Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"I'm coming back from Philadelphia. On average, I receive five to ten phone calls every day from people who want to contact you. I can't do much here anymore. The director made 'Awesomeness' look like a cartoon..."

"Okay, I've given up. Fox can do whatever they want. You and I tell Executive Producer Joseph Farrow, don't put my name in front of the title, just sign a normal producer The location is good.”

Niceta could no longer stay in Philadelphia. Ronald recommended "Crocodile Dundee" to Paramount, and it swept America as a dark horse in the first week.

Everyone is attracted to this character who is kind-hearted and has the innocence of an Australian country bumpkin. They want to watch the drama about an Australian country bumpkin who comes to New York.

From the perspective of a foreigner, especially Mr. Dundee, who can fight crocodiles with his bare hands, was raised by aborigines, and is full of primitive wild charm, he looks at New York, this bizarre big city, and makes a lot of jokes. It also gives the domestic audience a special sense of superiority.

Hollywood executives were suddenly shocked to realize that Ronald could not only direct and produce, but also had a very high eye for selecting finished films.

Some people remembered his experience as Roger Corman's buyer when he bought the Oscar-winning foreign language film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears." Suddenly, everyone wanted to chat with Ronald and see if he had any movies worth recommending in his pocket.

Unable to do so, Niceta came back from the Philadelphia set and began to deal with these matters for Ronald with all her strength. Except for the particularly important person who called, everyone else blocked Ronald's journey on the grounds that he wanted to concentrate on preparing the movie and preparing to join the team.

They had no choice but to leave their contact information, hoping that when Ronald was free, he might think of them who were still waiting for him and be interested in letting them call him for a chat.

Of course, some good friends are not subject to this restriction. Including the two stars of "Crocodile Dundee", Paul Hogan, and Linda Linda Kozlowski.

"The ending of the movie, as you suggested, is now very popular with American audiences. Linda and I went to many movie theaters to secretly watch the audience's reaction. In almost every scene, they were in the final scene where Dundee and Sue hugged each other and reunited. time to cheer and applaud.”

Linda Kozlowski put her arm around Paul Hogan and sat on the couch, chatting with Ronald over a glass of champagne. Like Sue Charlton, the female reporter in the movie, she fell in love with Paul Hogan, the actor who played Crocodile Dundee.

“Yeah, I loved that ending, especially the scene where Sue takes off her high heels and goes after Crocodile Dundee.

Although we knew in our hearts at that time that you would not film a tragic ending in a commercial film, our hearts were still in suspense. The scene where we took off our high heels to pursue our true feelings really moved the female audience. "

The speaker was Gale Hurd. Ronald brought her in with Jim Cameron. Several good friends, who were the creators of blockbuster movies during this period, held a small informal celebration party in a luxurious house arranged by their agent Richard.

"Yes, the control of that section is very good, and it is very skillful. The emotion of the filming is too much, and the audience will easily think it is fake, but if the rhythm of the ending is not in place, it will waste the wonderful performance of the actors."

Cameron also commented on the ending of the movie.

Jim Cameron's "Alien 2" has already grossed more than $70 million at the box office, but last weekend's box office was close to $1.5 million, and it looks like it can still last a week or two in theaters. The couple has already begun preparations for the next film.

"That was Ronald's idea, hahaha." Linda Kozlowski started laughing.

It was a small gathering and no more people were invited. A few of Ronald's friends just chatted quietly.

Everyone started talking about the movie’s box office estimates.

Cameron's "Alien 2" will be offline soon, and it seems difficult to break the 80 million limit.

Ronald's "Top Gun" is still very strong, with a box office of more than 3 million yuan every weekend, and has accumulated to 140 million yuan. It is very promising to last in the theaters until next year.

Paul Hogan's "Crocodile Dundee" has a huge reputation and seems to be a masterpiece with at least 70 to 80 million potential.

"It's actually hard to compare, but I'm still optimistic about Ronald's Top Gun." Paul Hogan, like the character, also speaks an Australian brogue. However, this is an improved accent that retains regional characteristics and removes difficult parts. It is not difficult for Americans to understand.

Everyone looked at Ronald, wanting to hear what he had to say.

"I don't know, have you actually discovered it? For a movie with a strong box office, if it is released in a fixed number of theaters and screens every week, for example, a thousand theaters, the box office results will be similar for everyone."

Several of the principals picked up the newspaper and read it.

Sure enough, "Top Gun" and "Stand By Me" both steadily fluctuated around 3 million on weekends. This kind of movie, if we use the analogy of human age, it belongs to the prime of life and can be output stably for a period of time.

The three movies, "The Kid 2", "Alien 2", and "The Evil Husband", have all fallen below 1.5 million after being released for about ten to fifteen weeks. These three movies have all reached the stage of old age and will be offline in a week or two after falling below one million.

