It’s been nearly six years since the release of Quentin Tarantino’s most recent film, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Over that time, we’ve seen the film industry change quite a bit. Nowadays, films that are released in theaters are being sent to VOD pretty quickly after their theatrical debuts. And we still have a large number that just get sent directly to streaming. And according to Tarantino, this shows just how bad the film industry has gotten over the years.
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Speaking at Sundance (via Variety), Quentin Tarantino did what Quentin Tarantino does and went off on a tangent talking about the current state of the film industry. Basically, he questions what exactly a “movie” is anymore, and rails against the idea of sending theatrical releases to VOD so quickly. He says that movies died after 2019 (coincidentally the year he released ‘Hollywood’).
“That’s a big fucking deal pulling [a play] off, and I don’t know if I can. So here we go,” said Tarantino. “That’s a challenge, a genuine challenge, but making movies? Well, what the fuck is a movie now? What — something that plays in theaters for a token release for four fucking weeks? All right, and by the second week you can watch it on television. I didn’t get into all this for diminishing returns.”
He continued, “I mean, it was bad enough in ’97. It was bad enough in 2019, and that was the last fucking year of movies. That was a shit deal, as far as I was concerned, the fact that it’s gotten drastically worse? And that it’s just it’s a show pony exercise. Now the theatrical release, you know, and then like yeah, in two weeks, you can watch it on this [streamer] and that one. Okay. Theater? You can’t do that. It’s the final frontier.”
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While he may be a bit too hyperbolic with saying movies are dead now, he’s not wrong with what he’s generally saying. Ever since COVID, where we saw so many films skip theatrical release and go directly to streaming, we’ve seen the studios show less concern about theatrical releases with films. More and more, especially if the film doesn’t do well in its opening weekend, films are getting sent to VOD within four weeks or so. That’s barely enough time for many of these films to even find an audience in theaters, let alone turn a profit.
But honestly, it’s not going to change anytime soon. It’ll be interesting to see if Tarantino incorporates some sort of rule in his next deal with a studio to force them to keep a film in theaters longer before VOD. Perhaps that is something he can start championing. Otherwise, his 10th film could very well be sent to VOD pretty quickly.