Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1283: The movie spoofing Top Gun won the box office championship

The question of Johnny Carson's succession at NBC has once again become murky due to David Letterman's new media offensive. The finance chief has faced significant doubts about Letterman's decision to stay at NBC, and they are now considering various options.

As a result, Letterman's workload increased dramatically, and Richard spent a lot of time in that area. Ronald's work was temporarily taken over by a colleague named Kevin Huvin.

"You must be one of the Young Turks?" Ronald had a good impression of this young agent. He had a sunny appearance and a square chin. If it had been ten years earlier, there might not have been a place for him in Hollywood.

"Ha, I didn't expect that even our clients know this nickname." Kevin Huwen's style is more like a college football player, a little aggressive, but not annoying to his own people. Ronald has a certain sympathy for people with such a sports background.

Kevin Huwen's work style is also a bit like that of a sportsman. He is more proactive, and he actively participated in the marketing of Ronald's "other people's money".

The early warm-up by university professors, coupled with the verbal stick, has given the film some popularity among well-educated people. Kevin Huwen thought of another way to let this popularity go out of the elite circle and enter the public's perspective.

His method is also very simple. Former Harvard professor Summers used this film as an assignment for business school students. This is a very good marketing point.

The public actually doesn’t understand business wars or mergers and acquisitions, but Harvard is a name that everyone knows. If a foreigner comes to America and asks him about his impressions of American universities, nine times out of ten the name of Harvard will be mentioned first.

Since a Harvard professor praised this movie as a true reflection of Wall Street's business wars and took it as a homework, the general public will definitely be curious about what a business war movie recognized by Harvard would look like.
"This is a good thing, but Summers went to work at the World Bank, and he is no longer a Harvard professor." Ronald felt a little pity.

"It doesn't matter. Harvard professor, and former Harvard professor who is now chief economist of the World Bank, aren't they better titles?"

"Well, your idea is very good. How come you are also an expert in marketing and public relations?" Ronald was very satisfied with his proposal.

"My brother Stephen is a public relations expert in New York..." Kevin Huwen replied with a smile.

"Are you from New York too?" Ronald had a barely perceptible smile on his face when he talked about New York.

"Yes, I am from the Bronx, and the three of us brothers grew up in New York."

"Very good...I'm from New York too..."

Ronald was very satisfied with the young man Richard found. He also managed several heavyweight stars, such as Meryl Streep...

These people are all potential allies. This time Ovitz was sniped at David Letterman's contract by Ronald's group within the company, and the conflict deepened. Although Ovitz doesn't resent the company's involvement in signing Letterman, with this man's style, it will only be a matter of time before he turns his back. With the support of agents who are relatively cooperative among these young Turks, they can have more leverage when they fall out.

Summers readily agreed to Ronald's request. This scholar who became a professor at the age of 28 and broke Harvard's historical records is not the kind of person who buries his head in old papers. His willingness and ability to participate in social activities are very good. Very strong.

A movie-watching guide for business school students written by Lawrence Summers, a former Harvard professor and current chief economist of the World Bank, has been released.

At the beginning of this list, Summers wrote that the commercial plots in Hollywood movies are often criticized for being oversimplified, but there are still some movies in history that combine drama and authenticity very well.

Whether you are a student at Harvard Business School, or any business school, or a young person aspiring to work in business, by watching these movies, you will have a deeper understanding of the business world and Wall Street.

Among the movies on the list is "Executive Suite" directed by Robert Wise in 1954, which tells the story of corporate property rights issues.

There was also "Wall Street" in the past few years, which gave people a deep understanding of stock market acquisitions and the ethics of securities trading.

There is also "Trading Places" directed by John Landis in 1983, which showed some of the operating rules of the commodity futures market in the form of comedy.

Also on the list is Ronald's "Working Girl," a film about the plight of women in the business world and the passion and skill it takes to win over clients.

Finally, of course, there's Ronald's new film "Other People's Money," which is one of the few films that shows how public companies fight for the support of majority shareholders and the power of their boards. Compared with the business ethics he showed and the changes in the company's division of labor as international trade further deepened, what is more practical and guiding is to help you understand the minutes and announcements of board meetings of listed companies.

Of course, although these are very interesting and in-depth reviews of the internal business operations of the movie and what parts of each movie need to be focused on to compare with the textbooks, there are still very few that ordinary viewers can understand.

It can be said that readers of the Wall Street Journal will applaud this list and comments. As for readers of the New York Daily News, only two words caught their eye after reading the entire article:
"Harvard!"

For a time, many young people in big cities were discussing this list. They first went to the video rental store to complete the movies on the list, and then prepared to watch "Other People's Money."

"Good news, Ronald, working girl videos have started to be produced again." Kevin Huwen smiled and showed him the video rental ranking list for the new week.

In addition to several new movies on the list that have re-entered the top 50 on the rental list, people are starting to want to watch even old movies like "Executive Suite". CBS' nostalgic movie channel also showed it twice in a short period of time in its midnight program.

"Hey, I really should have prepared in advance." Due to the sudden market situation of video tapes, the working girl's video tapes were actually sold out in many rental stores. This was a great opportunity, but Ronald did not earn all the profits.

"Who knew the former Harvard professor had such a great reputation?" Kevin Huwen agreed with a smile. This public relations operation was the business of his brother, public relations consultant Steven Huwenyan. Not only did he make a fortune from consulting fees this time, but he also earned a reputation as a New Yorker who helped make Hollywood movies popular. Now celebrities from New York and Los Angeles were ringing up the phone of his front desk secretary. .

