You can count me among writer/director Kevin Smith's fans.  His first film Clerks remains among my all time favorites and I have enjoyed all of his films at varying rates.  Despite having a strong following of fans, Smith has struggled to escape the ghetto of indie filmmaking.  By this I mean he has never had a really big hit movie.  His films are certainly always profitable as he generally works with pretty light budgets but none have really exploded into the national consciousness in the manner of a big hit film.  To listen to Smith, he seems fairly comfortable with this for the most part.  He wants to make the types of films he's been making, working cheaply enough to guarantee profit to the studio.  It's not a bad plan, really.  With his track record of inexpensive profitable films, there's really no reason for the Weinstein's to stop funding his projects.

But Zack & Miri Make a Porno is a little bit different.  What isn't different is that this is a movie exactly within Smith's wheelhouse.  It's a raunchy comedy with a kind heart and sweet disposition.  That's an odd type of film but it is exactly what Smith specializes in.  What is different is that it is not a film made within the universe of his previous movies.  That means no Jay and Silent Bob, no Quick Stop, no Mooby's and no Dante or Randall.  Furthermore, Smith employed a big star in one of the title roles.  Seth Rogen has been on a huge role the last few years as an actor/writer/producer of comedies.  Movies like The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad and Pineapple Express have made him a big star.  So when you take a guy who has become very famous and successful making raunchy comedies and pair him with a guy who is an expert in making raunchy comedies, you expect success.  Only it didn't happen.

Zack & Miri Make a Porno won't end up losing the Weinstein Company money.  By the time its theatrical run ends it should have covered the expenses of making and marketing the movie.  Barely.  Considering Smith's very strong track record selling DVDs of his movies, it's reasonable to expect the movie will end up turning a good profit.  But it was not a hit.  It was budgeted at $24 million and opened to a $10 million weekend.  So far it has brought in a bit more than $30 million in the United States.  Counting worldwide box office, it should become Smith's highest grossing movie, edging out Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back at around $35 million.

Last night I listened to Smith's weekly podcast with his producer Scott Mosier, called Smodcast.  Smith had not posted a new episode in the last month, since the movie debuted.  My belief was that he was simply licking his wounds and would emerge again when he felt a bit better.  And that is exactly what happened.  This episode featured the two of them trying to sort out what went wrong.  They never really came to an answer, other than it wasn't their fault.  I believe this is not entirely correct.

The title was the problem.  It has Porno right there in the title.  Clearly, based on how much porn is being sold in this country, this wouldn't seem like much of an impediment.  But I think Smith ran into a problem by crossing a line between what people think of porn in private and in public.  People are just not that comfortable admitting that they like porn.  They may watch it in the privacy of their own home but in public they will not want to admit this.  And going to a movie with Porno right there in the title is a lot like admitting they like porn.

I saw the movie at the FilmColumbia film festival in mid-October before the movie was  released.  It was shown as a sneak peek, in other words, not announced.  So very few people in the audience knew what movie they were about to see.  They didn't actively decide to see Zack & Miri Make a Porno.  It wasn't like other films in the festival that were clearly labeled.  People looked at the festival schedule, saw a film title, read the description and decided they wanted to see it.  When it came to Zack & Miri Make a Porno, they saw Sneak Peek, read a very vague description (that did not mention porn) and decided to take a chance.  They did not in any way have to publicly admit they had any interest in porn by buying this ticket.  The movie went over very well.  Relieved of moral pressures by having gone to the movie blind, they were free to enjoy themselves and they did.  There was near constant uproarious laughter from this audience.

The next day I sat in on a film discussion group with other festival attendees and the festival programmer Peter Biskind.  The general consensus was that the movie was very funny and that most people were fairly surprised that it had gone over so well with an older crowd.  Obviously not everyone loved it but even detractors grudgingly admitted laughing at it.  Screenwriter John Orloff (A Mighty Heart) raved about it.  He said he was no fan of Smith's but had loved this movie and expected it to make tons of money.  And that statement right there gets to the heart of this problem.  Lots of people said the same thing.  People who would seem to know what they are talking about said it.  And it didn't happen.

Think about this for a second.  You are a young male in your twenties.  You ask a girl out on a date.  She accepts.  You suggest Zack & Miri Make a Porno as a movie to go see.  She suddenly looks at you much differently.  Think back to Taxi Driver, where Travis Bickle asks a woman out on a date and promptly takes her to see a porno movie.  She is appalled, and walks out, now thinking a whole lot less of him than before the date.  It is a spectacularly bone headed move on Travis' part that illustrates just how detached from society he is.  And Smith made a movie that begs young men to go make that mistake by the millions all over the country.

There is a scene in Zack & Miri Make a Porno where the title characters are first discussing making a porno.  Miri says no one would want to watch them having sex.  Zack insists that this is exactly what people want.  He contends that if there was a porno featuring Rosie O'Donnell, even though he hates her, he would insist on seeing it, just because he knows who she is.  I think there is some truth to that and judging by the laughs the line gets, other people probably agree.  But admitting that publicly is an entirely different matter.

You'll notice that in this discussion I've made a point of never shortening the title of Zack & Miri Make a Porno.  I noticed that in advertising and in Smith's own podcast, there was a tendency to shorten the title to leave out the part "Make a Porno."  If Smith and the Weinstein's think about this and are willingly to speak truthfully, I think they'll realize they were self-censoring on a regular basis in an attempt to take the sting out of that title.  They knew it was a problem and refused to admit it.  Instead they danced around it by making part of the title an open dirty secret.  But it was the title and thus there was never any getting away from the word Porno.  The title was honest and thus made sure that anyone uncomfortable with porn would know it was the subject at hand and could be sure to avoid it.  Which they did.

There is a deep puritanical streak in this country.  As much as we talk about sex and complain that sex is far too much in the public eye, it's an issue we aren't much comfortable with.  Smith has always been very free in talking about sex and that helps make him such a good filmmaker.  But it also puts him in the serious minority.  Few of us are really that free in discussing the topic.  We might skim the surface a bit, usually in joking form, but we rarely talk about it plainly and openly.  Think of the movie Kinsey.  So much of that movie dealt with the way sex is kept buried as a topic, often to the point where people barely know how to go about having sex because they are so uninformed on the subject.  Very basic details like what causes pregnancy were a mystery to students in that movie.  Thankfully things have improved since then but as a nation, we are simply nowhere near the bar Smith has set on the topic.

In light of that, he should be proud to have done as well as he did at the box office.  A lot of people flew in the face of taboo to go see his movie.  Probably many more of them will make that choice when they can get it on DVD and watch it in the privacy of their own home so that they don't have to be seen publicly asking for a ticket to a movie with Porno in the title.