Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald, Hogan and Linda went to Blockbuster Video to see the sales of the first part of "Crocodile Dundee".

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

This is a downtown area with a lot of people. Many people who visit video stores at this time are white-collar workers working nearby and tourists visiting New York. This new store is very large. At the entrance is an advertisement for Ronald's Dirty Dance, with a human-shaped stand of Patrick Schweitzer and Jennifer Grey hugging each other.

Ronald put on sunglasses and entered the store with two friends. Paul Hogan also tried to cover up, not wearing his iconic crocodile leather jacket, and wearing a pair of plain glasses. He didn't want to be recognized by fans on the street, otherwise the purpose of coming would not be achieved.

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

"It's in the bestsellers, the one at the door."

The three of them came to the pile of videotapes the clerk pointed out. It was on the shelf opposite the entrance. They were all the best-selling and best-rented videotapes. Ronald's "Dirty Dancing" and "Top Gun" were both on the list, and "Crocodile Dundee" was also in a very prominent position.

"Are there any new versions of these?" Ronald asked the clerk with samples of three movies.

"Uh... Dirty Dancing is out of stock. If you don't mind, you can buy the versions we rented. They're cheaper."

"Forget it, let's just Crocodile Dundee and Top Gun. Give me two new ones and help us pack them up." Ronald said to him.

"It's in the action movie area. Go get them yourself and come over to check out."

Ronald saw that the business was still good. The clerk behind the cash register was still dealing with several customers queuing to rent movies and had no time to serve them.

"How are the sales of these movies? I want to invite friends to watch them on the weekend. They won't be unpopular, right?"

"Of course, these are the best-selling movies in our store..."

"What about rentals? Are there many people renting them?"

"Yes, there are many people. Buying and renting are synchronized. The more people rent, the more they sell."

Taking the two packed videotapes, Ronald, Hogan and Linda went out. "It seems that there is indeed a problem with the sales statistics. Do you have lawyers and accounting firms in America? I think Paramount needs some auditing work."

Ronald laughed. Is Paramount taking the attitude of treating Australian country bumpkins? They are not afraid of Mr. Crocodile Dundee getting angry.

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

"I don't know the latest sales figures. Last month they told me that it has exceeded one million copies." Ronald knew that Paul Hogan wanted to compare the sales of his own movie Dirty Dancing. After all, both videotapes are best-selling collections.

In fact, Ronald did not tell the truth completely. The Dirty Dancing videotape has exceeded one million sales in one month. This speed has set a record, even faster than "Top Gun". As of today, the sales of the videotape are actually close to two million. Ronald did not want too many people to know this kind of business figure, so he only gave Paul Hogan an idea of ​​the order of magnitude. Anyway, they can check it themselves.

"Fair dku, these vampires are really a bit outrageous." Paul Hogan was so angry that he blurted out an Australian slang. "Do you know a good lawyer? I have to let their Stanley Jaffe know that Mr. Crocodile will not be deceived so badly like this."

Stanley Jaffe is a vice president of Paramount. He also has an independent production company with Shirley Lansing. The Oscar-winning movie "Fatal Attraction" that lost the Best Actress Award to Cher was produced by them.

These two are very smart. When Lansing was the president of 20th Century Fox, Jaffe focused on independent production. When Lansing lost his job, Jaffe focused more on Paramount, and the business of Jaffe-Lansing Production Company was handed over to Shirley Lansing.

These two Jews play a balance between the roles of studio executives and independent producers, which is very Jewish. As long as they continue to produce works like Kramer vs. Kramer and Fatal Attraction, the big studios will really not do anything to them.

"You can find Mickey Kanter, the most famous in the Los Angeles entertainment industry. We all call him Gray Eyed Mickey. You don't want him to be in your opponent's legal team."

Ronald certainly did not introduce his own private lawyer to him, but found Mickey who was familiar with the entertainment business. Anyway, Mickey Kanter, who is also a Jew, would not mind stabbing Jaffe and Lansing in the back under the premise of complying with professional ethics and God's will.

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

"To be honest (Fair dku), I am, but don't push it. If you want autographs or photos, we can come alone and don't attract crowds." Paul Hogan's popularity in America may be higher than his hometown in Australia. The only problem is that fans seem to only call him Crocodile Dundee.

"My workplace is just across the street. If you don't mind, you can go sit there and rest for a while. It's a gallery. There are not many customers at this time. It's very quiet."

The beautiful woman smiled and pointed to the opposite side, which was a modern art gallery.