"Maybe the World Bank's reputation is still the most important..."

Ronald also hired Michael Gray to monitor the operation. What is different from what Ronald or Hu Wen thought is that ordinary people see that the World Bank has a greater influence on them in Summers' title.

Ordinary people don't know what the World Bank is, but firstly, the bank's name is famous, and secondly, in the Wall Street Journal's writer profile, they also saw the news that Summers left Harvard to take a job.

A person can give up his teaching position at Harvard and become the chief economist of this bank. This is definitely not the kind of monkey-playing bank registered in Delaware. (The World Bank is actually an international financial institution of the United Nations system that provides loans for capital projects in developing countries)
……

As the summer season draws to a close, “Other People’s Money” hits theaters as a curiosity in Hollywood.

"Thank you, James..."

At the premiere, Cameron came with Linda Hamilton to congratulate Ronald.

"Hahaha, I came to see Diane's performance..." Linda Hamilton held Diane's hand and whispered something beside her.

"What's the box office curve like?" Ronald asked about the box office trend of "Terminator 2". This is his biggest film investment this year.

"The decline is still relatively fast, and there are signs of acceleration. A spoof movie was released last weekend. The number of viewers for R-rated movies is limited..."

The box office decline rate of the "Terminator 2" movie is still relatively fast. On the one hand, it is because of the R-rated movie, but on the other hand, it is also because the box office of "Boys from the Block" is strong and has the support of loyal fans, so the decline is slow.

Comparing the two sides, it seems that the box office of "Terminator 2" is still lagging behind the big winner. The average weekend box office for a single theater has dropped below $3500, surpassed by "Boys from the Block"'s $4000.

"What spoof movie?" Ronald asked with a frown.

"Go back and see for yourself. It's not convenient for me to say, Diane..." Cameron smiled weirdly and refused to say anything.

"Ronald...Diane..."

David Letterman also came to support, but he knew that he was now the center of controversy and only briefly greeted Ronald.

"I came to watch a movie today, not to answer questions. Sorry... I urgently need knowledge on business contracts..." David Letterman made a joke and raised his hands to surrender to the reporters. Then walked into the cinema.

But in the end, he gave Ronald a rather amusing smile, "The new Toy Fighter Condor is really funny."

"What's funny, what's Fighting the Condor?" Ronald felt a little confused.

"He was talking about that new movie, which surpassed Terminator 2 last week and ranked first on the list..." Upon seeing this, Kevin Huwen immediately whispered into Ronald's ear. These young Turks are agents, and they are very discerning.

"What does that have to do with me?" Ronald felt very strange.

"I'll check..." Kevin Hu Wen has also been busy helping Ronald with marketing recently and has not paid attention to the rankings of new movies. He has lost professional impression points with Ronald, which makes him very embarrassed. .

"Ronald, I wish your new film success." This time it was the turn of Diane's good friend, Laura Dern. "Pfft..." She still couldn't help laughing.

"What's going on?" Ronald saw that Diane was having a hard time enduring and knew that they must know something that he didn't.

"We'll talk about it when we get back, we'll talk about it when we get back..."

Ronald was confused and very suspicious in this atmosphere, but the premiere was about to start, so he had no chance to continue exploring and walked into the theater.

"Wow, wow, wow..." The audience at the premiere in Los Angeles was completely different from the previous test screening in college. They answer these profound philosophical questions, such as: why American companies are not competitive, whether old-school community companies like Gregory Peck can survive in the new era, Tom Hanks's hostile takeover behavior, Whether it is moral or not, I have no interest in it and cannot understand it.

It was the last speech that made the audience excited and very interested. This ability of speech to sway the emotions of an audience is especially powerful in America. The people also like to listen to the speeches of such leadership people. Being able to have a group of people change their minds and then change their decisions by an elite is something that Americans find very exciting in their genes.

……

"I said, can you tell me what is going on now?" After returning home from the premiere, Ronald couldn't help but ask Diane immediately.

This is the first time in his many years of filmmaking that after the premiere, he did not think about the box office and reviews of the new movie, but thought about an irrelevant question.

"The movie Hot Shot! they were talking about... it was, haha, it was, hahahaha..."

Diane was overjoyed...

"What the hell?" Ronald felt bad.

"It's a spoof of your Top Gun. The male protagonist also flies a fighter jet and is in love with an instructor. However, the plane is just like a Disney cartoon movie, it's a mess..."

"Huh?" Ronald felt very embarrassed when he heard it. It's definitely not a bad thing for his movie to be parodied. It means that it has become famous and classic to a certain extent. But Top Gun is his first big-selling commercial film. If that feeling is ruined, the audience will mention this spoof movie when they think of it in the future, and that's not good.

"Ring ring ring ring..." The phone rang in time.

"Hello..." Ronald picked up the phone. It was his temporary emergency person Kevin Huwen.

"The Condor is a spoof of Top Gun released by 2th Century Fox... It did well at the box office, beating Terminator and ranking first."

"What...what are Bruckheimer and Don Simpson doing?" Ronald couldn't figure out how a movie that had only been released for five years could agree to be a spoof for others?
"They don't have much power. 20th Century Fox made a sidestep. Moreover, they also spoofed many recent movies, such as 9 to 5 starring Jane Fonda, Rambo's appearance in Stallone's First Blood, Tom ·Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s love-making movie, Days Out, even included pornographic films like Love You for Nine and a Half Weeks.”

"Fortunately, I'm not the only one embarrassed..." Ronald felt relieved. If everyone is embarrassed, it means that no one is embarrassed anymore.

(End of this chapter)