hoffman, Frank Sivero, Ray Winstone and Nick Nolte. Before their deaths, Scorsese's parents, Charles Scorsese and Catherine Scorsese, appeared in bit parts, walk-ons or supporting roles, such as in "Goodfellas".


title: Martin Scorsese

text: For his crew, Scorsese frequently worked with editors Marcia Lucas and Thelma Schoonmaker, cinematographers Michael Ballhaus, Robert Richardson, Michael Chapman and Rodrigo Prieto, screenwriters Paul Schrader, Mardik Martin, Jay Cocks, Terrence Winter, John Logan and Steven Zaillian, costume designer Sandy Powell, production designers Dante Ferretti and Bob Shaw, music producer Robbie Robertson, and composers Howard Shore and Elmer Bernstein. Schoonmaker, Richardson, Powell, and Ferretti have each won Academy Awards in their respective categories on collaborations with Scorsese. Elaine and Saul Bass, the latter being Hitchcock's frequent title designer, designed the opening credits for "Goodfellas", "The Age of Innocence", "Casino" and "Cape Fear".


title: Martin Scorsese

text: In 1965, Scorsese married his first wife Laraine Marie Brennan, and they remained together for six years between 1965 and 1971; they have a daughter, Catherine, who was named after his mother.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: In 1976, Scorsese married the writer Julia Cameron, his second marriage; they have a daughter (Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, who is an actress and appeared in "The Age of Innocence"), but the marriage lasted only a year. The divorce was acrimonious and served as the basis of Cameron's first feature, the dark comedy "God's Will", which also starred their daughter. She had a small role in "Cape Fear" using the name Domenica Scorsese and has continued to act, write, direct, and produce.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Before the end of 1979, Scorsese married actress Isabella Rossellini, and they stayed together for four years, divorcing in 1983.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese married producer Barbara De Fina in 1985, his fourth of five marriages; they divorced in 1991. From 1989 to 1997, Scorsese was romantically involved with actress Illeana Douglas following his fourth divorce.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: In 1999, Scorsese married his current spouse of over twenty years, Helen Schermerhorn Morris. They have a daughter, actress and filmmaker Francesca, who appeared in his films "The Departed", "Hugo", and "The Aviator", and had a leading role in HBO/Sky's miniseries "We Are Who We Are" in 2020.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Since his first divorce in 1972, Scorsese has had four subsequent wives and had previously identified himself as a lapsed Roman Catholic as a result of the Church's doctrinal position against divorce. He has said, "I'm a lapsed Catholic. But I am Roman Catholic; there's no way out of it." In 2016, Scorsese identified himself as a Catholic again, saying, "my way has been, and is, Catholicism. After many years of thinking about other things, dabbling here and there, I am most comfortable as a Catholic. I believe in the tenets of Catholicism."


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese has mentioned his mentors being such filmmakers as John Cassavetes, Roger Corman, and Michael Powell. In film critic Roger Ebert's book, "Scorsese by Ebert", Ebert praised Scorsese for championing and supporting other filmmakers by serving as an executive producer on projects of filmmakers such as Antoine Fuqua, Wim Wenders, Kenneth Lonergan, Stephen Frears, Allison Anders, Spike Lee, and John McNaughton. More recently he has executive produced the films of the Safdie Brothers, Joanna Hogg, Kornél Mundruczó, Josephine Decker, Danielle Lessovitz, Alice Rohrwacher, Jonas Carpignano, Amélie van Elmbt, and Celina Murga. Scorsese has also chosen to name filmmakers throughout the years that he admires such as fellow New York City-based directors Woody Allen and Spike Lee, as well as other artists such as Wes Anderson, Bong Joon-ho, Greta Gerwig, Ari Aster, Kelly Reichardt, Claire Denis, Noah Baumbach, Paul Thomas Anderson, Christopher Nolan, the Coen Brothers, and Kathryn Bigelow.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: In 2012, Scorsese participated in the "Sight & Sound" film polls of that year. Held every ten years to select the greatest films of all time, contemporary directors were asked to select ten films of their choice. Scorsese, however, picked 12, which are listed below in alphabetical order:


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Ten years later, Scorsese participated again in the "Sight & Sound" polls, picking 15 films, the same 12 of the 2012 list, plus the following:


title: Martin Scorsese

text: In 1999, after the death of Gene Siskel, Scorsese joined Roger Ebert as the guest co-host for an episode of "Siskel & Ebert" where they each stated their 10 favorite films of the decade. Scorsese's list numerically is:


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese had been at the forefront in film preservation and restoration ever since 1990, when he created The Film Foundation, a non-profit film organization which collaborates with film studios to restore prints of old or damaged films. Scorsese launched the organization with Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Sydney Pollack, Robert Redford, and Steven Spielberg, who all sat on the foundation's original board of directors. In 2006, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Curtis Hanson, Peter Jackson, Ang Lee and Alexander Payne joined them. In 2015, Christopher Nolan also joined the board. Recent members include Spike Lee, Sofia Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, Barry Jenkins, Lynne Ramsay, Joanna Hogg and Kathryn Bigelow.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: The foundation has restored more than 800 films from around the world and conducts a free educational curriculum for young people on the language and history of film. Scorsese and the Foundation spearheaded fundraising for the film restoration of Michael Powell, and Emeric Pressburger's "The Red Shoes" (1948). For his advocacy in film restoration he received the Robert Osborne Award at the 2018 TCM Film Festival. The award was given to Scorsese as "an individual who has significantly contributed to preserving the cultural heritage of classic films".


title: Martin Scorsese

text: In November 2020, the Criterion Channel released a 30-minute video titled, "30 Years of The Film Foundation: Martin Scorsese and Ari Aster in Conversation", celebrating the "mission, evolution, and ongoing work of The Film Foundation". Scorsese stated as of 2020, the Foundation has helped restore 850 films.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: In 2007, Scorsese established the World Cinema Project with the mission to preserve and present marginalized and infrequently screened films from regions generally ill-equipped to preserve their own cinema history. Scorsese's organization has worked with the Criterion Collection to not only preserve the films but to allow them to be released on DVD and Blu-ray boxsets and on streaming services such as The Criterion Channel. Films in the WCP include Ousmane Sembène's "Black Girl" (1966), and Djibril Diop Mambéty's "Touki Bouki" (1973).


title: Martin Scorsese

text: The Criterion Collection so far has released four Vol. boxsets on DVD and Blu-ray, titled, "Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project". The first Volume includes 6 titles, "Touki Bouki" (1973), "Redes" (1936), "A River Called Titas" (1973), "Dry Summer" (1964), "Trances" (1981) and "The Housemaid" (1960). The second volume also includes 6 titles, "Insiang" (1976), "Mysterious Object at Noon" (2000), "Revenge" (1989), "Limite" (1931), "Law of the Border" (1967), and "Taipei Story" (1985). The third volume includes 6 titles as well: "Lucía" (1968), "After the Curfew" (1954), "Pixote" (1980), "Dos monjes" (1934), "Soleil Ô" (1970), and "Downpour" (1972). The 6 films included in the fourth set are "Sambizanga" (1972), "Prisioneros de la tierra" (1939), "Chess of the Wind" (1979), "Muna Moto" (1975), "Two Girls on the Street" (1939), and "Kalpana" (1948).


