Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 306 Sleeping Beauty wakes up

  The box office results of the second weekend of the movie "Fast Pace" were aggregated to Universal's distribution department, which was $3.2 million.

   This achievement made Universal's distribution department, marketing department, media public relations, and even several presidents speechless.

   It wasn't because Ronald's genius shocked them, but because this result broke the norm and made them seem incompetent.

   In the second week, Universal's laboratory printed a hundred "fast-paced" copies, which were distributed in theaters on the West Coast, with a total of nearly 600 theaters showing.

   Dividing the weekend box office by the number of movie theaters, the Universal Distribution Department found an embarrassing fact, the average box office of a single venue has not decreased but increased.

   Don't think this is a good thing, it shows that the work of the distribution department is wrong.

   Their box office estimates for "fast-paced" were completely wrong. Without more prime time slots and limited theaters, the "fast-paced" attendance and box office climbed up by word of mouth.

   The first reaction of the distribution department was to apply to the superior to ask the laboratory to print another 200 copies to meet the increasing demand for copies of movie theaters. The movie has a lot of stamina, and the average box office of the single hall has surpassed the "Best Chicken House in Texas" starring Dolly Parton.

   The second embarrassed head of the marketing department. "Fast Pace" had no marketing material, as the film had no marketing budget and was canceled by more than half of Tom Mount's regional distribution strategy.

   The movie has attracted a lot of media attention, and some local TV stations have started talking about the movie's popularity among teenagers. At least there are more and more teenagers on the street who begin to have Like's valley accent in every word.

   This kind of movie that relies on word of mouth from the audience and counterattacks at the box office after its release has a proper term called "SleeperHit". Newspaper reporters have already started calling the film another SleeperHit.

   Every such report is a silent mockery of the global marketing department.

Therefore, their applications also began to be delivered to the desks of Simberg, Ned Tanin and others, hoping to increase the marketing budget, at least let a few starring actors and directors walk around the road show along the originally planned route, in the Interviews with local media in Dallas, Chicago, New York, Boston and other places in Texas.

   And the marketing department went a step further, proposing to break the West Coast-only release, print more copies, and hurry up to release it in the East Coast and central cities.

  This is not in their scope of work, but the supervisor, who is ridiculed by the media every day, could not bear it, and made cross-functional suggestions.

  Otherwise, they will be ridiculed by the media on the West Coast. In the end, the movie will probably still be on the East Coast screen, and will be ridiculed by the New York media. Their mouths are more poisonous, and they don't know what unpleasant things will be said.

  Simberg, who received the application, sighed very much. He didn't support Ronald with all his strength, which seemed to be a minor mistake.

  If this movie can be simultaneously released in thousands of theaters across the country, I am afraid it will exceed 50 million box office in total, or even higher. Such box office results can be ranked in the top 15 of the box office list in this era of generally weak box office.

   If the two films that I support both get the top 15 at the annual box office, then my authority in Universal Pictures will definitely be greatly enhanced.

   And this "Fast Rhythm" also collects a lot of pop music as interludes, and can produce a movie soundtrack album, which is also of great help to his voice in the music business of the parent company MCA.

   However, at that time, the box office of "ET Alien" was already in sight, and his strategy of no longer taking risks could not be wrong.

   The key is that he lacks the courage to promote Spielberg with the discerning eye. Once a person sits in a high position, it is easy to look forward and backward.

   It was Ned Tanin who regretted more than Simberg.

   He clearly supported Ronald once and approved the budget for Brooke Shields to make up for the shoot. The controversy of this release should really support him to the end.

   At that time, I still considered too much power balance and made a compromise between maintaining the safe operation of my position.

   In the final analysis, as a high-level person, he lacks the ability to empathize with the broad middle-class audience. Is there any executive, including Simberg, who can really tell if a movie is appreciated by the audience?

After    shook his head and sighed, Tanin quickly expanded the scale of the screening, signed the application for screening in the East Coast and South Central regions, and then rang the bell to connect with the secretary.

   "When will Director Ronald Lee come to talk about the new release plan? Well... remember to remind me at that time, I want to meet him. I need to have a good chat with such a director."

   Anyway, there is another Tom Mount who is even worse than me... Tanin thought of gloating.

  Tom Mount sat in his office. After receiving a call from his old father-in-law to persuade him to resign last week, he still doesn't want to admit defeat.

  "Fast-paced" may also be a movie with insufficient stamina. Many of these teen exploitation films rely on sensory stimulation to attract audiences in the first week, and the subsequent box office will drop rapidly. In particular, Paramount's new film "The Officer and the Gentleman" was also released this week, and it is estimated that it will continue to pull down some of the box office.

