Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"How much? Thirty-one million? Oh, okay... What do you mean I'm not excited enough? No, I'm very excited. This is already the first weekend box office result of the top three in the past two years."

In the first weekend after the premiere, "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" was released simultaneously in more than 2,200 theaters across the country. For a time, science fiction movie fans across the country were talking about this matter. When watching the first movie, they were still teenagers, and many of them are now parents. They all called their friends to relive the touching moments brought to them by this movie.

On Monday, the box office statistics were sent to Ronald. The average box office per theater was 13,000 US dollars.

Ronald sighed after hanging up the phone. This result was still a lot different from what he expected. After all, his film marketing team spent so much energy and let so many big stars say good things about the movie on TV.

But thinking of Batman two years ago, it had almost the same number of theaters, but it got a first weekend box office of 40 million, and the single-tube box office was as high as 18,000 US dollars.

Even if Batman has a certain number of comic fans, the groundbreaking special effects of Terminator 2 are not that different.

"Are you still not satisfied? In fact, the box office of Terminator 2 in the first five days was 50 million, which is very close to the box office of Batman in the first five days. 53 million is only 3 million away, which is the second best result in history."

Ronald's marketing consultant Michael Gray handed him a document with various box office records of Terminator in film history.

"It's not easy to compare. Although Batman also opened on Wednesday, there were only small-scale screenings in the first two days. Its box office was mainly accumulated over the three days of the weekend. Terminator 2 was released on a large scale on July 4, Independence Day.

It's not the same thing. You can see the box office results of a single theater."

Ronald knew that Michael Gray had a mentality of seeking credit, so he handed him the average box office of a single theater.

"But Terminator 2, the audience rating of Cinema Score gave it an A+, which is the highest box office rating of R-rated movies in history." Michael Gray still looked for some results for the marketing campaign he led.

"You're right. This is a great thing. I shouldn't be upset about not winning the box office champion in film history. I will give your marketing consulting company a bonus. Well done."

...

"The box office of The Silence of the Lambs has dropped below $1,000 in a single theater. It will be offline next week. It's a pity that the influence of this movie didn't last until the second half of the year. Otherwise, it would have been very powerful when the awards season came."

Michelle Cannold, Ronald's distribution director, came to Ronald to report on his work with various data.

Because there was no money and resources to operate Dances with Wolves and The Silence of the Lambs at the same time, two movies that had the hope of winning Oscars were released at the same time. So Ronald put The Silence of the Lambs in 1991.

To be fair, the quality of The Silence of the Lambs is better than Dances with Wolves. Jonathan Demme is more like a great conductor, and he made this movie very rigorous. When you appreciate this movie, it's like appreciating a strictly trained high-level symphony orchestra playing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony under his baton.

Every link is just right, including casting, makeup and editing. It seems that every dollar Ronald invested in this movie was used where it was most needed.

What is even more valuable is that although this is a film with the director's authorship, it is not bad in terms of commerciality. Ordinary audiences, you don't need to know anything about directors to enjoy this movie very well.

Except in non-Christian cultural areas, some of its cultural fences hinder the audience's appreciation of this thriller. The main markets of America, Europe, Oceania, North America and Korea, the audiences are fascinated by it and enjoy the pleasure of being scared and screaming.

Dances with Wolves is more like a young director with rough techniques, relying on his own passion, rushing forward. This movie has many problems with the plot and rhythm, especially the director's version edited by Kevin Costner, the plot is more lengthy.

Although he did not spend much energy on making this director's cut, he still took the initiative in editing as the new Oscar Best Director. The editor must follow his opinions at all times, and finally his will dominated the special edition.

He made the same mistake that all new directors make, and was reluctant to cut the scenes he had filmed with great difficulty. Especially the close-up of himself on the screen, which added more than ten minutes of his beautiful face.

But this movie is very appealing because of this kind of blood and courage. It's like a person with a heart full of desire shouting loudly, and everyone who sees this scene will be moved by his passion.

Relying on this spirit and the momentum of Indian legislation, this movie actually won a big victory at the Oscars, which really surprised many people. For example, Ovitz of CAA and Peter Guber of Columbia, they didn't expect that such a movie with poor public relations would have so many members vote for it.

