Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The week before the Veterans Day weekend, the usual theater size of just over 1,000 theaters achieved a box office of 9 million. This result made everyone on the crew look forward to the Memorial Day weekend next week.

According to Niceta, sometimes it’s the schedule that makes a movie, just like many commercial films released in the summer. Sometimes it is the movie that determines the schedule. A successful movie can turn an originally mediocre schedule into a good one. From now on, similar movies will be the focus of competition at the annual Las Vegas booking fair.

The most typical example is Spielberg's "Jaws." In the mid-1970s, the summer box office was a relatively slow period of the year.

His "Jaws" attracted a large number of teenagers on summer vacation to watch in theaters, creating a North American box office of 260 million, which directly changed the landscape of Hollywood. From now on, the seven major studios will compete for summer slots every year. Best schedule.

Memorial Day is a short holiday. It is the last Monday in May and connected with the weekend of the previous week. It was originally an inconspicuous small period in the film industry. But Ronald's "Top Gun" was released a week ahead of schedule, creating pre-existing hype.

When word of mouth spreads during the Veterans Day weekend, there will be a terrifying situation where the box office will increase abnormally in the second week compared to the first week. This virtuous cycle will continue to ferment, keeping the box office hot in the next few weeks. Paramount will also increase copies as appropriate and continue to expand the scale of screenings.

"Thunderbolt 5", which was released at the same time, only had one-third of its box office, and other movies also failed.

A series of operations can stretch a weekend's small schedule into a three to four-week large schedule, creating a schedule before the summer vacation that is almost exclusive to "Top Gun" , when the summer season arrives, a second and third wave of movie viewing peaks will be formed.

This is the risky plan led by Paramount's distribution manager, Sid Ganis. If successful, it would be equivalent to giving "Top Gun" two summer slots to enjoy alone for five weeks longer than others in the summer of 1986.

Two Chicago film critics, bespectacled Roger Ebert and bald Gene Sisko, indeed unblocked their previously written reviews after the release and published them as quickly as possible in the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune in the film review column of the newspaper.

The two of them also spoke favorably of "Top Gun" during their film review program on PBS.

"In the opening moments of 'Top Gun,' an ace Navy pilot flies upside down about 18 inches above a Russian-made MiG and takes a Polaroid snapshot of the enemy pilot. He then gives the other a Middle finger.

It was a stunt as cheap as a hot dog, but it made the pilot (Tom Cruise) famous among a small circle of Navy personnel who could receive information about close encounters with enemy aircraft. The pilot, codenamed the Lone Ranger, was selected to attend the Navy's elite flight school, dedicated to the dying art of aerial combat. "

The reviewer first talked about the plot and gave Ronald's special effects a sensational rating. But Ronald didn't care. Over the years, he had long understood that film critics always prefer dramatic and story-telling films, but the box office of the films they preferred was not as good as the exploitation films he made.

“Aerial scenes always present special challenges in movies.

There is a danger that the audience will become spatially disoriented.

We're used to seeing things within a framework that respects left and right, up and down, but fighter pilots live in a world of 360-degree turns. The remarkable achievement of 'Top Gun' is that it presents seven or eight aerial encounters that are so well choreographed that we actually follow them most of the time, and the film gives us a good sense of the aerial combat What it might be like. "

A great deal of effort was put into Ronald's carefully edited aerial combat sequences. Both Sisko and Albert had nice things to say. This is where Ronald's advantage lies. He combines the fast-paced techniques of shooting v and commercials with the techniques of predicting the audience's psychology taught by Walter Murch, into these short air combat scenes.

Ronald is very confident that no other director can do better than himself. Although the air combat scenes are not long, with cuts lasting three to five seconds, only a few minutes in total, the time and energy spent here account for almost one-third of all editing time.

At the premiere at Miramar Naval Base, those real fighter pilots, even though they were not satisfied with the combat action, recognized the rhythm of the air combat and the real sense of pursuit.

This is probably why teenagers are very satisfied with the two big air battles at the beginning and end. Some military magazines and even "Scientific American" have published articles discussing combat maneuvers in air combat and the unique tricks of each model of America's fighter jets.

According to Niceta, in addition to Ray-Ban glasses and flight jackets, the Navy's F-14 Tomcat fighter jets, licensed aircraft model and toy manufacturers have also received large orders.

"With the chemistry between Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay in 'The Witness' and Kelly McGillis and Harrison Ford in 'The Witness' The chemistry between Cruise and McGillis was pale and unconvincing in comparison, and Kelly McGillis was clearly more emotional when she looked at the camera..."

"Cruise and McGillis spent a lot of time squinting at each other uneasily, communicating like air-to-air missiles, and when they finally burst into passion, the two leading actors looked like one of those sexy newcomers in a celebrity perfume commercial.

Without flesh and blood, without emotions, director Ronald Lee is amazing, and he wiped out McGillis's top emotional performance in "Witness"..."

"Hehehe, you critics don't understand at all, McGillis was looking at me behind the camera..." Ronald smiled and read the 2.5 and 3 star reviews.

Ronald no longer gets angry about reviews easily. He remembered that his teacher Scorsese said that critics are like cavalry. When directors and actors are exhausted from fighting on the battlefield, they come lightly to reap the fruits of battle.

However, Ronald's favorite comment came from the book of Richard Feynman, an expert on the investigation committee of the Challenger space shuttle crash. He bought a newly published autobiography "Stop It, Mr. Feynman" to read. It's rare for a physicist to write so well.

Feynman quoted a passage from Einstein in the book, saying that all creators should not take critics' words too seriously.

