Here’s a fable with a happy ending.

Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” becomes his second highest grossing movie today, edging out “Inglourious Basterds” at $120 million.

“OUTH” probably won’t top Tarantino’s “Django Unchained,” which stands at $162.8 million.  You can’t have everything.

To think that Tarantino started out as a video clerk and became a household name thanks to his nine movies and relentless promotion thanks to Harvey Weinstein.

Tarantino’s first movie, “Reservoir Dogs,” released by Weinstein in 1992, earned just $2 million in its theatrical run. Two years later, “Pulp Fiction” made $100 million and launched Tarantino into celebrity. Both movies have earned millions since then on video and DVD.

Tarantino’s next release will be a baby in six months with his beautiful Israeli born wife, Daniella Pick. Yes, they were married under a chuppah. Mazel tov!

PS “OUTH” will be up for several Oscars, I’m just sayin… including Best Actor, Supporting Actor, Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay.

I can’t even figure out how many unreleased films James Franco has directed and are waiting for some kind of release. A dozen? More, actually.

Two of them are finally appearing in September and October. First up is “Zeroville,” which features Franco with a lot of pals like Seth Rogen and Danny McBride, plus Joey King and Megan Fox. “Zeroville” has been ready for a while but no one wanted it. Now a small distributor called MyCinema will release it with about a dozen or more producers attached.

Second to come, on October 4th, is something called “The Pretenders.” It’s from the tiny B movie distributor Cleopatra Films and will go straight to video with a limited theater presence. This one features Franco with Jack Kilmer (noted as Val Kilmer’s son in press materials), Jane Levy, Shameik Moore, Juno Temple, Brian Cox, and Dennis Quaid. “The Pretenders” also has about 20 or producer credits.

Franco was on a roll with an Oscar nomination for “127 Hours,” but then determined to become an indie director. He’s made a lot — a lot — of films, none of them profitable and nearly all not well reviewed. The best of the bunch, “The Disaster Artist,” earned an Oscar nomination for Scott Neustadter  and Michael H. Weber for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film made a notable $21 million but then Franco was swept into the #MeToo scandals and the whole thing fell apart.

Apart from “Disaster Artist,” the four films credited to Franco as a director on boxofficemojo.com have made a total of $100,000. “Zeroville” and “The Pretenders” will aim to add to that number.

Melissa McCarthy must wonder what the heck is going on with her career. Earlier this year she was nominated for an Oscar in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” She’s a terrific actress and comedian. She won an Emmy for playing Sean Spicer so hilariously on “SNL.”

But her new movie, “The Kitchen,” is such a dud that Warner Bros. is pulling it almost completely from release on Friday. According to Exhibitor Relations, hey’re cutting its run from 2,700 theaters to just around 600. It’s over, dead, gone.

So far “The Kitchen” has earned just $11 million in its two and a half weeks. It’s been a big disappointment was Warners, as it co-stars Tiffany Haddish and Elisabeth Moss. They must also wonder what’s going on.

But no liked “The Kitchen.” Reviews were terrible. It has a very low 22 rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Warners is in the soup right now. “Blinded by the Light” is also DOA after 5 days in release. They’ve made around $6 million (rounding up), but it’s over. The Bruce Springsteen-scored movie was supposed to be a big hit. Only, no one did marketing or publicity. The audience was confused, since “Yesterday,” a similar movie, is just finishing its run and has made $70 million. What a mess.

Now Warners is grappling with “It,” Chapter 2. The first installment was a monster hit. But now there’s been very mixed to bad reaction to early screenings. “It” hits on September 6th, and reviews will be held up to the last minute. This sounds like strike 3 in a bad summer.

The good news for Warners is that they’ve got “The Goldfinch,” which everyone has high hopes for, and “The Joker,” which should be a smash. In December they’ll have Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell movie. I’ve also heard great things about “The Good Liar” with Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen. So the fall will exceed the summer, and then no one will remember the bad times.

In 2012, Miley Cyrus was hired to voice a character in the animated film “Hotel Transylvania.” She was going to play voice Mavis, the daughter of Dracula (Adam Sandler), in the Sony Picture Animation production.

But before shooting began, she left and was replaced by singer Selena Gomez. No reason was given.

Now on Twitter today Miley admits she was fired. She writes: “I got kicked off hotel Transylvania for buying Liam a penis cake for his birthday and licking it.”

Cyrus was 19 at the time. This, and other extreme acts regarding sex, don’t seem very balanced or well considered. I know she was reacting to “Hannah Montana,” but at some point all of this quite bizarre.

I got kicked off hotel Transylvania for buying Liam a penis cake for his birthday and licking it.

— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) August 22, 2019