After the first week, Inception, accompanied by a huge wave of discussion, was about to land in major film markets around the world.
"Famous actor Ken Watanabe partners for the first ti with Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio in the Hollywood blockbuster Inception, which is about to land in Japan!"
This was a piece of news that Asahi Shimbun had been repeatedly ntioning over the past few days.
During this week, promotional footage for Inception appeared simultaneously on 136 street-side big screens across all 35 prefectures of Japan, as well as in 50 electronics stores and on in-vehicle TVs in Japan’s major subways and buses. Such a large-scale promotional thod was unprecedented in the history of Japanese cinema.
In the approximately 1-minute-15-second trailer, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, and the director Duke appeared in sequence.
As for Leonardo DiCaprio, whose influence in Japan could only be described as unparalleled, he was the focal point of the trailer. He specifically said: "This is a film with a visual impact that no one has ever experienced before. This sumr, war will erupt from the mind!"
Ken Watanabe followed by saying, "In this world, the most valuable thing is the idea born from your mind. We will steal it once it erges... Perhaps the next target is you..."
At the plaza in front of Tokyo’s Shimbashi Station, when the movie’s promotional footage appeared on the building’s big screen, the bustling crowd on the street suddenly stopped in their tracks, all intently watching the screen. At that mont, Japan was like a still pond, with only the sound from the screen playing as if it truly had beco a world of dreams.
After a premiere event in Tokyo, Duke beca the center of dia attention, with most questions focusing on his views on the various interpretations of the film.
Of course, Duke did not answer directly.
"I didn’t want to make a film about ’the filming process.’ What really attracted was the creative process itself. I don’t want to use film terminology to explain to the audience how to distinguish between dream and reality."
Facing dia reporters from around the world, he deliberately dropped a few ambiguous remarks. "From the ending, you should be able to see that Cobb’s real life and dreams are very similar, which ans Cobb himself is also questionable. And regardless of whether the top spins or not, Cobb doesn’t need to know the truth because he has reunited with his children."
After saying that, no matter what the reporters asked, Duke kept his mouth tightly shut.
These statents spread across the internet at lightning speed. By this ti, the film had already been released globally, and people who had seen the film, combining Duke’s comnts, quickly launched into new interpretations with great enthusiasm. This round of analysis far exceeded that of North Arica and Japan.
As for the focus of the analysis and debate Duke had already planted the seeds during filming. Guided by his words, a large number of fans noticed that the scene where Cobb wakes up on the plane seed strange.
Thus, the debate over who was truly dreaming Cobb or his wife began.
According to the male lead’s own account in the film, Cobb and his wife used an enhanced drug to die in the dream, thus both entering Limbo.
The woman, obsessed with their tiless ti together, believed it was reality and refused to return. Cobb tried to plant the idea "this is a dream, we must die to return to reality" into her mind. Unexpectedly, the side effect of that inception made her start to doubt reality itself, believing only death could free her. She later committed suicide in reality.
Cobb, wracked with guilt over her death, was no longer able to "dream-build," because whenever he entered the dream world, all the scenes were the sa.
There’s never a shortage of bold people in this world. So, bold speculations from fans were inevitable the theory that "Cobb’s wife was the one who actually returned to reality" erged.
They believed that Cobb’s wife jumped and died in the dream, not reality. Cobb never realized this, so only she truly returned to the real world. Cobb, unable to face the "fact" of her suicide in the dream, gradually suffered a ntal breakdown and imagined being wanted, unable to go ho and reunite with his children. The rest of the plot was just Cobb’s own dream within a dream.
But the opposing side argued that if Cobb’s wife had truly returned to reality, she could have directly shocked Cobb awake why would she need to make him dream so long and so much?
There was even another theory: the entire movie was a dream a dream Cobb had on the plane. They listed a large amount of evidence.
The most typical example: after waking from the dream, Cobb had no interaction with anyone around him, and the others looked at him like a stranger. Cobb didn’t recognize anyone on the plane and was just confused about why all the passengers beca people from his dream. This could be seen in his startled expression upon waking.
They believed everything was a dream a vivid dream Cobb had on the way ho. His wife’s story, his criminal charges, the dream thieves all of it was dream content, unrelated to reality.
Of course, such interpretations had both supporters and critics.
And Duke never addressed these questions again afterward. The fiercer the debate, the more beneficial it was for Inception.
