Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The weekend was Thanksgiving, and Ronald's family gathered with Aunt Karen and Donna to eat turkey. This is a three-day long weekend, and it is also the beginning of the strong winter movie season in America.

Because India

"It is actually unlikely to be realized, because there is also a sequel to "Three Dads and a Baby" shot by Emil Adolino at the same time. The previous one was a big hit. Dances with Wolves is actually a movie with a relatively narrow audience base. Most audiences are not particularly fond of this special western movie."

Ronald explained to his family. The reason why the audience liked western movies so much decades ago was because there were battles, love, and India

"Dances with Wolves" is a western movie with anti-traditional elements. Only those audiences with a relatively high education background will be interested in this subject matter. This is why the movie Daydream and Disney only had less than 1,100 theaters for release.

If this movie led by Ronald had those elements that most audiences like to watch, it would definitely not be difficult to find a large studio willing to take over the domestic distribution and take the initiative to contact.

"Hahaha, I really like that movie about three dads and one baby. The kids are so cute, aren't they, little Roger?" Aunt Karen teased Roger with a smile.

"Is what you told your aunt true?" Diane asked Ronald on the way back to Manhattan. She knew that Ronald had invested a lot of money in "Dances with Wolves".

"It's true, but American movies are a big market, and there should be a way out for good art films." Ronald is not worried that "Dances with Wolves" will lose money. Although the audience base is small, for the target audience, the magnificent scenery in this movie and the revival of westerns can satisfy them.

The American film market has seen a significant recovery in the 10 years of the 1980s. From more than 100 films in 1980, to more than 200 films released nationwide each year now. The box office has also increased from less than 2 billion US dollars ten years ago to more than 4 billion per year now. It has become common for a hit movie to break through 100 million US dollars in the domestic market, and a few will reach 200 million.

The actual marketing expenditure of "Dances with Wolves" is not too much, and a large part of the production cost is replaced by dividends instead of film remuneration. As long as the box office of the first weekend can exceed 8 million US dollars, it is entirely possible to stay in the theater for two months. In addition to recovering the investment, it can also make a profit through overseas distribution and videotapes.

The family happiness of the weekend made Diane recover well. On Monday, the crew moved to Seymour Town, Connecticut, to shoot factory scenes.

Diane got up early in the morning, settled little Roger, and reluctantly handed him over to the nanny Wang Ma. When she went out, she saw the driver Bud.

Bud quickly told his wife beside him a few words, asked her to go to rest, and opened the door for Diane.

"Little Bud's wife is pregnant, so he is so happy today." Ronald was talking to Richard in the back seat of the car. Hearing Diane's voice, he smiled and told him the good news about little Bud.

"Congratulations, Bud." Diane said to Bud in the driver's seat.

Richard packed up the documents, automatically gave up his seat, and said hello to the car behind.

After Diane sat down, the car started to move. She saw Ronald frowning, and after thinking for a while, she asked this question. "Is the box office of Dances with Wolves not good?"

"On the contrary, the box office exceeded my expectations, breaking 10 million, ranking

The top three box office charts of the weekend have undergone major adjustments. "Ghost" has lost momentum and jumped down to

"Dances with Wolves" has jumped tenfold from the preview box office. The name of the movie has been well exposed on major news websites, and the box office of a single theater has remained above 10,000 US dollars.

"Why is this movie the box office champion? "Ronald really couldn't figure it out. Although this is a family-friendly movie, this box office number... the peak of family-friendly movies at that time, "ET the Extra-Terrestrial" only had a box office of about 60% of his.

Although with inflation and rising movie ticket prices, the performance of Home Alone has to be discounted. But considering that this movie has neither expensive special effects nor a large number of troublesome child actors that will prolong the filming time, the return on investment of Home Alone must be amazing.

Looking at this super-strong box office trend, "Ghost" may not be able to keep its annual box office champion.

Ronald touched his nose. Box office statistics are generally calculated based on the date of release. Even if you are released in the Christmas season at the end of December, the box office will be attributed to 1990. How come it's almost the end of the year, and there are still such freaks?

