Quentin Tarantino: In the near future, boutique cinemas will thrive while big chains flounder

Quentin Tarantino no longer recognizes the film industry.

The 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' author opened up about the state of cinema during the New York leg of his book tour for the 'Cinema Speculation' anthology of essays. During a conversation with moderator Elvis Mitchell at City Hall, Tarantino thought the next four years would be crucial for the survival of movie theaters, speculating that while boutique movie theaters would "thrive", the big chains would wade. Tarantino, of note, owns the historic New Beverly in Los Angeles. He said he would be the beneficiary of said boutique cinema success.

Yet it is the tangibility of cinema that Tarantino inevitably links to art history. Does a Netflix movie count as a "movie," Tarantino asked, or is it considered a TV show because of streaming quality?

"What is cinema?" Tarantino wondered.

Mitchell, whose documentary "Is That Black Enough For You?!?" is now streaming on Netflix, the streaming platforms jokingly defended. Tarantino added that a 30-day theatrical window for any of his films before streaming will "lower my returns".

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In 2022, Tarantino launched a Video Archives podcast with "Pulp Fiction" co-writer Roger Avary to revisit beloved VHS tapes in the modern age, seemingly as a rebuke to streaming. On the podcast, he recently said that the current era of cinema is tied to the 1950s and 1980s for being "the worst in Hollywood history." (.)

"Even though the 80s was the period when I probably saw more films in my life than ever before - at least in terms of cinema releases - I feel that 80s cinema is, along with the '50s, the worst era in Hollywood history," said Tarantino. "Only equals now, only equals the current era!"

Tarantino called the rise of streaming "depressing" in an interview with in 2021. "I'm happy to work with Sony, they don't deal with that. They didn't go down that road," said Tarantino said. "It really reminds me of 2019, when we came out with 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood', it really reminds me that, wow, myself and 'Joker' and '1917', that was like we were birds that just flew through a window just as the window slammed shut. And we practically got our tail feathers caught by the snapping. But we got out in time.”

Tarantino previously teamed up with Netflix to release the 2015 movie "The Hateful Eight" in an extended version and announced an eight-episode limited series, presumably for a streamer.

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