So this made Ronald feel even more regretful. If it was decided to release The Silence of the Lambs first and Dances with Wolves this year, then maybe The Silence of the Lambs would have swept multiple nominations and won several awards at the Oscars at the beginning of the year.

"Try to show it in our theaters for a longer time. I have said hello to Hollywood Theaters and Palm Theaters with Saudi capital. You should also do some work in the Chinatown and other theaters we acquired, asking them to extend the screening time as much as possible. If necessary, we can provide subsidies."

Unlike Dances with Wolves, which took advantage of the situation, if The Silence of the Lambs this year can get a few more Oscar nominations, the image of Daydream Pictures will be completely established. Small and medium-sized production companies that can win awards and those that cannot are completely different.

Minahan Golan tried his best to become a real Hollywood insider by winning an Oscar. For companies like Orion, executives of United Artists can be recognized by the industry when they start their own businesses. Big directors and stars are willing to trust them, which has a lot to do with the fact that their first film "Love at Sunset Bridge" was nominated for an Oscar.

Later, "Amadeus" also attracted Milos Forman to direct and was a great success. After that, many stars began to appear. Directors would first think of the era of Orion as long as they had non-commercial productions they wanted to shoot.

Ronald also had this idea and opened up a small unit in Daydream Pictures to specialize in these award-winning films. This time, The Silence of the Lambs was a very good opportunity.

Unfortunately... the strength was not enough, and they did not get the year-end schedule exclusively for award-winning films. Now they can only extend it one day at a time and try to hold on until August. I hope that at the end of the year, there will still be judges who remember the plot and the performances of the actors.

For this business unit that specializes in making movies for awards, Ronald has chosen a good candidate, James Shams, the producer who is the "promoter" of Ang Lee. He has been immersed in the New York film industry for a long time and has family knowledge.

This pusher is going to participate in many film festivals, especially the Golden Horse Awards and the Berlin Film Festival. With Ronald's relationship with Berlin, they happily accepted this film to participate in the screening.

On the other hand, Song, the head of the Information Bureau, invested some money in this film. He wanted to use the New Horse Awards to create conditions for his subsequent political advancement. So the pusher soon joined the Golden Horse Awards at the end of the year.

Because that party wanted to make a splash with the Golden Horse Awards, the release of this film will be held at the end of the year. Then the corresponding release in America will also be synchronized.

James Shams is very capable and he handles many film festivals in an orderly manner. Ronald talked to him and asked him to be in charge of his small unit. He was also very interested and planned to talk to Ronald about a new job after the pusher's award-winning activities were completed.

Because he wanted to distance himself from the studio brand of Daydream, which shoots low-cost exploitation films, Ronald might directly adopt his "Good Machine Pictures" brand. It will be used as a production brand exclusively for art films in the future.

…

“Am I asking too much? I’m always dissatisfied if I don’t surpass Batman’s box office record.”

A few days later, Ronald and Cameron were fishing in a stream in the national wetland north of Los Angeles. They were wearing long boots and fishing for trout with artificial flies.

“I’m already very satisfied. At least my child support is settled.” Cameron smiled and threw the fly out. Since they met in Roger Corman’s company, the two have maintained a good relationship. When they have time, they will get together to do things that ordinary people do with friends on holidays.

“Hey, you and Catherine, I really didn’t expect…”

Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow also ended up in divorce. When two directors get married, there will always be various problems. When things are good, the two can still discuss business, but when the relationship is bad, there is only contempt for each other’s artistic vision.

Ronald didn’t go into the specific reason for the breakup. But he also heard some rumors that Cameron and Linda Hamilton, the heroine of Terminator 2, are now in a hot relationship. Kathryn Bigelow also had a secret relationship with a man because of her new film.

However, Kathryn Bigelow's career made her breakup with Cameron less exaggerated than last time. Gale Hurd was a producer after all, and Cameron had to give up the copyright of the movies he had shot before, which was equivalent to cutting off his most successful movies in the early stage.

And this time, it was just an ordinary breakup between two artists.

However, alimony to his ex-wife still had to be paid. Cameron will lose a large part of his salary for filming the Terminator sequel this time...

"I say, Jim. In America, there is something called a prenuptial agreement, don't you know?"

