There are very few movies that one would consider an “event film” these days, even with the internet over-hyping every sequel or reboot that comes along. A new Quentin Tarantino film, however, is reason to call in sick to work and camp out overnight at your local theater. A Tarantino flick doesn’t come along often, and when it does, it exceeds expectations, a cinematic royale with cheese.
To date, Tarantino has directed 10 feature films, although the Tennessee native insists he’s only made nine — he counts the Kill Bill films as one complete work. It’s an important distinction, as he insists he will retire after directing ten films, a claim he has made for several years. It’s a good reason to enjoy a new Tarantino movie on the big screen when it premieres, as it may very well be his final feature film.
Although many of his films have been box office blockbusters, others have inexplicably underperformed at theaters. What follows is a list of his 10 films (for this list, we count Kill Bill as two distinct films), ranked by their box office earnings (which have been rounded and provided by the website The Numbers). This list only includes films in which Tarantino served as director for the entire feature. That means two films are not included in the list: 1995’s Four Rooms (he directed one of the film’s four segments), and 2005’s Sin City (Tarantino filmed a single scene, and is credited as a “special guest director.”
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10 Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Miramax
Worldwide Box Office: $2.99 million
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Domestic Box Office: $2.8 million
International Box Office: $158,651
Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino’s directorial debut, literally made him an overnight star, despite its small box office. The day after a midnight premiere of the film at the Cannes Film Festival, he couldn’t walk the sidewalk without film fans recognizing him, according to friend and producer Richard Glastein in the documentary OT8: The First Eight. He was also invited to a private party with fellow directors James Cameron, Oliver Stone, and Paul Verhoeven, who all wanted to meet the man behind the most talked-about film at Cannes.
The film, about a jewelry heist gone wrong, had the good fortune of having Harvey Keitel sign on as an actor and producer after being given the script by a friend. He paid for additional auditions that brought in Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, and Tim Roth to the cast. Despite the critical acclaim, the film only saw a limited release, never playing on more than 61 screens, which explains the low box office.
9 Death Proof (2007)
Dimension Films
Worldwide Box Office $50 million
Domestic Box Office: $25 million
International Box Office: $25 million
Death Proof, originally released on a Grindhouse double bill with Robert Rodriquez’s Planet Terror, received its own limited release later that summer. It has the lowest critical rating of all of Tarantino’s films, with a 66% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It failed to attract theater-goers, and Tarantino believes viewers weren’t into the idea of 1970s themed exploitation flicks, much less two of them. While it lacks the distinctive tone and pace of Tarantino’s other films, the third act features a fantastic, adrenaline-fueled car chase that officially makes actress/stuntwoman Zoe Bell the bravest woman on Earth.
8 Jackie Brown (1997)
Worldwide Box Office: $75 million
Domestic Box Office: $40 million
International Box Office: $35 million
Led by an iconic performance by Pam Grier, Jackie Brown is based on Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch and follows a flight attendant (Grier) forced by a federal agent (a hilariously smarmy Michael Keaton) to become an informant against Ordell, an unhinged arms dealer (Samuel L. Jackson). Faced with the prospect of jail or death, Jackie teams with a bail bondsman (played by the late, great Robert Forster) to get half-a-million of Ordell’s money and get the feds off of her back.
Even with a supporting cast that includes Robert De Niro and Bridget Fonda, the film is uneven and a bit underwhelming, despite the dream pairing of Tarantino directing a Leonard story. In recent years, there’s been a greater appreciation for the film as a tribute to the blaxploitation genre, although moviegoers weren’t particularly interested in the film when it opened on Christmas Day in 1997. It finished fifth on its opening weekend, crushed by Titanic and the James Bond flick Tomorrow Never Dies.
7 The Hateful Eight (2015)
Worldwide Box Office: $152 million
Domestic Box Office: $54 million
International Box Office: $98 million
The Hateful Eight is the one Tarantino film that almost wasn’t made, thanks to the internet. In 2014, his script for the western was leaked online, so he shelved it and claimed he would make another movie instead. Thankfully, he changed hs mind, assembling an all-star cast and crafting an intriguing, claustrophobic mystery about a bounty hunter, the criminal he’s transporting, and some mysterious strangers all snowed in at a remote Wyoming cabin
Besides the outstanding performances, the film is gorgeous to look at, thanks to Robert Richardson’s Oscar-nominated cinematography and Tarantino’s insistence on using Ultra Panavision 70mm film. If you’re so inclined, Netflix offers an extended version of the film, with 26 minutes of additional footage and split into four episodes.
6 Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
Miramax
Worldwide Box Office: $154 million
Domestic Box Office: $66 million
International Box Office: $87 million
Nearly a decade after her Oscar-nominated performance in Pulp Fiction, Uma Thurman delivered her career-defining performance in the Kill Bill films. Kill Bill Vol. 2, released about six months after Vol. 1, builds up the backstory for Beatrix Kiddo (Thurman), filling in the details Tarantino didn’t have time for in the bloodbath of the first film. Although more deliberately paced, Vol. 2 boasts some memorable sequences, and the final showdown is emotionally satisfying.
