Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 701 The first A+ grade in four years
Without waiting for the official results the next day, Weintraub pressed the Cinemascore manager on the neck that night and asked him to give himself an answer overnight.

Score sheets one by one were faxed back from theaters in every state across the country.Then it is summarized and filled in the form, and a staff member calculates the average score according to the calculator.

After double-checking, the average scores were added up, and then converted into a grading system from A+ to F, and finally filled in by the staff in the large space at the bottom of the form.

This final score summary sheet was faxed from the headquarters in Las Vegas to Weintraub's hotel in New York.

"A+, A+, uh, uh..."

Weintraub held the fax and kissed passionately despite the peculiar smell of the fax machine still lingering on it.

"Ronald, it's an A+, the first movie to get an A+ from Cinemascore in four years! We're going to make it, hahaha..."

Ronald, who was forced to stay by Weintraub, was actually not very happy. He wanted to go home with Aunt Karen to eat some baked cookies, talk about family life, and Donna's MIT studies. .

But Weintraub is very good at making women happy. He told Ronald's aunt that the next score is related to whether Ronald can make another breakthrough.The aunt heard that it was related to Ronald's career future and advised him to stay.

Cinemascore's score is completely randomly selected cities in several states, and then the staff travels to do the sampling.So the score can completely represent the audience's perception of the movie.

"Is this rating important?" Ronald actually didn't know the company's rating system very well.He only remembered that "ET Alien" also got an A+ evaluation back then.This time, the second part of Longwei Boy has also received good comments from the audience, it seems that I have done a good job.

"You are not an executive of the company, Ronald. Cinemascore is highly valued in Hollywood now. Because their ratings can be regarded as a prediction of the box office to a large extent. Anyone who gets an A or above is a big hit at the box office." success.

So now the Cinemascore score has been bought out by the seven major Hollywood studios, and they cannot immediately release the score publicly in the media.The real scoring numbers can only be released to the studio first, and then to the news media after approval, and some key data will not be released. "

"Well, is your evaluation accurate?" Ronald asked the staff of Cinemascore.

The staff explained it a bit.It looks like he does this job a lot.

CinemaScore surveys five randomly selected cities for each film.Only for opening day audiences.The survey cards ask questions about age, gender, rating the movie (“A“, “B“, “C“, “D“ or “F“ ), whether they rent and buy videotapes, and more.

There are also questions for announcements, such as why they chose the film and whether they think it lives up to their marketing.

"For a movie that we get an A rating, the first weekend multiplier of the total box office is more than 5 times. If it gets an A+, it may exceed 8, or even 10.
A C-rated film grossed about three times its opening weekend total.

So in general, A is good, B is average, and C is terrible. A D and an F, that means they shouldn't have made this movie, or they made a pitch to the wrong crowd, got the wrong group of people to see the movie. "

"I remember getting A+ in ET"

"Actually, in 1982 when ET was released, there were two films 'Gandhi' and 'Rocky 3' which got A+. But because ET was too successful, the total box office was more than 30 times the opening weekend, so we revised scoring standards.

More than three years later, no film has met the new A+ rating standards.Your 'Dragon Boys Part [-]' was the first movie in four years to get an A+ rating, and even Ni's 'Top Gun' only got an A.

So, congratulations, Director Ronald, Mr. Weintraub, according to our experience, your movie will definitely do well at the box office. "

"Thank you, so we can use A+ for publicity, right?"

Weintraub asked the Cinemascore staff.

"Of course, we have no objection to that."

Although Cinemascore ratings are generally not announced to the public, some movies will get an A-level rating and put them in their own promotion packages.

Some posters, newspaper advertisements, and TV advertisements will have a Cinemascore rating of A.

"Longwei Boys Part [-]" got the A+ that I haven't seen for a long time. Of course Weintraub would not let it go. He was busy calling Columbia's publicity department, urging them to immediately revise the publicity materials, and put forward Additional budget.

Although Weintraub has already joined MGM/United Artists, Columbia will not struggle with money.

In addition to this "Longwei Boys Part [-]", which will bring them huge rewards, the distribution rights of the sequels after the series are also in the hands of Columbia.

Moreover, the two consecutive films have placed product advertisements of Coca-Cola, the parent company of Colombia. For such commercial films, the director is very cooperative in adding advertisements, instead of rejecting commercial implants for the sake of art like some directors do.

Columbia's distribution department moved quickly.By the evening of the same day, the new scoring publicity materials had been distributed in New York City.

A patch-style advertisement with a Cinemascore score of A+ was pasted on the posters of the Longwei Boys in major movie theaters.

A big A+ with Cinemascore on the background.There is another person next to him who gave a thumbs up and said it was very good.