  Who knows that the report he saw on Monday today, the dazzling numbers in the "fast pace" column, gave him a heavy blow. In the second weekend of its release, it has already broken through 8 million at the box office, and is expected to exceed 10 million by the middle of next week.

   The application for the third weekend to be expanded to the national screening was also put aside, which seemed like a provocation to himself no matter what.

   Alas, these department heads have probably heard some rumors and are no longer afraid of themselves.

  Tom Mount opened the drawer and took out the resignation letter he had prepared. Facing the mirror in the closet, he adjusted his tie, combed his hair, smoothed the folds on his suit, pushed open the door and walked towards Simberg's office.

   "This is my resignation letter." Mount handed the resignation letter from Simberg's desk.

   "You don't have to..."

   "I insist." Mount unbuttoned the metal buttons of his suit with grace, and sat down across the desk.

   "We are old friends. I will set up a private production company, a distribution contract with Universal, and Universal's share investment in the new company as a joint venture partner..."

   "Of course, everything will be done." Simberg swept Mount's resignation letter into a drawer.

   "Have a drink, Tom." He took out a bottle of brandy and poured a glass for the old adversary.

   "The lawyers will handle the contract matters, but Universal's investment in your personal production company will be reduced to half of the usual amount. Do you have an opinion?"

   "You!" Tom Mount stood up in protest.

   "Sit down", Simberg scolded.

  Mount was startled by his sudden reprimand and sat down again.

   "This is the final condition. I negotiated with Mr.... from MCA. You will not be held accountable for your various derelictions of duty during your time at the company, as well as these romantic affairs that the lawyer helped you settle."

   "You!" Mount burst into anger when he heard that he had given his father-in-law the legal documents the company lawyer had used to deal with his romantic debts.

   just wanted to get up and leave, but he thought that he had lost his high-level job and needed a nod from the president of Universal to get the green light for his production company's film to pass, so he sat back again.

  Simberg looked at his dejected appearance, and a bad breath came out of his heart.

"Everything else is as usual. Your position will be retained in the company for six months, and the office will be retained for you until the end of the year. Universal will sign a hair contract for five movies for your new company, invest... , take share... , I'll ask a lawyer to give you the documents."

   "Drink." Simberg picked up the glass and touched Mount.

   In the office of the copyright department downstairs, two movie buyers from Universal Television Network and NBC Los Angeles were still in the conference room waiting for the department director to return from the meeting.

   "This fast-paced film was first set by our Global Television Network, and we should give us the right to broadcast the first round."

   "No no no, NBC's TV network on the West Coast is bigger than Universal's, so we should broadcast the first round first."

   The manager sitting across from them was amused watching the performance of the two buyers. It wasn't until I saw the news about the movie being broadcast on the entertainment news of the TV station that it was gradually increasing that I remembered that I still had a broadcasting contract in my hand, so I came to seek the premiere rights.

   This director is really amazing, and now even social news has news about his movie.

The door    was pushed open, and the director of the copyright department pushed in.

   "Good news and bad news, gentlemen."

   "The good news is that Universal has agreed to sell the TV broadcast rights to both of you at the same time, each with ten broadcast rights." He handed the contract over.

   "The bad news is that the film will be expanded to national screening next week, and your premiere must be postponed until after the film is released."

   Meanwhile, in the office of the president of Paramount Pictures, president Michael Eisner is talking to production director and vice president Katzenberg.

   "The box office performance of Officers and Gentlemen has remained stable, and the distribution department is expected to have a box office of more than 100 million."

   "What about our contracts with the two leading actors?"

   "Deborah Wenger has another film contract, which Richard Gere has fulfilled."

   "How's the rest of the production going?"

   "Brian De Palma's new film has some difficulties, but it can be handled well."

   "Okay, let me know if you need me to come forward."

   Eisner pointed to a column on the box office report and asked Katzenberg, "What kind of fast-paced film is this Universal? Seems like the director's name sounds familiar?"

   "It's a youth-exploitation film. Ronald Lee turned out to be the screenwriter, and we competed for him to write the script for Jane Fonda. Then he recently helped Lou Adler make up the end of the movie."

   "Oh, how's the quality?"

   "Except for the MV-like ending, everything else is rubbish, and it's hard to release it in theaters."

   "Ha. Well, since it's an MV, why don't you send it to MTV to play it, and then show the movie. If the box office isn't good, sell it to a cable station as a late night movie."

   (end of this chapter)