The Pre-"Inception" Post (Not to be Confused with the Post-"Inception" Post)

If Inception bombs at the box office, I can see the Warner executives, Nolan and DiCaprio alongside, standing around the trades which all blast the film, going "We bet it all on him. Hollywood's high-concept big-budget knight has fallen. Cerebral actioners will soon die."

I don't think Inception will bomb, though. The box-office prognosticators have been predicting all over the place, with numbers running as low as $40 M and as high as $70 M. For those of you who don't read the trades, a discrepancy that big in the box-office predictions is rare. They're all usually within $5 M of each other.

The problem, they report, is that they don't know what this film's audience will be. The oft-cited question is whether Middle 'Murica in particular will roll out to see a film like this, or if it will just stay a guarded gem of the coasts. Personally, I think this is selling the Great Plains short (though they did propel G.I. Joe (2009) to box-office glory last summer). I can only assume that the concern is that the film does not present itself as something rural people want to see.

"Well, shoot, I thawt I'z gunna see dat moovie this weekend, but ah hear iz uhbout dreems, un that's a lil' qweer-soundin tuh me!"

Right, that's bad, nobody talks like that. Non-Warner executives have been scratching their heads for weeks, saying things like "Nobody is questioning whether or not it's a good film. The question is whether or not anyone will see it. It's got no built-in fan-base and the marketers are struggling to find the right balance between spectacle and exposition in the ad campaign."

And yes, that concern boils down to "Well, butter mah biscut! Dey mayd uh film based on uh 'riginal ideer! It's the damndest thing yoo ever saw!"

I certainly hope Inception knocks it out of the park, box-office wise, so that more big-budget original ideas get greenlit. Avatar (2009) was a dud of an idea, but at least it didn't have any product-placement.

Perhaps I should point out that I have already decided that Inception will be amazing. I'll find out early Saturday.



--Serge

PS: *BRAAAAAAMH* How refreshing is it that this film isn't in 3D?