And "Crocodile Dundee" has only been released for a week, and at the age of eighteen, there are endless possibilities.

"The difference between these movies is how many weeks it takes to reach that box office stage, so as long as they enter the club of weekend box office of more than 5 million, they can basically be considered successful. The total box office is not actually based on the average box office per week, but on the number of weeks the movie can be released."

"Top Gun" has been in theaters for 20 weeks, and it is estimated that it will take 25 to 30 weeks to reach the current 1.5 million old-age line.

"The Karate Kid 2" and "The Evil Dead" fell to this line in 15 weeks.

"Alien 2" has fallen after just over 10 weeks.

The most stubborn person in Hollywood is Spielberg. His "Jaws" and "ET Aliens" were all released for more than a year before accumulating high box office that is daunting.

Cameron, Gail, Paul Hogan, and Ronald himself are all moving towards the field of producers. As an actor, you can just act. The director has to care about all aspects of the movie. And the producer has to consider the audience's reaction and the size of the market.

For a while, several people were wondering what factors allowed some movies to stay at the box office for a long time.

"Don't you think that the common point of these movies is that they all have a strong feminist tendency? Whether it is Instructor Charlie in Top Gun, Captain Ripley in Alien 2, or newspaper reporter Sue Charlton in Crocodile Dundee, they are all different from traditional female characters.

They are not the foils of the male protagonist, but women with their own ideas and will. Even Kumiko in "The Karate Kid" who is most like the traditional one, took the initiative to express her love to Daniel-san, and was able to take the initiative to point out the inappropriateness of Daniel's character."

"Hahaha, you are right, let's have a toast. Congratulations on our movies continuing to sell well."

The person who interrupted just now was Martha Coolidge, Gale Hurd's best friend.

This female director is the original director of "Valley Girl". She is good at everything, but she is particularly enthusiastic about women's careers. No matter what the topic is, she can always lead to feminism in the end.

She originally replaced John Hughes' assistant director Howard Deutch as the director of the new film "Sokd of Wonderful".

But she also changed the script again and again for her ideals. In the end, the male characters in it became sissies and clowns, and the female characters were placed in the most central position.

This measure made John Hughes, a straight man from Chicago, producer and screenwriter, very angry. After inspecting the crew, he found that the male lead's makeup was covered with black eye shadow and dyed hair, and he couldn't stand it anymore.

Hughes immediately recalled Howard Deutch, his assistant director, who angered him by saying that his script was not as good as Ronald's idea, and then raided the crew the next day and fired Martha Coolidge on the spot.

Martha, who made a fuss to no avail, had to leave. Gail Hurd brought her to Ronald, also thinking whether Ronald would give her a chance.

Ronald couldn't stand Martha who talked about women all the time. The prototype of this story was originally thought up by Ronald. An ordinary boy pursues a woman who is the center of attention, and finally finds that the girl next door who is his buddy is his perfect match.

In this kind of story, the male protagonist is made into a sissy, and there are hints of unclear sexual orientation. Ronald thinks that even if he is the producer, he will fire her.

Martha, who was interrupted by Ronald, wanted to speak, and Gail covered her face when she heard it.

Ronald sent several friends away, and then received Helen Slater who had just returned from New York after filming "The Secret of Success".

Her hair was still short, and she hugged Ronald's neck happily as soon as she entered the door.

"What's wrong, so happy? "Ronald looked at Helen's big eyes, which were full of light, as if something good had happened.

"I used the acting tips you taught me, and listened carefully to Michael J. Fox's lines. Even the usually strict director Herbert Ross praised me in the end."

"Really? How did he praise you?"

"Well, he said that I originally acted like a female soldier, but then gradually softened and was not so stiff. The interaction with Fox was very good, and there was also a chemical reaction."

"Really? Chemical reaction?" Ronald stretched his hand to Helen's waist and began to tickle her.

"Hahaha, are you jealous?" Helen Slater laughed happily, "The chemical reaction in front of the camera. It's just that there is a big height difference between us. When taking close-ups with him, we have to use two wooden boards as a cushion. "

Ronald burst out laughing.

The two of them joked for a while, and Helen lay in Ronald's arms and asked him what plans he would make next.

Ronald knew that Helen still wanted to have the opportunity to take on some good scripts, but she would soon join the "Dirty Dancing" crew.

"Are you going to the Virginia Mountain Lake Villa to film? When I was a child, when my parents were still not divorced, I also went to this kind of Jewish resort." Helen fell into memories.

"Or, I will visit the set when the time comes."

"You contact Little Bud, come whenever you want. But I will be very busy and may not be able to accompany you."

"It's okay, I just want to see how you direct. "