Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"I like both of your Daydream movies, 'Dirty Dancing' and 'You're Not For Sale' very much. I was very excited to watch them. Especially my mother, 'Dirty Dancing' is about her youth. She also participated in the Peace Corps project to promote President JFK's ideas overseas."

The person who said this to Ronald was Thomas Stephenson Jr., a theater manager from New Jersey and New York, whom Ronald had met at the Western Film Fair in Las Vegas.

His father owns 5 theaters in New Jersey and is still investing in building new multi-hall theaters in department stores in the suburbs of the city. The business has gradually expanded to New York State, and has formed an alliance with chain theater operators in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Washington, DC and other states in the northeast.

Ronald's Daydream Pictures has initially reached an intention agreement with them to release the film. This time, it brought the newly edited "You're Not For Sale" with the PAA R rating, and "Dirty Dancing" to them for a preview, hoping to get a better release time and screen.

Thomas Stephenson Jr. liked Ronald's movies very much. After the preview, he came to chat with Ronald and Douglas Hansen Jr., an important shareholder of Daydream.

"So, how many copies will you order?" Ronald asked the very motivated heir to the cinema. Thomas Sr. gradually let him take charge of various aspects of the cinema's operation, preparing to hand over when he had enough experience.

"My personal love is one thing, but business is another." Thomas Stephenson Jr.'s current position is the buyer of his father's cinema chain and several partner cinemas in New Jersey. He has important advice on the release schedule and the number of copies.

"Oh, why do you say that? You have a good vision, and your taste is very similar to that of ordinary American audiences. I think from a business perspective, you should also order more copies of the movies produced by our company."

Douglas Jr. is of the same age as him. They are both rich second-generations. They are going to inherit their ancestors' business in the future. They both like movies and have a lot in common.

"I personally like these two movies very much. Especially Ronald's "Dirty Dancing", the narrative of this movie is very smooth, the emotions are well mobilized, I was so moved that I almost cried when I saw the end.

But business is business, our cinema operators in the Northeast still mainly purchase movies from the seven major studios, I hope you can understand."

"Yeah, I understand, the problem of marketing." Ronald nodded.

When he and distribution manager Cannold met with cinema buyers on the West Coast, they often heard similar statements about this issue.

The seven major studios will invest heavily in the marketing of movies. They release a fixed number of movies each year, and they have fixed suppliers for purchasing TV advertising time slots, newspaper pages, buying film critics, and even making posters on the scene.

Buying large and stable quantities can get big discounts.

Daydream is like setting up a distribution company specifically for the filming of "Dirty Dancing". "Love is Not for Sale" was obtained by the way. All marketing costs are 30% to double the purchase price of the seven major studios.

If the two films are of the same quality and budget, the cinemas would certainly be willing to buy the films of the wealthy Big Seven, as their marketing efforts can attract many audiences.

On the other hand, none of Ronald's films starred famous stars. The only thing the audience remembered was Ronald. The films released by the Big Seven at the same time either starred famous stars or were old-fashioned series such as 007. As long as the audience saw the name, they would want to watch it.

That's why Ronald set aside twice the production cost for marketing. At least to make the cinema feel that buying their films for screening is not a loss.

But these were all known in advance. Ronald was neither disappointed nor blindly optimistic.

A few weeks after returning from Cannes, he and Michel Cannold's team started from Los Angeles and San Francisco in California on the west coast, then Seattle in Washington, then Las Vegas in Nevada, and then into the Deep South.

There are no mega-cities in the southern states, such as Houston, Dallas and San Antonio in Texas, and the time spent must be evenly distributed in all cities, which is very hard.

After a round trip there, he turned north again, went to industrial cities such as Chicago and Detroit in the Great Lakes region of the Midwest, and finally passed through Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and finally came to the location of the earliest thirteen states in the United States.

Along the way, Ronald basically understood the mentality of movie buyers and operators.