title: Martin Scorsese

text: In 2017, Scorsese also introduced The African Film Heritage Project (AFHP), which is a joint initiative between Scorsese's non-profit The Film Foundation, UNESCO, Cineteca di Bologna, and the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI). The project aims to locate and preserve 50 classic African films, some thought lost and others beyond repair, with hopes to make them available to audiences everywhere. In an interview with "Cinema Escapist" in 2018, Scorsese talked about the ambitious collaboration saying, "Our first goal is to launch and conduct a thorough investigation in film archives and laboratories around the world, in order to locate the best surviving elements—original negatives, we hope—for our first 50 titles." He also stated that "Restoration is always the primary goal, of course, but within the initiative, it's also a starting point of a process that follows through with exhibition and dissemination in Africa and abroad. And of course, our restoration process always includes the creation of preservation elements."


title: Martin Scorsese

text: In 2019, the AFHP, announced that they would screen restorations of four African films on their home continent for the first time as part of the 50th anniversary of the Pan African Film Festival of Ouagadougou. The movies in question are Med Hondo's "Soleil Ô" (1970), Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina's "Chronique des années de braise" (1975), Timité Bassori's "La Femme au couteau" (1969), and Jean-Pierre Dikongue-Pipa's "Muna Moto" (1975).


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese's films have been nominated for numerous awards both nationally and internationally, with an Academy Award win for "The Departed". In 1991, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 1997, Scorsese received the AFI Life Achievement Award. In 1998, the American Film Institute placed three Scorsese films on their list of the greatest American movies: "Raging Bull" at No. 24, "Taxi Driver" at No. 47, and "Goodfellas" at No. 94. For the tenth-anniversary edition of their list, "Raging Bull" was moved to No. 4, "Taxi Driver" was moved to No. 52, and "Goodfellas" was moved to No. 92. In 2001, the American Film Institute placed two Scorsese films on their list of the most "heart-pounding movies" in American cinema: "Taxi Driver" at No. 22 and "Raging Bull" at No. 51. At a ceremony in Paris, France, on January 5, 2005, Martin Scorsese was awarded the French Legion of Honour in recognition of his contribution to cinema. On February 8, 2006, at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, Scorsese was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video for "No Direction Home".


title: Martin Scorsese

text: In 2007, Scorsese was listed among "Time" magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World. In August 2007, Scorsese was named the second-greatest director of all time in a poll by "Total Film" magazine, in front of Steven Spielberg and behind Alfred Hitchcock. In 2007, Scorsese was honored by the National Italian American Foundation (N.I.A.F.) at the nonprofit's thirty-second Anniversary Gala. During the ceremony, Scorsese helped launch N.I.A.F.'s Jack Valenti Institute in memory of former foundation board member and past president of the Motion Picture Association of America (M.P.A.A.) Jack Valenti. The Institute provides support to Italian film students in the U.S. Scorsese received his award from Mary Margaret Valenti, Jack Valenti's widow. Certain pieces of Scorsese's film-related material and personal papers are contained in the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives, to which scholars and media experts from around the world may have full access. On September 11, 2007, the Kennedy Center Honors committee, which recognizes career excellence and cultural influence, named Scorsese as one of the honorees for the year. On June 17, 2008, the American Film Institute placed two of Scorsese's films on the AFI's 10 Top 10 list: "Raging Bull" at number one for the Sports genre and "Goodfellas" at number two for the Gangster genre. In 2013, the staff of "Entertainment Weekly" voted "Mean Streets" the seventh greatest film ever made.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: On January 17, 2010, at the 67th Golden Globe Awards, Scorsese was the recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award. On September 18, 2011, at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards, Scorsese won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for his work on the series premiere of "Boardwalk Empire". In 2011, Scorsese received an honorary doctorate from the National Film School in Lodz. At the awards ceremony he said, "I feel like I'm a part of this school and that I attended it," paying tribute to the films of Wajda, Munk, Has, Polanski and Skolimowski. King Missile wrote "Martin Scorsese" in his honor. On February 12, 2012, at the 65th British Academy Film Awards, Scorsese was the recipient of the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: On September 16, 2012, Scorsese won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming and Outstanding Nonfiction Special for his work on the documentary "George Harrison: Living in the Material World". In 2013, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Scorsese for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. He was the first filmmaker chosen for the honor. His lecture, delivered on April 1, 2013, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, was titled "Persistence of Vision: Reading the Language of Cinema". Scorsese was awarded the Polish Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis on April 11, 2017, in recognition of his contribution to Polish cinema.


title: Martin Scorsese

text: Scorsese has also garnered favorable responses from numerous film giants including Ingmar Bergman, Frank Capra, Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Elia Kazan, Akira Kurosawa, David Lean, Michael Powell, Satyajit Ray, and François Truffaut. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2008. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Oxford on June 20, 2018. As of 2021, five of Scorsese's films have been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In commenting on Scorsese's 2019 film "The Irishman", Guillermo del Toro cited Scorsese's ability as a director for the depiction of character development comparable to the films of "Renoir, Bresson, Bergman, Oliveira or Kurosawa". Sam Mendes, in his acceptance speech after winning the 2020 Golden Globe Award for Best Director for "1917", praised Scorsese's contribution to cinema, stating, "There's not one director in this room, not one director in the world, that is not in the shadow of Martin Scorsese... I just have to say that." Bong Joon-ho, in his acceptance speech for the 2020 Academy Award for Best Director for "Parasite", said, "When I was young and studying cinema, there was a saying that I carved deep into my heart, which is, the most personal is the most creative." He then said that this quote had come from Scorsese, which prompted the audience to give Scorsese a standing ovation.


title: Patrizia Reggiani

text: Patrizia Reggiani (; Martinelli; born 2 December 1948) is an Italian convicted criminal and former socialite. She was convicted in a highly publicized trial of hiring a hitman to kill her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci.


title: Patrizia Reggiani

text: Patrizia Martinelli was born in Vignola, Province of Modena, in Northern Italy. She grew up poor and never knew her biological father. When Patrizia was 12, her mother Silvana married wealthy entrepreneur Ferdinando Reggiani, who later adopted Patrizia.


title: Patrizia Reggiani

text: When she was about 22, Patrizia met Maurizio Gucci, heir to the Gucci fashion house, at a party in 1970. On 28 October 1972 the couple married and moved to New York City. Gucci's father, Rodolfo Gucci, initially did not approve of the marriage, as he believed Patrizia was "a social climber who had nothing in mind but money," but he gifted his son and daughter-in-law with a luxury penthouse in New York's Olympic Tower. Patrizia became active in New York social circles, making regular appearances at parties and fashion events and even became friends with Jackie Kennedy Onassis. During her marriage, she gave birth to two daughters. Alessandra was born in 1977, and Allegra was born in 1981.


