What is the highest-grossing film directed by Quentin Tarantino?
Since making his directorial debut just over three decades ago, Quentin Tarantino has honed a distinctive filmmaking style that somehow appeals both to film buffs and to wider audiences. He spent the 1990s building a following with now-iconic offerings like Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, but his audience extends far beyond cult cinema lovers and Mubi subscribers. Audiences flock to the cinemas in their masses each time he releases a new picture – but which film is his most commercially successful?
The cult director has one of the most easily recognisable filmmaking styles in modern cinema. Tarantino films generally feature excessive use of violence and expletives, perfectly curated soundtracks primed for release on vinyl, and, more often than not, an appearance from the legendary Samuel L Jackson. This style seems integral to Tarantino’s appeal to both cult audiences and wider film fans.
It’s a style that has been in development since the director debuted with his first feature, Reservoir Dogs, in 1992. The film starred a number of actors who would work with the director again in the years following, including Tim Roth and Harvey Keitel, and introduced audiences to the brutality of Tarantino movies. Expectedly, this debut offering is the director’s least commercially successful offering.
The film took in just under $3million at the box office, a fairly modest response to a directorial debut. With his second offering, Tarantino would completely blow this figure out of the water. When he returned with the widely renowned Pulp Fiction in 1994, he massively increased his box office takings. The film earned over $213m, a figure that reflects its mammoth importance in independent cinema.
Still, Pulp Fiction doesn’t even come close to taking home the title of Tarantino’s highest-grossing film. When you place all Quentin Tarantino movies in order by box office numbers, Pulp Fiction is only the fourth most commercially successful film, losing out on the bronze medal to 2009’s Inglorious Basterds. Tarantino’s take on the war genre proved to have huge appeal in cinemas, earning him over $321m at the box office.
Tarantino’s most recent offering, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is the second highest-grossing movie in his catalogue. His star-studded tale of stuntmen and real-life cult activity took in around $377m, a huge number, but not quite enough to make it the most successful film in his catalogue.
So, which Quentin Tarantino film is the highest-grossing?
The highest-grossing film Quentin Tarantino has ever directed is Django Unchained. When it was released in 2012, the western took in $426m at the box office, beating out all ten of Tarantino’s other movies. Twelve years after the film first hit cinemas, Tarantino has yet to surpass it in box office success.
Django Unchained saw Tarantino borrowing influence from old Western films, bringing them into his distinctive style of filmmaking. The movie starred Jamie Foxx as the title character, Django Freeman, as he attempts to free his wife from slavery. Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L Jackson also star.
Alongside commercial success, the film also earned Quentin Tarantino and his stars widespread critical acclaim. Tarantino took home an Academy Award for ‘Best Original Screenplay’, while Waltz won for his supporting performance as Dr King Schultz.
While many people would consider Pulp Fiction or even the Kill Bill films to be Tarantino’s most representative efforts, they aren’t his most commercially successful works. That title is reserved for Django Unchained.
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