“‘Inglourious Basterds’ defies summer wisdom”

The analysis started on Sunday and continues in this LA Times article, all trying to address the question — why did Inglourious Basterds open so strongly:

During a season when studios have become all but convinced that audiences are losing interest in big-name movie stars and R-rated adult fare, perhaps it was appropriate that the end of summer would offer a surprise hit that embodied both those qualities.

“Inglourious Basterds,” featuring Brad Pitt among an ensemble cast, earned $38 million at the box office this weekend in the U.S. and Canada, according to domestic distributor Weinstein Co., far exceeding expectations by drawing a fairly diverse audience without alienating director Quentin Tarantino’s core fan base of men in their 20s and early 30s.

Consensus seems to be that the marketing approach gets an A+:

“The concept was ‘revenge fantasy,’ just like ‘Transformers’ was a big battles with robots fantasy and ‘G.I. Joe’ was a ninja fantasy,” said Chris Thalk, who runs the blog Movie Marketing Madness. “It came across as an action movie that just happened to star Brad Pitt and be directed by Quentin Tarantino.”

That approach succeeded in activating the core audience for an R-rated action movie, which crosses over very nicely with Tarantino fans: 58% of moviegoers were male, according to exit polling, and 65% were between 18 and 34.

“…an action movie that just happened to star Brad Pitt and be directed by Quentin Tarantino.” But here may be the most interesting point in the piece:

But in the age of Twitter and Facebook, it seems that audience buzz is what matters most and Weinstein Co. is intent on using it, along with the positive reviews it can highlight, to turn “Inglourious Basterds” into a long-running hit by transforming public perception of it from a bloody-revenge tale to a highbrow drama on the way to the list of 10 Academy Award best picture nominees.

“We’ve got to do that changeover,” Weinstein said. “An adult audience is the one that will really sustain us.”

Now they have to shift the focus in marketing to highlight the movie as a “highbrow drama” in order to go after the adult audience.

Good to see that the “adult audience” hasn’t been terminated by Hwood’s death panels just yet.

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