For operating a movie theater, it is not very important for them to know which movie is popular. The most important thing is to ensure that the movie you buy will not be taken offline within less than a week of release due to insufficient audience.

Among the movies released every year, only about 20% can achieve an attendance rate of more than 50%, which can make the movie theater a lot of money.

The most important purpose of those other movies is to keep operating without losing money. If you accidentally buy an independently produced movie, but the attendance rate is low due to insufficient marketing and insufficient audience, the losses will make the movie theater operator lose all his money.

In the final analysis, the movie theater business is a game of competition, who can fill the seats more.

Along the way, Ronald has gotten used to their lack of confidence in their marketing investment. So he was about to explain his marketing plan to Thomas Stephenson Jr.

In addition to inviting film critics from major media to attend the film critics special, Ronald also cooperated with Universal, Paramount, and Disney, the three major studios, to borrow their media resources during the gaps in their marketing for their own movies.

The most important thing, of course, is to spend real money on advertising on TV and other TV stations, and rely on the connections accumulated over the years. He and several leading actors attended multiple talk shows and accepted interviews on talk shows to expand their influence among ordinary audiences.

"I believe in the strength of Daydream," Thomas Stephenson Jr. smiled a little like a baby, "You mentioned all these in the media package, and I certainly believe in your determination."

Some producers will stop investing in marketing because of poor box office, poor reviews from film critics, low scores from live audiences, etc. Therefore, the operators of these cinemas usually don't believe in the promises of the producers. Ronald explained and assured again and again.

"Actually, I'm worried about two other things." Thomas Stephenson Jr. said to Ronald.

"Please, we should be honest with each other. There is nothing that cannot be said for the sake of making money. We can talk about it." Douglas Hansen Jr. immediately showed his sincerity, took Thomas' hand, and asked him to sit down and talk in detail. It is rare for a cinema operator to tell the producer specific concerns.

After all, the film industry is a very risky industry, and one needs to calibrate one's understanding of reality at any time. Many directors and star-turned producers often cannot distinguish whether other people's words are flattery or the truth. It is not until the box office fails that they realize that they are surrounded by lies.

"The first thing is the PAA rating of 'love is not for sale'. Our cinema operators don't like R-rated movies very much..."

Thomas Stephenson Jr. explained the current thinking of cinemas. When the film rating system first appeared, cinemas felt that violence and eroticism might attract more adult audiences to the cinema.

But several X-rated movies failed at the box office, and the average box office of R-rated movies would not be higher than that of PG.

Even if the audiences of ordinary families who watched "The Sound of Music" heard that it was a good X-rated movie, they would not go to the cinema to watch it. They also had to consider the impact on their families and children.

The main force of going to the cinema to watch movies now is teenagers. Although they like those exciting plots, R-rated movies require adults to accompany them after all, and many female audiences do not like too many violent scenes.

In the past few years, under the strong public relations of big directors such as Spielberg, PAA passed the new PG-13 rating. The new rating has many less violent and... scenes, but can provide enough sensory stimulation. Most importantly, you don't need to check your driver's license to watch PG-13.

So PG-13 quickly replaced PG and R-rated and became the favorite of young audiences who watched movies, and the average box office was the highest.

More importantly, watching these exciting and nervous scenes, or blood-thrilling scenes, will make people excited, so that they eat more French fries and popcorn. The abnormally large amount of salt or sugar in it will make people thirsty and promote the sales of Coke.

In addition to the box office, pg-13 is also stimulating the sales revenue of other soft drinks and snacks in the cinema.

"'Love is not for sale', our director Steve Rush is already making emergency revisions and will submit it to PAA for re-rating soon. We discovered this problem when we were on the West Coast, so we took emergency measures and there will be results next week."

Ronald knew that he and the rookies of Daydream had made a mistake in Los Angeles, the first stop of his national sales tour. An emergency meeting was held, and the conclusion was that "Love is not for sale" needed to be significantly revised.

