'It's Gotten Drastically Worse': Quentin Tarantino Slams Current State of Film Industry

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Quentin Tarantino didn't hold back his thoughts on the current state of the film industry in a recent interview.

The legendary director behind Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and most recently Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, gave a talk at Sundance in which he slammed the movies-to-streaming pipeline.

"What the f**k is a movie now?" he asked. "Something that plays in theaters for a token release of four f*****g weeks? And by the second week you can watch it on television? I didn't get into all of this for diminishing returns. It was bad enough in 2019, and that was the last f*****g year of movies...[now it's] gotten drastically worse."

Quentin Tarantino speaks onstage during the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures 4th Annual Gala in Partnership with Rolex at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on October 19, 2024 Quentin Tarantino speaks onstage during the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures 4th Annual Gala in Partnership with Rolex at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on October 19, 2024 Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

The clip, posted by @caralynn_marie on Twitter, was recorded during a Q+A with Tarantino. He bemoaned the lack of time films get to make a mark at cinemas before being yanked off the big screen and distributed onto streaming services in "two weeks."

It's little wonder the director doesn't have plans to make a movie any time soon. "I'm in no hurry to actually jump into production," Tarantino continues, as reported by Variety.

"I've been doing that for 30 years. Next month my son turns five, and I have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. When I'm in America, I'm writing. When I'm in Israel? I'm an abba, which means father."

It's not as if Tarantino has left creative endeavors behind entirely, though. His next project, he says, isn't a movie, but a play. "Theater? They pay a lot of money to get in that f*****g seat. But there's no f*****g taping it. There's no f*****g cellphones. You own the audience for that time. For that moment they are all yours."

Those hoping for another Tarantino follow-up to Inglorious Basterds or The Hateful Eight will be disappointed at the news he's got his sights set on the stage rather than the screen. That said, the director made no mention of plans to retire, so hopefully he's got a few more films in him.

The Movie Critic was to be his tenth and final film, a reportedly semi-autobiographical picture, but it seems stuck in development limbo.

"I've been doing it for a long time," he explained in a 2022 interview with CNN's Chris Wallace. "I've been doing it for 30 years, and it's time to wrap up the show. I'm an entertainer. I want to leave you wanting more and not just work – and I don't want to work to diminishing returns."