Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Box office numbers continued to be good Tuesday night, with The Atlantic throwing a party for "Night of the Comet."

The Atlantic was particularly expensive, booked a large room at the Hilton Hotel, and had champagne, oysters, and a variety of dim sum delicacies at the buffet-style party. People associated with the film were on hand to congratulate, Ronald dressed in a gown and bow tie, saying hello to people he knew and didn't know.

The box office in the first week, it is no suspense to see the trend of breaking through 5 million. The investment can be recovered in the first week of release, and the leaders of Atlantic Pictures are full of pride and ambition.

"Ronald, why don't you sign a long-term film contract with us, and then we will invest in your script, so you don't have to worry about financing, and we can focus on developing distribution channels, which is a win-win situation."

President Tom Coleman personally brought Ronald a glass of champagne and persuaded Ronald to sign at least three film contracts with them.

"What type of movies do you want to make? How much can you invest?" Of course, Ronald knew that Atlantic couldn't invest in every script, and there were conditions.

"Certainly movies like 'Night of the Comet', we predict, teen-related movies, will be the next direction, both yours and Martha Coolidge's movies prove that, we just follow the proven formula Going forward, you can reap more success.”

"Proven formula?"

"Yeah, teen audiences, plus all genres. Or teenizing genres, teen horror, teen romance, teen sci-fi, teen family relationships, we can make as many genres as we have successful genres. The teen version of success."

"It's a good idea, and I'll discuss it with my agent." Ronald clinked his glasses, not wanting to talk about it right away. Atlantic seems to have tasted the sweetness, and wants to continue to play big in small-budget teen exploitation films.

Ronald has doubts about Atlantic Pictures, though. Atlantic's performance in this film release is not very strong. The release schedule is stuck before the release of several blockbusters in the summer, and there is no financial strength to engage in marketing. In terms of contacts and experience, they all start from scratch. It's not so much that their distribution business is off to a good start, it's more about flipping to two good movies.

It's better to wait and see their next release performance and their ability to collect money from the theater.

"That's a good idea, and I'll let my agent continue the chat with you." Ronald shoved his agent, smiling and toasting Tom Coleman.

"Very good, if there is such a thing in the future, you can push it to me." Nisita in the corner, after Tom left, quickly leaned up, and he kept staring at Ronald not far from the side, just like Like wild animals staring at their territory,

Staring at the every move of the person who wanted to piss off Ronald. This will not prevent Ronald from socializing, and he can stare at people who come to poach at any time.

The cast and crew of "Night of the Comet" basically came to the party, with the exception of Kelly Maloney, who played sister Samantha. After the film's release, Maroney landed his coveted TV resident role and has returned to New York to shoot.

The TV series that Kathleen Mary Stewart was originally filming also called her to go back to filming. The screenwriter brought her character back to life, running back and continuing to rattle with the other protagonists in the daytime soap opera.

This is also one of the reasons why Ronald likes to make his own movies. The executive producers in Hollywood, who are aloof, have no ability to distinguish between good and bad actors. The set of theories they talk about are nothing more than an afterthought after the success of actors and directors.

If the movie is successful, all the actors will rise to the sky. At least when other crews are looking for them, they will remember their success in "Night of the Comet" and will charge a higher price.

The same goes for the staff. Art director John Mutto has a wide range of interests. He has been asked to be the visual director for one animation, and he continues to be the art director for several live-action films.

The director of photography, Arthur Albert, is even more popular. Many TV shows, music TVs, and commercials are lining up to invite him to shoot.

After all, the film's shabby budget produced such a good apocalyptic effect, and both of them became treasures. It is generally believed in the industry that the success of "Night of the Comet" deserves a large part of the credit for the two of them.

Special effects director James Cameron reassured Orion and Heimdale, the two investors in "Terminator", that he was completely at ease. Gale said that the producers sent by the producers had a good attitude towards them. a lot.

The two have to leave early, and then go home and dare to write "First Blood" and the sequel to "Alien". After watching "Night of the Comet", the two producers happily gave Gale an advance check. With such special effects skills, they are very confident in writing scripts that require various special-shaped and explosive special effects, and they all think that they have taken advantage of signing Cameron in advance before the movie is released.

