Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Yoram knew a little French. After watching the news on several TV stations, he translated for Minahan and Ronald. The two countries held negotiations today to discuss the issue of mutual opening of markets for the cultural industries of the two countries.

"Jack Long, the representative of the French Minister of Culture, and Jack Valenti, the president of the American Film Institute, held a pleasant meeting at the hotel and issued a joint communique.

The summit between the two Jacks seems to be developing into an annual event. Like last year, the two met at the Eden restaurant in the Hotel Du Cap, not far from here.

In the joint communiqué, Mr. Lang promised to carry out special operations to combat piracy, mainly video tapes, in Lanxi and to conduct international cooperation against this rampant illegal phenomenon. Mr. Valenti said he would do everything possible to help French films enter the United States.

The French newspaper Liberation called this communique the "Eden Armistice Agreement." The metaphor of an armistice is not an exaggeration.

Because just a few years ago, Mr. Long and Mr. Valenti had a heated argument over Mr. Valenti believes that China is pursuing trade protectionism against American films, which is inconsistent with the spirit of the cultural industry memorandum between the two countries under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. "

"So, China's import restrictions on Hollywood movies are about to be loosened." Minahan knows this very well, "Gah ga ga, our lucky moment has come. The market in China has opened its arms to us, so Belgium, Italy and Italy must also take off their pants obediently. Together with Britain, Germany, and Greece, who are making progress, we can conquer Europe in no time."

Minahan said as he loosened his belt and made a few obscene movements of thrusting his hips.

Soon, the three leading actors also came to Cannes urgently to build momentum for the screening of Break Dance.

They put on their costumes and started performing live in a makeshift screening tent on the beach in Cannes.

The trio practiced well in nightclubs on the east coast. Their ability to perform on the spot and mobilize the enthusiasm of the audience has improved a lot, and they have fascinated the girls in Lanxi.

The assistant who came with them reported to Minahan on the side.

"The box office for the third weekend was 5.2 million, down 17% from last week. The total box office has exceeded 23.4 million. Next week is the Memorial Day weekend, and more With one day off, I think we can still maintain the same level as this week.”

Minahan was delighted;

This timely good news means that after the screening, we have another powerful bargaining chip when negotiating prices and copy numbers with various Western European distribution companies.

He glanced at Ronald and found that he was chatting with the audience, so he pulled his assistant aside and asked, "After Memorial Day, how are the arrangements for Cannon's own theaters?"

"MGM expects to eliminate 200 theaters one month after the release. We have contacted privately with those theaters that have been eliminated, plus we have contacted second-round theaters, small town theaters, and old-fashioned theaters. We can make up a total of 600 mill theaters. We can also gradually take over the theaters that MGM abandons."

"Aww...aoww..."

"Break Dance" was temporarily renamed "Hot Dance", and the title subtitles at the beginning and end were changed as a matter of urgency. The audience watched the wonderful dance scene, and finally Michael Jackson appeared. The people in the country also started listening to his records, and when they saw the familiar voice, they excited the audience again.

Those sitting in the back row were mainly film distributors from Western European countries and East Asia. Seeing the audience's reaction, they didn't understand the power of "Hot Dance". They immediately stepped forward, surrounded Minahan and Yoram, and pulled them to ask for it. Go sign a contract.

Brother Israel took them all to the back of the tent, where assistants had prepared coffee and snacks, and there was a small door leading to the small tent next door.

Distributors in these large markets will not call out prices on the spot like movie buyers in small countries did two days ago. They entered the small tent one by one and negotiated individually with Yoram about the number of copies needed and the amount of copy money.

Ronald sat in the corner at the back, watching people come forward one by one, and then come out with smiles on their faces. He looked at Minahan who was smiling happily next to him and came out to call the next person. Ronald knew that they were making good progress.

At this moment, a young man wearing a T-shirt and running shoes ran over quickly, grabbed Minahan, and spoke hastily in his ear.

Minahan's expression changed and he quickly asked his assistant to block the door.

However, they were still a step late. Several men in suits and ties walked in, looked around, saw Minahan, and stepped forward and said:

"We are the lawyers of Orion Pictures. Your film has copied the name of Orion's Cannes screening film 'Hot Street Boys', which is an infringement. We have reached an agreement with the organizing committee that you cannot continue to sell it under the name of beat dance."

As he spoke, he flashed a notice in front of Minahan's eyes.

Minahan didn't expect Orion to show up like this. He didn't want to argue with customers in front of them, and wanted people to come into the small tent to discuss.

The visitor had no intention of discussing it privately. He took the notice and said to all the publishers in the tent:

"The movie Orion shot with the same theme is called beat street, and this guy's movie is called beat dance. We have reason to suspect that they are plagiarism.

We are launching legal action against them in America. Everyone, if you are here to buy a new dance-themed musical, I suggest you go to Orion. It will premiere in Cannes the day after tomorrow. "

Ronald couldn't help but stood up and watched the drama. It seems that Orion has discovered the name change of their movie and is trying to scare overseas distributors by confusing right and wrong.

The breakdancing craze has begun, and whoever can grab the first release will get most of the cake.

Ronald pulled over the young man who had just come in to report the news, "What's going on? When did they come?

"We were warned by Nike's distributors. They also represent Puma's products. We heard that Puma is going to join forces with Orion for joint marketing in Cannes."