title: Patrizia Reggiani

text: In 1982, Patrizia and Maurizio moved back to Milan. In 1985, Gucci told her he was going on a short business trip to Florence. The following day, he sent a friend to tell Patrizia he would not be returning and that the marriage was over. In 1990, Maurizio began dating Paola Franchi, causing both resentment and jealousy in Patrizia. In 1994, she officially divorced Gucci. As part of the divorce settlement, Gucci agreed to pay Patrizia an annual alimony of $1.47 million. By law, she was no longer allowed to use the Gucci surname, but she continued to do so anyway, stating, "I still feel like a Gucci – in fact, the most Gucci of them all."


title: Patrizia Reggiani

text: A year after his divorce, on 27 March 1995, Maurizio Gucci was shot and killed by a hitman on the steps outside his office as he arrived at work. The day he was killed, Patrizia wrote a single word in her diary: the Greek word for paradise.


title: Patrizia Reggiani

text: On 31 January 1997, Patrizia was arrested and accused of hiring the hitman who murdered Gucci. The trial garnered intense media interest, with the local press dubbing her the "Black Widow". According to prosecutors, Patrizia's motive was a mixture of jealousy, money, and resentment towards her ex-husband. They argued that she wanted control over the Gucci estate and wanted to prevent her ex-husband from marrying Paola Franchi. The impending marriage would have cut her alimony in half, reducing her annual monetary assistance to $860,000 a year, which, according to her, amounted to "a bowl of lentils". The hitman, debt-ridden pizzeria owner Benedetto Ceraulo, was found to have been hired by Patrizia through an intermediary named Giuseppina "Pina" Auriemma, a high-society psychic and close friend of Patrizia.


title: Patrizia Reggiani

text: In 1998, Patrizia Reggiani was sentenced to 29 years in prison for arranging the killing. She then asked that her conviction be overturned, claiming a brain tumor had affected her personality. In 2000, an appeals court in Milan upheld the conviction but reduced the sentence to 26 years. In 2000, she tried to commit suicide by hanging herself with a bed sheet, but she was found by prison guards.


title: Patrizia Reggiani

text: In 2005, despite rules against prison pets, Patrizia's legal team convinced the prison to allow her pet ferret to live with her. In October 2011, she became eligible for parole under a work-release program but refused, saying, "I've never worked in my life, and I'm certainly not going to start now." With credit for good behavior, she was released in October 2016, after 18 years in prison.


title: Patrizia Reggiani

text: The film "House of Gucci" (2021) is based on Patrizia Reggiani's marriage and the murder of her ex-husband Maurizio Gucci played by Adam Driver. It was directed by Ridley Scott and stars singer and actress Lady Gaga as Reggiani. The film was announced in November 2019. In March 2021, Reggiani praised the casting of Lady Gaga in the film, saying that she looks like her, but expressed annoyance that Gaga did not meet with her before accepting the role. Gaga stated in interviews that she had no interest in "colluding" with Reggiani, but her heart "goes out to her daughters... I do care deeply that this must be very painful for them."


title: Walmart

text: Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company was founded by Sam Walton in nearby Rogers, Arkansas in 1962 and incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law on October 31, 1969. It also owns and operates Sam's Club retail warehouses.


title: Walmart

text: Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue, with about US$570 billion in annual revenue, according to the "Fortune" Global 500 list in May 2022. It is also the largest private employer in the world with 2.2 million employees. It is a publicly traded family-owned business, as the company is controlled by the Walton family. Sam Walton's heirs own over 50 percent of Walmart through both their holding company Walton Enterprises and their individual holdings. Walmart was the largest United States grocery retailer in 2019, and 65 percent of Walmart's sales came from U.S. operations.


title: Walmart

text: Walmart was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. By 1988, it was the most profitable retailer in the U.S., and it had become the largest in terms of revenue by October 1989. The company was originally geographically limited to the South and lower Midwest, but it had stores from coast to coast by the early 1990s. Sam's Club opened in New Jersey in November 1989, and the first California outlet opened in Lancaster, in July 1990. A Walmart in York, Pennsylvania, opened in October 1990, the first main store in the Northeast.


title: Walmart

text: Walmart's investments outside the U.S. have seen mixed results. Its operations and subsidiaries in Canada, the United Kingdom (ASDA), Central America, South America, and China are successful, but its ventures failed in Germany, Japan, and South Korea.


title: Walmart

text: In 1945, businessman and former J. C. Penney employee Sam Walton bought a branch of the Ben Franklin stores from the Butler Brothers. His primary focus was selling products at low prices to get higher-volume sales at a lower profit margin, portraying it as a crusade for the consumer. He experienced setbacks because the lease price and branch purchase were unusually high, but he was able to find lower-cost suppliers than those used by other stores and was consequently able to undercut his competitors on pricing. Sales increased 45 percent in his first year of ownership to in revenue, which increased to $140,000 the next year and $175,000 the year after that. Within the fifth year, the store was generating $250,000 in revenue. The lease then expired for the location and Walton was unable to reach an agreement for renewal, so he opened up a new store at 105 N. Main Street in Bentonville, naming it "Walton's Five and Dime". That store is now the Walmart Museum.


title: Walmart

text: On July 2, 1962, Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City store at 719 W. Walnut Street in Rogers, Arkansas. Its design was inspired by Ann & Hope, which Walton visited in 1961, as did Kmart founder Harry B. Cunningham. The name came from FedMart, a chain of discount department stores founded by Sol Price in 1954, whom Walton was also inspired by. Walton stated that he liked the idea of calling his discount chain "Wal-Mart" because he "really liked Sol's FedMart name". The building is now occupied by a hardware store and an antiques mall, while the company's "Store #1" has since expanded to a Supercenter several blocks west at 2110 W. Walnut Street. Within its first five years, the company expanded to 18 stores in Arkansas and reached $9 million in sales. In 1968, it opened its first stores outside Arkansas in Sikeston, Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma.


title: Walmart

text: The company was incorporated as Wal-Mart, Inc. on October 31, 1969, and changed its name to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in 1970. The same year, the company opened a home office and first distribution center in Bentonville, Arkansas. It had 38 stores operating with 1,500 employees and sales of $44.2 million. It began trading stock as a publicly held company on October 1, 1970, and was soon listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The first stock split occurred in May 1971 at a price of $47 per share. By this time, Walmart was operating in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma; it entered Tennessee in 1973 and Kentucky and Mississippi in 1974. As the company moved into Texas in 1975, there were 125 stores with 7,500 employees and total sales of $340.3 million.


title: Walmart

text: In the 1980s, Walmart briefly experimented with a precursor to the Supercenter, the Hyper-Mart. Four stores combined features of discount stores, supermarkets, pharmacies, video arcades and other amenities. Walmart continued to grow rapidly, and by the company's 25th anniversary in 1987, there were 1,198 Walmart stores with sales of $15.9  billion and 200,000 associates. One reason for Walmart's success between 1980 and 2000 is believed to be its contiguous pattern of expansion over time, building new distribution centers in a hub and spoke framework within driving distance of existing Supercenters.


