Quentin Tarantino shares his feelings about films that have skipped theater for streaming release. Since the COVID-19 pandemic caused theaters to close in March 2020, the various studios struggled to adapt to release films. Universal had a public spat with AMC theater chains after they released Trolls: World Tour to VOD, while Warner Bros. announced their entire 2021 slate would be released on HBO Max day and date with theaters releases. Disney offered some films like Artemis Fowl, Soul, and The One and Only Ivan as part of Disney+ while also putting films like Cruella, Raya and the Last Dragon, and Black Widow under the $30 Premier Access feature.
Acclaimed filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has been a vocal supporter of the theatrical experience. He recently purchased the Vista Theater in Los Angeles, the second theater the filmmaker has purchased after The New Beverly, which he has owned since 2007. Tarantino broke out in the 1990's indie film scene with his debut film Reservoir Dogs, and his follow-up film Pulp Fiction won the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994. Four of Tarantino's films (Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) have been nominated for Best Picture.
Tarantino has never been one not to make his opinion known, and he recently spoke about his thoughts on films that go directly to streaming and skip the theatrical release. According to ScreenCrush, via the ReelBlend podcast, Tarantino finds the process depressing. He notes how lucky he feels that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was released in 2019, right before the pandemic. Tarantino said:
“I think it’s depressing. I'm glad that I’m working with Sony, which doesn't deal with that. They haven’t gone down that route...it just really makes me think about 2019, when we came out with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, it really makes me think that, wow, myself and Joker and 1917, it was like we were birds that just flew through a window just as the window was slamming shut. And we practically got our tail feathers caught by the slam. But we got out in time.”
Tarantino's comment on Sony is an interesting one with a few different variables. Sony was one of the first studios to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, deciding in March 2020 to move their entire slate out to 2021. The studio held the release of films like Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway. Yet the studio did sell The Mitchells vs. The Machines and Fatherhood to Netflix and the Camilla Cabello-led film Cinderella to Amazon. Sony may not have an exclusive streaming service, but they still have picked and chosen which films they would sell, and the common denominator on what they held onto were franchise films while non-sequels were sold.
The streaming vs. theatrical debate has been one that Hollywood was accelerated due to the pandemic. Tarantino is far from the first filmmaker to share these sentiments. Christopher Nolan criticized Warner Bros., the studio he had worked at for 18 years, for releasing their films on HBO Max and theaters simultaneously as a betrayal to the filmmaker. Various Pixar employees felt disillusioned after Disney decided to release Soul and Luca on Disney+ instead of theaters.
Theater owners also recently criticized Disney's decision to release Black Widow on Disney+ $30 Premier Access saying it caused the massive drop-off from its first to the second weekend. Yet it appears the theatrical market is changing, and with talks of retiring after his next film, Quentin Tarantino may be leaving at the right time for himself.
Source: ScreenCrush