Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1121 The Indispensable Ronald
The top brass at 20th Century Fox were very unhappy.Bruce Willis came up with all sorts of outrageous shooting conditions, a classic symptom of a film project in which the lead male star actor is out of control.

Joel Silver wasn't too pleased either.The cost of the star of the project is out of control, and the budget is still so large. His reasonable and unreasonable profits will be greatly reduced.

And it was obvious that Bruce Willis invited Ronald over to talk at his home, and he must have a stomach full of dissatisfaction.

20th Century Fox paid out the production fee and distribution channel for this project.Joel Silver needs to solve various problems and contradictions according to the group from beginning to end.Bruce Willis contributes his one-of-a-kind screen presence, and his (seemingly) desperate action.

Well, Ronald only participated in the filming of the first film, and has a part of the production rights.In the sequel, he neither follows the team, nor casts the cast, nor is he the director, nor does he contribute to the special effects. How can he carve out a huge piece of the sequel cake that is very likely to be a hit?

The unique value of Ronald is that he can smooth these people, put them in their place, and accept their share of their efforts.If there is no such person to divide the cake, then everyone will tear into a ball, wanting to eat more and take more.The final result of the quarrel was that the project collapsed, the filming failed, and no one could eat the cake.

……

"Diane, Ronald, welcome to come..."

Bruce Willis and Demi Moore let Ronald and Diane into their home.

The first thing Diane did was to visit Demi and Bruce's almost one-year-old daughter Rumer, who was sleeping on the crib. "Ah, the baby is so cute, will it be noisy at night?" Little Rumer asked.

"Oh, I always have to wake up at night to breastfeed. It's very troublesome..." Demi Moore began to complain. Bruce Willis was always very chauvinistic. Sometimes when his daughter woke him up at night, he would throw out a few 100s. Big dollar bills, leave it to Demi.

The two women surrounded Demi's eldest daughter and naturally chatted about parenting.

"Ah, brother. Marriage is really troublesome for us men. Demi often does some incomprehensible things. Women become another animal after marriage."

Bruce "Willis took Ronald to visit his new honor room and opened a bottle of fine whiskey, trying to get close to Ronaldella.

The two drank wine and ate Italian sausage, and naturally talked about life after marriage.

"For example?" Ronald raised his eyebrows. He didn't expect that a new woman like Demi Moore, full of independent spirit, would become active after marriage.

"For example, we can obviously hire a nanny to stay at home to take care of Rumer. But Demi thinks this will affect our family life. When the baby cries in the middle of the night, she still kicks my ass and asks me to give it to her. Babies changing diapers... I think she just wants to make me do this and that..."

"Eh..." Ronald touched his forehead. It seems that Demi Moore, like Diane, has some personal identity crises. She always wants to do something to attract her husband's attention, so that she can show her independence personality.

In contrast, Diane just made himself eat by trying different new dishes, which may also be considered lucky...

The two watched TV while drinking. Today happened to be the MLB All-Star Game, and Bo Jackson hit a leading home run in the opening game.This is one of the few wonderful scenes in the baseball All-Star Game in recent years.

"Is there anything you want to tell me, Bruce?"

The two clapped hands and drank the rest of the wine in the glass.Ronald signaled to the other party that it was time to talk about business.

"Ronald, you know I'm not a greedy person, but my salary in the sequel is still significantly less..."

"Tell me how you feel, why do you think this salary figure is too low? I don't know much about the current salary level of male stars..." Ronald smiled, and all kinds of excessive demands were due to Issues with pay figures.Those are all Bruce Willis' intentional attitudes towards 20th Century Fox and the producers.

"Actually, this has nothing to do with money, but has something to do with respect..." Bruce Willis curled his lips and expressed his reasoning.

Recently, People magazine (People) made an inventory of Bruce Willis and male stars with similar characteristics, and played a very alarming headline, "Battle of the Biceps..."