title: Walmart

text: 1987 also marked the completion of the company's satellite network, a $24 million investment linking all stores with two-way voice and data transmissions and one-way video communications with the Bentonville office. At the time, the company was the largest private satellite network, allowing the corporate office to track inventory and sales and to instantly communicate to stores. By 1984, Sam Walton had begun to source between 6% and 40% of his company's products from China. In 1988, Walton stepped down as CEO and was replaced by David Glass. Walton remained as chairman of the board. During this year, the first Walmart Supercenter opened in Washington, MO.


title: Walmart

text: While it was the third-largest retailer in the United States, Walmart was more profitable than rivals Kmart and Sears by the late 1980s. By 1990, it became the largest U.S. retailer by revenue.


title: Walmart

text: Prior to the summer of 1990, Walmart had no presence on the West Coast or in the Northeast (except for a single Sam's Club in New Jersey which opened in November 1989), but in July and October that year, it opened its first stores in California and Pennsylvania, respectively. By the mid-1990s, it was the most powerful retailer in the U.S. and expanded into Mexico in 1991 and Canada in 1994. Walmart stores opened throughout the rest of the U.S., with Vermont being the last state to get a store in 1995.


title: Walmart

text: The company also opened stores outside North America, entering South America in 1995 with stores in Argentina and Brazil; and Europe in July 1999, buying Asda in the United Kingdom for .


title: Walmart

text: In 1998, Walmart introduced the Neighborhood Market concept with three stores in Arkansas. By 2005, estimates indicate that the company controlled about 20 percent of the retail grocery and consumables business.


title: Walmart

text: In 2000, H. Lee Scott became Walmart's president and CEO as the company's sales increased to $165 billion. In 2002, it was listed for the first time as America's largest corporation on the Fortune 500 list, with revenues of $219.8 billion and profits of $6.7 billion. It has remained there every year except 2006, 2009, and 2012.


title: Walmart

text: In 2005, Walmart reported in sales, more than 6,200 facilities around the world—including 3,800 stores in the United States and 2,800 elsewhere, employing more than 1.6 million associates. Its U.S. presence grew so rapidly that only small pockets of the country remained more than from the nearest store.


title: Walmart

text: As Walmart expanded rapidly into the world's largest corporation, many critics worried about its effect on local communities, particularly small towns with many "mom and pop" stores. There have been several studies on the economic impact of Walmart on small towns and local businesses, jobs, and taxpayers. In one, Kenneth Stone, a professor of economics at Iowa State University, found that some small towns can lose almost half of their retail trade within ten years of a Walmart store opening. However, in another study, he compared the changes to what small-town shops had faced in the past—including the development of the railroads, the advent of the Sears Roebuck catalog, and the arrival of shopping malls—and concluded that shop owners who adapt to changes in the retail market can thrive after Walmart arrives. A later study in collaboration with Mississippi State University showed that there are "both positive and negative impacts on existing stores in the area where the new supercenter locates."


title: Walmart

text: In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, Walmart used its logistics network to organize a rapid response to the disaster, donating $20 million, 1,500 truckloads of merchandise, food for 100,000 meals, and the promise of a job for every one of its displaced workers. An independent study by Steven Horwitz of St. Lawrence University found that Walmart, The Home Depot, and Lowe's made use of their local knowledge about supply chains, infrastructure, decision makers and other resources to provide emergency supplies and reopen stores well before the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) began its response. While the company was overall lauded for its quick response amidst criticism of FEMA, several critics were quick to point out that there still remained issues with the company's labor relations.


title: Walmart

text: In 2006, Charles Fishman published "The Wal-Mart Effect", examining the operation of Walmart's supply chain. His book caught the attention of the press and the public. Fishman's case studies illustrate Walmart’s drive to lower costs and achieve greater efficiency and suggest that it may have significant upstream effects. Since FIshman's book was published, Walmart has more than doubled in size. Further research on Walmart’s role in the food supply chain has tended to be limited and anecdotal.


title: Walmart

text: In November 2005, Walmart announced several environmental measures to increase energy efficiency and improve its overall environmental record, which had previously been lacking. The company's primary goals included spending $500 million a year to increase fuel efficiency in Walmart's truck fleet by 25 percent over three years and double it within ten; reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent in seven years; reduce energy use at stores by 30 percent; and cut solid waste from U.S. stores and Sam's Clubs by 25 percent in three years. CEO Lee Scott said that Walmart's goal was to be a "good steward of the environment" and ultimately use only renewable energy sources and produce zero waste. The company also designed three new experimental stores with wind turbines, photovoltaic solar panels, biofuel-capable boilers, water-cooled refrigerators, and xeriscape gardens. In this time, Walmart also became the biggest seller of organic milk and the biggest buyer of organic cotton in the world, while reducing packaging and energy costs. In 2007, the company worked with outside consultants to discover its total environmental impact and find areas for improvement. Walmart created its own electric company in Texas, Texas Retail Energy, planned to supply its stores with cheap power purchased at wholesale prices. Through this new venture, the company expected to save $15 million annually and also to lay the groundwork and infrastructure to sell electricity to Texas consumers in the future.


title: Walmart

text: In 2006, Walmart announced that it would remodel its U.S. stores to help it appeal to a wider variety of demographics, including more affluent shoppers. As part of the initiative, the company launched a new store in Plano, Texas, that included high-end electronics, jewelry, expensive wines and a sushi bar.


title: Walmart

text: On September 12, 2007, Walmart introduced new advertising with the slogan, ""Save money. Live better."", replacing ""Always Low Prices, Always"", which it had used since 1988. Global Insight, which conducted the research that supported the ads, found that Walmart's price level reduction resulted in savings for consumers of $287 billion in 2006, which equated to $957 per person or $2,500 per household (up 7.3 percent from the 2004 savings estimate of $2,329).


title: Walmart

text: On June 30, 2008, Walmart removed the hyphen from its logo and replaced the star with a "Spark" symbol that resembles a sunburst, flower, or star. The new logo received mixed reviews from design critics who questioned whether the new logo was as bold as those of competitors, such as the Target bullseye, or as instantly recognizable as the previous company logo, which was used for 18 years. The new logo made its debut on the company's website on July 1, 2008, and its U.S. locations updated store logos in the fall of 2008. Walmart Canada started to adopt the logo for its stores in early 2009.


title: Walmart

text: On March 20, 2009, Walmart announced that it was paying a combined in bonuses to every full and part-time hourly worker. This was in addition to $788.8 million in profit sharing, 401(k) pension contributions, hundreds of millions of dollars in merchandise discounts, and contributions to the employees' stock purchase plan. While the economy at large was in an ongoing recession, Walmart reported solid financial figures for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2009, with $401.2 billion in net sales, a gain of 7.2 percent from the prior year. Income from continuing operations increased 3 percent to $13.3 billion, and earnings per share rose 6 percent to $3.35.


title: Walmart

text: On February 22, 2010, the company confirmed it was acquiring video streaming company Vudu, Inc. for an estimated $100 million.


title: Walmart

text: In May 2021, Walmart acquired the Israeli startup Zeekit startup for $200 million. Zeekit uses artificial intelligence to allow customers to try on clothing via a dynamic virtual platform.


