When is a $40 million opening for an R-rated period drama about Hollywood not good enough? Apparently, when you’re Quentin Tarantino and decided to put Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Margot Robbie a the film. According to a new report from THR, the filmmaker’s latest, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” might have had Tarantino’s best opening to date, but still needs a lot of help if it’s actually going to turn a profit.
The report claims that ‘Once Upon a Time’ needs to earn approximately $400 million worldwide to become profitable at the box office. This is based on the fact that the film cost a reported $90 million, after rebates and tax breaks, and when you add it the cost of marketing and talent deals, the film is going to need about 10x its debut to be a win for Sony.
READ MORE: ‘Once Upon A Time’ Scores Biggest Opening Ever For Quentin Tarantino [Box Office]
As many already know, the quick box office profitability math says that you multiply a film’s budget by 2 to see the total cost for a film (when you take into account marketing and whatnot). That means the total rough cost for ‘Once Upon a Time’ is about $180 million. Then you take into account that studios only receive about half of the box office ticket sales, the film would need to make 2x that cost to breakeven, or about $360 million. Now, the added wrinkle with Tarantino’s film is that the major stars attached to the film (including the filmmaker himself) all have profit deals that will drive up the cost of the production after box office tickets are sold, meaning that $360 million will keep going up. Thus approximately $400 million.
There’s only one problem. You see, only one Tarantino film has earned over $400 million worldwide — “Django Unchained” ($426 million).
READ MORE: Quentin Tarantino Explains Why Tom Cruise Wasn’t Cast In ‘Once Upon A Time’
Of course, that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible for ‘Once Upon a Time.’ The film just needs a strong run domestically and a big run overseas to get to that number, which isn’t out of the realm of possibility when you consider the stars in the film. And if the film does compete during awards season, the film could see a bit of a box office boost, as well.
Long story short, Sony and Tarantino will be keeping an eye on the next few weeks to see how the word-of-mouth plays out.
