Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 553 New Home Completed

   "Ronald, I love and hate you at the same time." Debbie Reynolds, a veteran movie star who opened a dance studio, hugged Ronald and closed her mouth happily.

   "What? I see your business is good, why do you still hate me?"

"Since your breakdance came out, the number of people who come here to practice dance has doubled. Everyone wants to come and see the place where the fight dance is in the movie. But the people who come are not to learn the tap dance I plan to teach, but this new style dance." Reynolds stretched out her hands and twisted twice, her dancing skills are very good, and breaking dance has a unique flavor.

   "Ah, hahahaha..." Ronald knew that the other party was joking.

"Seriously, no one dances that classic Hollywood dance anymore. When I was young, young women were doing this dance to keep fit and keep their waists so their husbands would come home on time for dinner. "

   "Hahahaha..." Ronald likes to talk to this open-minded veteran star.

   "Your friends are waiting for you."

   Ronald walked into the small room inside the dance studio, which Helen Slater rented to practice vocals and piano. By the way, do some exercise.

   "Hi, Helen, have you made a decision?"

   "Ronnie, yes, I'm still reluctant to have long hair." Helen wore a hairband and Jane Fonda-style high-waisted fitness pants, looking very sexy.

   Helen Slater's piano and singing skills earned her the invitation to be the heroine of "The Baseball Player's Wife". "The Legend of Billy King" still requires her to cut her hair and not wear a wig.

   Her beloved long hair, after Supergirl, has been dyed blond, and finally chose the former.

  The two chatted for a while, and Helen was very excited to be able to act in this kind of drama adaptation.

   Ronald was happy to have fulfilled his promise to Gerrard. His time in Los Angeles came to an end, and he and Bud Jr. took a late flight back to New York.

   "Little Bud, your mother will be very happy to see you."

  Aunt Karen left Bard at home for lunch, and asked him to announce the good news to his mother first, and prepare to go back to Staten Island to reunite with his mother and family tomorrow.

His entire family has all become employees of the leg warmer factory and lives in the workers' apartment on the island. Their dilapidated house in the Bronx has been sold, and the younger sister's school has also been transferred to the nursing home on the southern end of Staten Island. Tver State High School.

   "Let's go back to Staten Island with little Bud tomorrow to see. Your old friends and neighbors haven't seen each other for a long time." Ronald encouraged Aunt Karen to go back together.

"Okay, it's time for me to go back and clean up the old house. Donna is going to MIT soon, I'm alone here, and I still have old friends on the island. Go back and chat with them on weekends, here in Manhattan It's hard to make new close friends."

   "Then it's settled, I'll drive you all when the time comes." Ronald was secretly delighted, and he asked Little Douglas that the new house he bought and built had been completed, and he could surprise his aunt tomorrow.

   Little Bud went back to the old neighborhood of the Bronx in the afternoon to meet the old neighbors. I came back and told Ronald that the black people there liked Ronald's "Break Dance". Many people have watched it twenty or thirty times in a row, which is much more popular than "Hot Street Boy".

Ronald also drove out for a walk after that. Many mainstream theaters, "Break Dance" have long since been released, leaving some old mill theaters (large screening halls), and second-tier small theaters that have five or six shows a day. play.

   It is said that many viewers will come to the ticket office to ask about the release time of the sequel after watching it. The commercial that Minahan made in the closing credits of the movie made the hearts of breakdancers tickled.

   On the contrary, the box office of "Longwei Kid" is still stable as always. It has been released for the ninth week, and the attendance rate of each show is still very high. The total weekly box office is still more than 6 million US dollars, and the total box office has broken 60 million. It seems that this movie will continue to grow popular.

  According to the usual estimates, the box office of a movie is always the highest in the first two weeks, and then gradually declines. When the average box office of a single museum falls to a certain level, it will be replaced by a new film.

   But "Longwei Kid" doesn't seem to follow this rule very much. No big hits at the start, no big drops after that, always staying at over $6 million over the weekend, then another $6 million, then another $6 million…

   In the two weeks when Ronald and Stallone fought, there was a small rebound.

  Most of the people who come to watch the movie are parents and children who go out with the whole family, and most of them are recommended by relatives and friends. After watching the movie, the children have obvious changes in the quality of bravery, so they will watch it again.

   Anyway, the four films Ronald made as a director did not quite conform to the general box office rules, which made him wonder if the experiences he had summed up really worked.

The   yellow ferry can ferry cars, Ronald bought a car ferry ticket, and the family went to Staten Island with Little Bud.

   Little Bud's new apartment who arrived first. He and his mother hugged at the door. Several sisters were very happy and came out with delicious food to share with everyone.

  The family finally did not repeat the mistakes of Bud's father, and the boy returned home safely after joining the army. Ronald and his family ate some Bud's sisters deep-fried lobster chips with fresh prawn meat before leaving home.

"You're going the wrong way, Ronnie." Aunt Karen slapped Ronald on the arm with a smile, and won't go back to Staten Island for a long time. The road here has been renovated because the factory has to deliver goods. Even Donna is a little bit. I don't know.

   "That's right, our new home is over there." Ronald drove down the road in the affluent area where the little Douglas family lived, along the concrete road, until it reached a large clearing on the edge.

   There is a new house on it, built with old-fashioned building materials, red brick and grey stone. There are three floors up and down, with high chimneys, a small courtyard and a lawn.

