It has been over six years since the release of Quentin Tarantino’s most recent picture, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
During that time, the film business has undergone significant changes. Nowadays, films shown in theaters are rapidly made available on VOD. And we still have a huge number that are sent directly to streaming. And, according to Tarantino, this demonstrates how awful the film industry has become over time.
Speaking at Sundance (via Variety), Quentin Tarantino went off on a tangent regarding the present status of the film industry, as he often does. Basically, he doubts what a “movie” is anymore and rails against the idea of rushing theatrical films to VOD. He claims that movies died after 2019 (incidentally, the year he released ‘Hollywood’).
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“That’s a big fucking deal to pull [a play] off, and I’m not sure I can. So here we go,” Tarantino explained. “That’s a real difficulty, but making films? What the heck is a movie now? What? Something that only plays in cinemas for four fucking weeks? Okay, and by the second week, you can watch it on television. “I didn’t get into this for diminishing returns.”
He continued, “I mean, it was awful enough in 1997. It was awful enough in 2019, which was the last fucking year for movies. That was a crap deal as far as I was concerned, and the fact that it has gotten significantly worse? And it’s simply a show pony exercise. Now, the theatrical release, and then, in two weeks, you can see it on this [streamer] or that one. Okay. Theater? You cannot do that. “It is the final frontier.”
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While he may be exaggerating when he claims that movies are no longer relevant, he is not entirely incorrect. Since COVID, when so many films skipped theatrical distribution and went straight to streaming, we’ve seen studios become less concerned with theatrical releases of films. Films are increasingly being moved to VOD within four weeks of release, particularly if they do poorly on their first weekend. Many of these films will struggle to attract an audience in theaters, let alone earn a profit, in that time frame.
However, it is unlikely that this will alter anytime soon. It will be fascinating to watch whether Tarantino includes a stipulation in his next deal with a studio that requires them to keep a film in cinemas longer before VOD. Perhaps that is something he can start advocating. Otherwise, his tenth film may be released on VOD rather fast.
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