Chapter 748: A New Box Office Record

One of the greatest things Hollywood had accomplished in the last twenty years was upgrading virtual technology into a powerful tool for recreating the real world. However, using extreme visual effects and logical structuring to fully present the landscape of human consciousness was still a rarity.

To portray a four-layered dream within a limited runtime, Inception relied heavily on post-production editing. The film's narrative sequence defied conventional rules; much like a person waking up, the dream couldn't be neatly organized.

To simultaneously display the events occurring across different dream layers and clearly convey their unique time differences, Duke once again chose cross-cutting, setting even higher standards for the technique.

He had the colorist give each location and dream a completely distinct feel, effectively avoiding the narrative confusion that cross-cutting could potentially introduce.

"When transitioning from one place to another, we want a shift in the color palette," Duke told the colorist and Mike Dawson. "Calgary has a barren, cold feel, the hallway has warm tones, and the van is neutral. Even if we cut to a tight shot or an isolated object devoid of background, the audience will immediately know where the characters are."

It was a technique to make the storytelling clearer, increasing the film's accessibility and helping the audience follow the entire movie.

"We're going to rely heavily on cross-cutting."

Before all the work began, Duke had specifically instructed Mike Dawson, "If the different scenes look starkly different, you can be much more relaxed when editing. But I don't want to over-process the image. Instead, we need to find the natural tone of each location. I designed the script so that different action threads take place in environments that inherently differ in design and feel. I need everyone to pay close attention to that, including the art and sound departments."

Based on Inception's premise, cutting between dreams could be better described as cutting across space and time. This was especially true for the final four-layered dream. Duke wanted the cross-cutting across these four dimensions to build a tense atmosphere, particularly during the final moments before the characters woke up. The people left behind in the four layers were all trying to find ways to fall in their respective environments, constantly crossing over. At the same time, due to the time differences caused by diving deeper into the dreams, the exact moment of waking utilized cross-cut close-ups to show the characters waking up layer by layer.

The tension created by this cross-cutting would effectively stir the audience's emotions.

Perhaps because she had some free time recently, Sofia Coppola occasionally visited Warner Studios to discuss filmmaking with Duke. After watching the rough cut produced by Duke and Mike Dawson, she was deeply struck by it, even though most of the visual effects had not yet been added.

Sitting at the break table with a coffee, Sofia said to Duke, "You have profoundly changed mainstream Hollywood cinema."

"I've merely played a part in the twenty-first-century transformation of mainstream Hollywood films."

Duke picked up his coffee, took a sip, and said, "Fundamentally, those critics aren't wrong when they call me a superficial director and producer. Everything I do is simply to bring the audience a sense of cinematic pleasure."

Sofia disagreed, gently swirling the coffee cup with her right hand. "When it comes to your overall impact on contemporary Hollywood films, you rank in the top three among directors over the last twenty years. Probably only James Cameron and Quentin Tarantino can compare."

Seeing that Duke was about to speak, Sofia, who knew him well, beat him to it. "Don't mention my father, George, or even Steven and Martin. They are too old, after all; they belong to the previous era. I'm referring to the impact you've had specifically on Hollywood films as a medium, and my criterion isn't just the box office."

Duke set down his coffee cup and smiled. "At best, I'm a reformer, not an innovator or a disruptor."

"I agree on that point." Sofia nodded before taking a sip of her coffee.

Mainstream Hollywood commercial films didn't welcome disruption, either; they only accepted reform. However, in terms of filmmaking, reform wasn't something to be highly extolled.

There were many excellent directors and films that didn't pursue reform, just as there were many creators who made reforms but ultimately produced works with mediocre reception.

In truth, Sofia knew very well what some of the old men from the School Faction thought of Duke.

They believed his films represented a vulgarized, popularized modernism, as if he took techniques long established in serious art and turned them into knockoffs just to entertain the masses.

From Sofia's perspective, Duke's movies allowed ordinary audiences to comfortably understand and enjoy artistic concepts that were otherwise highly avant-garde. However, the commercial positioning of his films dictated that they would always lack deep reflection, captivating subtext, and philosophical depth. They were too much like a puzzle with only one solution: precise and stable, but ultimately mechanical and formulaic.

