Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The premiere of "Star Wars - Return of the Jedi" was different. Everyone came to the scene wearing Star Wars-themed T-shirts.

There was a queue of several kilometers outside the cinema. Many fans dressed up as the characters in the play. Some wore Darth Vader's black armor, or held Lu Zotian's lightsaber, and some girls combed their hair into double buns like Princess Leia.

When Ronald came over, a TV station was interviewing the audience. Someone said that he had been queuing here at six in the morning, and he only got to the second circle of the queue.

Walking through the queue, at the main entrance of the theater, some lucky people who got the premiere invitation can see the movie two hours earlier than others.

The security guards of the theater were maintaining order in uniform. Only those with invitations could come in. Ronald took out the invitation and handed it over. Looking back, the dense crowd stretched all the way across the street.

America is a nation without history. Its citizens all immigrated from the old world to the new world, so it has never had its own heroic epics like the various nations on the old world.

Lucas's trilogy of films is like a heroic epic to these children. And thanks to the technology of movies, it is an epic with figures, pictures, and special effects.

Unlike the long-lasting TV series "Star Fleet", "Star Wars" is more personal and dramatic. Although it has only been born for six years, it has left a deep impression on a generation of young people in America.

Star Wars has invaded American culture in an all-round way.

The SDI missile defense system announced by the President this time was called Star Wars by many people. And his previous speech on the evil empire was also quoted by members of Congress, comparing the Suvil Alliance to Darth Vader. This movie has entered the daily language expression of America.

Although the Oscars Organizing Committee and the Directors Association did not like George Lucas very much, and did not give him the recognition of the best director or best film, but only gave him some technical awards. But it did not prevent young people across the country from regarding Lucas as the greatest visionary.

Ronald was very envious. This kind of ability to embed his own movie in the language level is a more solid and permanent monument than the Oscars. I don't know if I can change the language of America in one or two places in the future.

In addition to the friends in the circle who were invited, most of the attendees were lucky audiences who wrote letters to Lucas and were finally selected.

Lucas came to the scene in person to congratulate everyone on the final release of the trilogy. Soon, the curtain was raised and the film was officially screened.

Ronald watched the movie with great interest. After the last "Empire Strikes Back", Darth Vader claimed to be Luke's father. For three years, many viewers wanted to know whether this was Vader's lie or the truth.

Princess Leia took off her elegant robe and put on a sexy bikini to dance for the slave owner Jabba, and the audience swallowed loudly.

Then Luke appeared. He made a green lightsaber, defeated Jabba, and rescued the carbonized Han Solo. Everyone found that the emperor of the empire was developing a second death star and wanted to destroy the rebels.

After a series of battles, Luke faced the attacks of the emperor and Darth Vader alone. In the final battle, Luke cut off Vader's mechanical hand. The Emperor tried to seduce him to be full of negative emotions and fall to the dark side.

The voices of Obi-Wan and Yoda rang in Luke's ears. He gave up his anger, fear and other negative emotions. He was unwilling to surrender to the dark side of the Force and was electrocuted by the Emperor with Force lightning. Darth Vader couldn't resist the father-son relationship after all, pushed the emperor off the throne and fell into space. Unfortunately, he died of exhaustion in the end.

The ending was the tradition of Star Wars again. Everyone stood together and laughed happily. But this time there were three more Jedi Knights' Force spirits, Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Darth Vader's real body Anakin.

The audience began to shout and applaud loudly. After three years of waiting, they finally waited for a complete and wonderful story.

Ten minutes later, the audience stopped applauding. There were already several TV crews waiting at the door to interview the audience.

Ronald had a special car waiting to pick up some of his guests to the celebration party. George Lucas had finally completed the Star Wars trilogy after eight years. He was the emperor tonight.

The celebration party was held at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel nearby. There was a mountain of champagne, a big cake, various delicacies, and people wearing T-shirts, which was completely different from the temperament of ordinary movie parties.

Ronald saw his agent Niceta also rushing to the scene and greeted him, "Rick, why are you here too? Do you want to sign Chewbacca?"

George Lucas had a falling out with the Directors Guild, so his last two films were directed by directors who did not belong to the union. The main actors of Star Wars had long been tied up by their agents. As for the two robots C3PO and R2D2, they were not qualified to sign agents.

So Ronald joked with him that he wanted to sign the fluffy Wookiee.

"I came here specifically to remind you not to mention Martha in front of George." Niceta whispered in Ronald's ear.

"What?" Ronald was a little confused.

