Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Exploiting Hollywood 1980 Text Volume Chapter 90: Raising Investment for New Films Ronald, Hogan, and Linda went to Blockbuster Video to see the sales of the first "Crocodile Dundee" movie.

The two of them couldn't wait for Little Bud to drive over, so Ronald had to walk with them across three streets to a newly opened chain store on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan.

This is a downtown area with a lot of people. Many of the people visiting the video store at this time are white-collar workers working nearby and those visiting New York. The new store has a large area, and right at the entrance is an advertisement for Ronald's Dirty Dancing, with a human figure of Patrick Schwytz and Jennifer Gray embracing.

Ronald put on his sunglasses and entered the store with two friends. Paul Hogan also tried his best to cover up, not wearing his signature crocodile leather jacket and wearing a pair of glasses. He also doesn't want to be recognized by fans on the road, otherwise the purpose of coming will be defeated.

"Do you have 'Crocodile Dundee' here?" Ronald asked the clerk at the counter when he came in.

"It's in the best-seller selection, right next to the door."

The three of them came to the pile of video tapes pointed by the clerk. On the shelf facing the entrance, they were all the best-selling and rental video tapes. Ronald's "Dirty Dancing" and "Top Gun" are both prominently featured, and "Crocodile Dundee" also features prominently.

"Are these movies new?" Ronald asked the clerk as he took samples of three movies.

"Um... Dirty Dancing is no longer available. If you don't mind, you can buy the version we rented, which is cheaper."

"Forget it, just Crocodile Dundee and Top Gun. Come and wrap up two new boxes for us." Ronald said to him.

"In the action movie place, you go get it yourself and come and pay."

Ronald saw that business was still going well. The clerk behind the cash register was still dealing with a few customers queuing up to rent movies and had no time to help them.

"How are the sales of these movies? I want to entertain my friends to watch them when they come over on the weekend. Isn't it unpopular?"

"Of course, these are some of the best-selling ones in our store..."

"What about leasing? Are there many people renting it?"

"There are a lot of them. Buying and leasing are synchronized. The ones that rent more will sell more."

I took the two packed boxes of video tapes,

Ronald, Hogan and Linda went out, "It seems that there is indeed a problem with the sales statistics. Do you have a lawyer or accounting firm in America? I think Paramount needs some audit work."

Ronald chuckled. Is this the attitude Paramount has towards Australian country bumpkins? Nor are they afraid of Mr. Crocodile Dundee's anger.

"Do you mind if I ask about the sales volume of your Dirty Dancing video?" Paul Hogan and Linda exchanged a few words, obviously looking anxious. They felt they must have been cheated by Paramount, but they didn't know to what extent. I had no foundation in America, so I had to ask Ronald for advice.

"I don't know the latest sales figures, last month they told me they had exceeded one million boxes." Ronald knew that Paul Hogan wanted to use it to compare the sales of his own movie Dirty Dancing. After all, both videos are best-seller hits.

In fact, Ronald was not completely telling the truth. One month after its release, the Dirty Dancing video had already sold over one million copies. This speed has set a record, even faster than "Top Gun". As of today, the sales of video tapes are actually close to two million. Ronald didn't want too many people to know this kind of business figure, so he only gave Paul Hogan an order of magnitude concept. They could all check it out themselves anyway. .

"To be honest, these vampires are really outrageous." Paul Hogan said an Australian slang in anger. "Do you know any good lawyers? I have to let them, Stanley Jaffe, know that Mr. Crocodile will not be deceived so miserably."

Stanley Jaffe is a vice president of Paramount. He and Shirley Lansing also have an independent production company. They produced the movie "Fatal Attraction" that lost the Oscar to Cher. of.

These two people are smart. When Lansing was the president of 20th Century Fox, Jaffe focused his main energy on independent production. When Lansing lost his job, Jaffe focused more on Paramount, and Shirley Lansing was responsible for the Jaffe-Lansing Production Company.

These two Jews, balancing the roles of studio executives and independent producers, have a very Jewish style of play. As long as the two of them continue to produce films like The Kramers and Fatal Attraction, the big studios really won't do anything to them.

"You could go to Mickey Kantor, the most famous person in the Los Angeles entertainment industry, we all call him Grey-Eyed Mickey, and you wouldn't want him on your opponent's legal team."

Of course, Ronald did not introduce his personal lawyer to him, but instead found Mitch, who was familiar with the entertainment business. Anyway, Mitch Kanter, who is also Jewish, would not mind giving Jaffe money as long as it was consistent with professional ethics and God's will. And stabbed Lansing in the back.

"Hello, are you Crocodile Dundee?" A young and beautiful woman came up and interrupted the conversation between Ronald and Hogan.