Opening in April 2004, Kill Bill Vol. 2 grossed $26 million in its opening weekend (besting a pre-MCU The Punisher) and coasting to a $66 million final haul domestically, a bit underwhelming for a Tarantino film but nearly equal to the take of the first film. The sequel only leaves one question unanswered: will we get Kill Bill Vol. 3 before Tarantino retires? The director is certainly open to the idea, although he has yet to commit.
5 Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
Worldwide Box Office: $176 million
Domestic Box Office: $70 million
International Box Office: $106 million
Kill Bill Vol. 1 is a visceral revenge tale, but in Tarantino’s hands, it’s overly-stylized and extremely watchable. It’s a genre-hopping tour-de-force, as Thurman works her way through the various members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad which tried to kill her. The supporting cast is every bit as good as the leads, and the film continues to influence today’s action films.
After a $22 million opening weekend (good enough to hit #1) in October, the film faded fast, and was gone from most theaters by Thanksgiving. In Japan, however, it did very well, taking in over $20 million. While critics were largely happy with the film, the Academy was indifferent, and it didn’t garner a single Oscar nomination.
4 Pulp Fiction (1994)
Miramax Films
Worldwide Box Office: $213 million
Domestic Box Office: $108 million
International Box Office: $105 million
Tarantino’s nonlinear narrative shouldn’t work as well as it does (as so many copycats have discovered), which only highlights just how gifted a filmmaker and storyteller he is. It isn’t hyperbole to call the tale of two hitmen, a gangster, his wife, and a boxer a masterpiece, and one of the best films modern Hollywood has ever produced. The film has a rabid fan base to this day, who still debate the themes the film presents.
Pulp Fiction opened in 1,300 theaters, about half what most big-studio releases would get at the time, and yet, it still finished at #1 with a $9 million take. It ended up breaking the $100 million barrier and earning seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and best Director. Tarantino would win his first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, but Forrest Gump dominated the Academy Awards in 1994, winning most of the key categories. Ask Samuel L. Jackson, however, and he will insist he should have won the Oscar that year for Best Supporting Actor, rather than Martin Landau (Ed Wood).
3 Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Universal Pictures
Worldwide Box Office: $317 million
Domestic Box Office: $121 million
International Box Office: $196 million
The first of Tarantino’s revisionist history tales, Inglourious Basterds is outrageous, offensive, and thoroughly entertaining. It’s an art film wrapped in a summer blockbuster, with all the Tarantino flourishes we’ve come to expect. Brad Pitt is the commanding officer of a crack team of Jewish-American soldiers out to kill as many Nazis as possible in occupied France during World War II. An all-star cast is highlighted by Christoph Waltz’s Oscar-winning performance, and the film nabbed eight Oscar nominations in total, including Best Picture and Tarantino’s second Best Director nod (he lost to Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker).
The film was a smash hit for Tarantino, and the film did even better overseas. Not surprisingly, it played well across Europe (particularly France), and even raked in an impressive $23 million in Germany.
2 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Sony Pictures
Worldwide Box Office: $377 million
Domestic Box Office: $143 million
International Box Office: $234 million
Tarantino’s revisionist tale of 1960s Hollywood and the Manson Murders, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is perhaps his most sophisticated narrative. Brad Pitt delivers a memorable performance as an aging stuntman, and he earned a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the first of his career. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a far more sympathetic character — an insecure, washed-up western star — than his role in Django Unchained seven years earlier. The real wonder here, however, is how perfectly Tarantino captured the look and atmosphere of Los Angeles in 1969 (the production design won an Oscar as well).
The film never hit number one at the American box office, mostly due to its summer release date and lots of box office competition. Although it earned over $41 million its opening weekend, it finished second to the live-action remake of Disney’s The Lion King ($77 million), and it was also competing against Spider-Man: Far From Home. With a running time of over two-and-a-half hours, the film was limited in the number of showings each day, affecting ticket sales. The film was distributed by Sony, which won a bidding war for it following Tarantino cutting ties with The Weinstein Company, after sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein surfaced.
1 Django Unchained (2012)
The Weinstein Company
Worldwide Box Office: $450 million
Domestic Box Office: $163 million
International Box Office: $287 million
For a filmmaker known for pushing the envelope, Django Unchained is Tarantino at arguably his wildest and most politically incorrect. The film follows a freed slave (Jamie Foxx) who sets out to find and free his wife (Kerry Washington). Christoph Waltz returns to the Tarantino fold as Dr. King Schultz, a bounty hunter who enlists Django on several jobs. You wouldn’t expect such a graphic film (where slavery is prominently featured) to be funny, and yet, Foxx and Waltz make a hilarious duo, as they dispense some satisfying justice across the South. Waltz went two-for-two on Oscar nominations, winning both awards for Best Supporting Actor thanks to Tarantino’s films Inglourious Basterds and this one.
The film opened on Christmas Day and raked in over $63 million in its first six days, bringing in another $100 million domestically before its theatrical run was over. The film was also a smash hit in Germany, where Waltz worked in TV and film for 30 years. The film earned over $50 million in Germany alone, adding to its impressive international box office, which made Django Unchained the most successful Tarantino film at the box office.
