Tarantino’s Disney Complaints Resurface with Heavy Doctor Strange 2 Screenings

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was released, and the AMC Theater in Times Square had 70 screenings in a single day. That’s probably a lot for most folks. Following the box office success of Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen’s Doctor Strange sequel, a clip from The Howard Stern Show has emerged.

In it, the titular radio host interviews Quentin Tarantino, a screenwriter, director, and newly published novelist, about the screening of his most recent film, The Hateful Eight, at the time. Tarantino talks on how The Hateful Eight was supposed to play at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, which was a big event for him as someone who grew up in Los Angeles.

They were supposed to begin on December 25 and run for two weeks, but Disney decided that Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which had been set to run for two weeks before, should run throughout the entire holiday season. When Arclight, the Cinerama Dome’s owner, responded “no, we have a deal with The Hateful Eight people,” Disney threatened to ban Star Wars from any Arclight theaters.

“They’ve got the biggest movie in the whole. We’re talking about one effing theater,” said Tarantino.

Matt Singer, a critic at Screen Crush, released a picture of only some of the screening times for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, in response to Twitter user Brandon Streussnig tweeting a clip of the Howard Stern interview. While it’s unclear whether Disney made a similar demand of AMC Studios as it did for the Cinerama Dome, the high number of screenings suggests that other films would push out a flick like The Hateful Eight in order to take over the time slot.

This is representative of a lingering worry in the film industry. Following the Disney Company’s acquisition of various studios over the last few years, some have claimed that movie theaters are becoming less diverse. That, of course, comes on top of other notable Hollywood figures like Martin Scorsese, Denis Villeneuve, Ridley Scott, and Francis Ford Coppola‘s statements. They have critiqued the popularity of superhero films in recent years.

Tarantino has also claimed in an interview with Deadline that a movie war erupted in 2019 between large studio brand blockbusters like Marvel, Star Wars, Godzilla, and James Bond, and more independent features like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. If it hadn’t been for the all-original movies that wanted to be viewed, Tarantino believes that commercial products held by conglomerates would have ultimately attained world dominance.

The rerun of Stern’s conversation with Tarantino shows that the fear of “a last stand” between diverse film genres is still happening today.