Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

"Huh? A beautiful woman was knocked out of No. 1 on the box office list by a B-level movie?"

While eating breakfast, Ronald looked at the Hollywood Reporter's box office rankings for the new weekend. Disney's "Pretty Woman" had been pushed to second place.

"This is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They opened in more than 2000 theaters, which is higher than Pretty Woman in [-] theaters. It's normal. It's their opening weekend again..." Richard also took it over I looked at it and said I understood.

"New Line Cinema, what is the distribution capability of this company?" Ronald saw that the column of distribution company was a small company called New Line Cinema. There were many such companies in the 70s, and they were famous in automobiles. Theaters made a living by distributing European art films (with far more nudity than Hollywood).

But in the late 80s, with the addition of Hollywood's PG-13 rating and the demise of drive-in theaters, they gradually disappeared like Roger Corman's New World.By chance, he saw a movie that was at the top of the box office list but was not released by Big Seven. Ronald also wanted to learn from the experience.

"Robert Chayer founded this distribution company at the age of 27. He initially screened art films in college. He was heavily in debt in the early 80s, but he had a good classmate, Michael Lynn, who not only helped him restructure his debts, but also helped him restructure his debts. We also bought the rights to two blockbuster horror films, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and we have been relying on the horror film series in the past two years.”

Richard had done some research on New Line, and he told Ronald the history of New Line.

"But this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I don't really understand. When I went to see it last night, I found that it was just a B-level comic adaptation movie with a rubber leather jacket. It didn't seem to have much in common with the Fantastic Four. gap……"

"Huh?" Ronald didn't believe it and planned to go to the cinema to watch a movie at noon.Is this kind of movie adaptation of a man in leather comic book really so attractive?
……

"Ah, hahahaha..."

The audience in the cinema made hilarious sounds from time to time. Many of them were fans of the original comic, and there were also many young viewers who came to watch the fun.The fights in the plot have a lot of the style of Xiangjiang's martial arts director, and some of the dialogues also have a sense of humor. It is indeed the best choice for young couples to watch on the weekends.

Ronald certainly saw more than those viewers.Not only did he discover that Xiangjiang Martial Arts was highly involved, but he also discovered that the film’s producer was Jiahe from Xiangjiang.

This movie was shot very cleverly, because most of the shots were night scenes, which made the four actors wearing rubber leather suits, accompanied by the big green turtle named after famous artists and scientists in history, not too much. There are many scenes of cheating.

This is much better than the leather holster worn by the rock man in Fantastic Four. That holster was often shot under natural light, and many fighting scenes had to be replaced with another one, which took several times more effort. But the final effect was not as good as this dark Ninja Turtle.

……

"Jackie, this movie was made by Golden Harvest? You guys are really good. Now America's box office ranks No. 1."

After returning home, Luo Nage dialed Jackie Chan's home phone number in Xiangjiang and congratulated them on the success of the Xiangjiang people.

"What turtle? I don't know. Wait a minute, I'll ask my brother. Hey! Did you hear that a movie about turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is being made?"

Jackie, who happened to be having dinner with her brothers, asked about the people in the Chan family class at the dinner table.

"Boss, yes, Jiahe paid for the Hollywood shoot, but the money wasn't much..."

"Is it really true? Wait a moment..." Jackie Chan stood up. He seemed to have heard Ronald say that it was the number one box office on the weekend. He quickly walked to the back room with his mobile phone and asked for more information.

"Of course it's true. No. 2 is the beautiful woman I supervised. The handsome guys and beauties were all defeated by your small production of 1000 and 500 million dollars. The box office in the first weekend was [-] million US dollars..."

"How much? Twenty-five million? How much can Jiahe get?" Jackie Chan became excited when she heard this number.

"There are different adjustments. On the first weekend, you can probably get 70%..."

"Wait a minute, is it $500 million in the first weekend?" Jackie Chan did a quick calculation and found that just this one movie was more than what he had earned for many years of hard work and even injuries.

"How about you come to America for inspection? I can introduce you to some people in Hollywood, but I may not be able to accompany you the whole time. My son was just born..."

"Oh, congratulations, there is a successor to Luo Sheng. I'll ask Sister Jiao, and I'll go over and have a look after buying the tickets..." Jackie Chan, who has always wanted to go to Hollywood, has always been intimidated by language barriers and cultural barriers. I was tempted to take a supporting role like "The Killer" again, but with one phone call, my mind was aroused by the number that Golden Harvest's production topped the box office charts in America.

