Box office During a five-day
Thanksgiving holiday weekend,
Casino opened in fifth place at the box office, grossing $14.5 million. The film grossed $43 million domestically and $73 million internationally, for a total of $116 million worldwide, against a $40–50 million production budget.
Critical response 's performance garnered critical acclaim, earning her the
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, in addition to a nomination for the
Academy Award for Best Actress. Upon its release,
Casino received mostly positive reviews from critics, although their praise was more muted than it had been for the thematically similar
Goodfellas, released only five years earlier, with some reviewers criticizing Scorsese for retreading familiar territory. On
review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 78% based on 74 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Impressive ambition and bravura performances from an outstanding cast help
Casino pay off in spite of a familiar narrative that may strike some viewers as a safe bet for director Martin Scorsese." On
Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences surveyed by
CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A+ to F.
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars, stating, "Martin Scorsese's fascinating new film
Casino knows a lot about the Mafia's relationship with Las Vegas. Like
The Godfather it makes us feel like eavesdroppers in a secret place." He added, "Unlike his other Mafia movies (
Mean Streets and
Goodfellas), Scorsese's
Casino is as concerned with history as with plot and character."
Janet Maslin of
The New York Times noted that the film's journalistic approach resulted in "no conveniently sharp focus, a plot built like a centipede and characters with lives too messy to form conventional dramatic arcs." Nevertheless, she praised Sharon Stone, writing that she "will be nobody's idea of Hollywood fluff after this spectacular, emblematic performance."
Todd McCarthy of
Variety felt the film "possesses a stylistic boldness and verisimilitude that is virtually matchless". He praised De Niro's performance as "outstanding" and felt Stone was "simply a revelation here". However, he noted Pesci "holds up his end of the picture perfectly well, but Nicky is basically the same character he won an Oscar for in
Goodfellas, but with a shade less of an edge."
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone wrote the film "is not the equal of
Mean Streets or
GoodFellas, the more instinctive pieces in the crime trilogy that the flawed
Casino completes (Coppola's
Godfather Part III fell off far more precipitously). It is, however, just as unmistakably the work of a virtuoso—bold, brutally funny and ferociously alive."
Kenneth Turan of the
Los Angeles Times noted the film is a return to Scorsese's earlier gangster films, but felt he made "too few emotional connections to persuade us to see things the way he does. So instead of being operatic and cathartic, this film ends up exhausting and claustrophobic." He praised the principal actors, most particularly highlighting Stone for displaying "star quality and a feral intensity that is the equal of what the boys are putting down." Philip Thomas of
Empire magazine praised the film while highlighting its similarities to
Goodfellas. He gave the film five stars commenting "It may not be Scorsese's greatest work, but this guy feeling a little off-colour is still far, far better than most people on fighting-fit form. It only gets more impressive as time goes on."
Gene Siskel of the
Chicago Tribune gave the film two and a half stars out of four, writing
Casino is a "sometime-dazzling, often-disappointing film from the great Martin Scorsese, who too often seems like he's replaying his greatest hits with this picture, and not to the best effect ... DeNiro's relationship with Cathy Moriarty in
Raging Bull was better and the flash-temper role by Pesci is a carbon copy of his work in
Goodfellas.
Casino is hardly a bad film, but it breaks no new ground for Scorsese."
Desson Howe of
The Washington Post wrote the film is "not great" and that clearly "Scorsese and Pileggi are trying to disinter the success of
GoodFellas, their last collaboration. But they only come up with
Raging B.S." The film's critical profile has increased in the years after its release, with critics Tom Charity and Natasha Vargas-Cooper expressing that they retrospectively feel
Casino is a more accomplished and artistically mature work than the thematically similar
Goodfellas. ==Accolades==