It goes without saying that 2019 was a big year for franchises. Avengers: Endgame broke records to become the highest-grossing film of all-time, and the Star Wars saga came to an end. Fast & Furious spun off successfully, Aladdin and The Lion King hit theaters to massive amounts of cash, Captain Marvel and Spider-Man: Far From Home both broke $1 billion, and Toy Story blew all expectations out of the water with their fourth entry.

Quite frankly, it was a good time to be a big blockbuster. And yet, not every big hit was an established franchise. While they didn’t necessarily pull franchise numbers, films like Knives Out, Parasite, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood all made cases for why audiences should be headed to theaters. 

In terms of the “war” between franchises and original movies, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino thinks original films held their own.

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“When you say, despite the sequels and the Avengers: Endgame and all of that, I actually think a war for movies got played out this last year,” Tarantino told Deadline. 

“As far as I can see, the commercial product that is owned by the conglomerates, the projects everybody knows about and has in their DNA, whether it be the Marvel Comics, the Star Wars, Godzilla and James Bond, those films never had a better year than last year,” Tarantino said. “It would have been the year that their world domination would have been complete. But it kind of wasn’t. Because of what you said, a lot of original movie comment came out and demanded to be seen, and demanded to be seen at the theaters. That ended up becoming a really, really strong year. I’m really proud to be nominated with the other films that just got nominated. I think when you sum up the year, it’s cinema that doesn’t fall into that blockbuster IP proof status, made its last stand this year.”

I can see where he’s coming from. Sure, original movies didn’t dominate, but given the sheer number of franchise movies that hit, you would have expected there to be fewer original hits. As far as Tarantino’s concerned, this would have been the year for blockbusters to push out originals for good. And they didn’t.

It may seem like little more than a “moral victory,” but it does ultimately show that, to some extent, audiences are willing to head to the theaters for more original content. But what do you think? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: Deadline