Tavern Talk: Video Review - ONCE UPON A TIME IN...HOLLYWOOD

In just nineteen days of global release Disney's photorealistic re-imagining of The Lion King has already crossed the $1 billion mark. Additionally, the $175 million Jon Favreau picture has earned $360 million of that billion in domestic dollars after only eleven days in theaters. For comparison's sake, 2016's The Jungle Book finished its theatrical run with $966 million worldwide. To boot, this makes The Lion King Disney's fourth movie this year along with Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame and Aladdin to pass $1 billion and both Frozen II and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker are still to come. With $917 million as of Sunday, Toy Story 4 looks like it might just barely miss the boat. Of course, while it's been clear for some time now that there is no stopping Disney this year the big story this weekend actually belonged to Sony Pictures who produced the latest film from Quentin Tarantino as Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood-a 160-minute, R-rated drama consisting of more dialogue than action-earned $41 million making it the largest opening weekend for the director, topping the $38 million ($46 million adjusted for inflation) opening of Inglourious Basterds a decade ago. Opening day audiences gave the film a "B" CinemaScore and this combined with the fact the film was actually down 20% from Friday to Saturday and 16% from Saturday to Sunday will make for an interesting conversation when it comes to the kind of legs this $90 million production will have over the next few weeks (months?). It is also of interest how Hollywood will play overseas given this is such a geographically distinct title, but as Sony supposedly spent an additional $110 million on the film's marketing campaign the studio is essentially looking to recoup $200 million on the project meaning a strong overseas haul will be necessary. Tarantino's latest will open in Germany, France and the United Kingdom on August 16th with those being the three markets outside of the US that consistently yield the biggest results for QT. Once more for comparison's sake, Django Unchained earned $263 million of its $425 worldwide cume overseas while Inglourious Basterds earned $201 million of its $321 million worldwide take in global dollars. Given Hollywood doesn't open for a few more weeks in those major global markets it's hard to tell where this thing is headed, but given this is Tarantino's priciest film to date it will need to remain consistent in earnings while the film itself takes a detour from those aforementioned revenge fantasy narratives. Time will tell, but until then be sure to follow the official TAVERN TALK by Initial Reaction YouTube channel as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter where you can find a new review (or reviews) each week!