Many plots that director Rush put into the film, such as a close scene between the heroine Cindy and her ex-boyfriend, a rugby player, and many very explicit conversations among high school students about boyfriends and girlfriends, were deleted.

Director Steve Rush's creative freedom was interfered with, and he was very angry with Ronald. He said that he was no longer the director who made epoch-making youth films such as "Fast-paced Richmond High School", but a profit-seeking businessman.

This made Ronald very sad, and he really had no words to say.

Rush was somewhat justified in being angry. If "Love Is Not For Sale" did not depict the real life of high school students, it would have completely degenerated from a realistic movie like "Fast Pace" to a teenage romantic comedy, which only touched on reality.

"Make money first. As long as you can make money in this movie, you will have more creative freedom in the future." Ronald thought for a long time and had to repeat what Roger Corman said to him:

"Listen, Director Rush. As long as you modify this movie according to my opinion, you will never have to work for me again."

Steve Rush was really moved by Roger Corman's golden words, and completely followed Ronald's wishes and cut the movie to the PG-13 standard. Last week, Ronald watched the revised version in Chicago and has urgently submitted it to the PAA to wait for the revised rating.

"Very good, if I can get the PG-13 rating, my theater will increase the number of copies purchased, and I will also convince other operators in the alliance. They are all optimistic about my vision."

Thomas Stephenson Jr. was very happy that Ronald valued his opinions. Daydream was in its infancy, and it was good to value the opinions of cinema operators.

"The second thing is that you have to get better film reviews." Thomas Stephenson Jr. held up his second finger.

"The suburbs of cities in the Northeast are one of the most educated places in America. Children here take drama and art classes in high school. Most of their parents are college graduates, and their judgment of movies depends heavily on the recommendations of film critics.

Especially in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and DC, there is a strong trust in the film reviews of several New York newspapers."

The box office of a movie in the first week of its release is determined by the number of viewers attracted. In the Northeast, the effect of film critics is much greater than that in the Deep South and the Midwest.

Sometimes, the film reviews on the New York Times and the New York Post, the evaluation of this doctrine and that genre, can only be understood by the residents of higher education in the middle-class communities in the suburbs of New York.

"We are working on this. I can at least guarantee that the New York media will most likely speak well of us."

Things like buying off film critics cannot be openly discussed. Ronald said this, and cinema practitioners can understand it.

In addition to spending a lot of money to sponsor their annual meeting at the Chicago Film Critics Association, Ronald also sponsored their favorite women's film retrospective at the New York Film Critics Association, as well as next year's New York Film Critics Association Awards.

Of course, all this money was distributed through the old money relationship of Douglas Jr., through various foundations, trusts, and cultural promotion associations.

At the same time, Ronald also found his personal lawyer Lindsay Doll, and sponsored some large cinemas with ancient history subsidized by the government through his boss's relationship with New York City Hall.

In short, in order for the first two films released by Daydream to become a hit, Ronald searched through boxes and cabinets to find a lot of relationships, spent a lot of money and resources, and must do his best.

"Then I have no doubts. I will order a copy of your film according to the highest standards." Thomas Stephenson finally agreed. "In addition, my mother really likes "Dirty Dancing". Can we play it for her and her girlfriends?"

"Haha, no problem, Manager Cannold will arrange it." Ronald shook hands with him tightly.

"You have to be careful of the Jewish groups in the New York film industry. I heard some news that someone wants to target your Dirty Dancing." Thomas Stephenson whispered a few words in Ronald's ear while shaking hands.

Then he raised his eyebrows at Ronald and Douglas Jr. and turned to find Cannold.

"What did he say?" Douglas Jr. saw that Ronald's face was not right and came over to ask.

"He said that the Jews in the New York film industry want to do something to our movie." Ronald covered his mouth with his right hand and told Douglas Jr.

