Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 826 Box Office Champion for Three Consecutive Weeks
Michael Jackson's travel permit, which was short-lived and temporary, expired soon.He took some photos taken by Ronald, and returned to Xiangjiang contentedly to continue his album tour in Asia.

Ronald's visa is a special permission to continue traveling in China.In addition to the consistent friendly relationship with Hua Guo and his contribution to foreign exchange income, Ronald's reputation in Hua Guo's film circle has also reached its peak.

The reason is simple. After his "break dance" was officially introduced, there was a dance craze from south to north.

"I don't understand why this movie of mine can get such admiration here? I didn't even think that this movie would be introduced by you."

Ronald went to Xujiahui again, and got together with Director Huang and Yan Gong. He brought some photos of Xiao Yan from Stanton Community College in New York, which made Yan Engineer very happy.

After eating Xiao Long Bao and Three Yellow Chicken with Diane, Ronald finally expressed his doubts to Director Huang.

Although he didn't get any monetary benefits from the release of "Breakdance" in Huaguo, what this reputation brought him was unimpeded travel anywhere in Huaguo.As long as others know that he is the director of "Breakdance", they will be more enthusiastic to help him with various procedures that were originally difficult to handle.

It is no exaggeration to say that Ronald was the most famous Hollywood director in Huaguo in 1987.Whether it's George Lucas who took Star Wars or Richard Donner who took Superman, Ronald's reputation is not as famous.

And because his surname is Lee, there are still many outrageous rumors, saying that Ronald's ancestry is Chinese, and he was a descendant of exiled in America, but he did not forget his roots, so he came back to invest and set up factories.

"Probably because your ancestors were Chinese!"

One of Director Huang's best friends, Xiao Pan, an actress from Xujiahui Film Studio Actors Troupe, made a joke about Ronald.

"Hahaha..." Ronald laughed loudly and refused to comment on the rumor.He even explained it to Diane, who was having a great time eating Xiaolongbao, and she was so happy that she almost spit out the juice.

"To be honest, your breakdance filming is really enjoyable. "Popular movies" are all introduced in the middle of the big picture." Xiao Pan has Western descent, looks high nose and deep eyes, and has the softness of a Chinese woman. Very suitable as a movie actor.

Ronald handed over the new issue of the popular movie magazine that she handed over. On the middle slit, the Mada, Whirlwind, and Cindy in yoga clothes and leg warmers in "Breakdance" were cut out, and they Next to the dancing posture, the plot of the movie and the popularity of break dancing in the 1984 Olympic Games were introduced in Chinese.

In the end, the editor also had a small note, introducing the director Ronald, and talking about the tidbits, specifically talking about the director Ronald, who is friendly to China. He was moved by the performance of the women's volleyball team in the 1984 Olympic Games and became the leader of the women's volleyball team. Loyal fans and so on.

"Can I collect this magazine?" Ronald asked.Seeing Xiao Pan nodding, he put the magazine in his bag.This movie magazine with a monthly circulation of more than 200 million copies is the largest among similar magazines in the world.It can be used on the middle seam version, and it is also of commemorative value for collection.

"Actually, apart from the fact that the movie is good-looking, you have to thank the dubbing studio. It's not their job. It's impossible for this movie to be seen by audiences across the country." Director Huang reminded Ronald seriously.

"Then I'll treat them to dinner. All the colleagues in the dubbing studio, can you help me arrange it?" Ronald said in his heart that he was right, not only that the movie audiences in Huaguo couldn't see it, but if he didn't have the dubbed version of his dream, Maybe audiences in other parts of the world will see another version.

At the Huating Hotel next to the film studio, Ronald hosted a banquet for the employees of the translation studio.Anyone who participated in the voice work of "Breakdance" got the opportunity to sit in a box with Ronald for dinner.The two round tables were full, and it was the first time for the dubbing actors of these dubbing studios to be invited to dinner by the director of the original film they dubbed.

