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Edwin Davies: I'm going to have to echo everyone else and say that the accessibility of the film is what has allowed the Coens to reach such a wide audience. They've flirted with the mainstream in the past - most notably on films like Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers and Burn After Reading, which were all fairly broad comedies with easily sold premises - but those films also came complete with the tics and tricks that fans of The Coens (like me) love, but which can alienate mainstream audiences. It doesn't help that those films all sucked. The combination of an easy to understand premise, a just about family-friendly rating and stellar reviews and pedigree seem to have created a perfect storm for this film.

I'd also argue that the film being a Western probably helps a little. Sure, the Western isn't the powerhouse genre that it was in the early days of cinema, but that in itself adds an air of rarity to them that seems to draw people out, especially if they've got the buzz to back it up.

David Mumpower: Emphasizing Edwin's point, I recall a Monday Morning Quarterback conversation we had about 3:10 to Yuma wherein we stated that the industry simply does not witness a lot of major western productions these days. That was in September in 2007. This is the next film in the genre to garner wide release. While there are a couple of movies that could qualify, such as Hidalgo and The Alamo, I would argue that the last true western prior to that was Open Range in the summer of 2003. That's how rare this genre has become. A Coen Brothers remake of a John Wayne classic in one of the few genres that isn't over-saturated is a good idea. Even so, the rarefied air we're talking about in terms of the scalding pace of True Grit is jaw dropping. If this film wins the Academy Award for Best Picture, $200 million isn't outside the realm of possibility. Even if it doesn't, we're looking at least $150 million, barring something unforeseen. Using a major league baseball equivalent, this is similar to Jose Bautista going from a career high of 16 homers to hitting 54 homers at the age of 30. This shouldn't be possible. The Coen Brothers are expected to be eclectic and counter-culture. This puts them squarely into the mainstream, which makes me wonder about Coen backlash in upcoming years.

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