Exploiting Hollywood 1980

What Ronald wanted to buy were two types of movies including movies starring several female friends. One type is a romance film, and the other is a large-scale adventure action film.

Including "the legend of billie jean" starring Helen Slater, "streets of fire" starring Diane, and "some kind of" starring Leigh Thompson wonderful)".

The box office of these movies is average, but for a long time, when people like Diane and Helen are recognized on the street, there is a certain chance that their performances in them will be mentioned.

Therefore, Ronald had to suspect that it was not that the quality of the finished films was poor, but that there were loopholes in the marketing efforts and they failed to find audiences who liked watching such films.

The video copyrights of these movies were purchased from the studios, probably because they were not good at the box office and did not require a lot of money to do so. Daydream just needed to test the theory of distribution director Michelle Cannold. The market for video tapes wanted romantic movies, or action movies that were more exciting than what was shown on TV.

Mickey Kent looked at the list given by Ronald. The seven major film distributors include Paramount, Columbia/TriStar, and Universal. He smiled and said, "Don't expect too high. These people would rather let the copies lie in the warehouse." , it’s better than losing money by releasing a video tape. But once someone is willing to bid to buy it, that’s another story. They will definitely raise the price as a result of their work performance.”

"Then let me circle some key points for you. I hope to get these movies. Even if the price is a little higher, it doesn't matter. The rest depends on whether the price is right." Ronald used a pen to circle a few key movies on the list. come out.

"That's good, so they don't know which ones we are really buying."

Gray-eyed Mickey left with a new mission, and Michelle Cannold stayed behind to continue the discussion with Ronald.

"Tell me why you are so confident in these two types of films." Ronald asked his fat assistant Richie Lake, the star of "Hairspray", to make a pot of black tea and personally give it to his most important subordinates One poured a glass.

This was the thin-bodied porcelain given to me by officials from the Ministry of Culture there when I went to the other side of the Pacific. The white tea cup had red roses painted on it.

"As I said, the audience for video tapes is either teenagers or housewives. The ratings of TV series are very strict. Just increase the amount of ice cream in the genre movies they like to watch..." Cannold took a sip. I heard that this tea set is specially used by leaders, and it is impossible for ordinary people to buy it in the market.

"Don't talk about these superficial reasons, Michelle. I want to hear your real thoughts. We don't know what movies are going to be the best in Hollywood. Why are you so confident?" Ronald gave him a refill in New York. The finest Wuyishan black tea bought in Chinatown.

"Hey, I actually got it because of the confidence brought by our company's 'sticky fingers'." Michelle Cannold smiled and put down the teacup. He explained his opinion. This comedy, in which two girls pick up cash from a contraband dealer, has fallen below the cost line just a few weeks after its release and is about to be withdrawn from theaters.

But the sales figures for the video, which was released only a few weeks later, were exceptionally good. He hired a survey company to conduct on-site surveys, and most of the buyers were teenage women. Although it is still an order of magnitude away from the long-lasting video sales of "Dirty Dancing", it is very close compared to some action movies.

This is still only half the power of teenage audiences (watched by female audiences). What if it is replaced by a romantic drama? Then the other half of the teenage audience will also join the rental queue. If you add some action scenes...

So he specially selected these movies that have always been remembered by audiences to negotiate for video rights. If this path works, then Daydream can adjust its focus to making these types of low-cost movies and directly supply them to the video tape market.

Unlike the cinema distribution market where you have to pay expensive tickets to enter, video distribution does not require millions of marketing expenses. As long as you pay the channel fee, you can enter the video rental store and lie quietly on the shelf to be selected.

This model is especially suitable for small companies like Daydream. The profit of a single film is not as good as that of successful theater films, but it is more stable and steady.

This is why Daydream is very cautious about getting involved in theatrical distribution. If there is a box office bomb or a bad movie in the theater weekend, then in addition to tens of millions of production costs, it will be lost, and even the almost equally expensive marketing and publicity expenses will be lost. , also in vain.

So when it comes to a bad movie, the company basically has to lose close to 20 million. Except for Ronald's unparalleled vision, no one else in Daydream has the power to decide on the project. Even if Ronald makes a lot of money and loses two or three movies a year, he still has to stop this behavior which is equivalent to throwing cash into the Hudson River.

…

Barrister Grey-Eyed Mickey soon sent good news. Nowadays, major studios still believe that only movies that are successful at the box office have the potential to earn excess profits in the video tape market. The movies that Ronald is interested in are all failures with domestic box office of less than 20 to 30 million. Since this young director likes Roger Corman-style B-level movies so much, then just sell them to him and treat them as Indulge an artist’s eccentricities.

