HOLLYWOOD — During a season when studios have become all but convinced audiences are losing interest in big-name movie stars and R-rated adult fare, perhaps it's appropriate that the end of summer brings a surprise hit embodying both qualities.
Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, featuring Brad Pitt and an ensemble cast, earned $38 million at the box office last weekend in the United States and Canada, according to domestic distributor Weinstein Co., far exceeding expectations.
It's not the only movie this summer to open significantly stronger than polling had indicated. But Basterds had the most at stake - around $70 million in production spending.
Since the movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May to a mixed response, speculation has run rampant in Hollywood as to whether the movie would resemble Tarantino's 1994 breakout hit, Pulp Fiction, which earned $108 million domestically, or his 1997 follow-up, Jackie Brown, which grossed less than $40 million.
Basterds' premiere at the French festival initially exposed the fault line between loyal fans and vocal detractors. "Outside the cinema, reaction was moderate verging on the chilly," noted Xan Brooks, film critic for guardian.co.uk.
Nonetheless, Tarantino and Pitt were in Cannes for a media blitz, serving to kick off Universal's worldwide marketing campaign. "Once we had done the Cannes launch, the awareness level around the world dramatically spiked," said David Kosse, president of international distribution for Universal.
Domestically, meanwhile, Weinstein Co. has been crafting a carefully calibrated marketing campaign that attempted to let audiences know about Tarantino and Pitt's presence without relying too much on their names.
Trailers, posters and TV spots focused more on the movie's most marketable concept- an elite team of soldiers on a mission to kill Nazis - and its over-the top action.
"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 percent of moviegoers were male, according to exit polling, and 65 percent were between 18 and 34.
Weinstein Co-chairman Harvey Weinstein said he was most proud, however, of the 42 percent of the audience that was female.
In the age of Twitter and Facebook, audience buzz is what matters most and Weinstein Co. is intent on using it by transforming public perception of it from a bloody-revenge tale to a 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."
MovieStyle, Pages 37 on 08/28/2009