"They're panting and sweating, their faces contorted in pain. They're lifting barbells and dodging bullets. Beautiful maidens clinging to their overdeveloped chests, they gallop and roar into the cinema, and the real battle is at It's unfolding at the box office. They're the hotties of the summer, and their ranks have never been bigger..."

While listening to what Bruce Willis said, Ronald picked up the People magazine that Willis had prepared and placed on the table, and read the opened article.

First up is Australian star Mel Gibson.Among these action male stars, he is a lightweight (with the smallest biceps).

His Lethal Weapon series has become a special branch of the action scene, "with some crazy action stars" ... and his salary reached more than 700 million US dollars.

In contrast, the largest biceps dimension is of course Arnold Schwarzenegger.The highest pay he got was $1000 million, plus later profit sharing.

Bruce Willis's muscular dimension is in the middle of the two, but his blue-collar temperament and the storyline in which ordinary people are forced to be involved in adventures make him unique and remembered by the audience.

It is reported that 20th Century Fox paid him $750 million for the Die Hard sequel.

The last member of the biceps club was Eddie Murphy, a well-known black comedy action star. His new film American tour was very good at the box office in the summer, and Paramount paid him $900 million.

And he is about to shoot the sequel of his famous work "48 Hours" in 48, "Another 1200 Hours", and he received a salary of [-] million US dollars, plus a suitable post-production profit share.

If it weren't for this report, then Bruce Willis might still be able to live with his $750 million salary.And now, the media has lined up the income of him and the other three male action stars.This involves male stars of the same type squeezing each other out.

It seems that what Bruce Willis said is not (completely) a matter of money, but a matter of dignity, and it is not 100% bragging nonsense.

In terms of box office explosion and audience madness, he is at least better than Schwarzenegger.And Mel Gibson is an Australian, and the average American audience does not love him as much as Willis for such a foreign star who shows some Irish accents from time to time.

Bruce Willis should be most dissatisfied with Eddie Murphy.Strictly speaking, he is not exactly a muscular action star, but he has a lot of comedy elements in the movie.

Bruce Willis was very dissatisfied that such an actor was able to get nearly twice Willis' salary and a lot of dominance over the project.

"But this salary does not fully represent the studio's recognition of you. There are many historical and contractual reasons for it. We also have to consider..."

Ronald scratched his head. For these reasons, how should he explain them to Bruce Willis in a reasonable way and let him approve?
First of all, Schwarzenegger's salary of more than 1000 million US dollars is the result of Minahan Golan's extravagant behavior after receiving huge financing during the Cannon period.

At that time, Schwarzenegger and Stallone were action stars with twin peaks. Minahan took the lead in raising Stallone's salary to more than 1200 million US dollars, which made Schwarzenegger's salary also raised.

He only took such a salary for a short period of time, and later because purely muscle action movies fell out of favor in the market, they will soon not be able to get such a high salary.

Mel Gibson's basic skills are very good, and his performance is beyond the scope of those only muscular action stars. The slightly lower salary now is entirely because he is not American.

As for Bruce Willis himself, his blockbuster movies have not caught up with the number of the first two.The market for his Die Hard campaign is fraught with some skepticism.The reason for this box office hit.Is it because of the leading actor, or because of the director McTiernan?
Fortunately, in the sequel, Ronald and Joel Silver switched directors, and it was soon possible to prove who is more important in the Die Hard series.

"Bruce, let me put it this way, do you know how much Tom Cruise was getting paid when I was doing Top Gun?"

"How much?" Bruce Willis really didn't know, "300 million or 400 million?" He guessed a number at random.At that time, Tom Cruise had already filmed the famous work "Good Guys Are Crazy" and had several films with big-name directors.

"It's only a little over a million. You can ask your agent for confirmation. This is not a secret in the industry."

Ronald thought for a while and decided to come up with the method of contrast.

Let Bruce Willis take a good look in the mirror and compare with other popular male stars, what is the level of his salary in his movie debut.

Generally speaking, when a male star tries the big screen for the first time, he will get a relatively cheap salary.With Tom Cruise's popularity that year, $100 million is a more appropriate price.

