Tarantino Reveals His Worst Movie And Viewers Are Proving He’s Right With 3.6/5 Rating

With an AlloCiné rating of 3.6/5 based on viewers, Boulevard de la mort is the worst of all films directed by Quentin Tarantino.

At that time, due to a double broadcast with Planet Terror, Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez planned a surprising concept for the audience, while reviving a vanished cinematic tradition. Unfortunately for them, the audience was not there. But why ?

Let us remind you that this project was first conceived as a film session. Both Rodriguez and Tarantino are slated to make a 60-minute film, including fake trailers. The idea was to offer a “Grindhouse” session featuring double programs of exploitation films dear to the two filmmakers.

The first film is Tarantino’s Death Proof (Death Boulevard), and the second is Planet Terror, signed by Rodriguez. Fake trailers meet Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, Jason Eisner and Rodriguez.

So much for theory. Except that in practice it doesn’t go as planned. Instead of a two-hour session with a false interlude, the distributor (the Weinstein Company) ends up with over three hours of finished product and over budget and over schedule.

The film’s executive producer, Harvey Weinstein, pre-marketed the concept in the United States, Canada, Great Britain or even Australia and South Africa. The rest of the country is allowed to see two separate films and no “intermission” trailer.

When it was released on American soil on April 6, 2007, the diptych Grindhouse flopped at the box office, recording 11.5 million in a weekend where everyone was waiting for the 20th.

It ranked No. 4 that week behind the Will Ferrell comedy Les Rois du patin, the Disney animated film Welcome to the Robinson’s, and the family film When Do We Stop? Implements an ice cube.

Weinstein has since revised his copy, and most countries have ended up with two separate films. In France, Boulevard de la mort was released on June 6, 2007, and Planète Terror on August 14. The former attracts only 627,459 visitors, where the latter receives a (symbolic) slap with only 134,427 entries.

Previously, Tarantino released Kill Bill Volume 2 (2004) solo, with 1.46 million admissions, and Rodriguez Sin City (2005) with 1.26 million tickets sold.

That’s why the greenhouse diptych remains regrettable, Tarantino explained to the magazine Empire :

“I think Robert Rodriguez and I assumed that people were pretty close to the concept of double standards and exploitation films. No, they weren’t. Not at all. They had no idea. What they were watching, what we were doing, didn’t mean anything to them, in this particular case. We were a little too sure of ourselves.

The filmmaker is still a philosopher and considers the final result very satisfying:

“I was in London promoting the film the first weekend it came out. Then I was suggesting Edgar and his friends go to see it in Piccadilly on Friday night. When we got back to the room there were about 13 people. An 8.30pm show on the day of release, OK? That’s pretty humble It was an experience. But we sat down and watched the movie and had a great time.”

Check out the alternate casts of Tarantino’s films: