Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Some people are dissatisfied with Ovitz, and some admire him, even envy his clients, and want to become his clients.

At the dinner after the Oscars, Tom Hanks was talking to Diane, who also played in "Grown Up". He was a comedian, and it was not easy for him to be nominated for the Best Actor award this time. This person knows how to act, and he played the adult possessed by the child in "Grown Up" very well.

This kind of role is not easy to play. It is very difficult to see a child's personality and way of doing things from an adult's expression, body language, etc., without causing weird feelings.

He actually admires Edward James Olmos, the male lead of "Stand and Deliver". This Latino actor does not rely on his face, but he plays a high school teacher to the core.

Everyone has a high school teacher, so it is not easy to play this role convincingly and brilliantly.

But all these are useless. In the end, Dustin Hoffman won the Best Actor award twice. He really wants to know how Ovitz's CAA did it.

"I really don't know. I just signed with Paula Wagner of CAA two years ago. But she is really good and has planned a good career for me. Unlike my previous agent, she only wanted to find me the next movie with the highest salary so that he could get more."

Diane heard that Tom Hanks was interested in jumping to CAA, so she shared some experience. If he could sign with agents like Paula and Richard, it would obviously be able to form a synergy with herself and Ronald...

"This is Paula, this is Tom..." Diane found Paula Wagner at the scene.

"Mr. Hanks, no introduction is needed, I'm Paula."

After connecting the two, Diane didn't need to worry about the rest. She began to look for Ronald's trace.

"Ronald and Rick (Nicita) are over there..." Paula knew what Diane was thinking and pointed to the corner. Ronald was discussing things with Nicita and Richard.

"Independence? Maybe it's not the time yet." Ronald and the two agents whispered in the corner.

The two also saw the three winners thanking Ovitz at the scene, and came over to express their support for Ronald.

Unlike general production companies, the agency adopts a partnership system. Although Ovitz holds more than half of the shares, other agents have strong autonomy.

Each agent survives by collecting fees from clients. To be honest, with star directors or star actors like Ronald or Tom Cruise who have irreplaceable roles, agents don’t need to rely on much CAA.

So if the two of them, plus Niceta’s wife, Paula Wagner, leave CAA with some apprentices and clients, it is estimated that the income in the next five years will not be lost too much. Of course, this requires Cruise and Ronald to follow them.

And Ovitz’s income is far higher than that of his agents, because his main income is not agent fees, but relying on packaging services, playing the role of a de facto producer.

For blockbuster movies like "Rain Man", CAA's production business can share the box office revenue, which is no less than what Ronald earned from "Dirty Dancing".

Ovitz also bought the equity of several CAA founders, and he could get most of the box office revenue.

Now that he knew that Ovitz was the biggest obstacle to his Oscar, he had to come up with a plan to defeat him. As for whether to let his agent be independent from CAA, it was not the most important thing.

Nicita and Richard breathed a sigh of relief. Their most important client was sentenced by their boss. Ronald left CAA in anger and switched to William Morris.

They had made the worst plan. Instead of losing important clients such as Ronald and Tom Cruise, independence was the best choice. The most important thing was to convince Ronald that they would continue to serve him as always.

Since Ronald did not make an impulsive choice when he was angry, they had to offer better conditions to repay the client's kindness. Loyalty is always relative, and it is the same for clients to agents and agents to clients.

"We will lower your rate..." For the time being, they have not yet broken through Ovitz's power network, and they are not sure that Ronald will win the Oscar next time, so they will use the small favor of reducing the agent's share to show their attitude of standing with Ronald.

"I see your good intentions, but it doesn't matter, we will still follow the original agreement. However, this time we must unite more actors and agents. What Michael can do, we can do too."

Ronald actually doesn't care about the money that the agent takes from him. As an agent, the law stipulates that they can only share from their creative remuneration as a director or screenwriter. And their main income has long been separated from the director's salary and dividends, and is mainly the producer's income and investment income.

To make the agent work hard, you have to give them enough money. If Ronald is a Jew, he might take this opportunity to negotiate a deal that is most beneficial to him, and then wait until the next negotiation chips change, the agent weighs the cost of betrayal and loyalty, and gives them another chance to consider whether to stab him in the back.

Ronald thought it was unnecessary to scheme against people every day for such a small amount of money. Besides, Niceta is of Italian descent. Their cultural traditions are similar to those of Chinese descent. They emphasize long-term loyal investment. In this way, when the critical moment comes, the other party will not consider the short-term cost of betrayal, but the long-term income. will be affected.

In short, Ronald has made up his mind. We need to learn some of Ovitz’s methods and use drama contracts to tie up more CAA clients and let them stand in the same boat as themselves.

The reason why Ovitz can influence the Oscar voting results is simply that he has a large number of TV series and movie resources, through which he can control most of the agents in CAA, and then use the agents to influence the Oscars The largest voting group - actors.

Coupled with the influence of some Jews, this time it was possible for "Rain Man" to monopolize the most important awards at once.

The best way to break this chain of influence is to imitate Ovitz and then surpass him. What Ovitz can do, Ronald's two agents can do too. Integrate resources to provide studios with convenient casting options.

"Ronnie", Diane came over and interrupted the three people's whispers.

"Dear... do you still want to be here? If there is no one else you want to see, I want to go back."

Ronald held Diane's hand. The big goal had been set, and all that was left were the details. Ronald didn't believe that he could do worse than an agent who didn't know how to make movies.

The major Hollywood studios have been suffering from Ovitz for a long time. Many people are forced to accept his packaging strategy, because if they don't listen to him, the most important directors and screenwriters will not sign contracts with them.

Relying on this bundling strategy, Ovitz was able to dominate the seven major Hollywood studios. But a domineering approach will undoubtedly arouse resentment from others.

Confucius once said, "To go too far beyond the boundary is as wrong as not to have reached the boundary."

"Tom Hanks wants to talk to you more... I introduced him to Paula." Diane pointed to Hanks, then leaned towards Ronald, "No one wants to see me anymore. Let’s go back with you…”

Of course, everyone did not let Ronald go so quickly. Tom Cruise, Jodie Foster and others came over to chat with Ronald. Especially Jodie Foster, she was most grateful to Ronald for giving her the opportunity to perform in "Pear Blossom".

Although he won the Best Actress, he had to play good roles in the future and not give Ronald the impression that he was ungrateful.

After dealing with them, Ronald finally walked out of the award venue with Diane. They called little Bud and asked him to drive over and pick him up.

"Judy seems to thank you very much..." Diane asked.

"Yeah, it was me and McGillis who told her that she had the opportunity to star in this movie. At that time, she was not the first person the producer considered..."

There's nothing Ronald can't say, and everyone knows by now that Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis are a couple. The two of them live together closely. Of course, it is unknown whether the situation has changed after Judy won the Best Actress Award.

"Didi..." Little Bud's Mercedes-Benz sedan drove over. He got out of the car, opened the door, and let Ronald and Diane get in the car.

"Thank you, Bud. Have you eaten?" Little Bud was having a hard time waiting for them at the door.

"I have a burger prepared by my girlfriend. I watched the TV broadcast in the parking lot. It's such a shame this year." Bud returned to his seat. He was now waiting to save some money and get married to his girlfriend.

"It's okay, the Oscars are unpredictable. We still won the Best Original Song Award...not empty-handed..." Ronald didn't want to reveal any dissatisfaction with Ovitz except for a limited number of people. information.

"Hmm..." Bud started the car, "It looks like Miss Carly Simon over there? I just saw her win the statuette..."

Little Bud pointed to a curb outside the awards venue. A woman in a dress was squatting on the ground, shaking a little in the wind.

"Carly?" Ronald rolled down the window, "Why are you here?"

"Ronald?" Carly Simon was miserable. The Oscar for Best Original Song was a minor award. She had no acquaintances to talk to at the dinner party and had to call a taxi by herself. Los Angeles is not New York, and taxis are underdeveloped. She has been waiting here for more than ten minutes, and the taxi has not arrived yet, which is really embarrassing.