In the first episode of Die Hard, Bruce Willis received the standard of a top male star, a salary of 500 million US dollars.This has a lot to do with the small boss of 20th Century Fox, Barry Diller, who wanted to deliberately promote him to prove that his strategy of film and television integration was successful.

In other words, if we look at the normal price, Bruce Willis actually earned more than 300 million more in the first film.If the first and second episodes of Die Hard are taken as a whole, then the other stars who are comparable to him and the money he got in the sequel are actually about the same. "I believe what you say, Ronald. You are one of the few people in Hollywood who tell the truth, and I completely trust your explanation." Bruce Willis agreed with Ronald's words when he heard this. Speaking, but he changed the subject...

"But that was a few years ago. Compared with previous years, the current film market has turned upside down. It is also Paramount, and they gave Eddie Murphy's sequel $1200 million, plus The profit sharing of the previous period...

I don't understand, is there such a big gap between me and Eddie Murphy? "

Whether it's worth it or not is actually a comparison, so Ronald could only shake his head and smile wryly, "Murphy is different..."

"What's the difference?" Bruce Willis was dissatisfied. How could black stars get higher pay than white stars of the same status.He feels that he is not racially discriminatory, but that the natural moviegoing population can represent some box office potential.

"Uh..." Ronald actually had many explanations in mind.For example, although Eddie Murphy is a black man, white people also like to watch black people playing tricks on the screen and get a kind of overlooking pleasure.

Another example is that Eddie Murphy is not a pure action star, his comedy skills are very deep, and his face looks like a cola.

For another example, the fusion of action and comedy was originally the direction of a very successful commercial film in the 80s.Eddie Murphy's really big hit, "Beverly Hills Cop," was the one after Stallone dropped it and he took over to make the genre shine.

In the end, Ronald didn't say these reasons, but picked a more acceptable one for Bruce Willis:

"You have to understand that he signed a prostitution contract, and you enjoy much better creative freedom than him..."

"Creative freedom?" Sure enough, Bruce Willis became interested.

"Ah, yeah, Eddie Murphy signed a five-picture exclusive deal with Paramount. So whatever crappy Paramount gave him, he got to make it (of course, Paramount doesn't usually do that.) Do it, but Ronald didn’t say...).

If there were other studios with suitable movies that wanted to look for him, he wouldn't be able to make them. (In fact, it can still be negotiated, and the scripts produced by other studios may not be as suitable for Eddie Murphy as Paramount's).

"It's not like before...before..." Bruce Willis had a word, but he couldn't remember how to say it. He heard his agent say it.

"Just like the big studio system before, actors are exclusive to the studio..." Ronald continued.

"That's right...the big studio system is very bad for actors."

"But it's good for the director, you can shoot whoever you want..." Ronald thought to himself, this is the button to find Bruce Willis?

"So that's the case. Then it's hard for me to imagine that if I had signed an Eddie Murphy-like contract with 20th Century Fox for the movie I just made, I would still be able to make it..."

Bruce Willis was talking about his new film with Canadian director Norman Jewison, "In Country," in which he plays a Vietnam veteran suffering from PTSD. , only his niece, a 17-year-old girl, is kind to him.

Now is not the time for Hollywood to get together to shoot Vietnam War blockbusters. Such a film with a strong director's personal touch and a background of the Vietnam War is not expected to win at the box office.Bruce Willis also went for reviews and awards.The film will soon be released by Warner Bros. in the fall.

To be honest, if he signed an exclusive contract like Eddie Murphy, he probably wouldn't have the chance to make this kind of movie.

"Well, I can accept a salary of 750 million US dollars, but can I also add a profit sharing clause?" Bruce Willis told Ronald his true thoughts.

In fact, if Willis spoke directly to 20th Century Fox or producer Joel Silver, both parties would doubt the sincerity of each other's cooperation.

But if the word is passed on through a middleman trusted by both parties like Ronald, everyone knows that what they say must be close to their bottom line, and there will be no way of falsely charging a high price to mislead each other.