Just like Spielberg likes to collect copies of old Hollywood movies, he keeps a copy of every masterpiece starting from silent films in his warehouse. Martin Scorsese likes old foreign films, especially European films, and has a lot of them in his home. Coppola switched his interest to collecting red wine, euphemistically calling it a reference for his own winery.

Ronald, people in the industry will also know in the future that this person's quirk is to collect B-level movies that do not sell well. Maybe the reason he makes movies that are always hits is to study why these losers fail?

The copyright owners of these movies still need to get the consent of the director and producer to sell the video rights. They quickly agreed to Ronald's bid. Anyway, it is better to slowly collect the hundreds of dividends generated after one broadcast by the TV station. Sold at one time to Ronald who was willing to pay.

Only one producer had doubts about Ronald's true thoughts. He called Ronald specifically to ask about the situation.

"Ronald, it's me, Joel." After waiting for half an hour, Joel Silver received a call back from Ronald. He was very happy.

"What, what's going on with the marketing of Die Hard? Do you need my help?" Ronald thought it was because of Die Hard. This movie will be released in the summer season in July. Twentieth Century Fox has completed audience test screenings and is very satisfied with the response of those lucky enough to see it in advance. It has decided to invest maximum resources in vigorously promoting the film during the summer.

"Ah, fortunately, you have to attend the premieres in Los Angeles and New York. Our film's test screening audience responded very well, and almost no one went to the bathroom. But my familiarity with celebrities is still limited. Can you please give me more Find some?" Joel Silver wanted Ronald to bring some free traffic.

"Let me ask... it's hard to find celebrities' schedules." Ronald thought about asking Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise if they were free. They are all popular action stars. If they can come to support them, the media will definitely make news.

"I can hire Stallone here. Do you have any problem with him? Okay, anyway, he just shows up to make money for us. Can you hire Schwarzenegger? Why don't you come over and we can choose a couple?"

…

"I said, why did you buy the rights to a movie that was so bad at the box office? That movie almost made me leave Hollywood." After Joel Silver and Ronald reviewed the list of invited stars, they seemed not to be there. He brought up Ronald's purchase of the rights to "Streets of Rage" with interest.

This movie was financed and produced by him, and it was directed by Walter Hill, who was popular at the time. The filming cost was close to 15 million, and the domestic box office was just over 8 million. At that time, Walter Hill was believed by Hollywood that all his previous successes were just luck, and he was reduced to a situation where he had no movies to make. Later, I managed to stay in Hollywood by working as a script doctor for Alien 2. But there has never been a blockbuster film coming to him to direct.

Producer Joel Silver was even worse. He spent one million on a lighting engineer, another one million on Giorgio Armani as costume director, and another one million on re-dismantling the film for the ending episode. The scenery was brought back intact. This approach was directly regarded by major studios as making money.

However, Joel Silver's luck is better than that of the director. He then relied on two blockbusters "Lethal Weapon" and "Predator" with a box office of over 100 million to regain his position as a top independent producer in Hollywood. .

He was so impressed by the movie that almost killed him that he didn't believe the reasons Ronald gave when he bought the video rights. Today is a good time to test the waters and see if I can find something to learn from Ronald's clever mind.

"It's nothing. My colleague felt that the subject matter of this movie might have a future in the video tape market, so he took a gamble." Ronald told the truth. Joel Silver did not argue about the price. The relationship between the two Still very good.

"I said, Ronald. Don't talk about these superficial reasons. I want to hear your true thoughts. Anyway, I have agreed to sell the copyright to you. In Hollywood, which movies are popular and which are not, we are also connected. Guess, why are you so confident?"

"Hey..." Ronald said to himself that he had paid for you to buy bad movies that had not done well at the box office. Why do you still suspect that I have any secrets? "I really don't have much confidence. My company is not strong enough, and I don't have the production capabilities like you, so I just get some cheap movies and gamble on the video market."

"Isn't there any other reason? In fact, there are many movies here that have not performed well at the box office, such as 'Weird Sce' directed by John Hughes, and 'Brewster's Millions', which Walter Hill wants to turn around. Windfall, even though it hasn’t crossed the profit line, why don’t you give it a try? ” Joel Silver probed.

"Modern Nanny" is a rare box office failure made by John Hughes, who has been popular in all his movies in the past few years. It tells the story of how an artificial intelligence female nanny created by a computer helps a computer idiot hold a party at home.

"Brewster's Millionaire" tells the story of a lucky baseball player who suddenly received his great-uncle's will and could inherit a $300 million fortune if he spent all $30 million within a month.

