Monday Morning Quarterback Part I

By BOP Staff

July 19, 2010

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Eric Hughes: I agree with much that has been said here, especially Jim's comment about audiences forking over cash for a movie they knew little to nothing about. Inception scored more than $60 million from consumers who largely had no idea what they were watching. To me, that's outstanding. I was delighted in the fact that myself, nor the people I went with, really knew what we were getting into, but we trusted that it would probably be money well spent because of Nolan's stellar history as a filmmaker.

David Mumpower: What jumps off the page for me is that we made a huge deal of Leonardo DiCrapio and Martin Scorsese joining forces on Shutter Island to garner an opening of $41.1 million, easily the best opening for either person. One movie later, Inception's teaming DiCaprio with Christopher Nolan has bested that by a full 50%...and this project is somehow even more inscrutable in terms of marketable themes. I consider a debut of this scale extraordinary. As Jason mentioned, Kim and I collated the list of non-animated, non-disaster porn movies with original ideas that had $60 million debuts. With actuals in, Inception has passed Signs and Hancock, meaning that only Avatar and Bruce Almighty were original ideas that opened bigger. How could anyone call such a performance anything but a box office triumph?

Do the bump. Do the bumpy bump.

Kim Hollis: Who do you think meant more to the strength of this debut, Christopher Nolan or Leonardo DiCaprio? Also, out of this impressive cast, whose career do you believe gets the biggest bump from this performance?

Josh Spiegel: Christopher Nolan, though having DiCaprio as the lead helps, too. I wouldn't say that most of the people who saw the movie know Nolan's name automatically, but the ads have very specifically made mention that he directed The Dark Knight, which might be enough for some viewers. To the second question, I'm not sure that either man needs a bump (even if Inception had made half this number in the opening weekend, he'd still be directing and co-writing the third Batman movie, and producing the new Superman movie, so his career's fine), but if I had to choose, I'd go with DiCaprio. He's been in two big-budget, high-grossing adult thrillers this year, and been amazing in both of them. Granted, DiCaprio probably doesn't need much of a bump, but the movies he's been in this year just prove that he's come a long, long way from being the king of the world. Of the rest of the performers, I'd hope that Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who proves here that he's one of the most limber and charming young actors in Hollywood) and Tom Hardy (once the villain in Star Trek: Nemesis, remember) get big bumps. Both are charismatic in completely different roles here and are perfectly cast.




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Jason Lee: Frankly, I think Nolan gets the credit for this opening and thus, gets the biggest bump (not that he needed it) in the movie industry. He'll probably get carte blanche to do whatever he wants for the next 4 movies or so. You gotta wonder if the "Nolan" movie brand is reaching the same level of power as Pixar circa November 2004, in that audiences can confidently go to any upcoming Nolan movie and know that they're going to get more than their money's worth.

Tom Houseman: It seems like Nolan got cart blanche for Inception. I can think of only a couple of other directors who could get a studio fully behind this project (Cameron, maybe Brian Singer, M. Night Shymalan seven years ago), and Nolan put himself out there for this one. It's clearly going to pay off, and Nolan will be one of the few directors who is trusted by Hollywood and more high brow movie fans.

Will anyone get a career bump? I find it unlikely. This movie and its ads weren't about the cast. I suppose I could see bumps for Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon Levitt or Cillian Murphy, but I'm not sure. I'd love to see Tom Hardy get bigger roles from this one, as he was superb last year in "Bronson," and deserves any role he gets.

David Mumpower: I think what Inception largely does is legitimize three people. Ellen Page and Marion Cotillard both have credibility as actresses due to their Academy Awards nominations. This gives each of them credibility in terms of holding their own with DiCaprio in a Nolan film. Similarly, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was already riding the indie darling wave thanks to Brick, The Lookout and especially (500) Days of Summer. He had the box office hit with G.I. Joe, but no one made their bones off of that monstrosity. Being the baseline actor in Inception is a huge deal for him. Dileep Rao is also seeing a nice rise in awareness thanks to Drag Me to Hell, Avatar and now Inception. It helps that he seems to be the cast member who best understands what Nolan is trying to accomplish as demonstrated in his NYMag.com interview.

In the end, though, the actor I believe stands to see the biggest career boost is the person who offers the movie's best performance, Tom Hardy. That goes double if the Mad Max reboot finally gets off the ground with him taking on the titular role established by Whatshisname the Angry. As Josh points out, Hardy missed his wave last time when he got caught in disastrous Star Trek: Nemesis tsunami of failure. I'm inclined to believe he'll avoid that fate this time.


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