Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 422 Box Office List Nail Household

   That young computer expert happened to be an undergraduate computer science student at the University of Los Angeles. He enthusiastically pointed Ronald to the store where he bought all the accessories, and opened an email account for Ronald, taking advantage of the privilege of working as an administrator in the computer center.

   Ronald also fulfilled his wish and helped him to get a signed photo of Phoebe Cates by his relationship.

   "Didi, squeak, woo..." After a while, the modem finally connected to the university's BBS.

   Ronald logged in with the email account his friend had given him, and opened the newsgroup client software.

   Connections are slow and phone bills are expensive. Ronald only downloads newsgroups in the middle of the night. After finally downloading all the emails, Ronald began to browse slowly on the computer.

The    newsgroup doesn't have much content. In the movie section, there are only two posts discussing "Night of the Comet". It was the movie-watching action initiated by the college student. Below a post, seven or eight people responded.

   There are more discussions about "war games" below. After all, it is a movie related to these computer geeks, and some people have proposed a lot of loopholes in the movie, and there are as many as a dozen.

   Ronald replied, "Film is an art of storytelling, and some loopholes are for the convenience of the audience." Then he continued to browse other sections.

  About the general section is to discuss computer, software, network related content. Ronald mostly didn't understand. There is only one topic section, which is filled with various controversial topics. Such as anti-war, racism, the Soviet Union, nuclear war, etc.

  Ronald looked interesting and posted a post called "Does anyone know the history of Japanese descent in America?" and then turned off the computer.

   The next day, several people replied to his post, and many people said they had not heard of the history of Japanese descent. Only one person replied that America had driven all the Japanese into concentration camps because of World War II. Just like their Chinese Exclusion Act for Chinese Americans earlier.

   Next, several people said they had not heard of it.

When Ronald saw the man, he replied angrily, "These white rulers, don't want you to remember the history of the persecution of yellow-skinned people. You can check the history of the 442nd Infantry Regiment. "

Ronald, of course, had never heard of the 442 Infantry Regiment, and replied in the client, "I have not heard of this Infantry Regiment, I don't know what you mean, and where can I see their What about history?"

   In the next few days, the box office list officially entered the most intense period of the year. "Star Wars" continued to surge forward, reaping $42 million at the box office in a week, with an average weekly box office of $40,000 in a single venue.

   "Psycho 2", and "Double-Brained Man" quickly fell back, giving up the top three positions in the box office chart.

   Instead, "War Game", "Blitz Dance", and "Night of the Comet" remained stable and continued to top the charts.

   Especially "Lightning Dance" and "Night of the Comet", although the number of theaters has dropped to 1,000 and 500, the stamina of the box office is very strong and the decline is very slow.

   "Lightning Dance" has been screened in its eighth week, but the box office only dropped 20 percent from last week. The second-week declines of "mental patient 2" and "two-brained person" have both exceeded 40%.

   The most eye-catching is "Night of the Comet", which was only slightly down by ten percentage points from last week. For a time, the reputation of the box office nail household spread like wildfire.

"You know, Ronald. The opening weekend box office depends on the company's ability to distribute, but starting the second week, it's all about word of mouth from the audience. This is the iron law, it seems that your movie has a good word of mouth and is good enough to match 'Blitz Dance' ' on a par."

   Atlantic's distribution manager, sitting in the conference room, explained to Ronald the reason for the uncharacteristically strong box office.

   "Then will our number of theaters be maintained in the future?"

   "It can be maintained for about a week. Next week, another summer blockbuster "Superman III" will be released. The number of our movies will not be reduced too much in theaters, but the number of screenings and the time of broadcast will be affected."

   "Okay", Ronald has long accepted the fact that Atlantic's distribution capability is not good, but fortunately, his films are in good spirits, continue to break through the 20 million box office results are stable.

   In addition to the good quality of "Night of the Comet" itself, the special effects are also excellent, unlike a small production. Ronald felt that the MVs and movie trailers that were looped on MTV contributed a lot to the box office.

He doesn't have much evidence to prove it, but "Blitzkrieg" and "Night of the Comet" are the only two movies advertised on MTV, and the weekly declines for these two are particularly slow at the box office. Can't help but let everyone who is engaged in film distribution begin to doubt the power of MTV.