Ronald really couldn't stand Cameron's way of getting married like a truck driver. He was obviously a successful director, but his marriage was still similar to his first marriage. The two got married when they fell in love.

"Now my wealth and Linda's are more or less, it's a problem..." Cameron also felt a little bit at a disadvantage.

"Well, it's okay if you don't want to get married. This is not the Hollywood of the 1930s, where stars had to divorce and remarry if they changed girlfriends. Now the audience is very tolerant of the private lives of Hollywood stars."

The recent gossip in the entertainment industry clearly reflects the change in audience tolerance. Emilio Estevez, a young actor who had a falling out with Ronald. The two children he had with his Latino girlfriend were again exposed by the gossip media.

He was engaged to Demi Moore, but his reputation fell apart later. But recently, Emilio has made a comeback. He found a rich woman, the former backup dancer of Michael Jackson and now the popular female singer Paula Abado.

Her new song Rush Rush has been at the top of the charts for five weeks, and she has entered the ranks of popular Diva. Of course, her romance also attracted media attention.

Emilio Estevez's two illegitimate children and the custody case he lost were revealed again.

However, most of the people's reaction was to lament the amazing charm of this person. He has continuously attracted popular heroines in Hollywood and the recording industry, and there are also Latino beauties who are willing to bear children for him without disturbing his normal life.

"That's fine. Keeping boyfriend and girlfriend together will also be good for Linda's star status." Ronald nodded in agreement. After all, America is a conservative country. A little tidbits about men are nothing, but it is better for a female star to be single. Once she gets married, her star will be dimmed. After all, most fans of female stars are because of their charm. And fall in love with them.

"Have you studied the box office? Did you get any results?" Cameron put away the fishing rod, took out a bottle of light beer from the small refrigerator of the pickup truck, and threw it to Ronald.

"The biggest reason is because of the rating." Ronald took the beer, opened it and took a sip.

Terminator 2's box office was not as good as Batman's, so he asked Daydream's department and external consultants to produce separate research reports. They all said it was because of ratings.

Terminator 2 has broken the box office records of many R-rated films, but compared to Batman, whose special effects are far inferior, there is still a big gap. And the box office decline after the first weekend is also faster.

This is actually very unsatisfactory. Terminator 2's audience reputation is far better than Batman. There are no visual breakthroughs in the entire Batman film, and the performances are not that good (except for Jack Nicholson's Joker). How could that kind of tight leather jacket, coupled with some 1970s-style flying and boxing scenes, achieve such good results?

The final result is that because of the rating, teenage males, who are the main moviegoers, have no chance to see this movie. Although most of them will be the audience of future video tapes.

In fact, this movie is most suitable for the tastes of teenage male audiences.

"In the future, we will still have to make movies below PG-13. In the current film market, if we don't catch them, no matter what, we will get half the result with twice the effort..."

"Indeed, if this level of special effects is a PG-13... Steven (Spielberg) still knows how to make money."

"By the way, the movie theater I bought in Chinatown, Los Angeles, will be renovated and will open soon. Will you come and show your face?" Ronald finished his beer, packed up his fishing gear, and prepared to go home.

"Is there anything special?"

"It used to show Chinese films. After the new renovation, it will be merged into a Hollywood theater. In the future, we will have more movies. I always feel that we need to have our own theater to be strong."

"Okay, I'll do it..."

…

"Can't take the midwinter gun..."

Chinatown celebrated the reopening of movie theaters with traditional firecrackers and lion dances. This is not a very famous cinema, but it is a place where few Chinese in Chinatown can promote Chinese culture. During this opening ceremony, a month's worth of Chinese-language films will be screened as a retrospective.

"Crackling..."

Firecrackers were blasting and gongs and drums were noisy. It was the first time for Cameron and Linda Hamilton to see such a real scene. It was really noisy. After the two of them entered the cinema hall, they could still hear the gongs and drums outside.

"Hey...what did you say? I can't hear you, Silence of the Lambs, what happened to Silence of the Lambs..."

Ronald was also inside, holding a mobile phone and circling around, looking for a place with good signal. Finally he found a corner where he could hear clearly.

"The box office has hit $1,000 per venue again? Why?... Did the FBI catch a real Buffalo Bill-style serial killer?"

I'm still a little uncomfortable today and it's a little late.