"This seems to be the gesture of the two film critics in Chicago." Ronald, wearing sunglasses, came to a movie theater in Manhattan to see the new poster.

"Anyway, they didn't apply for a patent." Weintraub didn't wear sunglasses. In the world of movies, audiences rarely care about the looks of producers.Although he is a big boss, he still enjoys the fun of pointing out and correcting the mistakes of the staff on the front line.

"That's right," Ronald saw the crowd queuing up to buy tickets at the box office.

In addition to Ronald's "Top Gun" and "Longwei Boys Part [-]", some people are buying "Spring is not a school day", and the rest are buying tickets for another new movie.

"French Open Condor (Legal Eagles)?" Ronald looked at the star faces on the poster. There were three pleasing big stars, one man, two women.

The position of stars on movie posters is also a symbol of their status in the industry.

In the middle is Robert Redford, reclining on the ground, occupying the largest space alone.He is the golden boy of Hollywood as an actor, and as a director, he won the Oscar for Best Director for his directorial debut in "Ordinary People" in 1980.In that movie, there was Timothy Hutton, the actor Ronald hated.

So his card is the biggest, and he lay in the best middle position without hesitation.

On the left is Debra Winger.She starred in "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "Mother and Daughter" and was nominated for an Oscar, but lost to Shirley Maclean, who played her mother in the same film.

She is a black-haired beauty, wearing a white sweater, revealing a right hand.

Her card was the second highest, so half of her body leaned out of Radford's side.Redford's body is also slightly sideways to her, and the audience's eyes will be led by Redford, and they will see her second.

On the right is Darryl Hannah, who starred with Tom Hanks in the hit "Mermaid."However, she has no blockbuster film released since then, and she has no recognition of awards.

So she only shows her face and blonde hair on the poster, and her body is blocked by Redford.

"I want to see it, do you want to watch it together?" Ronald asked Weintraub if he wanted to watch the film of the main competitor.

"I'm not interested, we're A+ rated and we're sure to win."

"Okay then, I'll see for myself."

Ronald's eyes stayed on Debra Winger's face. Although she was a black-haired beauty who was traditionally considered in America to have a bigger brain than a figure, Ronald preferred this kind of beauty with temperament and intelligence.More attractive than Darryl Hannah, who only has blonde hair and a tall figure.

"Did you see her? But you're late. Deborah's got a shotgun wedding." Weintraub made a round gesture with his hand on his stomach.

"What?" Ronald didn't understand at once.

"She is pregnant, and it belongs to Timothy Hutton. Hutton is a famous playboy in Hollywood. If he can agree to get married, he must have a child.

It was rumored in Hollywood circles that her agent was yelling at her, that all Hutton's films after 'Ordinary People' failed at the box office, and no one asked him to hand over the scripts, and that being with Wenger was also to gain her popularity on purpose .

Now Debra Winger has taken at least a year off. As an actress who was originally on the rise, it is very bad for her career to be pregnant and have children. "

"Hey, it's really hard for a female star."

Ronald shrugged, bought a ticket, and bought a large can of popcorn and Coca-Cola combo, and carried it into the screening room.

"French Open Condor" is surprisingly pretty.Redford plays a prosecutor, and Debra Winger plays his opponent's lawyer. The two defend Darryl Hannah and accidentally involve an intentional arson case more than 20 years ago.

The movie has romance, unexpected explosions, and conspiracy revelations. In the end, the role played by Redford did not choose Darryl Hannah, who inherited his father's huge fortune in world-famous paintings, but chose Deborah, a like-minded law firm. La Winger.

The whole movie is quite satisfactory, the script can be seen, and the writing is very in line with the specifications of commercial blockbuster movies.

Ronald noticed that the screenwriters on the subtitles were Jim Cash, and Jack Epps Jr.This pair of screenwriter partners is also named as the screenwriter of "Top Gun". Of course, the script of that movie is very thin, and it mainly depends on the director.

Besides that, they also wrote the screenplay of "Secret of Success".

But the plot of the movie is too regular, and the stars also played well.Ronald, as a Hollywood person, all the twists and turns are within his expectations, and the actors don't have any shots, and they dedicate unexpected performances.

After watching the whole movie, Ronald couldn't even recall which shot was impressive.

"Exciting! Debra Winger is beautiful."

"Darryl Hannah isn't bad either, she's in really good shape."

Ronald came to the bathroom and found that the audience did not talk about the plot, but chatted about the performance of the beautiful actors.

"It seems that he is also a strong enemy, so it should not be underestimated."

Although the plot was not discussed, but discussing the heroine's appearance and temperament in this way, Ronald believed that word-of-mouth would not be bad.

Maybe in the women's room, Robert Redford was being discussed.

"The audience loves the stars, and the producers rely on the stars." Ronald understood this sentence deeply.

(End of this chapter)