Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 710 Three Elements of a Movie's Popularity
"Better to be a living dog than a dead lion."

This line in "Shotgun Lulu" is also a true portrayal of Jonathan Demme since his filming.

When Nisita drove away with Ronald, he told Ronald some rumors in the industry.

Jonathan Demme's debut film, "Maven and Howard," was well shot.The reason why Universal did not release this movie on a large scale is probably because the protagonist of the story, the relatives and friends of former Hollywood tycoon Howard Hughes, used a lot of force to prevent the release.

This movie is adapted from the real events after the death of Howard Hughes. There is really a poor man named Maven who took out a will after Hughes' death, claiming to get a part of Hughes' estate.

He lost the case and never got a penny.Hughes' relatives and friends were afraid that after the film was released, more people would have doubts about whether the will was true, so they killed the film's release.

After learning about what happened to his senior brother Jonathan, Ronald had to admit that the box office of a movie is not necessarily directly proportional to the director's skills, or even how good the movie is.

From a purely technical point of view, the films I directed are far behind Jonathan's. Many details, especially the turning points of the plot, are not as good as the other's.

For example, in the plot of "Shotgun Lulu", when Lulu met her husband who escaped from prison at the Lulu class reunion, in fact, the types of movies before and after were different.The front is more of a pornographic film about an affair, and the back is a very authentic suspense film.Jonathan Demme made the movie very Hitchcock's "mental patient" feeling.

To hint at this shift in the audience, Demi changed the lighting at the school prom, changing the original warm radiant colors from warmer tones to cooler, gloomy tones.

This technique of color-suggesting that a major shift is coming for the viewer works well and with great skill.Ronald's films do not have this particularly ingenious design.

However, judging by the box office, Ronald's film far exceeded.

Many unknown factors will determine the box office of a movie.Not to mention other things, if the distribution company does not allow copies to be released in theaters, no matter how good the movie is, it will have no chance of getting a high box office.

Jonathan Demme's bad luck didn't stop there. His second film was completely overturned by the female star Goldie Hawn on the set, and finally found a new screenwriter to rewrite the script.The original story of sisterhood, which reflects the first time American women entered the factory to work on a large scale in the late World War II, has become a romantic love film with the heroine.

Jonathan was forced to retake all the shots. He was so frustrated that he went to make a concert documentary after two consecutive film failures.

If it weren't for this shotgun Lulu, Orion Films, adhering to the tradition of United Artists, not interfering with the artist's creation, gave him the de facto right to finalize the cut, and restored his confidence, maybe this director with great potential Say goodbye to the big screen.

With a movie like "Shotgun Lulu", even if the box office is still not good, but with this kind of technique and level, no one will worry about no one looking for him to direct in the future.

In a director's career, the success or failure of the first few films is still very important. If you use stars in your first few films, then they are interfered and cause the box office to fail...

……

Early the next morning, Weintraub called Ronald.He learned from Susan that Ronald had signed Cher.

"I heard that Cher will not be available until the New Year? That's okay, I expect MGM/United Artists to resume operations in October, and then you can start preparing for filming.

Do you need to prevent Cher from playing big names on the set?Go for it, Ronald, I don't think there's anyone who can challenge you on set. "

With the promise of the future small boss and president of MGM, Ronald was relieved a little.At least Cher couldn't challenge her authority the way Goldie Hawn challenged Jonathan Demme.

The various struggles in the crew are intricate, but in the final analysis, the key to deciding who can win in the end lies in who the top management of the studio supports in the end.

"There is also good news. The theme song of the second part of Long Wei Boys, 'The Glory of Love' sung by Peter Setra, topped the No.1 list."

"This is really very good news." Ronald was overjoyed, and the top episode of the episode is very helpful to the movie's box office performance. The "Top Gun" theme song topped the charts just two months ago.

This time, "Glory of Love" reached the top just in the second week of the film's release, and the time coordination will be greater than the box office bonus of "Take My Breath Away" to "Top Gun".

"No, this is great news. From my experience, this song will stay at No.1 for two or three weeks, and it will stay in the top ten for a long time."