Sofia Coppola's philosophy was simply worlds apart from Duke's, which was the main reason he hadn't hired her for any of his commercial projects to this day.

However, Sofia did acknowledge his achievements in revolutionizing Hollywood films. "Take superhero movies, for example. You delivered a completely different kind of superhero movie and introduced genuine political and social issues into the genre. In the past, those were never discussed."

"Since Superman has such immense power, what's the point of him catching petty robbers and thieves every day? He could completely change the way the world operates and truly benefit mankind," Duke replied.

Duke spread his hands. "Hollywood wouldn't film it like that, because superhero movies are essentially fairy tales. Some of the conflicts in The Dark Knight have real-life parallels, but it still remains a fairy tale."

Having Batman deal with genuine social issues, rather than the pseudo-problems Superman faced, did indeed seem profound. But this was still a commercial tactic. By weaving hot-button public issues into the film's narrative, the audience would naturally find content they cared about, thereby boosting their engagement with the movie.

While Duke was busy with the post-production of Inception, an event that shook the entire world occurred in Hollywood—the twelve-year-old box office record held by Titanic was once again broken by James Cameron himself.

No movie could maintain peak performance forever, and even Avatar, which defied the normal laws of the film market, was no exception. After an incredible surge in its fifth weekend, the film's North American box office finally began a normal downward trend, though its weekend-to-weekend decline remained unusually slow.

Avatar never exploded with a North American box office of over $100 million in a single weekend, but its true terror lay in its frighteningly stable momentum. Now, after being in theaters for more than eleven weeks, its weekend box office still brought in a staggering $13.65 million!

It was enough to leave people stunned.

Moreover, in just eleven weeks, the film's North American box office had surpassed $700 million, reaching a staggering $720.6 million.

This set a new North American box office record!

Beyond North America, the film's momentum in the global market was just as frighteningly stable. Its worldwide box office easily crossed the threshold of Titanic, setting a new global record with an unprecedented gross of $2,418.85 million.

More importantly, Avatar triggered a revolution in the film market, pushing the 3D and IMAX craze sparked by Transformers to its absolute peak. Not only did theater chains worldwide rush to open IMAX auditoriums, but even the historically unpopular 3D Glasses became a commodity in high demand.

Furthermore, the success of Avatar awakened the market's thirst for 3D films. Even Alice in Wonderland, a pseudo-3D film converted during post-production, rode the coattails of Avatar to achieve massive box office returns.

Naturally, Duke, who had long been preparing for this shift, emerged as one of the winners of this wave.

The 3D-converted version of The Lord of the Rings trilogy landed in over 1,000 theaters in North America and more than 60 overseas markets in a back-to-back screening format. In less than a month, it grossed over $70 million at the North American box office and nearly $250 million globally.

This not only generated considerable profit, but also served as effective promotional buildup for the upcoming release of The Hobbit trilogy.

The 3D wave permeated every corner of mainstream Hollywood. Major production companies eagerly formulated plans to shoot in 3D, and even films already in production scrambled to convert to 3D in post.

"Fast and Furious 5 will definitely be a 3D film!"

In an office at Universal Studios, David Ellison, who had just finalized a partnership after lengthy negotiations, gathered with executives from Universal Pictures and Vin Diesel.

David Ellison stood up and specifically emphasized, "Fast and Furious 5 must also be a 3D film!"

"I have no objections!" Vin Diesel agreed.

Naturally, the executives from Universal Pictures had no objections either. Anyone could see by now that converting a film to 3D would inevitably bring in more box office revenue.

"Justin Lin has already agreed to return as the director for Fast and Furious 5," an executive from Universal Pictures said. "The main cast members from the first film have also essentially finalized their terms and agreed to come back..."

He paused for a moment and said to David Ellison and Vin Diesel, "But we haven't been able to locate Jessica Alba."

Ever since Jessica Alba was released from prison, she had completely vanished from Hollywood. In truth, she no longer had any way to maintain a foothold in the industry anyway.

Vin Diesel thought for a moment and said, "Just leave her out."

After the brief meeting concluded, Vin Diesel and David Ellison walked out of the office together.

As they entered the elevator lobby, David Ellison suddenly lowered his voice and said, "My people found Jessica Alba."