A movie centered around children There are many popular movies. From the distant "ET Aliens" to the recent "Look Who's Talking" and "Three Dads and One Baby", Ronald understood their potential after watching them.

Cute children, adults can also experience the innocent fun of children while accompanying their children to watch movies. In addition, it promotes positive values, and the whole family will have a great time watching it.

However, the movie "Home Alone" may not be liked by parents, especially mothers. The protagonist in the movie uses various toys and facilities at home to make various mechanisms, which makes the robbers fail many times. Children will definitely love it and envy the protagonist for making a "masterpiece" that they can't even dream of.

However, these children will definitely imitate them after going home. Ronald can already foresee how his mother, who is so angry that she is cleaning up the messy living room, will complain about this movie, which has released the devilish imagination of her children.

This kind of movie suddenly became a hot spot in the market. Ronald didn't know why. If he had known earlier, he would definitely be deeply involved in the production of this movie, instead of being just a small investor like now.

After entering the 1990s, Ronald gradually found that his keen sense of box office seemed to have faded a little. If a movie is very bad and does not achieve any good box office results, he can still have a basic feeling and know that it is a bad movie after watching it.

But for a new type of movie that suddenly appeared and sold well, Ronald would be puzzled and couldn't find the biggest reason for the movie's popularity.

In any case, since children's movies are hot, Ronald is not very depressed. He still has a sequel to "Look Who's Talking" waiting in his hand, which is also a children's movie, although children may not like it very much.

Maybe this is the reason? No matter how annoying mothers are, children call each other and tell each other how good a movie they watched, and parents will definitely not stop them from going to the cinema to watch this PG-rated movie.

Ronald looked at the rankings and remembered countless past events. After entering the 1990s, it seems that the types of popular movies in the past are changing rapidly.

Last week, one of the top three movies had a horrible decline. The "Rocky" series, which once represented the spirit of struggle of the American people in the late 1970s, has another one.

Sylvester Stallone, who had announced the end of the Rocky series early, was considering this series again because of financial difficulties due to divorce. He personally went to the door and said to the audience.

But after the release, the audience was shocked. The real reaction to the negative social situation in the United States in the late 1970s was reflected in Rocky.

But now is the United States after ten years of rapid economic development, and Rocky V is full of various criticisms of society. After Rocky regained the boxing championship, he returned home and found that his property had been swindled away by his agent, and he couldn't even keep his house.

Such a plot can't arouse the audience's sympathy and recognition for Rocky. In the end, Rocky couldn't return to the boxing ring because of a concussion, and could only fight a few punches with the boxing champion on the street because of an escalated quarrel, and was knocked down.

The audience couldn't accept that the hero they recognized and loved had become such a rubbish. The director and Stallone are overly pursuing re-creation

Therefore, Rocky Five has received a lot of bad reviews and has become the opposite of the American spirit he once represented.

This movie is full of the opposite of the American dream, which is completely opposite to the spiritual power of the original Rocky. I don’t know why this idiot would make such a movie like this.

In between him and "Dances with Wolves" is this week's new film, the sequel to "Predator" starring Schwarzenegger, Stallone's biggest rival.

Maybe this kind of movie really has little to do with stars, lacking

But this is good news for the production company, but not for Schwarzenegger. This will definitely be interpreted by Hollywood as Schwarzenegger is not the most important reason for the success of "Predator". Maybe

these two in the 1980s,

Maybe Schwarzenegger has Cameron's "Terminator 2" to support him for a while, but Stallone is afraid that he will slide to the bottom of his career. He has two hit series in his hands, "

The changes in Hollywood are so unexpected. Two years ago, he was still a hot star. After the stock market crash and divorce, everyone thought that as long as he started the money printing machine, he would be able to return to the peak. He might soon fall into the situation of not being able to pay his ex-wife's alimony.

"Ding ding..." The car arrived at the gathering place of the crew. There were many buses and trucks, loaded with all the stalls of the crew.

"Ronald, Ronald..."

Suddenly, a Chinese man in a down jacket ran towards Ronald.

Everyone looked closely and found that it was Ang Lee, the screenwriter of Daydream. He was holding a bag of luggage in his hand, which was quite old-fashioned.

