Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Flashdance" grossed US$4 million at the box office during its first weekend, surpassing "Gandhi" and "My Lady", which had a sharp box office rebound thanks to its Oscar win, and topped the box office list.

It was released simultaneously in more than 1,100 theaters, and the average weekend box office reached 3,500 US dollars. In this weak box office in April, it gave Paramount a huge surprise.

Next on the list is Coppola's "The Kid," which grossed just over $2 million in its third weekend of release, a 30% drop from last week. Audiences for the original novel are dwindling rapidly, and Warner Bros. is already cutting back on screenings.

Ronald's eyes continued to move downwards. Ranked eighth was the new film "Valley Girl" released by Atlantic Ocean, with a total weekend box office of 1.8 million, which was just ahead of this year's re-release of "ET" above.

Ronald was very happy. This achievement was especially rare for a small production of "Valley Girl." This movie, which cost only $700,000 to produce, couldn't even hold a premiere. . Basically, the box office in the first week can recoup the production cost.

After driving to the Atlantic Ocean, the whole office was busy. In the big office, people in the distribution department were busy making phone calls, trying to get more screenings for "Valley Girl" in movie theaters.

President Tom Coleman is in talks with "Valley Girls" director Martha Coolidge. Ronald sat outside in the lounge drinking tea.

"Hi, Martha." The door to the office opened, and Martha Coolidge walked out with a serious face. She nodded to Ronald and walked out without saying a word.

"Ronald, please come in." Tom Coleman invited Ronald in. Small companies still respect film directors who are successful or may be successful.

Probably because of the look on Ronald's face, President Tom Coleman took the initiative to explain, "We secured close to 500 theaters for Valley Girls, but Martha thinks there should be more."

"oh?"

"You know, the weekend box office for a single venue is US$4,200." Mr. President took out a cigarette, lit it and took a slow drag.

"Higher than Flashdance?" Ronald's first reaction was disbelief. He had also watched "Valley Girl" and could only say that it was a slightly funny and tender romantic comedy. The standard was above the passing mark. But not too much more.

"We're only showing in big cities in California and the East Coast, so it makes sense that the average box office results would be higher."

"Oh", Ronald also figured it out,

The audience of this movie is urban teenagers, and it is located in areas with open values ​​on the east and west coasts. There are some funny contents in the plot that audiences in inland areas may not understand, so the Atlantic Ocean has not been developed.

However, with such a high box office per theater, Atlantic's distribution strategy seemed too conservative, which was probably why director Coolidge was dissatisfied.

"Can't we add more distribution theaters?"

"It's difficult. We are a small distribution company. Generally speaking, theaters have signed distribution agreements with big companies, unless our movie box office far exceeds other competitors. But now the rankings are either big hits or Oscars. It’s not easy to adjust theater chains. Look at our total box office, we only rank eighth.”

Ronald nodded. He was here to discuss the release arrangements for "Night of the Comet" with the other party. He hoped that they had made money from "Valley Girl" this time and could sign more theaters when it was his turn.

"Actually, we are not a conservative company." Mr. President took a puff of cigarette. He was afraid that Ronald would not be satisfied either. "The main reason why we have not spread it on a large scale is because Martha Coolidge was sued. She The insistent title was 'Valley Girl', which happened to be the same as last year's top three hit song.

The creator of the song sued us, and just last month the court ruled that we were not in violation because we did not use that song as an episode. The court believed that the audience would not be confused between the name of the song and the movie.

However, this lawsuit has been delayed for a long time, and many theater chains were not very optimistic about us before, fearing that the ruling would be unfavorable to us. "

"Tom, where is My Night of the Comet? When are we going to release it and how many theaters will it be open in?" Ronald asked.

Tom Coleman pointed at Ronald and said, "Today I am going to discuss this plan with you." He took out a distribution plan and explained it to Ronald.

"Our expected revenue will be good. With this single theater revenue, it is expected that many cinemas will add additional screenings, so we estimate that the box office revenue can exceed 10 million. With this revenue, we can apply for a preferential loan from the bank, so we book At the opening time, we can find at least a thousand theaters."

"That's great," Ronald beamed. This number was much better than he had imagined.

"We give Valley Girls a month, and then the third weekend in May will be your 'Night of the Comet.' By the end of May, the summer season of Star Wars Episode VI and mid-June of 007 will begin to grab At the box office, we just found an opening to jump in.”

"Looking at the trend of Valley Girl in four weeks, it seems like it can still occupy a place on the box office list." Ronald thought to himself that it would be impossible to remove them all at once.

