Dude, high five!

"The reviews have been good, and quite a few of them have focused on the flick's box office prospects, which is definitely a first for me," said Smith, whose movies, such as "Clerks," "Chasing Amy" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," regularly connect with a core constituency of pop-culture-loving fan boys but have yet to reap windfalls of money during their theatrical runs.

"What it says to me, though," he continued, "is a bunch of people are saying, 'This dude never makes any money. He might now. This might be the one.' "

Smith was less enthusiastic about addressing the stink of controversy that has clung to "Zack and Miri" since an early cut was slapped with an NC-17 rating (the edited version making its way to the screen arrives with what's known in the industry as a "hard R"). As well, "Zack and Miri" billboards were banned in Philadelphia and Salt Lake City for their reference to "porno," and newspapers across the country have refused to carry advertisements for the film. (The studio responded by printing posters that read: "Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks made a movie so outrageous that we can't even tell you the title.") "It's 'Dogma' all over again, where people hear about this movie long before they see it," Smith said, referring to his 1999 religious comedy starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon that similarly managed to push cultural hot buttons in advance of its release. "It also does that thing I can't stand where it builds expectations."

Except he wasn't even remotely troubled by the idea of putting off viewers. Smith's main fear was that the controversy would contribute to a sense he had over-promised and under-delivered in the raunch department. "If people keep hearing about an NC-17 and how some cities won't let the billboard go up, they go into the theater with high expecations, man!" he exclaimed. "Sometimes that bar is too high to match. You may have people coming out saying, 'That wasn't as bad as people said it would be.' I don't want to be blamed for crying wolf!"

Godfather of a style

There is also a secondary consciousness about "Zack and Miri" -- an easily understandable misunderstanding -- that it's in some fundamental way a Judd Apatow production.