The $31 Million Flop Tarantino Calls His "Worst Film"
Quentin Tarantino has a nearly flawless track record—but even he admits Death Proof was a misfire.
Released in 2007 as half of the Grindhouse double feature with Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, Death Proof bombed hard. Budgeted at $30 million, it barely crawled to $31 million worldwide. For a Tarantino film, that's not just bad—that's historic.
And no, he doesn't sugarcoat it. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, he called it, quote, "the worst movie I ever made." Then he took it even further:
"One of those out-of-touch, old, limp, flaccid-d**k movies that costs you three good ones as far as your rating is concerned."
That's not a critic. That's Tarantino himself.
Death Proof followed a stuntman—played by Kurt Russell—who stalks and murders women using his supposedly "death-proof" car. It was meant as a tribute to exploitation cinema, but most audiences just didn't get it. Critics didn't hold back either: The New York Times called it "a lot of talk followed by a lot of splatter."
Tarantino later admitted he badly misjudged how ready moviegoers were for the whole double-feature experience. In his words to Empire magazine:
"We thought people had some concept of exploitation movies. They didn't. At all. They had no idea what the fuck they were watching. It meant nothing to them."
The fallout wasn't just critical or financial—it was personal. In a rare moment of self-doubt, Tarantino told Spain's Diari ARA the flop shook his confidence.
"I started getting proposals again. They must have thought, ‘Perhaps now he's touched and his temper has gone down, now is the time.'"
Studios assumed he might finally be ready to sell out. Instead, he doubled down. What came next was Inglourious Basterds—a $321 million global hit that reminded everyone who they were dealing with. On a $70 million budget, it was not just a comeback—it was a statement.
So yeah, Death Proof is the outlier. Even Tarantino calls it his "left-handed movie." "If that's the worst I ever get, I'm good."
But no matter how badly it flopped, it's still the most brutally honest director review in Hollywood history—straight from the guy who made it.