"It's hard to make a breakthrough. The market in big cities is limited, and the box office of teen comedy comedies in a single theater generally declines very quickly. Of course, we will adjust according to the situation. In short, we will try our best to ensure that your new film is at least We will use 700 stores to show your movie.”

Ronald was very happy. Atlantic had the money and could immediately expand the screening and make copies. After working hard for a long time, it’s time to finally meet the audience and decide the outcome by turning over the cards.

After finishing his work here, Ronald went to see Cameron again.

Gail is not a housewife type of woman and her house is a bit messy. Cameron sat alone at the table, typing away. The Commodity computer given to him by Ronald was displaying lines of text.

On the other side of the table, there is a typewriter with a stack of typed papers on it.

"What is this?" Ronald saw Cameron stop and picked up the paper curiously and asked him.

"This was a job that Gail found me. You know, 'Terminator' was delayed and I was broke, so I had to write scripts for the studio."

"Haha, me too." Ronald saw the title above was "Aliens", "Is this the sequel to Alien? Directed by Ridley Scott?"

"Yeah, they think it's time to start a sequel." Cameron saw that Ronald was taking it seriously. "What do you think? I typed it in two places specifically so that the two projects can be separated."

"I don't know, but the alien scenes are disgusting and terrifying. It's not easy for you to surpass them."

"It was exactly what I had in mind, so I titled the sequel Aliens, so that it could focus on the battle scenes, just like a hero constantly killing multiple aliens and rescuing humans."

"Combat plus horror?" Ronald thought, "It's really difficult to write a sequel. You have to take care of the characters of the original work and also write new ideas."

"What? Are you writing a sequel too?"

"Yes, a sequel to First Blood. I plan to let Rambo serve his time in prison, and then go to Vietnam to rescue the prisoners of war abandoned by America. But Rambo has PTSD in the original work, and he also has a very negative view of the government and the motherland. Why? I'm still trying to figure out how to make him change."

"Use love. Love heals wounds."

"That's right. I'll try to find a Vietnamese girlfriend for him. Let's exchange it after we finish writing."

"OK", Cameron returned to writing after taking a break.

"By the way, how are you finding your heroine?"

"Deborah Winger is interested and in talks."

"Oh, she's not bad. She's a good actress with a soft yet strong temper."

After bidding farewell to Cameron and returning home, Ronald finished writing the outline of the script for "First Blood 2" and submitted it to Stallone for review through Niceta. If agreed, Ronald could get the first payment, and then continue.

Unexpectedly, the next day, Niceta told him that the outline of the script had been rejected.

"Why? What's wrong?" Ronald completely expanded on the story given by Stallone.

"Sly said you spent too much time on Rambo's transformation, leaving him not enough time to fight in Vietnam."

"That's nonsense. At the beginning, Rambo is released from prison and goes to Vietnam to kill everyone? Then why not change the name and film it? How can the audience who watched the first part come around?"

Niceta glanced at Ronald, stood up and closed the door tightly, "I don't know, is it the reason for that incident?"

"Shxt! No way?" Ronald was shocked. Just because his brother failed to rape Cynthia Rhodes, he turned his anger on himself?

"I protested to Mr. Ovitz, but he was also very tough."

"Then forget it." If Stallone is dissatisfied with himself, then any modifications will be in vain. "At worst, if I sell some stocks, it's not like I can't survive."

"Don't say that, I got you a new screenwriting job." Niceta breathed a sigh of relief. When he went to Ovitz's office to protest in the morning, Ovitz scolded him and asked him to go back and think about Stallone. And Ronald, who can bring more profits to CAA. If Ronald insists, it will be difficult.

"Did I offend someone too much this time?" Ronald joked.

"Of course not," Niceta laughed, "On the contrary, he is your benefactor."

"It's Frank Price, the president of Columbia. He was the one who invested 350,000 yuan to buy your debut screenplay 'My Brother's Keeper'. Recently, he gave Universal a bargain by letting go of 'et Alien'. He was forced out of office by people from his new owner, Coca-Cola.

However, he will be able to stay in Colombia for another six months before officially leaving the job. No, there was another record company owner who wanted to get into the film industry and asked him to recommend candidates. Frank Price had you in mind considering the musical scripts you wrote for Stallone and RSO Records.

'My Brother's Keeper' ended up not being filmed, and he wanted to take care of things before leaving. "

"What's the price?"

"Two hundred thousand dollars, would you like to adapt a news story?"

"Do it, why not? Frank Price is very reliable in paying." Ronald rubbed his hands excitedly.

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