Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The first weekend's box office results were immediately delivered to Ronald's hands. "The Dragon King Part 2" topped the box office rankings. It grossed $13 million from 1,300 theaters over the weekend, the best opening weekend for any of Ronald's films.

Happiness comes suddenly.

On Sunday night, Ronald celebrated with his aunt and her boyfriend at their new home in Staten Island, along with his island childhood friend Douglas Hansen Jr. Aunt's boyfriend Eric cooked a sumptuous dinner, and everyone enjoyed the meal happily.

After dinner, Ronald received a call from Weintraub, informing him that "The Kid Part 2" was about to top the box office charts. Little Douglas took a large bottle of champagne from home and celebrated.

"I hope our new film will go as well, cheers!"

Little Doug's annuity from the family fund has been expanded five times by his grandfather. He had more money to invest in Hollywood.

"Moonlight Sultry" led by Ronald approached him to allocate funds, and the two agreed to invest together after signing a distribution contract.

"Are you still in the top three in Top Gun?" Little Douglas asked.

"Fourth, the two new movies are still very strong. But I am already quite satisfied. The box office of the movie 'Top Gun' is amazing, and now the weekly box office decline rate is less than 5%."

After Ronald found out the news, he told everyone.

"Top Gun" has great box office stamina, with a weekend box office of close to 6 million in its sixth week. The total box office will soon exceed 70 million.

This phenomenon is actually a good sign. The last movie with such a strong box office was Spielberg's "ET".

Maybe these two movies did something right. Ronald couldn't figure it out for the moment. He could only wait for the box office analysis data to come out before making a summary.

"Is it that movie starring Debra Winger and Robert Redford?" Douglas Jr. asked.

"Yes, that's right."

Ranking second at the box office is "French Open Condor". They have almost the same number of theaters as "Long Wei Boy Part 2", but their single theater box office is only about two-thirds of Long Wei, and the final revenue is 800 million box office.

The third place is the comedy movie "Back to School". In the second week of its release, the weekend box office of 1,600 stores was not as much as the French Open Condor. Like most screwball comedies, the box office decline is not bad.

The fourth place is "Top Gun" which has been in theaters for six weeks.

Together with the fifth-ranked film "Spring Is Not a Day to Read" directed by John Hughes, Ronald alone accounted for two of the top five films in the weekend box office rankings.

"When was the last time there was such a grand occasion?" Douglas Jr. was very satisfied with Ronald as a friend, and even after becoming famous, he did not forget to involve himself in investment. There was some compliment in the words.

"Spielberg, there are quite a lot of situations like this with Lucas. Don't do this." Ronald smiled and gave the young boy a shoulder.

Little Douglas made an exaggerated motion to fall down, and then the two burst into laughter.

"I watched the French Open Condor, and I always felt that the stars were a bit redundant, and the case was also very complicated. I didn't understand it the first time I watched it, but I didn't understand it until the second time I watched it."

Douglas Jr. is also very concerned about Hollywood movies now and always goes to see new movies when they are released. In this way, there is also something to talk about in the circle.

"I don't know about you yet. You just want to take a second look at Deborah Winger and Daryl Hannah."

"Why do you think so bad of me?" Douglas Jr. looked hurt. "Actually, I have watched many movies now and know some basic plots. This movie always makes me guess what is going to happen next.

When I saw Redford, I knew that he would be a prosecutor who would uphold justice, and he would be humorous. Beautiful women would fall in love with him. When you see Wenger, you know she is a smart beauty..."

"There is indeed this problem, and I have discovered it. But this movie only relied on stars to star in it to attract financing."

"Then Moonlight Sultry will also have to change the character to be consistent with the image of the star in order to win over the star?"

"I don't think so, because this movie is centered on the heroine. There is still a gap between the influence of female stars and male stars, and I don't want to find a famous star to play the male lead."

Douglas Jr. took another bottle of whiskey and the two continued drinking. He ended up sleeping in the guest room of Ronald's house.

…

"Ronnie, your phone number seems to be your agent calling you." His aunt's boyfriend made him a hearty breakfast the next day.

"Thanks, Eric." Ronald answered the phone.

The call was from agent Niceta. He received countless calls congratulating Ronald in the morning, and the two picked out a few that had to be answered in person and asked Ronald to call back.

Ronald didn't want his private life in New York to be disturbed, so Niceta and the others temporarily served as Ronald's manual operators.

"Ned Tanin from Paramount congratulates you and asks when you will be back in Los Angeles this week to discuss the release of your new film.

Disney's production director Katzenberg also called and asked if you would be interested in attending the Los Angeles premiere of "The Evil Husband", which you serve as a producer.

There are several male stars who have personal relationships with him and Eisner who want to work with you and want to take advantage of the premiere to meet and chat with you. "

"Who?"

"Michael Douglas, and Australia's Mel Gibson."

"Okay, I'll go back in the middle of the week." Ronald and the two male stars are acquaintances. Since they want to meet him, it seems that "Top Gun" played a role in Tom Cruise's star status. It made them very interested in chatting with their director who can make popular male stars.

Besides, Helen would definitely have to attend the premiere. The movie might not do well at the box office, so she had to go and comfort herself.

"John Hughes also called to congratulate you. After Molly Ringwald left him, he planned to transition into adult comedy. One of the scripts he wrote before was a gender-reversed version of 'Pretty in Pink'. Find it now. If I don’t know the director, I’d like to ask you if you have any recommendations.”