"You are in Hollywood, making this kind of proletarian movie, will you be targeted by capitalists?" Xiao Ding, a short-haired woman, voiced the heroine Lucinda Dickey.

"What?" Ronald didn't understand, and asked the translator pretendingly.

"This, actually, I didn't consider these things when I was filming. This is just a story about a street dancer in Los Angeles trying to get up to participate in a dance competition."

"Actually, Director Luo's story is not written from this angle, is it?" The character acting as the agent for the three protagonists is voiced by a talking old boy. His voice is very young and has a chic taste.

The old boy ate red sausage and jellyfish on his own, "However, Director Luo, the reason your film was introduced to China is thanks to the story of the poor people being targeted by the upper exploiting class."

"Although the streets are full of kids learning to breakdance, there are still many scenes in the movie that reflect the poor poor in America. Director Luo must be on their side. Don't you think so, Director Luo?"

Xiao Ding has a relatively high level of awareness. Her interpretation of the movie is that dance is a carrier, and the story itself still talks about the ubiquitous exploitation of America.The poor don't even have a place to sleep, and blacks and Latinos can only practice dancing in wooden houses.

"The poor people in America have a tape recorder, and they can eat that Kentucky chicken." The old boy still said a few strange words from time to time, and most of the time he focused on eating.

"Well, I just think that the people in Huaguo are very talented. Those of you kids who breakdance on the street are also top-notch and creative in New York and Los Angeles. This is completely different from Japan. Ronald didn't comment on this, and asked everyone to eat more vegetables with a smile.

Ronald also understands that his film reflects the very difficult plot that the poorest blacks, Latinos, and disabled grassroots in Los Angeles are despised by mainstream whites when they climb up.This is probably the most important reason why "Breakdancing" was chosen by Hua Guo to be screened.

However, the unexpected popularity of the film among the audiences in the north and south of China has nothing to do with this. It is entirely due to the explosive dance form of break dancing that conquered the audience.

Even Huaguo, whose disco was criticized a few years ago, was shocked speechless after seeing this epoch-making dance.So much so that young people across the country, regardless of cities or villages, are practicing.

"Director Luo, I heard that there is a sequel to Breakdance, is it also directed by you? I think the response is good, maybe we will continue to introduce it, or put it in our factory for dubbing." The one who spoke more politely was Xiao Liu, wearing a turtleneck sweater , asked Ronald.

"I didn't direct the sequel, and it doesn't have much connotation. You can ask the American Film Association or Cannon Company." Ronald thought to himself, there are many scenes of nurses dancing in sexy skirts in the sequel. will not be imported.

Just like my new film "Dirty Dancing", Patrick Schwyz and Jennifer Gray also have dances and sex scenes that make people arouse, and Ronald, who originally planned to release it in the mainland, understands the inside story of the introduction of breakdance , I completely lost my mind.

……

"How is the movie market here?" After quieting down, Ronald had the opportunity to chat with Director Huang about the recent Huaguo movie market.

"The distribution of popular movies is falling, and it has almost halved from the peak. Now some families with financial means are buying TV sets, and the impact on the box office of movies is still relatively large.

However, our distribution system is also being reformed. Recently, many commercial films have been released, which are still liked by many audiences. "

"America also had such a time when TV had an impact on movies." Ronald thought to himself, it seems that the idea of ​​the Film Association to make money in China depends on the box office growth brought about by economic development, and Which one is faster for TV to snatch the movie market?

"So are there any good movies now?" Ronald was a little curious about the commercialization of Huaguo movies, and the phenomenon of genre movies. He also wanted to see what kind of commercial movies here.

"Recently, there is a movie 'The Last Madness', which is very good. If you want to watch it, I will go with you."

Ronald found a guide for Diane to travel to the Bund, and he and Director Huang bought two movie tickets to go to Da Guangming to watch the recently hit "The Last Crazy".