"Humph, there are many Hollywood here, what kind of storm can the Jews stir up?"

"Don't worry about them, we just need to do our own thing."

The film-selling journey continued, and Ronald's last stop was New York City. This is not only a sweet hometown, but also a place that is picked by film critics, and the most concentrated place for large cinemas in the country.

New York has always been one of the holy places of drama, and various large cinemas have been built very early. The population density here is also the highest in the United States.

Therefore, New York has inherited many large cinemas from history, and there are many large screening halls that can accommodate thousands of people, or even three to five thousand people.

After entering the 1970s, the impact of television has made these cinemas show their decline. The impact of attendance on the hall is much greater than that of medium and small cinemas.

These cinemas were either demolished due to urban expansion, or they could only play some midnight movies and were named mill cinemas.

There are also some of the most luxurious and top-notch theaters that were once full of stars, which were subsidized by the New York City Hall. A large number of retired corporate executives and second-generation rich people have occupied various committee positions after retirement to provide subsidies for these places that bring them memories.

At the same time, they can also get more scarce tickets for ballets, operas, or premieres of movies starring stars. These are the status of these people that distinguishes them from ordinary people. Instead of tickets for musicals on Broadway for tourists.

Therefore, the movie screenings held in New York cinemas are different from the previous ones. People who come are all dressed in suits and ties, dressed like they are going to see an opera.

"We have invited several experts to help us evaluate the two films of Daydream." Several cinema operators came to introduce them to Ronald.

With subsidies, these large cinemas are actually not private enterprises to a certain extent. All kinds of people who have the power to issue subsidies have to show their power.

Therefore, it is rare that there are not only movie buyers here, but also many people who don't understand movie management, so they have to invite some experts to help them make judgments.

"This is Aaron Russo, the producer of the TV series "S.W.A.T. 4587 (wise guy)" with a high ratings now." Ronald shook hands with him. He recognized this greasy fat man who was proud of his height as the expert invited by Weston Pictures when the "Dirty Dancing" project was established.

"Is this the Jew who wants to cause trouble for me?" Ronald thought to himself.

"Who is this..."

"Mr. Tisch needs no introduction." Ronald shook hands with another so-called expert. This was the sponsor of New York University Tisch College and the youngest son of the Tisch family. Their family is old money, and they have a share of the New York Giants in the NFL.

When I wanted to film "Dirty Dancing", this was Steve Tisch, who was uncomfortable with the plot of the script depicting a Jewish girl falling in love with an Irish boy.

The two sides stopped talking, and Ronald felt the malice in the other person's eyes.

“We’re showing ‘Dirty Dancing’ right now,” Daydream distribution manager Michelle Cannold announced as the viewing began.

After 100 minutes, the movie ends with a carnival dance to the accompaniment of the theme song. The credits began to scroll up and the lights in the hall came on.

Cannold invited several experts to the front desk to offer their opinions.

"What else do you want to say? I have never seen such a ridiculous movie. Burn the copy and file a claim with the insurance company."

Aaron Russo, the TV show producer, came to the front desk and started spouting rants about criticizing "Dirty Dancing."

"Huh?" Ronald stopped Douglas Hansen Jr. who was about to go up to argue with him.

He jumped onto the stage in front of the screen.

"What, am I wrong? What are you filming? A Jewish doctor's daughter running away with a dancing poor Irishman? Filmmaking must be based on reality."

Aaron Russo looked

"Who the hell are you? You're just here to comment on my movie." Ronald was not polite to him and pushed Fat Russo to his knees.

"You loser, you lost the fight with me for the production rights of this movie, and you just uttered arrogant words here. I think you should get out."

Not satisfied, Ronald pushed Russo several more times and knocked him off the stage.

"Where did the rubbish come from? Let's continue talking about business." Ronald saw Douglas Jr. taking over, locking Russo with wrestling techniques and pulling him out.

He turned around and looked at this artistic comment with his eyes? "

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