"Ovitz told me today that George's wife Martha cheated on him and wanted to divorce him. So I came here right away to remind you not to mention Martha's name when you congratulate George."

"Oh, thank you." Ronald thanked Niceta. George Lucas is the most profitable director now, with two killer movie series, Star Wars and Indiana Jones. If Lucas knows about this kind of private matter, it will not be worth it to cause bad feelings.

"Congratulations, Mr. Lucas. This is a very good movie. It finally fulfilled my dream of watching A New Hope when I was a child. Luke became a great Jedi warrior. I wonder if you will continue to shoot?"

Ronald found an opportunity to go up and congratulate Lucas.

"Oh, Ronald. Hello. Not for the time being. I'm too tired. I paid too much for this movie Return of the Jedi. I think I will take a break for a while." Lucas still remembered Ronald and chatted with him briefly.

"It seems that his mental state is really not good. On the night when the movie was a big hit, he didn't seem very happy."

"Hey, you don't know, this incident hit George hard." Nicita finally sent Ronald home and told him the whole story in the car.

It turned out that Spielberg was originally booked as the director of "Return of the Jedi", but the Directors Guild banned union members from participating in Lucas's project. Lucas experienced David Lynch, Dutch director Paul Verhoeven and others' refusal, and finally found a Welshman Richard Marquand as the director.

However, Richard Marquand was arbitrary in the Pinewood Studios in London, and had a big conflict with the actors who played the three protagonists. In the end, Lucas had to take over halfway and flew to London to pick up the directing job himself.

George Lucas and Martha had a big conflict because George was busy with work. One of their adopted daughters was left in a high-end hotel while George was in London and Martha was responsible for it alone.

Martha Lucas was originally a very good editor. She used to be Martin Scorsese's editor and collaborated on all of Scorsese's hits. But now it's unbearable for her to be a housewife whose husband doesn't come home.

Martha later returned to the estate bought by Lucas and concentrated on decorating her house. She hoped to cover the dome of a library with stained glass from the church during the Renaissance, which would look very artistic.

Who knew that this glass artist would take advantage of the opportunity. George Lucas begged hard, but he couldn't win Martha's heart back. The two of them only waited for "Return of the Jedi" to be released before announcing their divorce. The reason they didn't divorce immediately was to avoid being disturbed by the gossip for the last episode of the Star Wars trilogy.

Martha Lucas herself won the Oscar for Best Editing for editing "Star Wars - A New Hope" and had a lot of feelings for the Star Wars series, so the two agreed to announce their divorce later.

"Oh, how could this happen? The last time I saw them, they looked very affectionate." Ronald sighed in the co-pilot seat.

"This is inevitable. Movies, especially blockbusters like Star Wars, often take one or two years to prepare, shoot, edit, and produce special effects. A workaholic like George may not even say a few words to Martha when he gets home. Even if they are in love, there will be problems."

"Then Martha is miserable. She cheated first, so she won't get any property?"

"What does this have to do with cheating? Is it the law of your New York State? California is a state where assets are divided equally." Niceta looked at Ronald in surprise.

"Ah?" Ronald was surprised. "I didn't know that."

"California law stipulates that no matter who makes the greater contribution to the couple's post-marital property, in principle, the principle of equal division is adopted after divorce. And generally, the woman has to bear the child's support, so she will get more."

"Oh," Ronald thought to himself. If you get married in California in the future, it's better not to get divorced.

The next day, the whole country was waiting for the box office results of "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi". The final result was 6.2 million US dollars.

After Ronald learned of this result, he knew that the theaters where "Night of the Comet" was released would be compressed.

Over the weekend, "Return of the Jedi" grossed $23 million, becoming the first movie in American history to make more than $20 million in its first weekend.

The theaters where "Night of the Comet" was shown were squeezed to only more than 700. Although the box office of each theater did not drop much, the total box office had fallen below $3 million to $2.4 million.

Turn on the TV, and all the news and talk shows about Star Wars are on the front page. Open the big newspapers such as "Los Angeles Times", and all the news about Star Wars is on the front page.

At the end of the "Star Wars" trilogy, the audience frantically bid farewell to the three protagonists, and also to their own youth. They have pushed this modern American epic from the entertainment section to the front page, from NBBC national news.

English-speaking countries, Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, are also looking forward to the early arrival of the film copy, and some audiences who can't stand it take transatlantic planes to New York to watch it.

Faced with the craze sweeping the world, Ronald's "Valley of the Comet" had to retreat. Fortunately, the box office revenue in the first two weeks had accumulated to more than 11 million, plus the 2.4 million in the third weekend, the box office revenue was close to 15 million.