title: Walmart

text: Walmart's truck fleet logs millions of miles each year, and the company planned to double the fleet's efficiency between 2005 and 2015. The truck pictured is one of 15 based at Walmart's Buckeye, Arizona, distribution center that was converted to run on biofuel from reclaimed cooking grease made during food preparation at Walmart stores.


title: Walmart

text: Studies of food choice, dietary quality, and health have found that Supercenters in the United States are associated with increases in obesity rates and average body mass, and that shoppers at Walmart do not follow Dietary Guidelines for Americans as well as shoppers at traditional supermarkets.


title: Walmart

text: In January 2011, Walmart announced a program to improve the nutritional value of its store brands over five years, reduce prices for whole foods and vegetables, and open stores in low-income areas, so-called "food deserts", where there are no supermarkets. Subsequent research is limited. Walmart may increase food access and decrease food instability, but it does not appear to increase dietary quality.


title: Walmart

text: On April 23, 2011, the company announced that it was testing its new "Walmart To Go" home delivery system where customers will be able to order specific items offered on their website. The initial test was in San Jose, California, and the company has not yet said whether the delivery system will be rolled out nationwide.


title: Walmart

text: On November 14, 2012, Walmart launched its first mail subscription service called Goodies. Customers pay a $7 monthly subscription for five to eight delivered food samples each month, so they can try new foods. The service shut down in late 2013.


title: Walmart

text: In August 2013, the firm announced it was in talks to acquire a majority stake in the Kenya-based supermarket chain, Naivas.


title: Walmart

text: In June 2014, some Walmart employees went on strike in major U.S. cities demanding higher wages. In July 2014, American actor and comedian Tracy Morgan launched a lawsuit against Walmart seeking punitive damages over a multi-car pile-up which the suit alleges was caused by the driver of one of the firm's tractor-trailers who had not slept for 24 hours. Morgan's limousine was apparently hit by the trailer, injuring him and two fellow passengers and killing a fourth, fellow comedian James McNair. Walmart settled with the McNair family for $10 million, while admitting no liability. Morgan and Walmart reached a settlement in 2015 for an undisclosed amount, though Walmart later accused its insurers of "bad faith" in refusing to pay the settlement.


title: Walmart

text: In 2015, the company closed five stores on short notice for plumbing repairs. However, employees and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) alleged some stores were closed in retaliation for strikes aimed at increasing wages and improving working conditions. The UFCW filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. All five stores have since reopened.


title: Walmart

text: In 2015, Walmart was the biggest US commercial producer of solar power with 142 MW capacity, and had 17 energy storage projects. This solar was primarily on rooftops, whereas there is an additional 20,000 m for solar canopies over parking lots.


title: Walmart

text: On January 15, 2016, Walmart announced it would close 269 stores in 2016, affecting 16,000 workers. One hundred and fifty-four of these stores earmarked for closure were in the U.S. (150 Walmart U.S. stores, 115 Walmart International stores, and 4 Sam's Clubs). Ninety-five percent of these U.S. stores were located, on average, 10 miles from another Walmart store. The 269 stores represented less than 1 percent of global square footage and revenue for the company. The 102 locations of Neighborhood Markets that were formerly or originally planned to be Walmart Express, which had been in a pilot program since 2011 and converted in to Neighborhood Markets in 2014, were included in the closures. Walmart planned to focus on "strengthening Supercenters, optimizing Neighborhood Markets, growing the e-commerce business and expanding pickup services for customers". In fiscal 2017, the company plans to open between 50 and 60 Supercenters, 85 to 95 Neighborhood Markets, 7 to 10 Sam's Clubs, and 200 to 240 international locations. At the end of fiscal 2017, Walmart opened 38 Supercenters and relocated, expanded or converted 21 discount stores into Supercenters, for a total of 59 Supercenters, and opened 69 Neighborhood Markets, 8 Sam's Clubs, and 173 international locations, and relocated, expanded or converted 4 locations for a total of 177 international locations. On August 8, 2016, Walmart announced a deal to acquire e-commerce website Jet.com for US$3.3 billion. Jet.com co-founder and CEO Marc Lore stayed on to run Jet.com in addition to Walmart's existing U.S. e-commerce operation. The acquisition was structured as a payout of $3 billion in cash, and an additional $300 million in Walmart stock vested over time as part of an incentive bonus plan for Jet.com executives. On October 19, 2016, Walmart announced it would partner with IBM and Tsinghua University to track the pork supply chain in China using blockchain. The use of blockchain to automate the tracking of the supply chain promises the potential for Walmart to save money and thus increase profits.


title: Walmart

text: On February 15, 2017, Walmart announced the acquisition of Moosejaw, a leading online active outdoor retailer, for approximately $51 million. The acquisition closed on February 13, 2017. On June 16, 2017, Walmart agreed to acquire the men's apparel company Bonobos for $310 million in an effort to expand its fashion holdings. On September 29, 2017, Walmart acquired Parcel, a technology-based, same-day and last-mile delivery company in Brooklyn. In 2018, Walmart started crowdsourcing delivery services to customers using drivers' private vehicles, under the brand "Spark".


title: Walmart

text: On December 6, 2017, Walmart announced that it would change its corporate name to Walmart Inc. from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. effective February 1, 2018.


title: Walmart

text: On January 11, 2018, Walmart announced that 63 Sam's Club locations in cities including Memphis, Houston, Seattle, and others would be closing. Some of the stores had already liquidated, without notifying employees; some employees learned by a company-wide email delivered January 11. All of the 63 stores were gone from the Sam's Club website as of the morning of January 11. Walmart said that ten of the stores will become e-commerce distribution centers and employees can reapply to work at those locations. "Business Insider" magazine calculated that over 11,000 workers will be affected. On the same day, Walmart announced that as a result of the new tax law, it would be raising Walmart starting wages, distributing bonuses, expanding its leave policies and contributing toward the cost of employees' adoptions. Doug McMillon, Walmart's CEO, said, "We are early in the stages of assessing the opportunities tax reform creates for us to invest in our customers and associates and to further strengthen our business, all of which should benefit our shareholders."


title: Walmart

text: In March 2018, Walmart announced that it is producing its own brand of meal kits in all of its stores that is priced under Blue Apron designed to serve two people.


title: Walmart

text: It was reported that Walmart is now looking at entering the subscription-video space, hoping to compete with Netflix and Amazon. They have enlisted the help of former Epix CEO, Mark Greenberg, to help develop a low-cost subscription video-streaming service.


title: Walmart

text: In September 2018, Walmart partnered with comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres to launch a new brand of women's apparel and accessories called EV1.


title: Walmart

text: On February 26, 2019, Walmart announced that it had acquired Tel Aviv-based product review start-up Aspectiva for an undisclosed sum.


title: Walmart

text: In May 2019, Walmart announced the launch of free one-day shipping on more than 220,000 items with minimum purchase amount of $35. The initiative first launched in Las Vegas and the Phoenix area.


