Death Proof's Box Office Failure Brought New Opportunities To Quentin Tarantino
Typically, when a popular filmmaker makes a movie that bombs they find themselves more limited in their next project. Sometimes they end up in "director jail," meaning that studios or independent financers don't feel comfortable financing their next movie because now they're not seen as a safe investment. It took Michael Cimino five years to get his next movie going after the notorious failure of "Heaven's Gate," for instance.
However, when Quentin Tarantino made his first box office failure with his "Grindhouse" entry "Death Proof," the opposite happened. Suddenly, he found himself flooded with proposals from movie studios to direct a feature for them. The reason? Well, it has to do with his reputation for turning down the studios and only focusing on his own work. When "Grindhouse" bombed, the studios suddenly thought this was their chance to catch one of their white whales on the rebound.
Talking with Spain's ARA, Tarantino admitted that the failure of "Grindhouse" was "a bit of a shock to [his] confidence," so it is very possible that this tactic by the studios could have worked. But instead, Tarantino decided to redouble his efforts on telling his own stories his way and the result of that was "Inglourious Basterds," which ended up being his biggest hit at the time (it has since been surpassed by both "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" and "Django Unchained").
Why the films flopped
"Grindhouse" has its fans and a lot of die hard Tarantino followers love "Death Proof," but quality isn't the reason "Grindhouse" bombed. Tarantino himself acknowledged that he and Robert Rodriguez vastly overestimated how much modern audiences knew about this very unique distribution style that reigned supreme in the '70s. He said:
"I think me and Robert just felt that people had a little more of a concept of the history of double features and exploitation movies. No, they didn't. At all. They had no idea what the f*** they were watching. It meant nothing to them, alright, what we were doing. So that was a case of being a little too cool for school."
Granted, it's a lot to ask of an audience to sit through two (admittedly short) features and a bunch of fake trailers that were made to look intentionally rough in quality, even with the powerhouse duo of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez on the poster.
Even so, despite general audiences scratching their heads at it, the movie was quite influential and inspired a lot of up-and-coming filmmakers. The movie now has a dedicated cult following, which is quite apt considering the movies it was honoring had similar fates. Maybe they weren't the biggest box office draws, but when a certain audience sees a wild swing that only endears them to the attempt, regardless of your thoughts on "Grindhouse," maybe you have to admit it is indeed a wild swing.