Quentin Tarantino really seems fed up with the movie industry.
In a surprise interview at the Sundance Film Festival on Monday, Tarantino decided to take aim at Hollywood and, more particularly, streaming services for contributing to the death of the moviegoing experience.
“What the f--- is a movie now? Something that plays in theaters for a token release for four f---in’ weeks, and by the second week you can watch it on television? I didn’t get into all this for diminishing returns,” Tarantino said.
The “Pulp Fiction” filmmaker said that theatrical releases have gotten “drastically worse” since his last film, 2019’s “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.” He’s primarily taking aim at studios’ “show pony exercise” and their not giving movies proper theatrical bows by instead dumping the titles on streaming after just a few weeks in theaters.
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. I mean, it was bad enough in ’97. It was bad enough in 2019, and that was the last fucking year of movies.
If you read this website, then you might already know that I wholeheartedly agree with Tarantino on this one. It’s infuriating to watch studios dump their successful films on streaming after just a few weeks of theatrical play.
The most recent blatant example was “Wicked,” which, in late December, was still racking up some big money at the domestic box-office, but Universal decided that a month was more than enough time to throw it online.
Welcome to the new normal, where studios have found a way to make considerable profit out of rushing their new titles to digital. The whole thing completely devalues the worth of cinema.