Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"There are not many people buying tickets for Longwei Boy." Producer Weintraub worriedly watched the flow of people at the ticket office.

Ronald and Weintraub were watching the box office performance of "The Kid" on its first day outside the cinema on the fourth floor of Sherman Oaks Department Store in Los Angeles. The department store where Ronald filmed two movies has become a standard sampling point for him to watch on-site reactions.

Weintraub's money was spent on on-site marketing and expanding the scale of screenings. After the two discussed it, they did not hold any more irrelevant premieres. Anyway, this movie doesn’t have any stars, so it’s hard to attract reporters and make headlines.

"Ghostbusters," "Gremlins," and "The Raiders" are still the three most popular movies. Ronald counted secretly beside him, and the number of people watching these three movies was probably even. The number of people who choose to watch "Long Wei Boy" is almost half of them.

"It's okay. I've said it before. The first-day box office of a movie depends on marketing, and the rest depends on word-of-mouth." Ronald was beside him, encouraging Weintraub and himself.

"You're right, our reputation is better than..." Weintraub wanted to say that his movie was better than those three movies, but when he thought about it, he felt a little bit self-deceiving, so he swallowed it without saying anything.

This year's summer season is very strange, with the release of two super dark horses, "Ghostbusters" and "Gremlins." The reason why they can succeed in the box office war is also because of their good reputation, otherwise they shouldn't be called dark horses. I really don’t have the confidence to defeat them with word of mouth.

Especially for "Ghostbusters", the average box office per theater did not decrease in the second week of its release, but increased. The number of screening theaters was immediately increased by 200, bringing the total to 1,500. Everyone knows that this is the posture of a super dark horse.

Weintraub wanted to say that they were deceiving themselves and others by imagining that "Dragon Boy" could get good results under the attack of three masterpieces. As long as they could get a good result, they would be able to explain.

But seeing how confident Ronald was, he held back his bad judgment and refrained from speaking out. After all, it was his first real experience as a producer.

The movie starts right away, with Weintraub finishing his Pepsi and throwing the cup into the trash. He winked at Ronald, and the two of them entered the theater together without talking about the box office predictions.

The movie started playing, and because it was a feature film, the audience was immersed in the plot, and no one exclaimed like they did when "Break Dance" was shown.

Daniel and his mother drove from New Jersey to Los Angeles. They moved into an apartment,

I met Master Miyagi and asked him to repair the faucet.

The audience remained silent, and Weintraub couldn't tell whether they were fascinated or just not interested in the plot. He was a little nervous and started to clench his hands and look around.

Daniel met the beautiful Ali on the beach, and the two fell in love at first sight. Ali took the initiative to let Daniel teach him to play football.

Then Ali's ex-boyfriend Johnny taught Daniel a lesson. Daniel practiced karate in the apartment to take revenge. Master Miyagi was noncommittal after seeing it.

On Halloween, Daniel dressed up as a shower ring to attend a masquerade party. Ali recognized him telepathically, and the two embraced in the shower curtain.

Not hearing the reaction he expected from the audience, Weintraub's hands turned white from the exertion. He couldn't help it anymore, picked up the drink beside him and drank it.

"Hey, Jerry, that's my Coke." Ronald also went to get a drink, got an empty one, and couldn't help complaining.

The audience in front turned back and glared, thinking they were too noisy.

"Sorry," Ronald said with a wink, and the two quietly slipped out of their seats and went to the lounge at the door.

"You're too nervous, Jerry." Ronald went to the snack counter and bought a pack of cigarettes. He took out one and handed it to Weintraub, then lit it for him with a disposable plastic lighter and took it himself. Smoke one.

"I was inside and my heart was about to jump out of my chest. Why didn't the audience react?"

Weintraub smoked a cheap cigarette that he usually disdained and took a long puff.

"They were so absorbed in watching it, which I think is a good sign. It shows that the plot of the movie affects their curiosity. Didn't you see the look of disgust that the audience gave after they were disturbed by us?"

Ronald also blew out a puff of smoke. He never smokes normally, he only smokes to relieve stress when writing scripts.

"You're right." Weintraub hurriedly finished his cigarette, went to the counter and bought two packs of chocolate beans, and gave one pack to Ronald.

"Don't worry, it's too late to modify the copy now anyway." Ronald joked.

"Why!"

It was obvious that the joke had been made at the wrong time, and Weintraub was even more worried now.

"Did we fail?" he asked suddenly.

"Where do you start with this?" Ronald opened the package and ate two chocolates.

"No, this is not your fault. I am not complaining about you." Weintraub nervously tore the packaging of mm chocolate. "This is Columbia's mistake in scheduling the release."

"They didn't know Ghostbusters and Gremlins could be so popular. We've tried our best to avoid Raiders and Star Trek," Ronald advised. In fact, the worst one was "Hot Street Boys," whose box office He was the one who was hit hard. It is expected to be offline in three weeks.

"Hey..." Weintraub couldn't listen to Ronald's advice. He had completely fallen into a cycle of self-denial.

"Maybe we spent too much time on useless plot points. Did we move the story too slowly?"

"That's not the case. I think the audience is very engaged in watching it. Didn't you notice that no one came out to use the bathroom in Hall 4 where 'Long Wei Boy' was played for such a long time?"

"Yes...this is a good sign." Weintraub relaxed a little.

"Um, are these two audience members coming out of Hall 4? They have to go to the bathroom." Before he finished speaking, Weintraub pointed at a young couple, and the two quickly walked to the bathroom.

