"This is a movie that doesn’t fear spoilers. It’s a movie for people who like to use their brains!" "Leonardo and Duke Rosenberg lead a dream-stealing team is the film unafraid of spoilers and designed to crush your IQ?" These were some of the promotional slogans used for Inception in overseas markets. Combined with word-of-mouth marketing and viral campaigns, they proved highly effective something clearly reflected in the film’s international box office performance. During its wide overseas release on opening weekend, Inception unsurprisingly took the number one spot at the box office in most regions where it was screened. Particularly notable was how many media outlets opened their coverage with lines like: "This is a film to be worshipped." "The tight narrative leaves you no time to blink. Over 120 minutes of brilliance by the time it ends, it feels like time just flew by." These were the words of a French moviegoer interviewed after a screening, which essentially echoed the sentiments of most viewers who stepped into the theater. "You have to keep your eyes glued to the screen, not miss any details, and think through everything again and again. It’s like watching The Matrix + The Dark Knight a headache, but an exhilarating one." With outstanding marketing and sky-high word-of-mouth, Inception’s overseas box office numbers soon rolled in. In China, the film earned nearly $20 million over just three days during the weekend, making it the best three-day box office result in the Chinese market since Avatar and Transformers. Elsewhere, Inception also opened strong and kept rising: over $16 million in the UK, more than $12 million in France, close to $15 million in Germany, and over $9 million in Australia... In its first week of overseas release, Inception This box office figure proved that the marketing strategy devised and implemented by Duke and Warner Bros. was spot on the word-of-mouth campaign had already achieved initial success. Meanwhile, in North America, Inception also performed exactly as expected, maintaining a strong box office momentum. In a mansion in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Angelina Jolie sat on the sofa after dinner, holding a newspaper. Her expression was anything but pleasant, and whenever she glanced up at Brad Pitt, her face grew darker. Clearly, she was in a bad mood. Her latest film didn’t perform as expected at the box office, and her boyfriend went to the premiere of a rival movie anyone would be upset. Under the pressure of Inception, her major release this year, Salt, only brought in a little over $19 million on its opening weekend in North America. Although Sony Columbia Pictures ramped up its promotional efforts afterward with many media outlets hailing her as "the universe’s most powerful action star" the wave of controversy and deep analysis sparked by Inception gave Salt no chance of a comeback. Flipping through the Los Angeles Times, Angelina Jolie soon found the weekend box office report. "Duke Rosenberg’s masterpiece claims its second consecutive crown!" Just reading the headline was enough to irritate her, but she patiently kept reading. "Inception’s second-weekend box office is finally in. For the three-day weekend, the film earned $25.62 million on Friday, $24.21 million on Saturday, and $21.61 million on Sunday. This represents a very healthy and stable Friday–Saturday–Sunday curve. Coupled with daily earnings of about $10 million on Thursday and Friday, the film easily surpassed the $200 million mark in just ten days, reaching $229.65 million!" "One thing is certain Inception is bound to enjoy a long run during this fiercely competitive summer season. As things stand, $250 million is already in the bag. If it hits $300 million, it will surpass the North American box office target set by Duke Rosenberg and Warner Bros." "Previously, a film that wasn’t a sequel, not based on a bestselling novel, or connected to a superhero comic a sci-fi/thriller/crime hybrid breaking $100 million in its opening weekend and surpassing $300 million overall would’ve been pure fantasy. But now, it looks like Inception can achieve that with ease." "And whether Inception ultimately surpasses $300 million at the North American box office is actually no longer the point. The film’s greatest value lies in the fact that Duke Rosenberg was the first to eat the crab giving hope to others that, with the right actors, a reliable director, a quality script, strong investment, and effective marketing, even an original genre-blending film with a sci-fi flavor can still succeed at the box office!" "It’s believed that following the success of Inception, more directors will bring out their long-shelved original stories and persuade investors to turn them into films. For movie lovers, that can only be a good thing." "At present, the 171,248 users on IMDb have rated the film at an astonishing 9.3, holding firm at the second spot in the TOP 250. Could this film surpass The Godfather, ranking only behind The Dark Knight? That doesn’t really matter. What matters is that this feverish rating shows that the Duke Rosenberg nameplate is not just gold it’s probably already reached the ’diamond’ level." "Duke Rosenberg’s diamond nameplate will certainly remain the top choice for moviegoers for a long time to come and he’s only in his forties! In the coming decades, we believe