CULTURE

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood Broke a Box Office Record for Quentin Tarantino

Tarantino just beat his own personal best with Once Upon a Time at the box office.

July 29, 2019

Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino is known to have a bit of a competitive temperament when it comes to comparing himself to others, but the filmmaker just broke his own box office record with Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood.

Raking in roughly 40 million dollars in its opening weekend, Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood has now become Tarantino’s highest box office opening ever, grossing more than the projected 30 million dollars and beating his previously highest grossing film, Inglourious Basterds, which raked in 38 million dollars in its first weekend in 2009. The budget for Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood was 90 million dollars, so it is expected to exceed those production costs before the end of the year.

However, despite raking in nearly half of its budget in just one weekend, Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood did not come in first place at the box office. That status would go to Disney’s remake of The Lion King, which grossed roughly 75.5 million dollars and topped the box office for the second week in a row. Disney has now earned 7.67 billion dollars at the global box office in 2019 alone (beating its own record of 7.61 billion dollars grossed in 2016) thanks to Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, and Aladdin, which all raked in over a billion dollars each. Toy Story 4 and The Lion King should be hitting the billion dollar mark shortly.

Even though he wasn’t in first place for his ninth film’s opening weekend, Tarantino has still achieved a major feat by coming in second place with an R-rated movie that has no connection to any franchise (but a connection to nearly everyone in Hollywood, it seems). But one question remains: if the director just beat his own record at the box office, will he still plan to retire after his tenth film? He seems to be pretty serious about that still, but this successful opening weekend for Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood might secure his spot at the Oscars (where he historically has not had much luck) come next year.