"Get in the car and we'll take you back to the hotel."

"Thank you, Ronald, Hi Diane..."

Carly Simon squeezed into the car, drank the champagne that Diane handed her, and immediately relaxed.

"Wow, this is the statuette..." Diane couldn't put it down while holding the trophy. She even held the statuette to her ear as if she was giving an acceptance speech.

"Hey, this is a music award, not an acting award," Carly Simon said with a smile. Hollywood awards actually don't pay much attention to the music category. Next year everyone will forget that she even won an Oscar as a singer.

Ronald heard something in her words and tilted his head in a questioning manner.

"This song "Let the River Flow" was not included in this year's Grammy Awards..."

Carly Simon explains her dilemma. Although this movie episode has been well received by movie critics, many movie critics have to mention a few words about this theme song.

But the record company refused to put this song in their latest album. Without it, there would be no charts, and no qualification for entering the Grammys. Therefore, the influence of Carly Simon's song is limited to the film industry, and it is more popular than the music industry.

"Why is this the case?" Ronald didn't understand the twists and turns of the music industry. "Why don't you authorize this song to me? I'm just about to release the soundtrack album of "Working Girl"..."

"Hey? Is this okay? You want to make a soundtrack album?" Carly Simon didn't expect that her song could be republished here.

"Let my agent contact your agent tomorrow."

...

"Dear, your breakfast..." Since the last time she cooked eggs for Ronald who was sick, Diane fell in love with being a housewife when she was with Ronald. Her cooking skills have not improved. Now she orders room service to bring breakfast to the room.

"Thank you, dear..." Ronald had finished his exercise and was dealing with business matters in his room. He kissed Diane, picked up the sandwich and started eating.

"How is our box office after the awards are announced?" Ronald ate while contacting marketing consultant Michael Gray.

"There is a good recovery, but it is still not as good as the box office recovery of Rain Man..."

"That's definitely not good. How do we compare with Dangerous Liaisons?"

"It's about the same. Ours is higher in big cities, and theirs is higher in small towns."

After the Oscars were announced, the three nominated films that were still in theaters saw a resurgence in the box office. Rain Man won the most awards and was undoubtedly ahead in terms of momentum.

Although "Working Girls" and "Dangerous Liaisons" were only nominated but did not win, both films were nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. The audience was still very interested in the nominations of such women's dramas, and they all went to the cinema to see how the actress nominees performed.

As for "The Robbery of Lily", which won the Best Actress Award, it was released earlier and has been taken off the screen for a long time. The distributor is exploring the possibility of re-release.

The box office ranking actually makes sense. "Working Girls" occupies big cities, while the other two are relatively evenly distributed across the country. It makes sense that this movie has far better box office than other movies in big cities with developed business.

Ronald called Michelle Cannold of Daydream again to discuss the overseas distribution of Working Girl.

Similarly, they also encountered competition from Rain Man and Dangerous Liaisons in the overseas market. And they were slightly weaker.

The essence of "Working Girl" is still American, emphasizing struggle and courage, and a hero handles everything. "Rain Man" presents universal brotherhood and care for the disadvantaged.

In Europe, it has undoubtedly attracted more attention and has the best number of copies released among the three. "Dangerous Liaisons" was also cold to European audiences because it was too Americanized, and the costumes and props were more like those of a 19th-century manor owner.

In the East Asian market, Japan and Hong Kong, "Working Girl", a romantic love comedy with beautiful women and handsome men, was the most popular. They couldn't understand the genius autism of the protagonist of "Rain Man".

How can a fool be smarter than a normal person?

"Ronald, David Geffen wants to see you..." Finally, the agent Niceta called. He didn't come to discuss how to deal with Ovitz, but another Jewish record industry boss, the owner of Geffen Records, wanted to talk to Ronald.

"Why did he come to me? Did he agree to return my eight pieces of Andy Warhol's garbage to him?"

"Ask him yourself, it's definitely not about this. He only revealed that it was related to the Oscars."