"Don't keep Sister Jiao busy. I'll find a private plane to pick you up. I'm familiar with this. Just wait for the call." Ronald has always liked Jackie Chan's action movies. He came to Hollywood to inspect, and Yu Gong It's a good thing personally.

……

"If Fantastic Four hadn't been sold to Warner Bros., wouldn't an in-house copy have done well?" David Simkins, Ronald's script supervisor, also knew about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles box office News of the summit.After watching it, he, like Ronald, was not impressed by the production level.It's just a normal B-level exploitation film. Why did it do so well at the box office?
"It's hard to say, but it's useless to talk about it now. It's a completed deal..." Ronald pointed to the "Other People's Money" script he bought and asked David Simkins to advise him. , and together we changed it from a stage play script to a movie script.

Because the script of the stage play must comply with the law of three unities and facilitate rehearsal on the stage, the characters are simplified to five.

The most important among them is Jorgensen, a veteran industrialist in New England and the second-generation owner of the cable factory. (Gregory Peck's character in Ronald's dream).

Then there is the Jewish capitalist on Wall Street, the alligator who buys companies, Garfunkel. (The buffoon played by Danny DeVito in Ronald’s dream.)
The third is the story-telling character, Mr. Coles, the general manager of the cable factory.

Of course the movie couldn't be shot like this, more characters would have to be added.Ronald and David Simkins discussed it for a long time and decided to include cable factory workers and some supporting characters from Garfunkel.

Of course, the role of the daughter of cable factory owner Jorgensen's lover and secretary, a practicing lawyer in New York City, was Ronald's original idea when he bought the script to please Diane.

Ronald and Jerry Sterner, the author of the play, also had a phone call. The other party was absolutely delighted that his film could be handed over to a director like Ronald who made a very real commercial film like "Working Girl". It was overjoyed.

He told Ronald about his own mentality. This film, which promotes America's long tradition of respecting entrepreneurs, is an attempt to correct the negative stereotypes of business people on Broadway caused by the "conspiracy of left-wing college dropouts". .

Nowadays, whether in Hollywood or on Broadway, artists with left-wing ideas definitely make up the majority.The kind of high-spirited entrepreneurial movies that praised those who started from scratch and led a group of people to overcome obstacles and create a great foundation are almost extinct.

A group of playwrights, actors, and directors who don't understand business operations at all, when they encounter entrepreneurs in the plot, they add a villain role to them.In short, when the conflict cannot continue, just arrange an evil capitalist to do all the bad things.

Ronald also feels that this trend is not a good thing for society as a whole.There are good and bad people among entrepreneurs, and they are all the same as ordinary workers.The image of a certain industry continues to be negatively presented in movies and TV dramas, which is not a good thing for bridging conflicts and strengthening consensus in the entire society.

The playwright Jerry Sterner is obviously a pure white Anglo-German, as can be seen from the images of Wall Street liquidators he arranges in his movies.He has a very Jewish name and likes to eat donuts. He wakes up alone in bed every day and has no one to share his wealth.

Although the boss of the cable factory has an illegitimate daughter, is having an extramarital affair with his secretary, is not very efficient at running the factory, and is unwilling to take measures to protect himself from a hostile takeover, he is a loser, but he is the backbone of this society. .

This kind of "bringing order to order" is actually going from one extreme to another.It seems that there are no bad guys among those who run factories. No matter how many wrong things they do, they are still the most pious people under God.

Ronald penciled in stars behind the characters, and he had to revise their backstories.Director Jorgensen is no longer the tall man, but has various shortcomings of being arbitrary and domineering.Underneath the very boring surface of the acquired Jewish liquidator, there is actually a heart longing to love and be loved.
This movie is actually a bit of a reversal for America's bankers and industrialists who have been criticized in recent years, showing their weakness and helplessness from another angle.Like ordinary people, they also face censure and grievances from their family members, as well as unfulfilled desires for their loved ones.

So be very careful when handling it.Ronald didn't have much of a clue yet, he was just organizing the fragments of these stories before and after.

"Ronnie, Jacky's plane is coming..." Diane came over to remind.

"Okay, let's go pick it up." Ronald smiled and hugged Diane.

"Have you chosen the leading actor for me?" Diane looked at the script and started to feel anxious.If she can collaborate with a male actor with outstanding acting skills, it may be an opportunity for her performance level to be recognized again by the critics.

"I approached Mr. Gregory Peck. He was a little interested and asked me to discuss it in detail after I finished revising the script." Peck always likes to play these roles of America's conscience.

"I mean that young one..." Diane came over and acted coquettishly.