title: Walmart

text: In September 2019, Walmart made the announcement that it would cease the sale of all e-cigarettes due to "regulatory complexity and uncertainty" over the products. Earlier in 2019, Walmart stopped selling fruit-flavored e-cigarette and had raised the minimum age to 21 for the purchase of products containing tobacco. That same month, Walmart opened its first Health Center, a "medical mall" where customers can purchase primary care services, such as vision tests, dental exams and root canals, lab work, X-rays and EKGs, counseling, and fitness and diet classes. Prices without insurance were listed, for instance, at $30 for an annual physical and $45 for a counseling session. Continuing with its health care initiative, they opened a health and wellness clinic prototype in Springdale, Arkansas just to expand services.


title: Walmart

text: This decade, as with many other companies, started off very unorthodox and unusual, due to the large part of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, including store closures, limited store occupancy, and employment, along with social distancing protocols. The store hours were adjusted to allow cleaning and stocking.


title: Walmart

text: In March 2020, due to the pandemic, Walmart changed some of its employee benefits. Employees can now decide to stay home and take unpaid leave if they feel unable to work or uncomfortable coming to work. Additionally, Walmart employees who contract the virus will receive "up to two weeks of pay". After two weeks, hourly associates who are unable to return to work are eligible for up to 26 weeks in pay. As of July 21, 2020, Walmart paid pandemic bonuses of $428 million to staff. People who did part-time or temporary work received a bonus of $150 while those who worked full-time received a bonus of $300. In July 2020, Walmart announced that all customers would be required to wear masks in all stores nationwide, including Sam's Club.


title: Walmart

text: In the first quarter of 2020, consumers responded to COVID by shopping less frequently (5.6% fewer transactions), and buying more when they did shop (16.5%). As people shifted from eating out to eating at home, net sales at Walmart increased by 10.5%, while online sales rose by 74%. Although Walmart experienced a 5.5% increase in operating expenses, its net income increased by 3.9%. In the third quarter of 2020, ending October 31, Walmart reported revenue of $134.7 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 5.2 percent.


title: Walmart

text: In December 2020, Walmart launched a new service, Carrier Pickup, that allows the customers to schedule a return for a product bought online, in-store, or from a third-party vendor. These services can be initiated on the Walmart App or on the website.


title: Walmart

text: In January 2021, Walmart announced that the company is launching a fintech startup, with venture partner Ribbit Capital, to provide financial products for consumers and employees.


title: Walmart

text: In February 2021, Walmart acquired technology from Thunder Industries, which uses automation to create digital ads, to expand its online marketing capabilities.


title: Walmart

text: In August 2021, Walmart announced it would open its Spark crowdsource delivery to other businesses as a white-label service, competing with Postmates and online food ordering delivery companies.


title: Walmart

text: In December 2021, Walmart announced it will participate in the Stephens Investment Conference Wednesday, and the Morgan Stanley Virtual Global Consumer & Retail Conference. In June 2022, Walmart announced it would be acquiring Memomi, an AR optical tech company.


title: Walmart

text: In August 2022, Walmart announced it would be acquiring Volt Systems, a vendor management and product tracking software company. Walmart announced it was partnering with Paramount to offer Paramount+ content


title: Walmart

text: Walmart announced in August 2022 that locations were not going back to 24 hours with most stores now being open between 6am and 11pm.


title: Walmart

text: As of 2016, Walmart's operations are organized into four divisions: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, Sam's Club and Global eCommerce. In the United States, Walmart's stores operate in four formats: discount, Supercenters. Neighborhood Markets, and Sam’s Club stores. Walmart International stores include additional formats such as supermarkets, hypermarkets, cash-and-carry stores, home improvement, specialty electronics, restaurants, apparel stores, drugstores, and convenience stores.


title: Walmart

text: Walmart U.S. is the company's largest division, accounting for , or 65 percent of total sales, for fiscal 2019. It consists of three retail formats that have become commonplace in the United States: Supercenters, Discount Stores, Neighborhood Markets, and other small formats. The discount stores sell a variety of mostly non-grocery products, though emphasis has now shifted towards supercenters, which include more groceries. there are a total of 4,720 Walmart U.S. stores. In the United States, 90 percent of the population resides within 10 miles of a Walmart store. The total number of Walmart U.S. stores and Sam's Clubs combined is 5,320.


title: Walmart

text: Walmart Supercenters, branded simply as "Walmart", are hypermarkets with sizes varying from , but averaging about . These stock general merchandise and a full-service supermarket, including meat and poultry, baked goods, delicatessen, frozen foods, dairy products, garden produce, and fresh seafood. Many Walmart Supercenters also have a garden center, pet shop, pharmacy, Tire & Lube Express, optical center, one-hour photo processing lab, portrait studio, and numerous alcove shops, such as cellular phone stores, hair and nail salons, video rental stores, local bank branches (such as Woodforest National Bank branches in newer locations), and fast food outlets.


title: Walmart

text: Many Walmart Supercenters currently feature McDonald's or Subway restaurants. In some Canadian locations, Tim Hortons were opened. Recently, in several Supercenters, like the Tallahassee, Florida and the Palm Desert, California locations, Walmart added Burger King to their locations, and the location in Glen Burnie, Maryland, due to its past as a hypermarket called Leedmark, which operated from May 1991 to January 1994, boasts an Auntie Anne's and an Italian restaurant.


title: Walmart

text: Some locations also have fuel stations which sell gasoline distributed by Murphy USA (which spun off from Murphy Oil in 2013), Sunoco, Inc. ("Optima"), the Tesoro Corporation ("Mirastar"), USA Gasoline, and even now Walmart-branded gas stations.


title: Walmart

text: The first Supercenter opened in Washington, Missouri, in 1988. A similar concept, Hypermart USA, had opened a year earlier in Garland, Texas. All Hypermart USA stores were later closed or converted into Supercenters.


title: Walmart

text: A typical supercenter sells approximately 120,000 items, compared to the 35 million products sold in Walmart's online store.


title: Walmart

text: The "Supercenter" name has since been phased out, with these stores now simply referred to as "Walmart", since the company introduced the new Walmart logo in 2008. However, the branding is still used in Walmart's Canadian stores (spelled as "Supercentre" in Canadian English).


title: Walmart

text: Walmart Discount Stores, also branded as simply "Walmart", are discount department stores with sizes varying from , with the average store covering . They carry general merchandise and limited groceries. Some newer and remodeled discount stores have an expanded grocery department, similar to Target's PFresh department. Many of these stores also feature a garden center, pharmacy, Tire & Lube Express, optical center, one-hour photo processing lab, portrait studio, a bank branch, a cell phone store, and a fast food outlet. Some also have gasoline stations. Discount Stores were Walmart's original concept, though they have since been surpassed by Supercenters.


title: Walmart

text: In 1990, Walmart opened its first Bud's Discount City location in Bentonville. Bud's operated as a closeout store, much like Big Lots. Many locations were opened to fulfill leases in shopping centers as Walmart stores left and moved into newly built Supercenters. All of the Bud's Discount City stores had closed or converted into Walmart Discount Stores by 1997.


title: Walmart

text: At its peak in 1996, there were 1,995 Walmart Discount Stores, but as of October 31, 2022, that number was dropped to 365.