"To be honest, I am. But don't push yourself. If you want autographs and photos, we will do it alone. Don't attract crowds." Paul Hogan's popularity in America may be higher than that in his hometown of Australia. The only problem is that fans only seem to call him Crocodile Dundee.

"My work place is right across the street. If you don't mind, you can go to my place and sit and rest for a while. It's a gallery. There aren't many customers at this time, so it's very quiet."

The beautiful woman pointed to the opposite side with a smile. It was a modern art gallery.

Opposite this Blockbuster on Sixth Avenue is the famous Chelsea neighborhood. There are many high-end galleries and customized luxury goods stores here. It has always catered to clients from the upper class who are either rich or noble. So the store clerk is also very polite and doesn't scream when he comes up like ordinary fans.

Both Hogan and Linda signed autographs for the beautiful shop assistant and took photos together. Then enjoyed coffee. Ronald was not recognized and looked at the paintings on the wall.

"This style is so familiar..." Ronald recognized a set of prints that looked like soup cans sold in supermarkets. They were Andy Warhol's works of which he had collected several pieces.

"Campbell's Soup Can," Ronald recognized the logo on the painting. "Is this really a soup can sold in a supermarket?"

"Yes, many of Andy Warhol's works are in the style of product packaging. The concept of pop art is to use popular culture and objects in daily life as the subject of art, emphasizing the artist's focus on consumer culture and A challenge to popular culture..."

"How much does this one cost?" Ronald interrupted his long speech. He only cared about the few paintings he bought not to depreciate too much.

"Sotheby's Auction House recently sold a set of 32 Campbell's Soup cans, with a total price of US$220,000..." The beautiful clerk was very familiar with it and quoted the price.

"Isn't that less than ten thousand dollars?" Ronald frowned. When he bought it, he wanted another twenty thousand dollars. "Forget it, the ones I have at home are bigger than this..."

"That set is a combination of paintings of soup cans of different flavors. The price of selling them individually is cheaper. If you need to know more..." The beautiful clerk also went to get an introduction material.

"No, no need..." Ronald left anxiously. What a thing, less than half a year after buying it, it had depreciated by more than half.

…

"They went too far and concealed so many sales. Mickey Kanter is a well-known tough lawyer in the industry and a hard-ball player. This time Jaffe is in some trouble."

The Australian Cowboys moved quickly. Just after the weekend, Ronald heard the news from his agent Niceta. Although exploiting foreign artists is a common practice in Hollywood. However, this movie, which sold more than 300 million yuan, has a very exaggerated video sales volume.

Grey-Eyed Mickey's lawyer's letter, plus now that the sequel is about to be released, and not wanting to cause any negative publicity, Jaffe and Lansing have to spit out some of the profits they originally wanted to sneak into their own pockets.

Ronald smiled broadly and didn't mind making trouble for the Jews at the top of the studio.

"How do you know this gossip?" Niceta has a sensitive nose.

"When they came to New York, they asked me to watch the sequel to Crocodile and told me some problems with Paramount..." Ronald believed that Niceta could guess the truth from it. Don't admit this kind of thing to anyone, even on the phone.

"You said you were looking for me?" Ronald brought the topic back to the original intention of Niceta's call.

"Sybil Shepherd" replied Niceta.

"What is she looking for me for?" Ronald asked curiously.

"Remember how Bruce Willis in Die Hard was scheduled? His co-star in the Blue Moonlight TV series, Sybill Shepherd, had given birth and recovered and was able to continue filming the TV series.

But a writers' strike has left her without filming, and the new season will almost certainly be postponed. She is now looking for scripts everywhere and wants to take the opportunity to make a movie.

Nowadays, not many film projects have been approved by the Screenwriters Guild, so when she heard that you planned to invest in a film, she found CAA and wanted to cooperate with you. "

"Huh?" Ronald remembered that in order to let Bruce Willis come to film Die Hard, it seemed that he had promised Sybil Shepard a favor.

"I only invested three million in this movie, why is she also interested?" Ronald felt funny. Sybil Shepard was not the darling of Hollywood like she was when she was with Peter Bogdanovich, but she was also The heroine of a popular TV series would not come to film this kind of...

"No, she wants to increase investment?"

Ronald knew that he had gone astray. It was obvious that Shepard had taken a fancy to the role in the script, so he wanted to participate. As for the budget, it could always be increased.

"I have no objection, there are only two conditions. First, Emile Adolino wants to be the director, and this is the opportunity I give him. Second, Sybil Sheppard does not want to change the script..."

"Now she can't change even if she wants to. The union is still on strike..."

"Oh, that's right. As long as Emil remains the director. As for her wanting to increase investment, my daydream will have priority in dividends."

"She wants to meet you once and convince you to become a director."