"This gangster movie can still be shot like this?"

After watching the movie, Ronald's face was filled with disbelief.

Different from the police and gangster routines that are basically solidified in Hollywood genre films, all the movies here have a kind of vitality. The imagination of the creators is unexpected, and Ronald gritted his teeth watching it.

The role of detectives in Hollywood movies, even if their marriages fail and they are suppressed by their superiors, they all appear as heroes.And the scout in the northern coastal city in this movie is actually troubled by many trivial things in life, like an ordinary person.

They hunted down fugitives, and they had to buy train tickets themselves, squeeze the trains, and when they arrived in the big southern cities, they were exhausted.

Moreover, they who came to the south from the northern cities made a lot of jokes because of the size of the country and cultural differences.

Ronald felt that, like the east and west coasts of America, the north and south here also had jokes that made fun of each other's stereotypes.

In any case, it is very interesting to film the detectives as ordinary office workers, and let them show extraordinary reasoning ability and heroic spirit of fighting criminals at a critical moment. This kind of plot arrangement has never been seen before.

"Who directed this? Who is the screenwriter?" Ronald asked Director Huang.

"This is a new film from the Northwest Factory. Their Director Wu will give newcomers a chance."

"Director Wu? I know, I still have his phone number." Ronald thought to himself, it turned out that it was Director Wu who won the grand prize in Tokyo.

After arriving at the Huating Hotel, Ronald enjoyed the privileges of the foreign guest hotel. He could use the program-controlled telephone to make long-distance calls directly.

"Hello, Director Wu? I'm Ronald."

"Ah, Director Luo, why did the operator say you were calling from Xu Jiahui?"

"I'm here for a private interview. I just watched 'The Last Madness' from your factory. It was very interesting. Can I ask who wrote the script and who directed it? And, if possible, can you Can't give me a script, I study and study."

"What's wrong with that? We happened to be on a business trip and brought you the script. The director is newcomer Zhou Xiaowen, and the screenwriter is also our new transfer, named Lu Wei."

"Thank you, thank you."

"When will Director Luo come to our place, I will arrange for you to see the terracotta warriors."

"I'm in a rush this time, so I'll definitely go next time."

A colleague from the Northwest factory on a business trip brought Ronald the script of "The Last Crazy", and Ronald said he needed someone to translate it into English to share with his colleagues in Hollywood.This made the colleague in the Northwest factory straighten up a lot.

They said they were looking for someone to translate, but Ronald started to read it on the flight back to Los Angeles.

Speaking of which, this young screenwriter is very good.Although the plot is very immature and there are some small problems in the rhythm, but in terms of imagination and overall structure, it actually has the thinking of a typical Hollywood commercial screenwriter.

There is also the role of the detective, which breaks out of the old routines of Hollywood roles for many years, and innovates a new kind of character image exploration. Ronald feels that he has been inspired a lot by watching it.

……

Back home in Los Angeles, Ronald beat the day's jet lag and called a meeting with the top executives of Daydream Pictures.

Just as he went to East Asia to sell copies, Michelle Cannold took copies to sell films in Europe.

"The orders from China, Spain, and Italy have exceeded the original agreement. The box office performance of this film in America really surprised them. All the distributors who signed the intention agreement with us have overbooked by 150% copy of

The best is West Germany, except for Munich, Dortmund, Born and other places, the city of West Berlin has ordered more copies than all other places combined, I don’t know how they can digest so much copy.It is worthy of being the showcase of the Western camp. "

Ronald smiled, and Cannold obviously didn't understand the tricks inside.The copies ordered from West Berlin will be smuggled to Eastern countries such as East Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia through underground channels.

Except for Yugoslavia behind the Iron Curtain, other Eastern European countries, except for about 10 officially imported movies every year (and half of them are cheap old movies from ten years ago), basically buy the latest movies from the underground movie wholesale market in East Berlin. Copy it and play it in cinemas there.In recent years, Mikhail, the general secretary of the Suvir Union, has started to develop new ideas. These Hollywood movies are not as careful as before.Many movie theaters have begun to show unintroduced movies semi-publicly at good times.