"Where's that friend of his?"

"It is said that he said that if he could not find a heroine like Molly Ringwald, he would not start filming, and Hughes fired him."

"Where can I find a director who is good at making teen movies?" Ronald replied. Hughes is somewhat similar to himself. They are both outsiders who broke into Hollywood and are relatively productive, so they have not formed their own team for the time being. They are just waiting for projects and others.

"Finally your former boss, Roger Corman, called to congratulate you."

"Huh? Why did he think of me? Is he unhappy that he didn't have a cameo in the second movie? I'll give him a call back."

Ronald put down the phone and dialed Coleman first.

"Ronald, congratulations, you must ask me to guest star in the third film. I feel that I did a good job playing the organizer of the karate championship. My wife likes my performance very much."

Sure enough, Roger Corman talked about his guest appearance at the beginning.

"Hahaha, definitely. I haven't started thinking about the sequel yet. Producer Weintraub's energy is now more focused on his business as an MGM/United Artists executive. It seems that the third part Not that fast."

"As long as you remember me, I'll have to make a cameo in the next movie."

"My next film will be about Italians. Roger, you are Jewish."

"What's the matter? When people reach a certain age, they start to look more and more like Italians. Don't forget that I also made a cameo in The Godfather Part II."

"Okay, okay, I'll leave you with an interesting role when the time comes."

Ronald joked a bit with Coleman and asked him what else he wanted.

It was odd that Coleman was calling in such a hurry. Except for the release of his debut film, which Corman specially invited to dinner to congratulate him, for the next few films, Corman did not choose to call as soon as the first weekend results came out.

"I want to congratulate you. You have found the knack of making commercial movies that will hit the market. I saw you often choose different themes before, and I was a little worried. Now that your sequels are so good, I feel that you are qualified to be a director in the future. It’s a great future.”

Ronald sighed, why is Roger Corman so strict? He was not satisfied even in Top Gun, but he looked even more satisfied after filming the second film of The Dragon King.

Roger Corman explained what he meant.

This is the first sequel Ronald has made, and it follows the same formula as the first episode. Daniel is in love with a girl, but a love rival wants to stop him and humiliate him for some reason. After special training by Master Miyagi, he started from an inconspicuous place and introduced unique techniques of philosophical thinking. Finally, he defeated his opponent and won the beauty back.

This shows that Ronald has mastered the successful formula of a certain type of film. Roger Corman had seen many short-lived directors who faded into obscurity after their natural talent ran out. But Ronald has stopped relying on talent to make movies, and now he can make a living in movies for the rest of his life.

"Hey, thank you, Roger. Yours is definitely the happiest thing that has ever happened to me."

Ronald was very happy to hear Coleman say this and did not feel slighted at all. This is the way to consider whether to greenlight a film project from the audience's perspective and from the producer's perspective. Roger Coleman's experience may be a bit outdated, but his methods are worth studying.

"Am I one of the best graduates from Corman Film University, Roger? Am I the best among the youngest graduates?"

"You are number one at the box office, but your artistic achievements are not."

"Huh? This makes me so sad. Is there anyone who has achieved more than me? Who? Is it Jim? I'm surprised that in your mind, I'm not number one?"

Ronald chatted happily and joked with his former boss.

"Your business acumen and imagination are of course number one. Even Jim is no match for you at the box office." Roger Corman chatted with Ronald, still treating the script assistant in the company as before, Neither did he disdain communication because of Ronald's low status back then, nor did he compliment Ronald because of his success now.

“However, from the perspective of the pinnacle of film art and the maturity of your directing skills, I still prefer another person.

You know, Ronald. The movies I make myself are completely different from the movies I admire.

The films I shoot are all low-cost plasma horror films, but what I like to watch are films by masters like Bergman from Sweden and Akira Kurosawa from Japan who are skilled and capable. Among American directors who have worked in the New World, Coppola and Scorsese actually have more control over their films than you do. "

"Hahaha, you are really merciless to me." Ronald laughed loudly. Coleman compared him to the master, which was actually a compliment.

"By the way, who is the Coleman University graduate who is better than me? What works has he made?"

"Ah... He is not as lucky as you, Ronald. Jonathan has his own ideas about making movies, and the movies he made are all very good, but the first Hollywood commercial production was messed up with the stars. In the end, the heroine Goldie Hawn asked the studio to choose between two, and he was kicked out.

Now there have been several years without a movie.

By the way, do you know the biggest difference between you and him? The works he directed are actually very good, but why are you successful and he failed."

"Why?"

"Because his movies don't make money! Hollywood can tolerate many shortcomings of directors, such as lust, moral corruption, love to manipulate others, and love to make money from projects. These can all be tolerated. The only thing is that not making money is a capital crime.

Keep it up, don't make unprofitable movies in the future."

"Thank you for your advice, Roger."

Ronald put down the phone. He understood something. Coleman was a little worried that after his continuous commercial success, he would also learn the problems of other directors and make some art films to promote his own ideas.

"In fact, I didn't consider the artistic value and sales concept when I chose the director project. I just dreamed about it."

Ronald smiled and picked up the phone again to call the next person on the call back list.

"Oh, I forgot to ask Roger what Jonathan's name is. If there is a chance, we can share resources.

Well, it sounds like he likes to make art films, which may not be suitable for me. I will ask Coleman next time I have a chance."

7017k