title: Walmart

text: Walmart Neighborhood Market, sometimes branded as "Neighborhood Market by Walmart" or informally known as "Neighborhood Walmart", is Walmart's chain of supermarkets ranging from and averaging about , about a fifth of the size of a Walmart Supercenter. The first Walmart Neighborhood Market opened ten years after the first Supercenter opened, yet Walmart renewed its focus on the smaller grocery store format in the 2010s.


title: Walmart

text: The stores focus on three of Walmart's major sales categories: groceries, which account for about 55 percent of the company's revenue, pharmacy, and, at some stores, fuel. For groceries and consumables, the stores sell fresh produce, deli and bakery items, prepared foods, meat, dairy, organic, general grocery and frozen foods, in addition to cleaning products and pet supplies. Some stores offer wine and beer sales and drive-through pharmacies. Some stores, such as one at Midtown Center in Bentonville, Arkansas, offer made-to-order pizza with a seating area for eating. Customers can also use Walmart's site-to-store operation and pick up online orders at Walmart Neighborhood Market stores just like the Supercenters and Discount Stores


title: Walmart

text: Products at Walmart Neighborhood Market stores carry the same prices as those at Walmart's larger supercenters. A Moody's analyst said the wider company's pricing structure gives the chain of grocery stores a "competitive advantage" over competitors Whole Foods, Kroger and Trader Joe's.


title: Walmart

text: Neighborhood Market stores expanded slowly at first as a way to fill gaps between Walmart Supercenters and Discount Stores in existing markets. In its first 12 years, the company opened about 180 Walmart Neighborhood Markets. By 2010, Walmart said it was ready to accelerate its expansion plans for the grocery stores. there were 682 Walmart Neighborhood Markets, each employing between 90 and 95 full-time and part-time workers. The total number of Neighborhood Markets and other small formats combined is 783.


title: Walmart

text: Neighborhood Market, depending on the area, has some competition with Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh, which launched in 2019 that is similar to Neighborhood Market.


title: Walmart

text: Walmart opened Supermercado de Walmart locations to appeal to Hispanic communities in the United States. The first one, a store in the Spring Branch area of Houston, opened on April 29, 2009. The store was a conversion of an existing Walmart Neighborhood Market. In 2009, another Supermercado de Walmart opened in Phoenix, Arizona. Both locations closed in 2014. In 2009, Walmart opened "Mas Club", a warehouse retail operation patterned after Sam's Club. Its lone store also closed in 2014.


title: Walmart

text: Walmart Express was a chain of smaller discount stores with a range of services from groceries to check cashing and gasoline service. The concept was focused on small towns deemed unable to support a larger store and large cities where space was at a premium. Walmart planned to build 15 to 20 Walmart Express stores, focusing on Arkansas, North Carolina, and Chicago, by the end of its fiscal year in January 2012. Walmart re-branded all 22 of its Express format stores to Neighborhood Markets in an effort to streamline its retail offer. It continued to open new Express stores under the Neighborhood Market name. there were 101 small-format stores in the United States. These include 92 other small formats, 8 convenience stores and 1 pickup location. On January 15, 2016, Walmart announced that it would be closing 269 stores globally, including the 102 Neighborhood Markets that were formerly or originally planned to be Express stores.


title: Walmart

text: Between 2002 and 2022, Walmart owned the Amigo supermarkets chain in Puerto Rico. In 2022, Walmart announced that it would sell its Amigo stores to Pueblo Inc. and focus on modernizing its 18 Supercenter and Division 1 formats and 7 Sam’s Clubs stores.


title: Walmart

text: In September 2006, Walmart announced a pilot program to sell generic drugs at $4 per prescription. The program was launched at stores in the Tampa, Florida, area, and by January 2007 had been expanded to all stores in Florida. While the average price of generics is $29 per prescription, compared to $102 for name-brand drugs, Walmart maintains that it is not selling at a loss, or providing them as an act of charity—instead, they are using the same mechanisms of mass distribution that it uses to bring lower prices to other products. Many of Walmart's low cost generics are imported from India, where they are made by drug makers that include Ranbaxy and Cipla.


title: Walmart

text: On February 6, 2007, the company launched a "beta" version of a movie download service, which sold about 3,000 films and television episodes from all major studios and television networks. The service was discontinued on December 21, 2007, due to low sales.


title: Walmart

text: In 2008, Walmart started a pilot program in the small grocery store concept called Marketside in the metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, area. The four stores closed in 2011.


title: Walmart

text: In 2015, Walmart began testing a free grocery pickup service, allowing customers to select products online and choose their pickup time. At the store, a Walmart employee loads the groceries into the customer's car. the service is available in 39 U.S. states.


title: Walmart

text: In May 2016, Walmart announced a change to ShippingPass, its three-day shipping service, and that it will move from a three-day delivery to two-day delivery to remain competitive with Amazon. Walmart priced it at 49 dollars per year, compared to Amazon Prime's 99-dollar-per-year price.


title: Walmart

text: In June 2016, Walmart and Sam's Club announced that they would begin testing a last-mile grocery delivery that used services including Uber, Lyft, and Deliv, to bring customers' orders to their homes. Walmart customers would be able to shop using the company's online grocery service at grocery.walmart.com, then request delivery at checkout for a small fee. The first tests were planned to go live in Denver and Phoenix. Walmart announced on March 14, 2018, that it would expand online delivery to 100 metropolitan regions in the United States, the equivalent of 40 percent of households, by the end of the year of 2018.


title: Walmart

text: Walmart's Winemakers Selection private label wine was introduced in June 2018 in about 1,100 stores. The wine, from domestic and international sources, was described by "Washington Post" food and wine columnist Dave McIntyre as notably good for the inexpensive ($11 to $16 per bottle) price level.


title: Walmart

text: In October 2019, Walmart announced that customers in 2,000 locations in 29 states can use the grocery pickup service for their adult beverage purchases. Walmart will also deliver adult beverages from nearly 200 stores across California and Florida.


title: Walmart

text: In February 2020, Walmart announced a new membership program called, "Walmart +". The news came shortly after Walmart announced the discontinuation of its personal shopping service, Jetblack.


title: Walmart

text: Walmart's international operations comprised 5,266 stores and 800,000 workers in 23 countries outside the United States. There are wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and the UK. With 2.2 million employees worldwide, the company is the largest private employer in the U.S. and Mexico, and one of the largest in Canada. In fiscal 2019 Walmart's international division sales were , or 23.7 percent of total sales. International retail units range from , while wholesale units range from . Judith McKenna is the president and CEO of Walmart International .


title: Walmart

text: Walmart also owns 51 percent of the Central American Retail Holding Company (CARHCO), which, consists of 868 stores, including 263 stores in Guatemala (under the Paiz [27 locations], Walmart Supercenter [10 locations], Despensa Familiar [181 locations], and Maxi Dispensa [45 locations] banners), 102 stores in El Salvador (under the Despensa Familiar [63 locations], La Despensa de Don Juan [17 locations], Walmart Supercenter [6 locations], and Maxi Despensa [16 locations] banners), 111 stores in Honduras (including the Paiz [8 locations], Walmart Supercenter [4 locations], Dispensa Familiar [71 locations], and Maxi Despensa [28 locations] banners), 102 stores in Nicaragua (including the Pali [71 locations], La Unión [9 locations], Maxi Pali [20 locations], and Walmart Supercenter [2 locations] banners), and 290 stores in Costa Rica (including the Maxi Pali [49 locations], Mas X Menos [38 locations], Walmart Supercenter [14 locations], and Pali [189 locations] banners).


