Quentin Tarantino has won two Oscars and produced a whole lot of success during his career but he struggled after his horror/thriller “Death Proof” bombed at the box office…
Quentin Tarantino is a two-time Oscar winner and regarded as one of the best filmmakers in Hollywood but even he’s capable of producing a box office bomb.
While the vast majority of his films have been very successful with most going onto earn a number of awards or at least nominations, that wasn’t the case when he directed “Death Proof” — one half of a Grindhouse double feature alongside “Planet Terror” from director Robert Rodriguez.
Tarantino and Rodriguez had both enjoyed success in their careers so teaming up for an old fashioned exploitation double feature seemed like a great idea at the time but audiences didn’t agree. The films ran back-to-back along with several faux trailers stuffed between the two movies — one of which was Eli Roth’s “Thanksgiving,” which eventually got made into a real film — but ultimately earned just $11.5 million during its opening weekend on a $67 million budget.
Looking back now, Tarantino admits the results rattled him after everything he made prior to that film was widely celebrated and became successful at the box office.
“You work really hard on a movie and the opening weekend happens; people either go see it or they don’t. At the time, they didn’t,” Tarantino said at the Burbank Film Festival (via Deadline) “We thought people would follow us anywhere, but they didn’t follow us there.
“At the time, it felt like the moviegoing audience was my girlfriend and my girlfriend broke up with me.”
The results were crushing and it forced Tarantino to seek out advice from some fellow cinematic luminaries including Steven Spielberg and Tony Scott, who both produced massive box office hits but also managed a few bombs along the way as well.
“[Steven Spielberg told me] ‘Quentin, you’re been pretty lucky. But the next film that’s a hit, you’re going to enjoy that more than all your other hits put together, because you’ve been here now,” Tarantino recounted. “You know what it’s like to have a flop. The next time you have a hit, it’s going to be easy.’”
The filmmakers also reminded Tarantino that despite the poor returns at theaters, he should still reflect on whether or not he was actually happy with the movie he produced.
“Did you make the movie you wanted to make? Yes. Are you happy with the movie you made? Yes,” Tarantino said. “Well, there’s a lot of people who can’t say that. Just think about how lucky you are to work in the business that you work in, and you’re able to make the movies you want to; sometimes the public gets them, sometimes they don’t.”
While “Death Proof” eventually found an audience after release on home video, Tarantino’s career bounced back rather emphatically with his next film “Inglorious Basterds,” which earned over $321 million at the box office on a $70 million budget. Tarantino was also nominated for an Academy Award for that film before going onto win his second Oscar for his next movie “Django Unchained.”
Right now, Tarantino is working on a play and still teasing his next movie as the last of his career after planning to retire from directing following his 10th and final film.