"This is a gift I gave you, Aunt Karen." Ronald pulled his aunt out of the car and pointed to the small building to introduce her, "This is the parking garage, this is the kitchen, there is an oven. This is the servant's room. And the driver's room, the first floor is the living room, there is a fireplace, the second floor is two bedrooms, the third floor is the attic and the guest bedroom, and there is a lawn in the front yard, you can have a party with the veteran families at any time, without waiting for the annual veterans Went to Hansen's on Remembrance Day."

  Aunt Karen was very happy, she touched the oven several times the size of the Manhattan apartment, and looked at the new Toyota SUV parked in the garage, the wooden bed in the bedroom, and the sofa and TV in the living room. It's all the brands she's used to, just better and bigger.

"Thank you, Ronnie. It's a lot like I'm retiring from the leg warmer factory now and come back to party every day with my old friends." Aunt Karen stroked Ronald's hair gently, as if back in the day when he when he came back from the hospital.

  "And here" Ronald opened the door of the living room on the second floor, and pulled his aunt and Donna to the balcony, where the lawn below was unobstructed.

"Look across the street," Ronald said to his aunt, pointing to an open space. "Our leg warmer factory is big enough, and everyone's income is good. Little Douglas said that their family is going to develop a new residential community, just in Very close to new home.

   At that time, Tereza, the partner of the leg warmer factory, and her husband David and the baby, as well as the little Bard family, will be able to live here. "

   Little Bud's three sisters and mother, the wages in the factory can fully afford the monthly mortgage. He followed himself as a driver and would not treat him badly. In short, he was able to leave the low-income community and buy a property in a place with good public security.

"Ronnie, you really changed the life of Totville Town on Staten Island." Donna looked at Ronald and said with emotion, "I read in the history books that great people can change the lives of ordinary people, probably It's the kind of person you're talking about."

"Hahaha..." Ronald stroked Donna's hair, "I'm glad you said that, although I'm far from being great, we'll go to the restaurant where my aunt used to work for dinner, and I'll rest in New York this time. For a while, I'll send you to MIT when the time comes."

  Everyone spent the night in their new home, and Little Douglas had all the furniture and utensils set up. My aunt asked Ronald secretly, "Do you have enough money? It cost you a lot of money for such a nice house, right? I like it very much, much like when my mother took me to Manhattan when I was a kid and pointed it out to me. I have an old family house, and I have some savings over the past few years, if the money doesn’t come together…”

"Don't worry, Auntie, Little Douglas gave me a preferential land transfer plus, and he took the initiative to help me find a builder. It didn't cost much. And the 'Break Dance' I directed, signed a share contract, see Stance, I can share at least a million dollars in income, so this money is not a problem, you should keep it for Donna to prepare for college expenses."

Aunt    hugged Ronald happily, and now she only has the desire to watch Ronald get married and have children. A few days ago, she was at the entrance of the supermarket and saw the poster of the New York City Ballet's new performance season, and Antonia's name had already entered the ranks of the main actors.

  "Hey", my aunt sighed, Ronald must be very popular in Hollywood now, whether it's Antonia, Diane, or Helen, you have to choose one to go home. When the third generation is playing on the lawn, how beautiful it will be.

   Little Douglas came to visit in the evening with a gift, and he also brought a coffee machine as a gift. Aunt Karen immediately went to bake cookies for him to bring back as a present.

   "Is our new film ready? Is it possible to shoot a movie like 'Longwei Kid'?" Little Douglas asked Ronald, impatiently.

   "It's still a long way off. With my money and yours, we can only make some exploitative films worth hundreds of thousands of dollars at this stage. Movies are a very expensive art."

"Didn't you make more than one million dollars again?" Little Douglas disagreed, "You take out one million, I will invest one million, and then go to the investors, the production of about eight million is still very easy. ."

"How can there be so much? My current income, first of all, has to be taken away by the federal government, and then the state government. California and New York want to collect my taxes." Ronald handed a glass of whiskey to little Douglas, this Or the other party stuffed it into the wine cabinet when they renovated the house.

"Then my income will be split 10% among brokers, 5% with lawyers, and 2% with accountants. Now I don't have a manager. If I hire someone to take care of my day-to-day affairs, I'll have to pay more. Pay him 5 percent. And finally, the PR agency, and they're very willing to talk about the money." Ronald hurts when he thinks about the PR agency's fees in Los Angeles.

"These share ratios are calculated based on pre-tax income. I haven't smelled the dollar yet, and nearly half of it has been taken away. I can still use some cash to build a house, mainly relying on my previous lyrics and writing. , directors, etc., are paid quarterly for the remainder of the work.”

"You artists are too miserable, no wonder you often hear the news of the bankruptcy of gas stars", little Douglas also felt that Ronald was miserable, "You should start the company as soon as possible, and the corporate income tax is after deducting expenses. Profits are taxed again. Much more cost-effective than private income tax.”

   "How about we just make low-budget movies?" Douglas Jr. still wanted to be a producer, the fun of picking actresses when auditioning.

"I've got Eddie and the agent in Los Angeles to collect the books again, mainly teen romantic comedies, with appropriate low-budget sci-fi movies, and martial arts movies. You can also collect scripts there." Ronald and He cheers.

   In short, it is not a bad thing for the company to practice with low-cost small productions at the beginning. Especially in America, in order to carry out all kinds of business, you must first find a lawyer to get a contract. Ronald didn't have much experience in this area, and Douglas Jr. was not familiar with the production business. The two decided to consult their own lawyers first. detail.

  Unexpectedly, before Ronald could consult a lawyer, his personal lawyer, Miss Lindsay Dole, called and someone sued Ronald's leg warmer company.

   "Ronald, someone sued your company. Saying that the leg warmers ended the dancer's career."

   (end of this chapter)