After the Tokyo premiere in Japan, Duke did not return to Los Angeles, but instead joined Leonardo and several other cast mbers to fly to China for the Chinese premiere of Inception.
Rewind five years the idea of Duke bringing top-tier stars like Leonardo DiCaprio to China for the premiere of a major blockbuster would’ve been unthinkable.
Back then, China was just an insignificant overseas market for Hollywood. Big Hollywood stars didn’t even bother to look at China.
But with Transforrs and Avatar both grossing over 1.3 billion RMB at the Chinese box office, and the signing of a morandum of understanding at the end of last year between China and the U.S. regarding WTO film-related issues which raised the revenue-sharing ratio for imported Hollywood films from 13% to 25% aning that for every 10 million RMB a Hollywood film made in China, the earnings increased by 1.2 million RMB more and more top Hollywood directors and stars began appearing in China.
What attracted these stars, of course, was China’s increasingly prosperous film market.
It all started with Transforrs. Since then, China’s film market has grown rapidly like a teenager in a growth spurt. In 2009, the total annual box office reached 10.1 billion RMB an increase of 4 billion compared to 2008.
This year’s growth alone accounted for 80% of the previous seven years’ total increase!
Correspondingly, Hollywood blockbusters were making more and more money in China.
Stimulated by this, Hollywood has been investing more heavily in the Chinese market, with increasing demand for marketing. The old thods placing articles in dia, translating a few trailers and posters, buying so bus stop ads, hosting a premiere were no longer enough to et market demand.
Duke was well aware of this. Every ti a major Warner Bros. production was released in China, he used his own influence to pressure local companies to co up with new and creative marketing strategies.
For example, based on the local market and societal context, Warner Bros. took a promotional slogan for Inception that wasn’t very prominent in North Arica and turned it into the main tagline for the Chinese market — "A movie only smart people can understand!"
And with the signing of the new morandum, creative ideas that were previously unachievable due to budget constraints beca much easier to implent as the market expanded.
Warner’s Greater China division now had a much larger budget to buy more outdoor advertising, invite more celebrities and filmmakers to China, hold grander premieres, or support more localized creative ideas.
Even though the budget had increased, when it ca to execution, Hollywood blockbusters were still subject to many restrictions compared to local films in terms of marketing.
One of the restrictions ca from within the company. The overall strategy for Hollywood films in China had to be discussed with the North Arican headquarters. The Arican side faced a very mature market in North Arica, while China’s related industrial chain was still not as established or well-developed. Sotis, more advanced marketing thods were not as effective as approaches tailored to local conditions.
Duke clearly understood this. Currently, the widely adopted marketing strategies for Hollywood blockbusters in China buying outdoor ads, leveraging celebrities, and hosting premieres were still relatively crude, lacking truly customized marketing.
"The Chinese market is just too different from other countries, and it’s enormous in size. You have to look at it separately."
As early as last year, Duke had emphasized this point at the Warner Bros. board eting.
From an overall perspective, the biggest difference between the Chinese and Arican markets was the marketing channels for films.
In the U.S., Hollywood’s traditional marketing channels were still TV comrcials and outdoor ads; but in China, movie comrcials on TV were extrely rare.
Instead, the involvent of new dia, the internet, and tech giants like Baidu and Tencent had made China’s entire marketing channel system completely different from the U.S.
These were things the North Arican side simply didn’t understand. Without soone of Duke’s stature, convincing them to use these channels would have been extrely difficult.
In the North Arican market, a film’s marketing would start even before filming began, and at different stages, different thods would be used for continuous exposure. But this approach didn’t apply to the Chinese market. No matter how much marketing was done, if the blockbuster didn’t get imported into China, all that effort would be in vain.
Even if a film was confird for import, there was no room for complacency. Before the relevant authorities confird the film’s release schedule, its promotion would be severely restricted.
Generally speaking, the number of trailers and posters that could be released for a film was always limited. If the release date was uncertain, there was no way of knowing when the trailers and posters could even be published.
And before the Public Screening Permit was issued, the big scissors would also closely "monitor" every move the film made. Large-scale promotion was simply not allowed.
Under so many restrictions, it was extrely difficult for a Hollywood film to achieve a big box office success in China.
Fortunately, Duke’s films never lacked support from Chinese audiences. And under his guidance, Warner’s Far East division had already ford strategic partnerships with a series of online dia platforms and social networking sites.
....
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