Quentin Tarantino's latest outing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which released in the US on July 26, just got the filmmaker his biggest ever opening weekend at the box office. At $40mn, the film inched past Tarantino's previous best opening—Inglourious Basterds at $38mn in 2009.
The film's India release was moved to August 15.
Tarantino had received a seven-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival after the screening of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, also said to be his penultimate movie. Set in 1969, the movie explores the Hollywood of those days, through the story of an ageing actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). While Dalton and Booth are fictionalised, their neighbours are not. Margot Robbie plays Sharon Tate, who moves to their neighbourhood home along with her husband Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha). The film also chronicles the murder of Tate and her friends at the behest of cult leader and career criminal Charles Manson.
The Lion King retained top position with $75.5m in its second week. Disney's live-action remake of its 1994 animated classic continues to draw in audience, despite reviews of it not being able to rework the magic of the original. The Jon Favreau-directed adaptation features a stellar voice cast—James Earl James as Mufasa, Donald Glover as Simba, Beyonce as Nala, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar, John Oliver, Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner as Zazu, Pumbaa and Timon.