Quentin Tarantino Roasts Netflix Movies, “Those Movies Don’t Exist in the Zeitgeist”

Never let it be said that Quentin Tarantino keeps his thoughts to himself. Even before the man was an Academy Award-winning writer/director and just worked at Video Archives, his opinions flew fast and loose. That hasn’t changed even as he’s become a worldwide name, and his latest target are the gigantic blockbusters produced exclusively for streaming services like Netflix. Speaking in a new interview with Deadline, the Pulp Fiction and Once Upon A Time in Hollywood director didn’t mince words when talking about the millions that studios and streamers pay for their films only for them to get lost in the shuffle and treated as disposable entertainment. 

“I’m probably going to be doing the movie with Sony because they’re the last game in town that is just absolutely, utterly, committed to the theatrical experience. It’s not about feeding their streaming network. They are committed to theatrical experience. They judge success by asses on seats. And they judge success by the movies entering the zeitgeist, not just making a big expensive movie and then putting it on your streaming platform. No one even knows it’s there.”

He continued, “I mean, and I’m not picking on anybody, but apparently for Netflix, Ryan Reynolds has made $50 million on this movie and $50 million on that movie and $50 million on the next movie for them. I don’t know what any of those movies are. I’ve never seen them. Have you?…Good for him that he’s making so much money. But those movies don’t exist in the zeitgeist. It’s almost like they don’t even exist.”

To his credit, Tarantino isn’t entirely wrong here. Original blockbuster movies for Netflix will become a huge trending topic for a week, sometimes more, upon release, only to be largely forgotten after a month. Remember the ? Remember the viral conversations surrounding Don’t Look Up? Better yet, do you remember anything about Red Notice? Or The Gray Man? Movies that were watched millions of times on Netflix, but now exist only as footnotes.

As for Tarantino, his next project will seemingly begin filming later this year. Titled The Movie Critic, the project marks his tenth feature film as a director and will reportedly be his last. No casting or a release date have even been set for the project.

(Cover photo by Jonas Walzberg/picture alliance via Getty Images)