Quentin Tarantino has said that a “war for movies” took place over the past year in a new Deadline interview.
Tarantino’s film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood just received 10 Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Director. But Tarantino isn’t nonchalant about his film’s success. In fact, he sees it as a major achievement given that franchise films have never been more omnipresent.
“The commercial product that is owned by the conglomerates, the projects everybody knows about and has in their DNA, whether it be the Marvel Comics, the Star Wars, Godzilla and James Bond, those films never had a better year than last year,” he said.
Watch: Leonardo DiCaprio & Quentin Tarantino on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
The website Box Office Mojo claims Avengers: Endgame topped the worldwide box office earnings for 2019, with The Lion King coming in second. The top ten is rounded out by Frozen II, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Captain Marvel, Toy Story 4, Joker, Aladdin, Star Wars Episode IX and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.
It’s nothing but sequels, franchise spin-offs and remakes. But Tarantino maintains a triumphal tone.
“It would have been the year that their world domination would have been complete. But it kind of wasn’t,” he said. “Because of what you said, a lot of original movie [content] came out and demanded to be seen, and demanded to be seen at the theatres.
“To combat something like Avengers: Endgame, which for the month before it came out and the month after, you couldn’t talk about anything else. They tried to do that with this last Star Wars and I don’t think it quite worked.”
The 92nd Academy Awards take place on February 10, 2020.