"It's also doing well there in Latin America, with copy purchases in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina exceeding expectations."

Cannold's deputy, women's distribution manager Dolly Burnstein, also just returned from Latin America.

The response to "Dirty Dancing" was very good. Many people were very happy that the American people were able to shoot Latin dance so well.

But they liked the movie, a little bit differently than American audiences.They felt that the dancing of Baby played by Jennifer Gray was too rudimentary.And prefer Patrick Schwytz, and Cynthia Rhodes, the pas de deux clips of the professionals.

Even filmmakers in Latin America requested that the dancing images of these two be introduced as the protagonists on the poster.They like DIVA type women who can dance and dance well.

"We still ranked first in the box office on the Labor Day weekend, and the cumulative box office has exceeded 3000 million." General Manager Eddie Cohen began to introduce the domestic box office situation.

"We're expected to be No. [-] next week, and we won't have it until next week with 'Famous Attraction' starring Michael Douglas, and 'Pick Up Expert' with Molly Ringwald and Robert Downey Jr. threaten."

Ronald looked at the box office report and was very satisfied.

"What did I say, we can make a lot of money in this business!"

"Hahaha", whether it's the distribution manager who just came back from Europe or South America, or the general manager who is running marketing in China, when they heard this sentence, everyone laughed happily despite their fatigue.

Ronald was also very happy. He announced the end of the meeting and gave everyone the address of the evening celebration party.These people have been working a lot of overtime recently, and Ronald specially called Eddie's former magazine model clients to let them relax.

"Eddie, you stay here." Ronald called Eddie Cohen.He still has something to discuss with him.

"How about our videotape business?"

"The factory is producing inventory. By December, we can take advantage of the popularity of the movie and launch it all at once. Coca-Cola has decided to follow Pepsi's practice of sponsoring Top Gun and subsidize us with $6 per videotape. It's their advertisement, and I need you to do it."

"Very good, how is the production capacity of the factory now? Is there any spare capacity?"

"Of course, our orders only occupy one-third of their normal production capacity. If we have other orders, or new video tape business, they can double the production capacity. In fact, I think if our If the business can maintain uninterrupted videotape production, it is better to buy a videotape factory itself."

"That's why I came to you, Eddie."

Ronald said to his general manager in a low voice, "I went to Dongying, where Diane filmed the angry street, which is still very popular. In Xiangjiang, there are still some theaters showing pirated versions of 'ET Aliens' ..."

"Oh yeah?" Eddie gave a serious flash, the Jew's instinct kicked into action.

"In addition, the two films I found, 'Ecstasy' and 'Hairspray', I think are also very suitable for renting in video rental stores. This kind of film relies on dance, plot, and make-up to win, which is better than those that need to be seen in big movies." What you see on screen, like 'Top Gun,' seems more suited to the videotape market. What do you think?"

"I think you are right. The reason why many movies in recent years have not released videotapes is because we have no confidence in the videotape market. If we can produce and distribute videotapes on a large scale at an appropriate price, the factories will continue to work. , the cost can continue to drop.

And the labor cost over there in Xiangjiang..."

"This is our next strategy..."

"Don't forget those old movies you made!" Eddie reminded Ronald that whether it was "fast-paced Richmond High School" or "Night of the Comet," they were all suitable for video release.

"This matter is going on quietly, don't tell anyone in the circle." Ronald warned.The videotape market, and profits, is still a rapidly changing and rising market.Whether it is the Big Seven or the small and medium-sized studios, they have only heard about the profits in this area. How to proceed in detail, everyone is still in the stage of waiting and testing. As long as there is a suitable distribution channel and there are Guaranteed production capacity is the only way to cut a piece of this big cake.

(End of this chapter)