Quentin Tarantino’s 9th film, Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, has entered box office tracking and it’s looking at a solid debut that some insiders are saying is also a bit soft.
Hollywood is tracking for a $30 Million+ launch while some think the film will come in at $25 million for its opening weekend. Why are there naysayers despite the early great reviews and Tarantino being a movie fan favorite? Well, some think the film is going to skew too old and not appeal to younger audiences (I know during my screenings of Spider-Man: Far From Home & Child’s Play the younger crowd seemed perplexed by the trailer). Box Office experts also think the length will be a detriment on its opening weekend (it runs 2 hours and 39 minutes). There is this thought that the film lacks the fast pace of the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s Inglourious Basterds ($38 million opening) or Django Unchained ($30.1 million 3-day, $63.4 million 6-day opening).
The film is going to place second behind the second weekend of The Lion King, which is tracking for a record-breaking July opening when it’s released on July 19. It also has Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw to contend with the following weekend and that’s going to cut into Hollywood’s second-weekend performance.
On the other hand, and I’m leaning in this direction as well, some think that once more good reviews come out and the marketing push shifts into high gear, the film has potential to open even higher than $30 million (some box office experts are suggesting a $40-50 million launch). Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie are pretty popular with a wide ranch of demographics and Quentin Tarantino is one of those directors that usually delivers solid box office to go along with artistic prowess as a director. Another key point is that the film is an original film during a summer where sequelitis has derailed many a film. There’s a chance it could be this year’s Baby Driver, a film that got solid box office because it was an original concept among sequels and reboots. Hollywood cost about $90 million to make and if it can perform much like Baby Driver, I think it will leg out in the end.
Again, this is all very early and box office tracking hasn’t been entirely reliable but I guess we’ll have to wait as the film gets closer to its July 26 release date.
