As Hallow Road and Vincent Must Die prepare to revive the theatrical double feature experience on October 31, one can’t help but reflect on the box office failure of Grindhouse.
The double feature of Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino‘s Death Proof cost $67 million but opened to a meager $11.5 million on Easter weekend in 2007.
Tarantino admitted that the bomb “shook my confidence on the opening weekend” yesterday the Burbank International Film Festival, where he received the Vanguard Award.
“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.”
Tarantinto and Rodriguez “thought people would follow us anywhere, but they didn’t follow us there.” Tarantino adds, “At the time, it felt like the moviegoing audience was my girlfriend and my girlfriend broke up with me.”
He sought out advice from his filmmaking mentors, Tony Scott and Steven Spielberg, who consoled him, “Did you make the movie you wanted to make? Yes. Are you happy with the movie you made? Yes. 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.”
Spielberg offered some extra wisdom: “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. You know what it’s like to have a flop. The next time you have a hit, it’s going to be easy.”
Spielberg was right, as 2009’s Inglourious Basterds opened to $38 million domestic and went on to gross $321.4 million globally. Tarantino’s subsequent effort, 2012’s Django Unchained, stands as the highest grossing of his career with $426 million worldwide.
Tarantino is planning for his upcoming tenth feature to be his last, although he has yet to decide what project will be his swansong.
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