Opposite the Blockbuster on Sixth Avenue is the famous Chelsea neighborhood. There are many high-end galleries and custom luxury stores. It has always been used to receive rich and noble customers from the upper class. So the clerks are also very polite, unlike ordinary fans who scream as soon as they come up.

Hogan and Linda both signed autographs for the beautiful clerk and took photos together. Then they enjoyed coffee. Ronald was not recognized and looked at the paintings on the wall by himself.

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

"Capbell's Soup s", Ronald identified the logo on the painting himself, "Is it really a can of soup sold in the 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 daily objects as artistic themes, emphasizing the artist's attention to consumer culture and the challenge to popular culture..."

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

"Sotheby's auction house recently sold a set of 32 Campbell's soup cans themed works, the total price is 220,000 US dollars..." The beautiful salesperson was very familiar with it and quoted the price.

"Isn't that less than 10,000 US dollars?" Ronald frowned. When he bought it himself, it cost 20,000 per piece. "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 separately is even cheaper. If you need to know..." The beautiful salesperson also went to get a copy of the introduction materials.

"No, no need..." Ronald left in a hurry. What a thing. It has depreciated by more than half in less than half a year.

...

"They have gone too far and concealed so much sales. Mickey Kanter is a well-known tough lawyer in the industry. He plays hardball. Jaffe is in trouble this time."

The Australian cowboys acted quickly. Just after the weekend, Ronald heard the news from his agent Niceta. Although it is a common practice in Hollywood to exploit foreign artists. However, this movie, which sold more than 300 million, has concealed a very exaggerated number of video sales.

With the lawyer's letter from Gray Eyes Mickey, and the upcoming sequel, Jaffe and Lansing did not want to cause any negative news. They had to spit out some of the benefits they had wanted to secretly swallow into their pockets.

Ronald laughed happily. He didn't mind causing trouble for these Jews who were entrenched in the upper echelons of the studio.

"How do you know this gossip?" Niceta's nose was sensitive.

"When they came to New York, they asked me to watch the sequel to Crocodile and told me about 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.

"Who did you say you wanted to see me for?" Ronald turned the topic back to the original reason why Niceta called.

"Sybill Shepherd," Niceta replied.

"Why did she ask me for?" Ronald asked curiously.

"Remember how Bruce Willis in Die Hard had a schedule? His partner in the TV series Blue Moonlight, Sybill Shepherd, had a baby and could continue to film TV series after recovery.

But the writers' strike has left her with no movies to shoot for the time being, and the new season will almost certainly be postponed. She is now looking for scripts everywhere, hoping to take the opportunity to make a movie.

There are not many film projects that have passed the review of the Writers Guild and are allowed to be released, so she heard that you were going to invest in a movie, so she found CAA here, and she wanted to work with you."

"Huh?" Ronald remembered that in order to get Bruce Willis to shoot Die Hard, it seemed that he had promised Sybill Shepherd a favor.

"My movie only cost three million dollars, how come she is interested?" Ronald was amused. Sybil Shepherd was not the darling of Hollywood like when she was with Peter Bogdanovich, but she was also the heroine of a popular TV series. She would not come to shoot this kind of...

"No, she wants to increase the investment?"

Ronald knew he was thinking wrongly. It was obvious that Shepherd had taken a fancy to the role in the script, so she wanted to come in and participate. As for the budget, it could always be increased.

"I don't object, but there are only two conditions. First, Emil Adolino must be the director, and this is the opportunity I gave him. Second, Sybil Shepherd should not change the script at random..."

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

"Oh, yes, that means Emil must remain the director. As for her desire to increase investment, my Daydream can enjoy priority dividend rights."

"She wants to meet you once and convince you to be the director."

...

"Ronald, I really like the touch of women in your movie. I am also fascinated by the character in this movie. I feel that Colleen Jeffries is 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 young female star and listened to her talk for a long time, already understanding most of her thoughts.

After thirty-five, beautiful female stars 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 who falls in love with a beautiful boy on the screen (and off-screen too). 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 Life After Life has 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 the key changes in Sybil Shepherd's acting career.

"I would love to challenge myself and play a young girl and a mother of a grown girl in a movie. 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 affairs between the male and female protagonists. The scene was arranged by Emil.”

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 a film with such a small budget." 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 wanted 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 her. 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 figure."

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 Life After Life, with an additional investment of 10 million, without any additional requirements."

"Who is it? I don't know how to direct this film," Ronald thought to himself, who else thinks so highly of me?

"People from Tristar Pictures, they said it was a direct instruction from the superiors of the parent company to give your project the green light."