"One moment, one moment, Bruce. I really doubt that after the Jack Nicholson incident, anyone else will give you a share contract like me, poor pauper..."

Ronald mentioned two things. The first thing is that Jack Nicholson got a huge share of income for playing the Joker in "Batman".

Of course, there is an element of luck in this matter, because no one thought that a movie adapted from a comic book like "Batman" could achieve such a great commercial success like "Superman" ten years ago.

Moreover, Jack Nicholson signed a global box office share contract, not a share linked to profits that are convenient for accounting.This makes the publisher Warner Bros. very likely to bleed tens of millions.

After this incident, most major studios were very, very cautious about giving such inconvenient box office figures when operating such commercial films.They would rather increase the star's salary to a ridiculous level than let them get the right to share.

After all, giving a fixed number of remuneration, as those senior managers, can be said financially because of the market price.

But given such an unimaginable share figure, when the annual report is disclosed, Wall Street analysts will besieged, saying that their estimated box office is completely wrong, and they are simply not suitable to work in such a large studio.

The second thing was "Look Who's Talking", which Ronald asked Bruce Willis to dub.The film directed by Amy Heckerling is in post-production and will be released this fall.

Because it was a small production invested by Ronald, he had no money to pay Bruce Willis a salary commensurate with his status, so he had to give him a sharing contract.

Bruce Willis didn't take it seriously, and completed the dubbing for the little baby in a half-helped weekend.

"Hahahaha, that's not the same thing at all..." Bruce Willis laughed loudly. How could such a movie be comparable to the 20 million investment made by 5000th Century Fox in terms of box office revenue?
In the end, Ronald agreed to convey to the producer the request for a pay increase, and Bruce Willis also let go of his knots, knowing that Hollywood would not treat his coffee shop just because his pay was much lower than Eddie Murphy's. A bit skeptical.

It happened that Demi Moore and Diane were almost chatting over there, and Ronald offered to leave.

In the end it was Demi Moore who took Diane's arm and sent the couple the extra mile, all the way to the gate drive.

Dane is already in the car.Suddenly, Demi Moore took Ronald's arm, leaned close to his ear, and said something in a very small voice.

"Ronnie, let me star in your movie about ghosts. Is it time for you to direct me?"

"Huh?" Ronald's ears were itchy from Demi's blowing...

"I have already obtained Diane's consent." Demi Moore slapped Ronald's arm hard, then bent down, and waved desperately to Diane who was already in the car,
"Accidentally", the low-cut dress exposed a piece of white.

"What did you promise him?" Ronald waved goodbye to Demi Moore after getting into the car, and then turned to Diane.

"I promised him that if you have the chance to direct his movie, I will let you go to work." Dane also put his chest close to Ronald's arm, holding it tightly and refusing to let it go.

"Since I entered Hollywood, I have been very busy every year. Now that I am married to you, our child is about to be born. I want to take a good rest. Don't you think it is very boring to go home on time every day and wait for the day when the child will be born?" Are you happy?"

"But then all the other actresses in Hollywood will scold me," Diane chuckled.Hollywood actresses know that Ronald is good at shooting women as the center of the play.

However, anyway, it was difficult to find a suitable star to be the leading actor in the movie about ghosts.If it is a small production, Diane is not worried.

"But I feel that my current life is very happy, and I don't want to give up this kind of day when I go home on time and see you every day." Ronald still yearns for this kind of ordinary people's nine-to-five family life.

"You always have to go out to make movies..." Diane actually likes this kind of family life very much. When they were young, the two people had shortcomings in their families, and they cherished these days very much.

"Unless someone is willing to invest money and let me shoot the entire movie in Hollywood, Los Angeles, like this, I can go home to see you at six o'clock every day..."

Ronald also laughed, there is no such thing as being taken advantage of now, willing to invest in this kind of movie that is all shot in Los Angeles.

Everyone either went to Canada and Australia, or went to some poor and backward states in the Midwest, or the south, and tried every means to reduce production costs.

(End of this chapter)