Ed Limato, the Italian agent of William Morris, also came up, "Ronald, you are a good guy, my two clients, after this, they are all on the stairs, cheers!"

"Don't be like this, I'm just here to thank Ronald on behalf of the client, who else could steal him from you?" Limato saw Nisita, who was always there from the moment he came over, and had a chat with fellow villagers. joke.

After Kevin Costner made the film, he had a little money and other commercials came to him. Instead of working as a carpenter on the Paramount set to earn a living, he could spend more time taking acting classes.

Nicolas Cage was happier, with two big low-budget films, one lead and one cameo, and his deal went well under Limato. If it weren't for his preference for works that could hone his acting skills, some commercial productions would also come to him to choose.

Ronald is delighted that his film has given those involved more value and more opportunities. Hollywood is like this, you can increase the value of others, and others will be willing to cooperate with you. If you can have such a good reputation, you will not have to worry about not having a famous actor to play your own movies in the future.

"Hi Mary, thank you for your kind words over there in The Interview."

Ronald saw Mary Voronoff approaching and went up to hug him and congratulate him.

"Andy Warhol, that bastard, actually found a young guy who graduated from college to write a film review." Mary is still a straight person, what to say.

"It turned out really well though, and it's a compliment to the sky for your performance and the whole movie."

"That kid did write it." Mary gulped down the champagne.

"Do you have a new film deal?" Ronald asked. Mary Voronoff's participation in movies has been rocky since Roger Coleman sold New World.

"I've received a lot of TV and movie offers, and I'm not greedy."

"Actually, your acting skills are still wasted." Ronald knew that TV movies were filmed on film, but the purpose was to show them on TV, not movies in theaters.

This kind of film is generally narrow screen, and the lens design and lighting also have strong TV traces. For Mary Voronoff, participating in TV movies is as easy as drinking water and eating.

"You also have to be careful, Ronald. The most important thing is to have a stable income. Now even the best-selling movies are released on videotapes, and the finely crafted acting skills in the future will be no different on the small TV screen. It’s better to shoot more and earn more money.”

"Hey, yes."

Ronald also heard the news. Paramount's "Blitzkrieg" has just been out for six weeks, and its weekly box office was solidly standing above $5 million for the first five weeks, only to drop to just over $4.8 million this week.

With such box office results, in previous years, everyone had to celebrate and increase marketing investment, but this year, Paramount has already started recording and selling the "Lightning Dance" video tape.

The Supreme Court's verdict has been issued, and various video tapes are sold and leased, and more and more shops are on the streets of Los Angeles every day.

Paramount seems to be not optimistic about the theater box office, and as soon as there is a downward trend, it will immediately start releasing video tapes. I'm afraid that the phenomenon of "ET Alien" pirated copies sold all over the sky last year will reappear. The idea of ​​capital is simple and practical.

Anyway, the verdict has been issued, and the videotape dubbing is not against the law. Rather than giving the money to pirates, or to viewers who rip it at home, I'd rather make it myself.

At this moment, Richard hurried in, "Ronald, this is a record of sending flowers. Will it be once a week after that?"

It was the receipt that Ronald ordered Richard to send flowers to Helen Slater in London. He took out the checkbook and opened another for Richard.

"Yes, let's continue sending it at this frequency." Since Ronald came back, he was a little concerned that Helen was alone in the crew and that he couldn't visit the class often. So I often send flowers to remind Helen, and also show my presence to the rest of the crew.

"In addition, there is news about the Daryl Vidal you asked me to find. He is currently learning Wing Chun at Zhenfan Martial Arts Hall in San Francisco. After hearing that, he wants to open a karate dojo by himself. Professor Bruce Lee A martial art that incorporates martial arts philosophy."

"San Francisco? How is he now?"

"Without money, he has already mastered Wing Chun, and he has also learned a lot of martial arts from other countries and schools, but he has no money to open a martial arts hall, so he can only earn money by working in Zhenfan martial arts hall."

"Then invite him to come to Los Angeles. I will pay for the cost. I want to talk with him about karate-related things in the script of the new film."

"No problem, he can come over at any time, and I'll rent him a motel." Richard agreed.