Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 422
That young computer expert happened to be an undergraduate computer science student at UCLA.He enthusiastically pointed Ronald to the store where he could buy all the accessories, and he also used the privilege of working as an administrator in the computer center to open an email account for Ronald.

Ronald also fulfilled his wish and helped him get Phoebe Cates' signed photo based on his relationship.

"Didi, Zhizhi, woo..." After a strange scream, the modem finally connected to the university's BBS.

Ronald logged in with the e-mail account his friend had given him, and opened the newsgroup client software.

Connections are slow and calls are expensive.Ronald could only download the contents of the newsgroup in the middle of the night.After finally downloading all the emails, Ronald began to browse slowly on the computer.

There wasn't much content in the newsgroup, and in the movie section, there were only two posts discussing "Night of the Comet."It was the movie watching action initiated by the college student.Under a post, seven or eight people replied.

There are more discussions about "war games" below. After all, it is a movie related to these computer geeks, and some people have raised a lot of loopholes in the movie, listing as many as twelve.

Ronald went up and replied, "Movies are an art of storytelling, and some loopholes are for the convenience of the audience to understand." Then continue to browse other sections.

About the general plate is to discuss computer, software, network related content.Ronald mostly couldn't read it.There is only one topic section, which contains various controversial topics.Such as anti-war, racism, Souvier Union, nuclear war, etc.

Ronald looked funny, posted a post called "Anyone know the history of Japanese descent in America?" and shut down the computer.

The next day, several people responded to his post, many of whom said they had never heard of the history of Japanese descent.Only one person replied that America had driven all the Japanese into concentration camps because of World War II.Just like their Chinese Exclusion Act against Chinese Americans earlier.

Then several people said that they had never heard of it.

Seeing that person, Ronald replied angrily, "These white rulers don't want you to remember the history of the persecution of yellow-skinned people. You can check the history of the [-]nd Infantry Regiment. "

Of course, Ronald had never heard of the [-] Infantry Regiment, so he replied in the client, "I have never heard of this Infantry Regiment, I don't know what you mean, and where can I see their What about history?"

In the next few days, the box office chart officially entered the most intense period of the year. "Star Wars" continued to soar, earning a box office of 200 million US dollars in a week, and the average weekly box office of a single theater was as high as [-] US dollars.

"Psychopath 2" and "Two-Brained Man" quickly fell back, leaving the top three positions at the box office.

Instead, "Games of War," "Lightning Dance," and "Night of the Comet" held steady and continued to top the charts.

Especially "Lightning Dance" and "Night of the Comet", although the theaters have dropped to [-] and [-] theaters, but the box office has a lot of stamina and the decline is very slow.

"Lightning Dance" has been screened to the eighth week, but the box office is only down 20.00% from last week.The second-week declines of "Psycho 2" and "Twin Brain Man" have both exceeded 40.00%.

The most surprising thing is "Night of the Comet", which is only slightly down ten percent from last week.All of a sudden, the box office reputation spread like wildfire.

"You know, Ronald. The first weekend's box office depends on the company's distribution capabilities, but from the second week onwards, it's all about word-of-mouth from the audience. This is the iron law. It seems that your movie has a good word-of-mouth, enough to compete with 'Lightning Dance' ' on a par."

Atlantic's distribution manager, sitting in the conference room, explained to Ronald the reason for the uncharacteristically strong box office.

"Then, will the number of our theaters be maintained in the future?"

"It can last for about a week. Next week, another summer blockbuster 'Superman III' will be released. The number of theaters for our movies will not decrease too much, but the number of shows and playing time will be affected."

"Okay", Ronald has long accepted the fact that Atlantic's distribution capabilities are not good enough. Fortunately, his films are up-to-date, and if they continue, they will surely break through the box office of 2000 million.

In addition to the good quality of "Night of the Comet" itself, the special effects are also relatively good, unlike a small production that is crude.Ronald feels that the MVs and movie trailers played on MTV loops have contributed a lot to the box office.

He doesn't have much evidence to back it up, but "Lightning Dance" and "Night of the Comet," the only films to advertise on MTV, have been particularly slow to drop week-to-week at the box office, which It is impossible not to let everyone who is engaged in film distribution begin to doubt the power of MTV.