"It's over, they came out to use the bathroom." Weintraub put the cigarette into his mouth with trembling hands, and the end of the cigarette glowed red when he smoked hard.

"It doesn't matter, there are not many people, and they are all impatient to go back." Ronald explained. The boy waited until the girl reached her, took her hand and hurried inside.

Seeing how nervous the other party was, Ronald led Weintraub to the pizza shop opposite, and ordered two Cokes, a small pizza, and a pair of chicken wings from the clerk wearing a red and white arrow-striped shirt.

"Eat some first and don't be nervous. I think the audience's reaction is very positive."

"Is it because few people go to the bathroom?" Weintraub picked up the Pepsi again and took a swig.

"Yes, I generally use this to measure the appeal of the plot to the audience. Obviously they are not willing to miss any part of the plot."

"Thank you," Ronald took the chicken wings from the waitress and started eating them himself.

"Perhaps we should listen to Columbia and cut out the scene where Mr. Miyagi recalls the 442nd Infantry Regiment. This way we can compress thirty minutes and allow the cinema to schedule one more scene."

Ronald was defeated by Weintraub, a man who was very chatty while waiting for the cards to be turned over at the gaming table.

It's actually not that bad. He thought to himself that even if he competes with three powerful films, he is confident that he can stand out.

Ronald said nothing and handed Weintraub another cigarette.

"Maybe I'm too nervous. We haven't lost yet." Weintraub finally blocked his mouth with cigarettes, took the pizza, and started chewing.

"How much box office do you think we can get in the end? The release is six to eight weeks, and the average is four million. Is it possible to exceed 30 million?" Weintraub began to worry again.

But this time, his worries are not random. Generally speaking, the box office is the highest in the first week of release. According to today's attendance and publicity, it is about 5 million, and then it decreases every week, and it is released for six to eight weeks. , which is already above the industry average.

"Like I said, the opening of the movie determines the box office on the first day, and then it depends on word of mouth." Ronald knocked on the table, he was not sure, "I think we should be able to stay in the theater For more than eight weeks.”

Weintraub also knew that asking any more questions would be disrespectful to Ronald. The two of them faced each other in silence, eating pizza in silence.

"How do your wife Jane and Susan get along?" Ronald broke the silence. He was very curious and admired Weintraub's ability to live a monogamous life with one wife and one concubine.

"I'm living a life of a separate person now. Although Jane lets Susan go to her house during festivals, they still don't talk to each other at ordinary times. I can only take care of both ends and work hard on my own."

Weintraub shook his head, "Who made me fall in love with the two of them, Ronald, you must not make the same mistake as me in the future."

The two sat in the pizza shop for a long time. Weintraub never dared to go back and see the audience's real reaction, so he could only wait here.

"Ouch..." A faint cry came from the theater opposite.

"Where is it? Is it our Hall 4?" Weintraub stood up with a shudder, holding the railings with both hands and looking across. His joy was beyond words, and he had already poked his head out from the railing.

"It seems so." Ronald also stood up. He raised his wrist and looked at the newly purchased electronic watch. The numbers showed that this "Longwei Boy" has been played for one hour and fifty-five minutes.

"Maybe it was the last crane kick." Ronald guessed.

"Come on, let's go take a look." Weintraub hurriedly took out a handful of bills and placed them on the table. He pulled Ronald and ran along the aisle to the door of the screening room opposite, waiting for the audience to leave.

During the outro of Joe Esposito's "You're the Best," the audience began to walk out in twos and threes.

A few young people at the beginning started walking and making karate moves from the movie.

"Oh, yeah!" A boy wearing a T-shirt raised his hand and hit his companion with a "wall-scrubbing" move.

"Kick sweeper!" Not to be outdone, another young man squatted down and responded with a despicable move from the Cobra Dojo, "Prepare a body bag!"

"They are all lines from the movie, they are all lines from the movie," Weintraub was excited. He grabbed Ronald's sleeve tightly and shook it.

"Karate is here, not on the belt." Another older man began to imitate Master Miyagi's lines and taught the two companions a lesson.

"Waxing style! Floor style!" The two were unconvinced and began to fight around him.

Ronald also let out a heavy breath. It seemed that the effect was really good, and young people also liked to watch it.

"Uncle, uncle!"

A voice started screaming strangely behind him, and Ronald looked back. He is a man in a suit and tie, who looks like a senior office worker, and wears a pair of gold-rimmed glasses.

He stood on one foot and then began to imitate the "crane kick" that Daniel used to defeat Johnny in the end.

"Uncle", he didn't know how to use force and imitated it badly, but he still enjoyed it.

"We are saved." Ronald pulled Weintraub and pointed out the white-collar worker to him.

"What did you say?"

"I said our box office is guaranteed," Ronald pointed at the white-collar worker who bumped past. There were several people nearby who were imitating crane kicks with him.

"Why?" Weintraub looked at them blankly.

Ronald smiled slightly. These were not the target customers of the movie, but those high-end white-collar workers who were very particular about their clothes and demeanor.

Even this kind of audience has begun to imitate the crane kick, which means that the whole story is very convincing. Not only teenagers, but also adults will be moved and think of the past in high school, right?

Unlike "break dancing", it was an epoch-making dance that no one had ever seen. Most of the audience's craziness was brought about by that kind of dance.

Audiences have already seen a lot of martial arts movies like "The Dragon King".

Starting with the original Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon," there have been martial arts movies released over the years. The audience has seen much more exciting fights than this "Crane Kick".

This time they were crazy about this action, obviously not out of admiration for the martial arts action itself, but because the story really moved them.

"I think your box office target can be greatly improved by one notch. We will not fail."

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