If they had the ability to create, they would definitely make movies themselves. Ronald still remembered that Roger Ebert had worked as a screenwriter for exploitation films, and only became a film critic when the box office was not good.

As a New Yorker, Ronald paid more attention to the evaluation of his films by New York film critics. He still remembered that when his debut work came out, he was also attacked by Ebert. In the end, it was the film critics in his hometown New York who vindicated him.

Pauline Carr, a leading figure in the film critic circle and a film critic who wrote for the New Yorker magazine, gave him a fair evaluation and praised his talent, which turned the tide and allowed Universal to reprint a batch of copies at that time, getting rid of the dilemma of not having a national distribution.

Richard was very careful about himself and put all the film reviews from New York in a pile. He knew that he had the habit of reading film reviews on the second day of the first weekend. He came to the apartment early to put away the copies of the manuscripts.

Ronald picked up the copies one by one and read them. Sure enough, the New York Times, the New York Post, etc. all praised them. The critics all strongly recommended that the audience go to the theater to watch "Top Gun", which is the first choice for Memorial Day.

"Huh? The New Yorker's film review is out so early?"

"Yes, Ms. Pauline Carr went to see it specifically, and she wrote the review overnight, which is unusual for her." Richard picked out a copy and handed it to Ronald.

Ronald happily took it and saw how the old lady would praise him this time.

"Top Gun features an extra-long TV show.

I come, I pose, I am the hero…

The burly Kelly McGillis is an astrophysicist employed to teach elite fighter pilots in training at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego; she enters the room sideways, slouching, so that she doesn't overwhelm her co-star, the relatively short Tom Cruise.

He's supposed to be the most daring of her students, flirting with his teacher in public.

But when McGillis leaves the screen, the movie becomes a glittering advertisement for homosexuality: pilots strut around the locker room, towels hanging precariously around their waists.

It's as if masculinity is redefined as a young man half-dressed, as if narcissism is the full value of being a fighter. Department.

In between the shirtless maneuvers, shots of jets with ugly nostrils take off, whizz through the sky, and then land, while the soundtrack summons the end of the world and the second coming - even though we are watching training exercises.

What is this movie selling? It's selling things, selling Ray-Ban sunglasses, selling leather bomber jackets, selling Honda motorcycles, and Ferrari sports cars! Because that's what producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer would do.

It's also what famous advertising director Ronald Let It Shine Lee knows how to do.

Selling is what they think the purpose of filmmaking is. The result is a whole new form of "art": advertising disguised as movies. "

"This?"

Ronald put down the New Yorker review a little lost.

Then he picked it up again, "Are you sure? Is this written by Pauline Kale?"

"I'll go check it out." Richard didn't read the review either, and he thought Pauline Kale would favor Ronald, a fellow New Yorker, as always.

"Ronald, this is Niceta. I have confirmed with New York that it is indeed a film review written by Pauline Carr. She asked me to show it to you."

"Me? Oh!" Ronald sighed. He was just making a high-concept movie for popcorn. Why would Pauline Carr, who had promoted him, scold him?

"Did she say anything else?"

"She said she was disappointed in you. You have lost the spirit you had when you filmed 'Fast and Furious Richmond High' and have become a craftsman. She also said that when you go to New York, you can go to her for a debate. She wants to know what you think and why you don't continue to make films that are both artistic and commercial."

Niceta repeated Pauline Carr's original words.

"Okay, I'm going to Staten Island next week on Memorial Day. Please help me arrange it. I'll go visit Pauline."

Although Pauline Carr was ruthless to Ronald and ridiculed him harshly. But the young people in America obviously ignored the criticism of the old lady.

Or, even if they saw it, they wouldn't care. Instead, they would take the shortcomings she pointed out as advantages and must go to see what the so-called air combat advertising with super long v is all about.

The box office continued to soar on Monday, and the average box office of a single theater rose to 11,000 US dollars. Paramount's distribution department happily invited dancers to perform in the office. Marketing manager Sid Ganis personally climbed onto the desk and danced for everyone.

After opening more than a dozen bottles of champagne, which sprayed everywhere, Sid Ganis took the two producers and entered the manager's office. After "Top Gun" sold well, I'm afraid he will also be promoted to a larger office with two glass walls around the corner.

"Ronald, come too. This time, you still need to contribute to the videotape." Don Simpson pulled Ronald in to discuss.

"Is there anything else for me?" Ronald was puzzled. The sales of videotapes have always been handled by distribution companies like Paramount, and the director has no room to interfere.

"I have made a plan. For Top Gun, we will change the pricing model of videotapes. I have calculated that if we reduce the price, we can promote sales by more than ten times. In this way, the profit we earn from selling at a low profit margin and high volume can reach several times the previous price of $99."

"Oh, tell me more about it?" Ronald was very interested in the sales of videotapes, so he asked Sid Ganis to explain in detail.

"$99 is more suitable for selling to videotape rental stores. There are thousands of such rental stores across the country. But what if we can reduce the price to $49? I am afraid that tens of thousands of families will buy videotapes and watch them repeatedly at home instead of paying a rental fee of $3 per night.

What if we can reduce it to $39, $29? How much more can we sell? Even if we only sell 50,000 copies, the profit will be greatly increased."

"This?" Ronald thought about it.

Indeed, the rental fee of $3 per night for videotapes is fined if it exceeds the time limit. If it is a very good movie, $29 to collect a copy is the price of watching it 10 times. Having such an explosive "Top Gun" at home, it is very prestigious to have friends come over to drink beer and watch it.

What if the child's classmates come to watch it at home?

"But, will Paramount be willing to sell it at such a low price?"

"It depends on our plan..."