…

"Ronald, I love the touch of women in your film. I was also fascinated by the character in this film. I felt that Colleen Jeffries was myself..."

Soon, Sybil Shepherd met with Ronald under the arrangement of CAA.

She recovered well after giving birth to twins, and is one of the few white actresses who doesn't look too old. However, when it comes to excitement, the veins on her hands still reveal her age of thirty-eight.

Ronald looked at the female star whose time had passed, listened to her talk for a long time, and already understood most of her thoughts.

After thirty-five, beautiful female celebrities enter a very embarrassing age group. Especially an actor known for his beauty. How amazing it was in "Taxi Driver" back then, how embarrassing it is now.

She still instinctively wants to play a beautiful woman and fall in love with a beautiful boy on the screen. But at this age, I have gradually become able to play the role of a mother. Once a Hollywood actress plays a mother, she has to keep acting until she plays a grandmother, and she can no longer receive scripts for heroines.

This love affair in the afterlife happens to have a very special plot. At the beginning, Colleen Jeffries was still a fiancée. When the plot progressed to the point where her dead fiancé was reincarnated and fell in love with her daughter, she had become a middle-aged mother.

But the plot allowed her to develop a relationship with her daughter's boyfriend, especially when the male protagonist finally convinced Colleen that he was the reincarnation of her fiancé.

Such a movie, which can play both a young and beautiful girl and a middle-aged and beautiful mother, can allow the audience to seamlessly connect with the key changes in Sybil Shepherd's acting career.

"I'd love to challenge myself and play a young girl in a movie, and the mother of a grown girl. I'm very confident..."

"I will not be a director. I am still busy editing my last movie. Emile is a great director. My Dirty Dancing has a lot of his contribution in choreography. You see many classic love relationships between the male and female protagonists. Emil helped arrange the scene."

Ronald declined Sybill Shepherd's idea to direct it himself, as this was a work for Emile to practice.

"Since you praise him so much, I think he must be a very good director." Sybil Shepherd said a lot about his understanding of performance, but Ronald was unmoved. Hey, could it be that the charm that fascinated all the men in the crew back then is gone forever?

"Then when it is officially confirmed that I will play the leading role, how much budget will be invested? I have never made such a small-budget movie." Shepard gave in, after all, scripts are rare at this time. She was willing to lower her salary a bit to appear in a movie funded by Ronald's company, but the budget would have to increase.

"That depends on the efforts of our Daydream production department and the recognition of the film's current cast by several major studios." What Ronald actually wants to say is that it depends on Shepard's current performance. How many people have sold their accounts?

Her moment as a movie star was undoubtedly long past. Since entering the 1980s, she has not acted in a theatrical film.

But as a TV star, she is now quite popular. Ronald wasn't sure how much appeal a TV star would have if he jumped back to act in movies.

The investment in a movie actually has a lot to do with the star who plays the leading role. If an A-level star stars, it will be impossible to use the shooting standards of B-level movies. All technical personnel, equipment, and framing must be upgraded.

If this movie, with Shepard on board, no longer has a budget of at least seven million, then the point of making it will be lost.

Now the production department of Daydream is facing this embarrassing problem. David Simkins asked around the circle, and Sybil Shepherd's appeal was neither too high nor too low, just stuck on the line. No one from the major studios was willing to spend more than five million in additional budget.

Movie distribution costs are getting more and more expensive these days. The distribution and promotion expenses for a medium-sized production worth 10 million yuan and a large-scale production worth 30 million yuan are almost the same.

Or spend three million to make a small production and take the cheap guerrilla distribution route. Either it would cost more than 10 million to produce and follow the regular army distribution route. The 8 million calories are neither high nor low, which is very uncomfortable.

"If you don't increase the budget..." Simkins suggested to Ronald, "We will have to shelve this project. Wait until Sybil goes back to shoot Blue Moonlight before we start it." Simkins actually hopes that the project will be promoted, so that He can recommend more new scripts, which will also be good for his own influence.

"Safe operation also has the benefit of safe operation, otherwise a movie would put too much pressure on us. It is necessary to stick to the original investment figures."

Later, Michel Cannold was not very insistent on giving the green light. In his opinion, the return on investment for this kind of movie is actually not as good as five small productions.

"The appeal of female stars is still not comparable to that of male stars." Ronald had no choice but to sign the report. He could not directly go to Sybil Shepherd and tell her that it was not worth investing an extra two million.

"Your phone number..." Cannold answered the phone and handed it to Ronald.

"Ronald, someone is willing to invest in your love in the next life. The investment starts from an additional ten million, without any additional requirements."

"Who is it? I can't direct this film," Ronald thought to himself. Is there anyone who thinks so highly of me?

"Those from Samsung Pictures said it was a direct instruction from the superiors of the parent company to give your project the green light."