Director Quentin Tarantino's speech to a Black Lives Matter rally in New York City in which many believe he called police officers "murderers" is hurting his latest movie's ticket sales, Joe Concha writes
at Mediaite.
"Hateful Eight" opened to general release on Christmas Day, but is the lowest performing Tarantino film in two decades, Concha notes. That despite the fact it stars major box office draw Samuel L. Jackson, faced no other major release on its opening weekend, got good reviews, and received plenty of free press as a result of his controversial comments.
Part of the problem was the film's release less than two weeks after "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Concha admits, but that doesn't account for the film coming in third place behind not only "Star Wars," but also a critically panned "Daddy's Home," starring Will Ferrell and Mark Walberg.
The biggest reason, Concha says, is
Tarantino's own words at the October rally, held just one day after a New York police officer was buried after being shot to death by a career criminal.
Ignoring the death of the police officer, and instead talking about police shootings of black men, Tarantino told the crowd, "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."
Police unions across the country called for boycotts of "The Hateful Eight" and all other Tarantino films. Tarantino refused to apologize, and police unions urged their members not to provide security or technical advice on any of the the director's future projects.
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