Quentin Tarantino Explains Why the Movie Theater Experience Still Matters

Quentin Tarantino has made it clear that he believes the theatrical experience is important. He hammered that point home during a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he said that while he’s seen many classic movies on television for the first time, it was ultimately a “disposable experience.”

“There is an aspect about it being disposable. When a movie comes out that you’re interested in enough to see and it makes you leave your house and buy a ticket, and you can do anything you want in the world that night, but you decide to see a film,” he explained. “One film, in particular, and maybe you’re on your own, or maybe it’s in the afternoon, and you’re on a date or it’s with your wife or whoever, and you go and see it. And you buy a ticket, and you sit down and you have an experience with a bunch of strangers.”

Tarantino added that because you are watching something for the first time with a group of strangers, the experience may not always be good, but it will leave an “indelible snapshot” in your mind for the rest of your life.

There has been a push by streamers like Netflix to have major films like The Harder They Fall available to watch at home and in theaters, like what WarnerMedia did with its 2021 slate of films. Still, Tarantino hopes that the theater experience isn’t lost completely.  

Check out more from Tarantino’s interview, including him explaining why he wanted to novelize Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, below.