Discover the most popular movie the year you were born

2006 – The Departed

With Martin Scorcese behind this film, The Departed had a lot going for it already to become 2006’s most popular movie. A story about the relationship between the police and the Irish mob in Boston, it had an all-star cast and is iconic.

Jack Nicholson plays the mob boss while Leonardo DiCaprio is trying to navigate the world between being a cop and staying in the mob. With Mark Wahlberg, Nicholson, Vera Farmiga, DiCaprio and more, this movie pulled out all the stops and was extremely important when it was released.

The fact that it was the most popular movie of the year says a lot about both Scorsese’s power at the box office and also the world’s obsession with mobster movies. There wasn’t a lack of them, per say, before The Departed but there hadn’t been one that we clung to as much as we did The Godfather and Goodfellas.

The Departed was a new age connection back to the kind of movies that have ruled cinema for decades. It’s still iconic and the ending is probably one of the best movie endings ever to be made.