Ronald is very excited. Both movies are doing very well. It seems that the top five will have two of their own days, and it will continue.

Because he was going to attend the New York premiere of "The Monster in Chinatown" next, Ronald stayed at home in New York and began to break down the script of "Moonlight".

Combining several scenes in the dream, Ronald is still looking for familiar actors.At the same time, he also called Coppola, indicating that he wanted his nephew Cage to play the leading actor.

"Peggy Sue Is Getting Married" is still months away, and during filming, Cage and leading lady Kathleen Turner had several conflicts.Coppola is of course very happy that there is such a big production that wants Cage to act. He will notify Cage and let him prepare a schedule to cooperate.

"There is good news for a family with a wicked husband. Cinema Score gave a score of A- for a family with a wicked husband." The publicity department manager of Disney's Touchstone Films reported the latest results to Ronald.

"I remember that the audience's average rating at the premiere was B to B+. Why is the latest rating higher?" Ronald was puzzled while being happy.

"Maybe the towns sampled by Cinema Score are in the Midwest, and maybe audiences in smaller towns there like the movie more and rate him higher than audiences in big cities."

"Oh," Ronald thought of the "Footloose" movie a few years ago, which is a bit like the situation with "The Bad Husband."

They are all classic stories of bad guys and good guys, and the plot is relatively simple, so that small-town teenagers who haven't seen much entertainment have no problem understanding the movie.

"Top Gun" producers, Don Simpson and Bruckheimer, often say that "Oklahoma moms and dads must understand" is also aimed at a larger audience. Movie theater audiences in small towns in the Midwest and Deep South.

It seems that maybe they still like to watch "The Family Has an Evil Husband".

The audience in the small town may not necessarily understand those densely spoken memes.But this kind of comedy with a slow rhythm and relying on the plot to make it funny slowly, maybe it just fits their aesthetics?
Thinking of Helen Slater's dull and simple acting skills in the movie, maybe those young people in small towns prefer this kind of beauty with simple acting skills.

Speaking of which, the director of the film "Full of Strength" is Herbert Ross, the director of "Secret of Success" in which Helen failed to audition.

In fact, the rhythm and techniques of the films he directed are relatively old. The story of "Full of Strength" is also very inconsistent with the aesthetics of young people in big cities, but it still won a domestic box office of 8000 million US dollars.

The more Ronald thinks about it, the more he is right. This may be a rule of box office success.

He took out a piece of paper and wrote down what he thought was the secret to box office success.

First, the story itself should be smooth and beautiful, and there should be no parts that are particularly exciting or distracting.Sophisticated directing skills and particularly outstanding performances by actors are not necessary conditions for success.Many viewers can't see it.

As long as the audience thinks it looks good in that one and a half to two hours, and can recommend it to relatives and friends later, the requirements can be met.

Second, the larger the audience you are facing, the better.If it is for teenagers and other groups who often go to the cinema to watch movies, it is necessary to shoot something they like.If it's an audience that disappears like The Sound of Music, give them a reason to go back to the cinema.

third……

Ronald thought about it, and there seemed to be no third one.Movies that can achieve these two points generally do not have major problems at the box office.

Oh, and it would be even better if the movie interlude could also be a pop song.This is the third element.

Ronald took an inventory of the movies he made, and it seemed that there was such a song, which became the top song in the charts when it was released.

Now the cost of publicity and distribution to invite movie audiences back to the movie theater is too high. Pop music is a good carrier, which can make people who have listened to the song want to go to the movie theater to see how the movie is being shot.

In this era when television occupies most of the entertainment time of adults, if a movie wants to be a blockbuster, letting the audience know how good the movie is is as important as whether the movie itself is good, if not more Important words.

"Ring ring ring ring..."

The phone rang, and Ronald was still pondering his conclusion, as if he hadn't heard the ring.After four rings, the call automatically went to the answering machine.

"Hello, this is Ronald's home. I'm not at home right now. If you have anything to contact, please leave a message after the beep, or call my agent."

"Ronald, it's me, Eddie. Pick up the phone, the producer from Dirty Dancing, and I want you to talk about production."

(End of this chapter)