‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ Could Have Quentin Tarantino’s Best Opening Weekend Yet

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is poised to have a huge opening weekend. Deadline reports that presales on Fandango are outpacing all of Quentin Tarantino‘s previous films. 

The trade publication doesn’t believe that Tarantino’s ninth film will be enough to unseat The Lion King from its throne, coming in well behind that film’s estimated $95 million take. Predicitions put Hollywood at a solid $40 million, good enough for Tarantino’s best opening weekend of all-time.

All of Tarantino’s biggest box office hits have come, perhaps unsurprisingly, in the last decade. Both the rise in ticket costs and the prestige of the director following hits in the ’90s allowed him to grab big-ticket stars for hot-ticket movies. The alt-history World War II epic Inglourious Basterds pulled $38 million on its opening weekend in 2009 and Django Unchained made just over $30 million in its first week. 

The run of box office successes would be a fitting end for the avowed popcorn movie junkie, who has used his films to pay tribute to and remix movie genres ranging from Westerns to Blaxploitation flicks on down to Hong Kong action movies. Tarantino shared that he is considering leaving directing behind after 10 movies, and he’s not going to welch on that even if his 10th movie is a non-original like his potential Star Trek film. 

“I think when it comes to theatrical movies, I’ve come to the end of the road,” he told GQ. “I see myself writing books and starting to write theatre, so I’ll still be creative. I just think I’ve given all I have to give to movies.”