title: Walmart

text: In January 2009, the company acquired a controlling interest in the largest grocer in Chile, Distribución y Servicio D&S SA. In 2010, the company was renamed Walmart Chile. Walmart Chile operates 384 stores under the banners Lider Hiper (97 locations), Lider Express (154 locations), Superbodega Acuenta (122 locations), and Central Mayorista (11 locations).


title: Walmart

text: Walmart has operated in Canada since it acquired 122 stores comprising the Woolco division of Woolworth Canada, Inc on January 14, 1994. it operates 402 locations (including 343 supercentres and 59 discount stores) and, it employs 89,358 people, with a local home office in Mississauga, Ontario. Walmart Canada's first three Supercentres (spelled in Canadian English) opened in November 2006 in Ancaster, London, and Stouffville, Ontario. The 100th Canadian Supercentre opened in July 2010, in Victoria, British Columbia.


title: Walmart

text: In 2010, approximately one year after its incorporation of Schedule 2 (foreign-owned, deposit-taking) of Canada's "Bank Act", Walmart Canada Bank was introduced with the launch of the Walmart (Canada) Rewards MasterCard. Less than ten years later, however, on May 17, 2018, Wal-Mart Canada announced it had reached a definitive agreement to sell Wal-Mart Canada Bank to First National co-founder Stephen Smith and private equity firm Centerbridge Partners, L.P., on undisclosed financial terms, though it added that it would still be issuer of the Walmart (Canada) Rewards MasterCard.


title: Walmart

text: On April 1, 2019, Centerbridge Partners, L.P. and Stephen Smith jointly announced the closing of the previously announced acquisition of Wal-Mart Canada Bank and that it was to be renamed Duo Bank of Canada, to be styled simply as Duo Bank. Though exact ownership percentages were never revealed in either company announcement, it has also since been revealed that Duo Bank was reclassified as a Schedule 1 (domestic, deposit-taking) federally chartered bank of the "Bank Act" in Canada from the Schedule 2 (foreign-owned or -controlled, deposit-taking) that it had been, which indicates that Stephen Smith, as a noted Canadian businessman, is in a controlling position.


title: Walmart

text: On September 28, 2010, Walmart announced it would buy Massmart Holdings Ltd. of Johannesburg, South Africa in a deal worth over giving the company its first footprint in Africa. it has 411 stores, including 361 stores in South Africa (under the banners Game Foodco [78 locations], CBW [41 locations], Game [39 locations], Builders Express [50 locations], Builders Warehouse [34 locations], Cambridge [42 locations], Rhino [15 locations], Makro [23 locations], Builders Trade Depot [8 locations], Jumbo [13 locations], and Builders Superstore [18 locations]), 11 stores in Botswana (under the banners CBW [7 locations], Game Foodco [2 locations], and Builders Warehouse [2 locations]), 4 stores in Ghana (under the Game Foodco banner), 4 stores in Kenya (under the banners Game Foodco [3 locations] and Builders Warehouse [1 location]), 3 stores in Lesotho (under the banners CBW [2 locations] and Game Foodco [1 location]), 2 stores in Malawi (under the Game banner), 6 stores in Mozambique (under the banners Builders Warehouse [2 locations], Game Foodco [2 locations], CBW [1 location], and Builders Express [1 location]), 5 stores in Namibia (under the banners Game Foodco [4 locations] and Game [1 location]), 5 stores in Nigeria (under the banners Game [3 locations] and Game Foodco [2 location]), 1 store in Swaziland (under the CBW banner), 1 store in Tanzania (under the Game Foodco banner), 1 store in Uganda (under the Game banner), and 7 stores in Zambia (under the banners CBW [1 location], Game Foodco [3 locations], Builders Warehouse [2 locations], and Builders Express [1 location]).


title: Walmart

text: Walmart has joint ventures in China and several majority-owned subsidiaries. Walmart China (沃尔玛 "Wò'ērmǎ") operates 369 stores under the Walmart Supercenter (330 locations) and Sam's Club (39 locations) banners.


title: Walmart

text: In February 2012, Walmart announced that the company raised its stake to 51 percent in Chinese online supermarket Yihaodian to tap rising consumer wealth and help the company offer more products. Walmart took full ownership in July 2015.


title: Walmart

text: In December 2021, the Chinese Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection warned Walmart about not stocking products made from inputs from Xinjiang in response to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.


title: Walmart

text: In November 2006, the company announced a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises to operate in India. As foreign corporations were not allowed to enter the retail sector directly, Walmart operated through franchises and handled the wholesale end of the business. The partnership involved two joint ventures—Bharti manages the front end, involving opening of retail outlets while Walmart takes care of the back end, such as cold chains and logistics. Walmart operates stores in India under the name Best Price Modern Wholesale. The first store opened in Amritsar on May 30, 2009. On September 14, 2012, the Government of India approved 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retails, subject to approval by individual states, effective September 20, 2012. Scott Price, Walmart's president and CEO for Asia, told "The Wall Street Journal" that the company would be able to start opening Walmart stores in India within two years. Expansion into India faced some significant problems. In November 2012, Walmart admitted to spending lobbying the Indian National Congress; lobbying is conventionally considered bribery in India. Walmart is conducting an internal investigation into potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Bharti Walmart suspended a number of employees, rumored to include its CFO and legal team, to ensure "a complete and thorough investigation". In October 2013, Bharti and Walmart separated to pursue business independently.


title: Walmart

text: On May 9, 2018, Walmart announced its intent to acquire a 77% majority stake in the Indian e-commerce company Flipkart for $16 billion, in a deal that was completed on August 18, 2018. there are 28 Best Price Modern Wholesale locations.


title: Walmart

text: In the 1990s, Walmart tried with a large financial investment to get a foothold in both German and Indonesian retail markets.


title: Walmart

text: Walmart entered Indonesia with the opening of stores in Lippo Supermall (now known as Supermal Karawaci) and Megamall Pluit (now known as Pluit Village) respectively, under a joint-venture agreement with local conglomerate Lippo Group. Both stores closed down due to the 1997 Asian financial crisis.


title: Walmart

text: In 1997, Walmart took over the supermarket chain Wertkauf with its 21 stores for DM 750 million and the following year Walmart acquired 74 Interspar stores for DM 1.3 billion. The German market at this point was an oligopoly with high competition among companies which used a similar low price strategy as Walmart. As a result, Walmart's low price strategy yielded no competitive advantage. Walmart's corporate culture was not viewed positively among employees and customers, particularly Walmart's "statement of ethics", which attempted to restrict relationships between employees, a possible violation of German labor law, and led to a public discussion in the media, resulting in a bad reputation among customers. In July 2006, Walmart announced its withdrawal from Germany due to sustained losses. The stores were sold to the German company Metro during Walmart's fiscal third quarter. Walmart did not disclose its losses from its German investment, but they were estimated to be around 3 billion.