"I asked Niceta to make a list. Let's meet and chat one by one..." Ronald opened the drawer and took out a list, which was all the names of actor-level male stars.

al pacino,
Dustin Hoffman,
Danny DeVito,
Tom Hanks……

Diane noticed that everyone here is an actor, and not many of them are good-looking.

"The role of Garfunkel is first restrained and then strong, so I have to find someone of average height. If I cast Tom (Cruise) or Warren Beatty, then the audience might initially treat them like I can’t hate it,” Ronald explained.

"I know, let's go pick up Jackie." Diane looked back at the list. Al Pasino and Tom Hanks seemed to be more handsome in comparison.

……

"Jackie!"

"Luo Sheng..."

Ronald hugged Jackie Chan at the door of his home, who arrived on a Sony business jet. This time he came with his wife Jiao Jie in the name of vacation.I didn't bring any of Jiahe's management and martial artists with me, for fear of leaking the news.

"Is this the eldest nephew? Come on, Uncle Jackie will give you a greeting gift..."

Jackie Chan looked at little Roger's eagerness and liked it very much. She asked Sister Jiao to take out the precious Jade Guanyin with a red string and put it on little Roger.

"You kid, you have your nobility." Jackie praised little Roger and translated it to Ronald through Sister Jiao.

"Unlike my son, except that he is double-boned (extremely strong bones) like me, is slow to read, and can make trouble."

"That's not a good job to take over from you as an action star, hahaha..."

Jackie didn't wait for the jet lag to start, and she energetically chatted with Ronald about Hollywood movies.The last time he came to make a movie, he was still a "killer hero". As a result, the director looked down on him and cast him as a supporting role, which made his first foray into Hollywood come to nothing.

"This Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, are they really that powerful?" Jackie Chan returned to the topic.

"That's not true. It compares to the beautiful women I produced and shot by Disney." Ronald showed him the newspaper.

"Can I go and see it?" Jackie is a person who is quick to talk and will go to watch the movie soon.

"Don't you take a rest first?"

"I couldn't sleep. I had enough sleep on the plane. I was so anxious that I just wanted to watch this movie."

"The box office of America is really amazing."

After watching the movie, Jackie Chan could only sigh.The martial arts in this movie were actually very average, and he couldn't understand the jokes.On the way back, he kept talking about $500 million, $500 million.

"Can Jiahe really be divided into so many?" Jackie Chan is now thinking about the box office.

"Then you must be able to surpass a lot of this kind of martial arts action by editing it casually. American audiences have never seen acrobatic action movies like yours. Let me tell you, your movie videos are very popular in rental stores. of."

"Really? I haven't seen a damn copper." The more Jackie Chan listened, the more uncomfortable she became.

"Didn't Jiahe give you any money?" Ronald was also surprised. In Hollywood, this is all handled by the Screen Actors Guild, and the actors will not lose a penny.

Ronald analyzed some knowledge about the film distribution system, and Jackie Chan was shocked.It turns out that Jiahe has been lying to them all along.

Jiahe always said that the cost of overseas distribution is very high and it is not profitable.Only the box office revenue in Japan is relatively regular, and Jackie Chan can get some, plus the endorsement contract given to him by Japanese manufacturers, so he can still recover some money.

As for America, Southeast Asia, and Europe, there is basically no return money.

"You don't have a union... forget it, didn't you protest with Jiahe?" Ronald was also shocked by the backwardness and recklessness of the Hong Kong film industry.

"We can't see the accounts for overseas costs. How much is it according to Boss Zou? After so many years, not only my company, but also the Jiahe satellite companies of my senior brothers have not seen anything outside of Japan. A share of the dime overseas box office.”

"Not all movies make money, but this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Golden Harvest made a lot of money." Ronald touched his chin.

"What do you say?" Jackie Chan asked. He had already made up his mind to start exploring the American market through Ronald's relationship.

“This movie was actually played by a few unknown actors, and because they wore rubber hoods, they didn’t show their faces. Only the female reporter had a few close-ups.

So in fact, none of these people are recognized by the audience. All the audiences recognize are Einstein, Michelangelo and those turtles. What will they bargain with in the future?So there is still money to be made from the sequel to Golden Harvest. "

"Didn't Jiahe make a lot of money?" Jackie Chan scratched his head. In recent years, he had not worked hard after being seriously injured.Instead of working hard for Jiahe, it is better to develop in Hollywood.

"Don't worry, just live in Hollywood for a while, and I'll accompany you to slowly investigate the industry here." Ronald chuckled. If Jackie Chan really came to Hollywood to develop, he would definitely be able to break through based on the rental rate of his video tapes. A piece of heaven and earth.

(End of this chapter)