Why Quentin Tarantino hates Disney: “They are going out of their way to fuck me”
It’s well known that Quentin Tarantino has a deep disdain for the state of contemporary cinema and its endless stream of superhero movies and repetitive franchises. At the head of the table of that kind of cinema, sitting comfortably next to Marvel, is Disney, a company that Tarantino truly despises.
However, the reason for the Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Basterds director’s hatred for Disney does not merely stem from his overall dislike for the monopoly they seem to hold over the film industry in general. It actually arises from a feud that came about when Tarantino released his 2015 western mystery thriller The Hateful Eight.
At the same time, Disney had released the first of the most recent mainline Star Wars movies, Episode VII – The Force Awakens. Tarantino had been hoping for success at the box office with his new project, but Disney showcased their power and jeopardised its release. During an appearance on the Howard Stern show, Tarantino explained how the incident went down.
“I just learned something the other day, it was really bad news, and it really fucking pissed me off,” Tarantino began. “I’m not talking about the whole country, I’m talking about one theatre in particular, and it’s a big fucking deal. We were going to play at the Cinerama Dome and play there exclusively for two weeks, and Star Wars was going to play the two weeks before us.”
The director continued, “I grew up in Los Angeles, so I think of the Cinerama Dome as a real big deal. Disney, who owns Star Wars, thought, ‘Well, maybe we want to play it throughout the entire holiday season. We are going to go to the Cinerama Dome and say they can’t honour their contract to show The Hateful Eight.’”
Those who own the Cinerama said that they already had a deal with The Hateful Eight and that Disney could not merely come in and lay down their own law. However, Tarantino explained that Disney simply came in like stormtroopers themselves and demanded that Star Wars would be played at the Cinerama throughout the entirety of the Christmas holiday season.
The mega-company said that if the cinema went ahead with their The Hateful Eight deal, then they would refuse to show Star Wars, “the biggest movie in the world,” at any of their other ArcLight cinemas, which was a genuine travesty for any commercial potential for Tarantino’s film.
“They’ve got the biggest blockbuster movie in the world on their hands,” Tarantino said. “They are going out of their way to fuck me. As far as I’m concerned, all the entertainment reporters should call them up and ask for their comments on their extortionist practices.”
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