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Quentin Tarantino has consistently demonstrated that independent filmmaking can achieve significant commercial success while maintaining artistic integrity without obliging to studio demands and MCU-like franchise formats. The auteur filmmaker has largely influenced contemporary cinema as a proponent of distinctive voices, establishing that their originality can compete within the global marketplace.
Tarantino’s amalgamation of violence, dialogue, and nonlinear storytelling has led to a filmography that spans over three decades, with each release generating significant cultural impact and commercial success. Here’s a comprehensive ranking of all Quentin Tarantino’s theatrical releases based on worldwide box office performance.
Plot: This revisionist history is set during American Civil War and sees a freed slave teaming with a German bounty hunter to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner in the antebellum South. As per Box Office Mojo a violent confrontation between history, suspense, and revenge, Django Unchained stands as Tarantino’s highest-grossing film to date with a gross of $426 million worldwide, combining his trademark Western elements with serious social commentary.
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The film’s unflinching examination of American slavery, paired with its genre entertainment elements, had made it the 18th highest-grossing R-rated film at the time of its release, that rank since having reduced to 38th.
Plot: Tarantino’s latest cinematic affair to date, this comedy-drama stars Leonardo Dicaprio as a fading actor and Brad Pitt as his stunt double as they navigate change in 1969 Hollywood. Another film experimenting with history and fiction, OUATIH crosses paths with real-life figures including Sharon Tate, Bruce Lee, and the Manson Family, while exploring themes of fame, friendship, and the end of industry’s Golden Era.
A nostalgic tribute to Hollywood’s golden age earned, Box Office Mojo reports Once Upon a Time in Hollywood accumulated $377.4 million worldwide, out of which a whopping $142.5 came out of North American box office. Alongside Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, it was a rare blockbuster in late 2010s to not have ties to an established film series.
Plot: A chapter in an alternate history of World War II, the film’s titular group of Jewish-American soldiers conduct guerrilla warfare against Nazi forces in occupied France, who are led by Hans Landa, one of cinema’s greatest villains. Their mission intersects with a young French woman’s own plot for revenge against Landa and the Germans who killed her family.
Inglourious Basterds grossed $321.4 million globally and became Tarantino’s highest-grossing film at that time, according to Box Office Mojo. The historical thriller demonstrated Tarantino’s ability to tackle weighty historical subjects while maintaining his signature style, in addition to earning Christoph Waltz an Academy Award for his supporting performance.
Plot: The cult classic, that won Tarantino his first Academy Award, Pulp Fiction needs no introduction. The plot sees multiple interconnected stories follow various Los Angeles criminals, including two hitmen, a boxer, and a gangster’s wife, as their lives intersect in unexpected ways. The film fundamentally altered the course of independent cinema’s commercial potential, as its cultural impact extends far beyond its financial success.
According to Box Office Mojo, Pulp Fiction earned an astounding $213.9 million at the global box office during its initial run, scarcely missing out on 1994’s top 10 blockbusters behind Clear and Present Danger ($215.9 million) — the closest Tarantino has ever come to the chart.
Plot: Starring Uma Thurman as a former assassin awaking from a four-year coma, Kill Bill became an instantaneous success. The audience were left enchanted by the Bride’s flashbacks of her unborn child, witnessing her embark on a methodical campaign of revenge against each member of the team that betrayed her.
Quentin Tarantino’s first feature of the 21st century, Kill Bill demonstrated his prowess of genre filmmaking, introducing his vision pertaining to martial arts cinema with Western and exploitation elements. The stylized violence and international cast appealed to global audiences, as Kill Bill: Volume 1 collected $180.9 million at worldwide box office, as Box Office Mojo reports.
Plot: The Hateful Eight begins with eight strangers seeking shelter at a remote inn amid a blizzard, where suffocating interactions await them. As they realize one among them is not who they claim to be, they increasingly become paranoid and hateful, advancing the screenplay to transform into a violent murder mystery.
Tarantino’s chamber piece approach brought a deliberate departure from his previous epics with its confined setting. The whodunit roadshow strategy led to The Hateful Eight earning $54 million at the domestic and $107 million in international markets, grossing $161.2 million worldwide, per Box Office Mojo.
Plot: The Bride continues her quest for vengeance against the remaining members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, ultimately confronting Bill himself. The film explores her past relationship with Bill and the tragic events that set her on this path of retribution.
This conclusion to the Kill Bill saga emphasized character development and emotional depth over the first volume’s action sequences. The film’s philosophical approach to violence and redemption resonated with audiences seeking substance alongside spectacle, though it achieved slightly lower box office returns than its predecessor, grossing $154.1 million in worldwide markets (according to Box Office Mojo).
Plot: This adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel centers around the titular flight attendant who becomes entangled in a dangerous game between federal agents and arms dealers, and decides to rely on her intelligence and cunning to survive while playing all sides against each other.
Tarantino’s ability to work within established source material was materialized with his predilection to flaunt violence with the film’s mature themes. His follow-up to Pulp Fiction, this stylistic evolution, however, received less commercial attention, ending up with a final worldwide gross of $39.6 million (per Box Office Mojo), though some sources suggest this number could be as high as $74.7 million.
Plot: In an unusual feat, Death Proof accompanied Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror at box office in Grindhouse double-feature, and this time the audiences were only required to pay for one. The two together made $31.1 million in theater rentals, all of it coming from international markets, as Box Office Mojo reports.
Its plot unfolds as a predatory stunt driver stalks young women in skimpy clothes with his death-proof car, turning his vehicle into a weapon of terror. The film witnesses two groups who become targets of this deranged killer, with the second group of strong young women ultimately beating the daylights out of the middle-aged man.
Plot: This debut feature established Tarantino’s reputation within independent cinema circles, reintroducing the New Hollywood Era notion that groundbreaking storytelling could prevail over modest budgets. Reservoir Dogs earned a modest $2.9 million at box office, almost all of it stateside, per Box Office Mojo.
Reservoir Dogs revolves around the aftermath of a failed diamond heist, a gang gathers at a warehouse to determine which member betrayed them to the police. A framework of flashbacks and present-day tensions eventuates, spotlighting the events that led to their predicament.
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