that with his steady pace, Duke will continue to bring us more outstanding films, and that is without a doubt a blessing." "Let’s continue looking forward to Duke Rosenberg surprising us for the Nth time in his future works..." Thinking about Inception’s second weekend haul of over $70 million in North America, then looking at her own Salt slipping to just $10 million over the same period, Angelina Jolie grew even gloomier. However, she had gone through extremely difficult and uncertain years before. Her reckless behavior in youth had come at a painful cost. Since her awakening years ago, Angelina Jolie had come to clearly understand what could be done like continuing her chaotic personal life, which no one really cared about and what absolutely couldn’t be done like crossing paths with truly heavyweight figures in the industry... She was very displeased with Salt getting crushed by Inception, but would never voice this to anyone, not even Brad Pitt, who lived under the same roof. Besides, she had never truly believed that Salt After all, the other party was Duke Rosenberg! What the Los Angeles Times said wasn’t wrong. But there was one point Angelina Jolie didn’t agree with while Inception’s success might encourage more directors and writers to dust off their long-forgotten original stories, the sluggish state of original films in Hollywood wouldn’t change because of it. In fact, it would only decline further. Adaptations are the real mainstream in this industry. The last decade of film industry development has already proven this. And it wasn’t just the box office Inception’s merchandise was also on fire. For instance, the spinning top Leonardo used in the film to distinguish reality from dreams became a hot-selling item. The limited edition tops distributed to theaters by Warner Bros. were sold at a price of $12 each and were sold out on the day the film premiered. And the commemorative tops sold through retail stores and online channels ranged in price from $80 to $130, with hundreds of thousands of units sold within just one week. When it comes to developing the film merchandise market, Warner Bros. is highly experienced. The hot sales of the "Inception Top" also benefited from its massive full-industry-chain operational capabilities. In fact, in today’s Hollywood, the income from merchandise related to big-budget commercial films can reach nearly eighty percent of the film’s total revenue, far higher than the box office itself. For a director like Duke, Warner Bros. already has production and marketing plans for merchandise in place before the film even begins shooting, ensuring that the merchandise can be launched either simultaneously with or even earlier than the film’s release date, in order to secure ample market space. Of course, the maturity of the North American film market and its relatively comprehensive copyright protection system are fundamental conditions that enable film merchandise to sell so well. As for the Chinese market, the "Inception Top" released by Warner Bros. also sold well, with a price of only 12 RMB. However, compared to official cinema sales, imitation products could be seen everywhere from online platforms to small commodity markets. This information also made its way back to Duke, but he wasn’t anxious. Every market is constantly improving, and even the North American market went through the same stage as China. Moreover, compared to how domestically produced films are treated, his film’s merchandise was doing quite well. Duke remembered clearly the time he lived there, when Stephen Chow’s CJ7 was released, "CJ7" was widely adored, and plush toys of CJ7 naturally became hot commodities. At that time, hawkers selling counterfeit CJ7 toys even set up their stalls right in front of the film’s production company, China Film Group, leaving many of the production staff both amused and helpless... A good film will always generate some unexpected impact, and Inception was no exception. After finishing his promotional tour in Europe and returning to Los Angeles, Duke saw an interesting piece of news: X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn, after watching Inception, immediately tore up his own script... According to many media reports, Matthew Vaughn, who was involved in early production work for X-Men: First Class, recently took some time to watch Inception and praised it highly, saying he really liked it. But when he thought about his own script afterward, he couldn’t help but say, "The pressure is enormous." Google seaʀᴄh 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩·𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢·𝔫𝔢𝔱 "Even if some of the creative ideas are suited for the big screen, if I keep them, they’ll look like they were copied or altered versions of something else, so I might as well just tear up the entire 12-page script." That was what he said in an interview, though he then changed the subject, "The new X-Men will tell the story of Charles Xavier and Erik Magnus Lehnsherr before they became Professor X and Magneto. At that time, they weren’t bitter enemies, but the closest of friends, working together for world peace..." It’s obvious that 20th Century Fox was using the buzz created by Inception to promote its own film. And it wasn’t just 20th Century Fox Leonardo’s team was also using Inception to build up their own momentum.