When "Break Dance" was being filmed, Minahan approached Nike as a sponsor, and they provided shoes for everyone in the movie. The camera gave close-ups of that hook many times.

Puma has sponsored "Hot Street Kid", and two sports shoe manufacturers are also betting that the two movies will bring good publicity effects. So Cannon and Nike are standing in the same trench. A warning was sent to Minahan.

"Impossible!" Minahan was at odds with the Orion people in front, and said to the distributors in various countries, "Our break dance is also released in the United States one month ahead of yours. If you ask them, they are all experts. How can a movie released first plagiarize a movie released later?”

The following distributors began to talk to each other. In most of their countries, a movie requires more than a year of preparation and shooting. In terms of post-production time, you can't imagine that there will be a low-budget Hollywood exploitation film with Roger Corman released in a week. The weird thing about being able to make a movie? And the director of this film is his direct disciple?

"Then why is the name of your movie so similar to ours?" Orion's lawyer cited a strong evidence. On the promotional leaflet that Minahan modified, some of the original movie titles have not been crossed out, and it clearly says "breakin" "The English title of the film.

"Uh... uh..." Minahan's sweat dropped from his forehead. This is solid evidence that they did change the title to make their movie more similar to "The Kid."

In fact, Orion can't really do anything with the cannon, but now publishers in various countries have such a problem, it is short of breath after all.

If they have doubts about this and go to see Hot Street Boys, even if they choose Breakdance in the end because of the quality, the price may not be as good as the one negotiated now due to the competition between the two.

What's more, "Hot Street Boys" also has a long break dance performance, which may not be much inferior to the dance in "Break Dance".

"This gentleman", Ronald saw that Minahan couldn't think of a solution at once, so he stepped forward to replace him and face the Orion lawyer.

"Thank you for reminding us. This is a spelling mistake on our part." Ronald took the pen used to sign the contract from Minahan, circled it on the flyer, and crossed out the "beat" at the beginning. , and then replaced it with break.

In this way, he changed the title of the film to "break dance".

"In America, this dance is called breakin, which is a common name. But in other parts of the world, they don't understand that this is a dance name, so we added the word dance after it to remind America Audiences outside Liga, this is the name of a dance”.

Ronald gave a reasonable explanation.

"Yes, yes, the temporary staff we hired from the country were not familiar with English, so they mistakenly wrote break as beat." Minahan reacted and immediately explained to the dealers, "Our Cannon movie was the first to be released in It will be released in America and will be released first in Europe and Asia. We will reserve the right to use legal measures to fight back against your slander."

"Everyone, I directed Breakdancing. You have all watched it and seen the reaction of the audience. You don't need to guarantee that you know the potential of this movie. As for other people's movies with the same theme, I will not comment. You can see it with your own eyes." Ronald reviewed the audience's enthusiastic response to the publishers.

"Don't forget we in Oceania, we are from Australia! We also want to copy!"

A distributor from Australia doesn't care what the Orion entry is, and the film clearly has unlimited appeal to young audiences, so let's get started first. "

"Very good, I'll give you a discount," Minahan laughed and hugged the other person.

Soon, all the publishers began to negotiate with Yoram according to order.

When Orion's lawyer saw that his goal was not achieved, he put away the announcement and left.

"Ronald", Minahan called Ronald aside, "I owe you a big debt today. When I get back, I will share all the box office data with you, so that we will not have any problems in sharing.

Next month, We Cannon will also join the domestic distribution of ‘Break Dance’ and release it in second-tier theaters. Although the theater share we received is not as high as the first-month percentage negotiated by MGM, the film will obviously be screened for a long time, and it will be a considerable amount of revenue when calculated together.

Ask your team of lawyers and accountants to come to Yoram as soon as possible. We are good friends and I don’t want to have any conflicts with you over money matters. "

"That's great. I will do it. Thank you for letting me see the channels for developing overseas markets." Ronald felt that this trip to Cannes was a worthwhile trip.

"Did you tell Ronald?" After Yoram heard about Minahan's arrangement, he was surprised that Minahan would actually tell Ronald about the box office revenue that he wanted to hide secretly?

"He helped us a lot today. If he hadn't come up with that excuse, we would have lost more than half of our overseas distribution income. I can see clearly that Ronald is not only a director and artist, but also a business material.

He may become a big shot in the future, and I don’t want to offend him because of these small amounts of money. Besides, this way we can make a fortune together, and we may be able to retain room for future cooperation. "

"What you said makes sense. Anyway, through our own distribution channels, the box office share we get is not very high. Don't lose the big for the small."

"How many have we signed today?" Minahan asked.

"In addition to Britain and Greece, major countries on the European continent such as France, Italy, and Belgium have all paid deposits. In addition to Japan and Korea in Asia, a total of... a total of nearly 8 million contracts have been paid in copy money."

"So many?" Minahan was surprised.

"Yes, the North American box office performance in the first three weeks made these distributors very excited and took the initiative to order additional copies."

"This is the first time we have sold so many copies in Europe, right? This means that there will be more than two million moviegoers in a major country."

"There are also Japan and Korea. They also order a lot of copies."

"If you think about it this way, what Ronald earned for us is much more than what we paid him."

"Are there any countries that haven't ordered yet?"

"Among the major Western European countries, there are also West Germany and Spain. In addition, several Nordic countries are not active."

"It doesn't matter, let them see Orion's literary and artistic sentiments first, and then we will increase the price for them."

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