Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Night of the Comet" grossed more than $5.5 million in its first week, Ronald heard the news on Sunday. Some more screening theaters were added in the middle of the week, and the average box office per theater for the week has reached 5,000.

This result was far beyond Atlantic's expectations. In the few days of the week, the box office did not drop much compared to the first weekend. This indicates that the film has a good reputation and is likely to do well at the box office in the second weekend. Will last longer than the first weekend.

This kind of box office trend made Ronald's second directorial work a sleeping beauty-like box office structure (sleeping hit). If Atlantic could invest more marketing dollars and get more screenings, the potential for the opening weekend could be more than that.

But this is all hindsight. I chose Atlantic City in the first place because they were the only ones who believed that I could film science fiction subjects well.

"Your performance has attracted the attention of Mr. Ovitz. Someone from the seven major studios has also taken the initiative to contact CAA. Your choice for the third film will be much wider." Agent Niceta was in the office , said to Ronald.

"Of course that's very good." Ronald was happy. A person's status in the industry is often determined by his past history.

“In the film industry, because of the huge difference in box office, practitioners often have a roller coaster experience.

For example, you are familiar with director Peter Bogdanovich, a former Oscar Best Director and Best Screenplay nominee. Since he failed to find a distributor for his girlfriend Stratten's posthumous work "They All Laughed", he has Five hundred thousand was spent to buy the distribution rights of the film.

Then Peter used his production company to independently distribute the film. After spending three million US dollars, Bogdanovich was on the verge of bankruptcy and was now wandering around major film companies, hoping to take on another directorial project to earn more money. Money pays debts. "

Niceta said to Ronald.

"Is it so miserable?"

"Yes, he just left caa. He is a little desperate now. I think his mansion will be replaced soon."

As Niceta answered, she took out a black envelope from the drawer and threw it over.

"This is an invitation to the premiere of Star Wars - Return of the Jedi. It's from Lucasfilm. It seems that George Lucas is also very optimistic about you." Niceta invited Ronald to come to CAA for an interview this time. Mainly It's better to give him this invitation letter.

"It's a pity that Helen is not here." Ronald took out the invitation letter from the envelope, a large black letter, and folded it in half. There was a red "Return of the Jedi" logo on the cover. Ronald opened it and found a premiere ticket and a T-shirt inside.

The navy blue T-shirt also has the words "Return of the Jedi". It seems that Lucasfilm hopes that everyone attending the premiere will wear T-shirts.

"Thursday at eight o'clock?" Ronald looked at the time on the invitation.

"Yes, you are the first lucky ones among all Californians to see "Return of the Jedi." All other movie theater audiences have to wait until early morning to watch the midnight show.

"All movie theaters?"

"Yes, almost all the movie theaters filming that day were given to Return of the Jedi. After all, it is the much-anticipated finale of the Star Wars trilogy."

"I have to make a call and ask." Ronald looked solemn, picked up the phone and called the president of Atlantic Pictures.

"Tom, I heard that starting from Thursday, all California movie theaters will be showing Return of the Jedi? What about our movie?"

"It doesn't start on Thursday, but on Thursday. Our movie schedule will resume from Friday, but the number of screenings will be greatly squeezed. There is no way around it, Ronald. When the weekend is over, we will start next week It will be released in theaters, and it will be compressed, unless the quality of 'Return of the Jedi' is not as good as expected, but that's Lucas."

"Okay, how low will it probably go?"

"We are fighting for it, but there is Star Wars at the top, and "Flashdance" at the bottom, which has never seen a box office decline, so we are not very optimistic. The number of theaters showing it may have to be reduced to less than 900."

"Okay, okay. No, I'm not angry. There's nothing we can do about it. Who let us encounter this Big Mac?"

Ronald put down the phone, still a little unwilling to accept that such a good movie was gaining momentum. Who would have thought "Star Wars" would have such a huge appeal in theaters?

Fortunately, I still have a weekend and a midweek where I can make a lot of money at the box office.

Monday soon arrived, and the box office results for the second weekend were tallied. Compared with the first week, the weekend box office was almost unchanged, still a little over 3.5 million US dollars. Atlantic also transferred some theaters from "Valley Girl", bringing the total to 968 theaters.

The scary thing is that the box office of "Flashdance" in its sixth weekend did not decline but rebounded a bit. It just surpassed "Night of the Comet" by hundreds of thousands of dollars, pushing Ronald's movie to fourth place.

"How did they do it?" Ronald looked at the box office data on the "Hollywood Report". "Flashdance" did not increase the number of theaters showing this week. In the sixth weekend of its release, it suddenly exceeded the fifth week. More than half a million, things are picking up again.