   "Do you think it was the effect of MTV's ad?" Ronald asked.

   "I think it's half and half. On the one hand, MTV does focus on a lot of young audiences, so advertising here can reach the target audience of our "Night of the Comet" to the greatest extent. On the other hand, it is indeed the quality of your movie.

   Director Li, I am not complimenting you. I've done distribution at United Arts before. The quality of the film is closely related to the director's professional ethics. Let me just say that your budget is all invested in the production.

  All the money can be seen on the final screen where it is spent. Those realistic zombies, the debris after the comet's extinction, the blood-red sky, and the empty city, I'm not an expert in filmmaking, but I think that if you change a director, maybe five million may not be able to make it. "

   "You were originally at United Arts?" Ronald asked.

"Yeah, I think you've heard of Michael Cimino, whose 'Heaven's Gate' crew, the budget for substance abuse is about three percent of the budget. And you're in There is no way to see where the money is going on the screen. I had already taken out a loan to buy a house, and I almost lost my mortgage because of this movie.”

   Ronald smiled and was about to answer when Tom Coleman, the president of the Atlantic, knocked on the door and came in.

   "Hello, Ronald." Tom hugged Ronald fiercely.

   "Sorry, I was having a preparatory meeting with a few crews just now. You and Martha Coolidge's movie made us famous in the industry. The script that couldn't be sent to us is now."

   "Coffee?" Tom Coleman raised his hand and introduced a middle-aged lady who came in with him.

   "This is the financial director of our company".

"Hello Mr. Ronald Lee, according to the agreement we signed earlier, 'Night of the Comet' has reached the break-even point, and we will first pay your director $100,000, and your company's investment of twenty thousand dollars. Ten thousand dollars will be settled to you in advance.

  The rest of the profit is divided, we need to distribute it to you and other investors after the movie is released and the box office figures are settled with the theater. "

   Ronald took two checks for a total of three hundred thousand dollars and put them in his pocket.

   "Then when will our box office be settled?"

"Don't worry, Ronald." President Tom Coleman took over, "At the current box office, we will enjoy a relatively high share, and when it is transferred to long-term screenings, your films will undoubtedly be screened for long-term screenings. The share of the production company will be reduced accordingly. So basically the main part of the profit that can be attributed to us will start to be settled after the first round of screenings.”

   "As for the time, it's hard for me to give you a specific number, but we'll try our best."

   "Okay, then I'll ask my accountant to contact you." Ronald knew that the payment period for the box office share would not be too short. Anyway, he already got his remuneration and the cost of the investment. "

   called the accountant Lawrence and deposited the check in the bank. Ronald started thinking about giving himself some rewards.

   Should I buy a standard Hollywood star, a sports car?

never mind. I have seen a few sports car dealers. The expensive sports cars in Europe are expensive, and the muscle sports cars produced by America are not enough to reflect the value in Los Angeles and distinguish themselves from other directors of the entertainment industry.

   The DeLorean sports car invested by talk show host Johnny Carson in the past two years has doors that open on both sides and a shape like swan wings, which is very recognizable. But the cockpit of the sports car was very small, and Ronald couldn't even straighten his feet when sitting in it, so he temporarily dismissed the idea.

   Ronald returned home, started to turn on the modem, continued to connect to the user network, and read the news. He is very addicted to this newsgroup these days. The people in it are very good. In the English text, it can be seen that the participants are well educated.

"Um?"

   In the upper right corner of the newsgroup client, a highlighted line appears.

   Ronald took a closer look, he reminded himself of his speech, and someone replied.

   After pressing the "N" key several times, Ronald found the man's reply. It turned out to be the 442nd Infantry Regiment that Ronald asked about.

"The 442nd Infantry Regiment was a regiment formed by Japanese Americans. His sacrifice rate exceeded 100 percent. The Japanese American families were driven into concentration camps. They had to join the army for their post-war life. Go to the European battlefield to fight the Germans.

   If you need more information, please contact Senator Daniel Inoue of Hawaii. "

   "Daniel Inoue, senior senator from Hawaii." Ronald touched his chin.

   (end of this chapter)