"What's the matter? Let's talk in the car. "Ronald opened the car door and let him in.

"My script won an award, and I also received a tutoring grant from the News Bureau. I just came back..."

Ang Lee's script was in the News Bureau's competition at the beginning of the year in his hometown. Unexpectedly,

"Ah? That's great. Which one won the award? No problem. I'll match your investment and try to make a good movie." Ronald was very happy. He knew Ang Lee's talent. Because of the language, he wanted to make a Chinese-language film. With the reputation of winning awards, it must be no problem to attract Chinese actors.

"Both films won awards. Pusher won the first prize, and Wedding Banquet won the second prize." Ang Lee was beaming. The first prize was 400,000 yuan, and the second prize was 200,000 yuan, which was equivalent to 20,000 US dollars.

"Which one are you going to shoot? How much investment did the News Bureau give you? I'll match it for you, and if it's not enough, I'll add more. Contact Chinese filmmakers on the east and west coasts. I'll let Richard contact you who you want to use. ”

Ronald has long wanted to support Chinese films, but there are many Chinese actors and behind-the-scenes actors in Hollywood, but not many creative directors. Ang Lee gave him a surprise. There are basically Chinatowns in big cities, and those theaters have long wanted to get familiar with them through Chinese films and include them in their own distribution lines.

“Let’s shoot the promoter first. The film company over there gave us 4 million in guidance funds, and the budget doesn’t need to exceed 12 million.” Ang Lee said happily. This time when he returned to his hometown, he got a budget equivalent to 380,000 US dollars, plus his own bonus of 20,000 US dollars, which is a full 400,000 US dollars for filming.

The film company uses this price to cover the filming for itself, which means that all expenditures are decided by itself. The film company is only responsible for paying the money and collecting the copies when the time comes.

"What?" Ronald was shocked.

"Ahem... If the company can't match 400,000 yuan, less is okay. I discussed it with an independent producer and he made a budget. The film will take about four weeks to shoot. Let's rush it. Three weeks is not impossible. , you can start shooting for 600,000 yuan.”

"No...why do you think I won't invest a mere 400,000 yuan in you?" Ronald couldn't laugh or cry. Now he was not in college in the early 1980s. With a budget of 800,000 yuan, he could only find some second-hand surplus film and low wages. Staff, what the hell are you taking a picture of?

"I'll give you an additional investment of 800,000 yuan first. I'll raise 1.2 million yuan. You have to prepare well. If you want to shoot, you have to shoot better. Don't let people think that Hollywood's production is mediocre. Let your hometown's production be better." Those people have seen what professional production in Hollywood is like.”

Ronald waved his hand and brought a check for 800,000 yuan. Ang Lee was filled with anger beside him and could only agree with him happily.

"By the way, your independent producer, come and talk to me. If his ability is really good, I will let him be the producer. If you say you can make a movie with 800,000 yuan, don't you really have some real talent? Really, he is a liar.”

"Okay, I'll get off the car and give him a call..." Ang Lee put the check away solemnly.

"Call right here..." Ronald handed him the car phone.

"James, I talked to Ronald from Daydream, and he promised to match eight hundred thousand dollars. What? Yes, that's right, that's that Daydream, that's Ronald... What, you're coming over right away? Okay... …”

Ang Lee covered the microphone and said to Ronald, "When should I ask him to come to New York to meet you?" He knew that Ronald was going to another state to shoot an outdoor scene, and it looked like he wouldn't be able to come back until the weekend.

"What about New York? You ask him to drive to the cable factory in Seymour, Connecticut immediately, and we can take some time to chat there." Ronald took out a Coke from the refrigerator and threw a can to Ang Lee.

"Oh, Ronald wants you to go to Seymour, Connecticut, to find a cable factory and shoot the exteriors there."

Ang Lee hung up the phone and suddenly realized something was wrong, "Should I go too?"

"Of course. I happen to be short of an assistant artistic director. Can you help me make a cameo?"

"Uh..." Ang Lee suddenly found that she was still carrying her luggage bag. Fortunately, she had a shower and a change of clothes. She should give her wife a call when she arrived.