Both movies didn't have much love content between men and women, and there wasn't much ice cream content that the TV station couldn't broadcast, which Ronald didn't really want.

"What, you don't want it? Or is there something special about the Streets of Rage?" Joel Silver chuckled. Today, he was going to learn two things from Ronald.

"Hey, let me be honest with you. Actually, it's because this movie is Diane's first adult role as a heroine. I want to buy it as a gift to her to make her happy." Ronald didn't want Michelle to The secret that Er Cannold came up with was leaked out like this, and in a hurry, he brought out Diane Lane in an attempt to deal with it.

"Huh?" Joel Silver looked at Ronald strangely. Are you serious? In order to please a woman, this amount of money is quite large, and it's not like giving a house to give a woman a benefit. This kind of copyright transaction just makes beauties smile.

"Then I also have the rights for sequels and adaptations. Do you want to buy them together?" Joel Silver still didn't believe it and tried again.

"Sequels and adaptations? Do you have all the production rights?" Ronald suddenly remembered that when he watched this movie, he dreamed of several video games that were adapted from the film's image style and characters. of.

"Do you really want it?" Joel Silver was shocked and put aside his suspicion. It seemed that it was really a business venture and to please women. He looked at Ronald's handsome figure and was speechless. "Ronald He is really good at pleasing women, incomparable, incomparable..."

He turned back and picked up the pager to call the secretary, and took out the paperwork from the "Rage on the Streets" year. He took out the production rights document from the box and handed it to Ronald, "I have full production rights here. You can use it to make sequels, TV series adaptations, or Broadway stage plays. It's cheaper for you. .”

"I want my lawyer to take a look at this." Ronald put away the document and continued to taste red wine with Silver.

"I asked, what is director Walter Hill doing now? Did he stop having sex with you later?" Ronald thought of the director who made Diane, who was not yet twenty years old, so mature and charming. It was on the set that I discovered the charm of Diane becoming a woman. In the movies she made after that, no director could make her so charming and turn her into a young girl on the screen.

"He just finished shooting Schwarzenegger's new movie 'Red Heat'. He actually went to Moscow's Red Square to shoot the exterior scenes. After General Secretary Mikhail came to power, they also began to learn from their neighbors in the south. , opened the door to this kind of artistic creation.”

"That's rare..." Ronald thought to himself, don't be greedy after watching China make two Hollywood blockbusters and earn a lot of US dollars.

"Didn't you invest in that movie? Didn't you and Walter Hill work together again?" Ronald remembered that Joel Silver and the director had been the best partners.

"If the ups and downs of Hollywood have taught me anything..." Joel Silver held up his glass of wine to express his kindness to Ronald, "it's to work with capable people rather than being competed by the market. The unlucky ones who were eliminated. I hope they can return to the top. This kind of thing has happened, but the chance is too small. Many people died because they expected a director to make masterpieces again."

"Well, I will remember this..." Ronald also raised his glass.

…

"So what, I need to add one thing here..." Ronald received the visiting gray-eyed Mickey. The copyright transfer contract that the barrister asked his top Harvard students to modify was placed on his desk and was read by Ronald.

"Where?" Mickey Kanter raised his eyebrows. Did he overlook something?

"Here, I would like to add a clause after sequels, TV series, stage plays, and adaptation rights... as well as the copyright for adaptation in any other form of entertainment, as well as the copyright for all derivative products."

"It's interesting. It seems you have a new direction?" Mickey Kanter knew that this kind of legal document must be rigorous. Ronald added it specifically, which must mean he already has an idea.

"Yeah, I might find someone to draw comics, or rewrite them for publication." Ronald chuckled.

"Or the kind of Japanese video games that are popular all over the world?" Mickey Kanter is one of the few lawyers in Hollywood who has inside knowledge of Nintendo and Universal's Donkey Kong game copyright cases. He smiled at Rona De said.

"Or video game rights." Ronald stamped the contract.

"Cheers!" In the afternoon, Ronald gave the contract to Joel Silver, had it checked by his lawyer, and issued a check to buy the full media adaptation rights.

"I've asked people to prepare ribbons and wax seals for you to give away." Joel Silver waved his secretary to take out the official version of the contract, as well as a rectangular box for outer packaging, which is indeed suitable for giving to female friends. .

From now on, all the rights to adapt this movie will no longer belong to him. When Ronald is successful, he can only pay a small percentage of the dividends to the original producer under the rules stipulated by the Producers Alliance.

"Cheers!" Joel Silver also raised his glass and clinked it with Ronald. Why did he always feel that he would suffer more from this than from the transaction.