Ronald thought for a while and called producer Don Simpson. Compared to the fact that he had helped him so much, he should be able to explain the reason.

"Ah ha, Ronald, you are the fourth person to call me today and ask about this matter. You are very sharp." Don Simpson answered with a yawn at almost noon, as if he had just woken up.

"Who are the first two?"

"Michael Eisner from Paramount, Katzenberg, and Michael Ovitz, the president of CAA. No one else has my number, hahaha."

"Then what's the reason? Have you done any marketing? It doesn't seem like it." Ronald asked.

"I'm telling you the 100 percent truth without discounting," Don Simpson seemed to be blowing his nose on the other end of the phone. "The only extra thing we did last week was release the tape."

Ronald hung up the phone and began to think about this problem. The seven major Hollywood studios spent a huge amount of money and influence to prevent video recorders from becoming popular in America. Who knew that "Flashdance" would be released on video while the movie was still in theaters, which would in turn boost the box office? Growth is really an unexpected thing.

The only answer is that many viewers who watched the video tape chose to watch it again on the big screen in the cinema. They believe that the effect of watching it in a movie theater is much better than watching it on a small TV at home.

Invisibly, the videotape became a propaganda channel. Anyway, most of the customers who bought or rented the video cassette watched it with their family and friends. They thought it would be better to go to the cinema and buy a ticket to see a better screen effect. In the end, one video cassette brought several moviegoers.

"Ring, ring, ring..." The ringing of the phone interrupted Ronald's thinking.

Ronald picked up the phone. It was Aunt Karen calling him.

"Ronnie, you haven't called your aunt for a long time. Aunt misses you."

"My bad, aunt. I've been busy with the movie release these past few weeks. By the way, did you and Donna go see it?"

"Donna went to see it and said you did a great job and Comet did a great job. But that's not my cup of tea. I just want to see movies that reflect family life."

"Okay, aunt, you know, I'm only twenty-three years old this year. When I get older, I will definitely make a family-themed movie. Then we can watch it together."

"Of course, of course, you are a good boy. I am waiting for that day, but if your film career succeeds or fails in the future, you promised me that you must go back and get a university degree..."

Ronald chatted with his aunt for a while, feeling very happy. The family was still thinking about him. His aunt must have known that the new movie was released, so she called her to congratulate her. Next time, Richard should remember to remind himself that he must call his family before the new movie is released.

Ronald continues writing work on a new karate-themed film.

After chatting with Vidal for several days, Ronald gradually came up with an idea. Let the villain, the boy who bullies the protagonist Danny, be also a karate practitioner.

And what he practices is the kind of karate moves that focus on fierce attacks without leaving any baseline. That's why Danny was afraid of him, didn't dare to resist, and was unable to resist.

In the end, Danny found a Japanese teacher, and finally learned the Goju-ryu method, defended and counterattacked, and defeated the villain.

Instead of actively attacking your enemies, learn skills and wait for others to bully you before you fight back. This is also in line with the Eastern philosophy of Goju-ryu. Learning martial arts is to prevent bad people from attacking you, not to attack others.

Ronald felt that this story had a deeper content than the one he originally wrote. The competition between the two is not just a competition between two boys for a girl, but a competition between two philosophies, two methods, and two wisdoms.

One is the traditional American preemptive strike, relying on force to attack those who are inferior to themselves. The other is traditional Chinese wisdom, which is to strike before others strike, focus on doing your own thing well, and practice martial arts in order not to be attacked by others.

This way, the story's contradictions can have another dimension. The masters of the two protagonists are actually competing, not directly, but to see who can teach a better apprentice. This kind of structure can add a lot of dramatic conflicts and emotional experiences.

"Tony, let me tell you a story. A kid transferred to Los Angeles to attend high school. He met a beautiful girl in school and the two had a crush on each other."

Ronald went to his usual hair salon and asked his hairstylist Tony to tell his story. Ordinary listeners are not like professional screenwriters. They listen to your story from an appreciative perspective. If it's not funny, they won't listen, and Ronald will know where improvements need to be made.

Tony kept responding to Ronald's stories with a yes, and sometimes asked a few questions.

"Danny found a teacher, he was Japanese. He taught him the philosophy of Goju-ryu karate, which is to use both attack and defense to eliminate and attack."

"What?" Tony didn't know why and continued to look at Ronald in the mirror and trim his hair.

"It's just attack and defense, just use one move."

"How is it possible? When you hit someone with your fist, they will have an opportunity to hit you."

"That's it, just turned around like this."

"Oh, don't move, don't move, I will break it if you do this."

"Okay, okay," Ronald ended the story in defeat. It seems that we have to find a way to tell this journey of learning the art and the Eastern wisdom philosophy of karate in a way that ordinary audiences can understand.

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