"Do you think it's the effect of MTV's advertisement?" Ronald asked the other party.

"I think it's half and half. On the one hand, it is true that MTV has concentrated a lot of young audiences, so advertising here can reach the target audience of our 'Night of the Comet' to the greatest extent. On the other hand, it is true that your movie quality is excellent.

Director Li, I'm not complimenting you.I did distribution at United Artists before.The quality of a movie has a lot to do with the director's professional ethics.Let me just say that all your budget is invested in production.

All the money, you can see where it was spent on the final screen.I am not an expert in making movies about those realistic zombies, the detritus of comets, blood-red skies, and deserted cities, but I think a different director might not even be able to make 500 million movies. "

"You used to be at United Artists?" Ronald asked.

"Yeah, I think you've heard the name of Michael Cimino, and his 'Heaven's Gate' crew spent three percent of their budget on substance abuse. And you're in There was no way to see where the money was spent on the screen. I had already taken out a loan to buy a house, and it was almost forfeited because of this movie.”

Ronald smiled and was about to answer when Tom Coleman, president of Atlantic, knocked on the door and came in.

"Hi, Ronald." Tom hugged Ronald hard.

"Sorry, I was just now having a preparatory meeting with several production crews. Your and Martha Coolidge's film has made Atlantic famous in the industry. The scripts that could not be sent to us are now sent."

"Coffee?" Tom Coleman raised his hand and introduced a middle-aged lady who came in with him.

"This is our company's chief financial officer".

"Hello, Mr. Ronald Lee, according to the agreement we signed earlier, 'Night of the Comet' has reached the break-even point, and we will first pay your director 20 U.S. dollars, and your company's investment of [-] U.S. dollars. U.S. dollars, settled to you in advance.

The rest of the profit is divided into parts, and we need to distribute it to you and other investors after the movie is released and the box office figures are settled with the theaters. "

Ronald took two checks totaling $30 and pocketed them.

"Then when will our box office be settled?"

"Don't worry, Ronald." President Tom Coleman took over the conversation, "We will enjoy a relatively high share of the current box office, and when it is transferred to long-term screenings, your movie will undoubtedly be long-term screenings. The production company's share will be reduced accordingly. So basically the main part of the profit that can be attributed to us will start to be settled after the first round of screenings ends."

"As for the time, it is difficult for me to give you a specific number, but we will do our best."

"Okay, then I'll let my accountant contact you." Ronald knew that the billing period for the box office share would not be too short. Anyway, he had already received his own remuneration and investment costs. In short, let's save capital first. "

Called Lawrence the accountant and deposited the check.Ronald began to think about giving himself some rewards.

Should I buy a sports car, which is standard equipment for Hollywood celebrities?
never mind.I have seen several sports car dealers, and the expensive sports cars in Europe are expensive, and the muscular sports cars produced in America are not enough to reflect their value in Los Angeles and distinguish themselves from other entertainment directors.

The DeLorean sports car invested by talk show host Johnny Carson two years ago has doors that open on both sides, and the shape of swan wings is very recognizable.But the cockpit of the sports car is very narrow, and Ronald couldn't even straighten his feet when he sat in it, so he temporarily dismissed this idea.

After returning home, Ronald turned on the modem, continued to connect to the user network, and read the news.He has been obsessed with this newsgroup for the past few days. The people in it are very good. From the English text, it can be seen that the participants have received a good education.

"Ok?"

In the upper right corner of the newsgroup client, a reversed line appeared.

Ronald took a closer look. It was a speech to remind himself, and someone replied.

After pressing the "N" key several times, Ronald found the reply from the man.It turned out that Ronald asked about the [-] Infantry Regiment.

"The [-]nd Infantry Regiment is a regiment formed by Japanese-Americans. His sacrifice rate exceeded [-]%. Japanese-American families were driven into concentration camps. They had to join the army for their post-war life. Go to the European battlefield to fight the Germans.

If you need more information, you may wish to contact Senator Daniel Inoue of Hawaii. "

"Daniel Inoue, senior senator from Hawaii." Ronald touched his chin.

(End of this chapter)