The Wrap reports that Hollywood insiders are concerned about the backlash brewing against the anti-police hate speech spewed by “Hateful Eight” director Quentin Tarantino in Manhattan over the weekend. On both coasts, the Los Angeles Police Department and New York Police Department have called for boycotts of the film. Combined with intensifying anger against the cop-hating director online, Hollywood Insiders have every right to be worried:
The consequences from Quentin Tarantino‘s nasty public beef with the NYPD may extend beyond his personal politics to the commercial and awards potential of his “The Hateful Eight,” distributed by The Weinstein Company, industry analysts told TheWrap.
Fallout from Tarantino’s participation in a Manhattan rally against police brutality comes at a most inconvenient time, as the studio attempts to position the director’s bloody Western as both a Christmas Day must-see and a major awards contender.
“The first concern in any kind of position where a film is being attacked by a group outside of Hollywood is not about awards, it’s about commercial impact. Everyone needs to make money,” said a top studio consultant, who spoke to TheWrap on condition of anonymity.
Although Hollywood won’t say so out loud, what also has to be fueling this fear is the recent box office failures of two high-profile films in the wake of their partisan stars insulting half the audience. After star Emily Blunt attacked Donald Trump, her well-reviewed (even by me) film “Sicario” bottomed out at the box office well below reaching profitability.
After star Seth Rogen hurled a racially-tinged hate-Tweet at black Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, Rogen’s well-reviewed and much-publicized “Steve Jobs” didn’t just bomb, it bombed spectacularly.
Once you combine the production and advertising budget, the Weinstein Company has probably invested $80 million to $100 million into “Hateful Eight,” and is also looking at the Christmas release (limited) as an awards contender.
At a weekend anti-police hate rally in New York City, just days after police officer Randolph Holder was gunned down in Harlem, Tarantino stood before a sign that read “Stop Police Terror” and said of police officers (before a Black Lives Matter-affiliated hate group), “When I see murders, I do not stand by… I have to call a murder a murder, and I have to call the murderers the murderers.”
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