Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   In its second week, "Spirit" continued to top the box office charts at No. 2. The weekend average single-hall box office only dropped slightly to $5,700.

   And the "Leap to the Peak" directed by Minahan himself has fallen to an average of less than 2,000 US dollars for a single hall.

   "Sly, it's great to be able to chat with you about movies again." Barbie Wygant, a well-known Texas film critic and TV show host, interviewed Stallone for a clip, which began to air on TV.

   "Now there is some controversy about too much violence and fighting in the movie. Is it because of this reason that you starred in such a movie without any violent scenes?"

"Ah... that's one of the main reasons. There are violent scenes in the movie, and it depends on what causes it. The world we live in is full of violence. If we have the ability to stop the violence of the bad guys, then this It's good..."

   Stallone looked exhausted on TV, and his second-week box office plummeted, once again falling short of Schwarzenegger's competition for first-action stardom.

  Although I made a movie for Cannon, the salary for one movie was more than three to five movies in the past, but if I made too many bad movies, I would not have the opportunity to play those good scripts in the future.

"Ha ha ha ha…"

   Ronald was in the hotel, sitting comfortably on the sofa watching the TV interview, and was very happy.

  Barbie Wygant is a very old-fashioned, seemingly harmless problem that guides Stallone everywhere. The audience still likes to watch action stars fight, this kind of boring arm wrestling, although there is no violence, but no one watches it.

She then asked Stallone's opinion on the box office, "Sly, your movie ranked third in the box office chart, and in front of you, in addition to the 'Field Platoon' reflecting the Vietnam War, there is also a romantic film 'Beautiful'. , Now some people think that movies that deeply reflect the main social problems are not good at the box office, what do you think?"

"Ah? Actually the movie box office... I hope more audiences will watch this movie, um, after all, single-parent families are now a very common phenomenon in America." Stallone sometimes looked at the lights, and sometimes scratched his forehead with his hands. The eyes are getting more and more dull.

   This kind of question made Stallone very annoyed. The other party is asking the question in a gesture of holding you, but the answer is frustrating.

   A big star received a salary of more than 10 million yuan. As a result, the budget for the entire movie was less than 8 million yuan. Only half of your theaters were released, and the box office was still ahead of you.

   "Fuck, this Ronald, why is his movie making such a hit, does this kid have some magic?"

   ended the interview, but Stallone stayed where he was. He had to conduct the same interview many times.

   "Hey, I bet, Stallone definitely hasn't found it yet, why isn't this movie a hit?" Ronald turned off the TV and said to his agent, Nisita, who came to chat with him.

   "Oh, why? Do you know the answer? I can sell it to Stallone's agent at a high price."

   "Don't forget to give me a share", Ronald also joked, he knew that Stallone's agent was CAA president Michael Ovitz and another shareholder Ronald Meyer personally served. This is the first popular star signed by CAA in the early days.

But Stallone was very conceited. He didn't listen to Ovitz's arrangement. He just refused to shoot the action comedy "Beverly Hills Detective". He was taken by Eddie Murphy, the black movie star who made him the protagonist. Hollywood's momentum is very long, and it has faintly surpassed Stallone.

   "Actually, I went to the movie theater to watch Leap to the Peak. Stallone's performance was very good, but every arm-wrestling scene was ridiculous. When the audience reached the arm-wrestling scene, they all started eating popcorn, drinking Coke, and chatting with friends.

   Every time the audience who is immersed in the plot is interrupted, only about half of them can be immersed again. There were many ridiculous arm wrestling, and when the scene finally came to an end, everyone's energy was not on watching the movie. "

   "This is a very interesting discovery." Nisita didn't understand this, but thought Ronald was right.

  When I usually watch movies or videotapes, I will be interrupted by various things. As expected, I might as well go to the cinema with Paula to watch it.

   "If they didn't read the story, how could there be emotional resonance? So back home, they wouldn't recommend it to friends." Ronald concluded.

"You asked me to help you find the low-budget movie. I have released the news. There are very few people doing small productions like Roger Coleman before. It is estimated that they are interested in coming to your 'Dancing Hot Body'. There are not many releases in summer.

   In addition, many people have already obtained the issuance contracts of large companies and adopted financing. This kind of finding a publisher after filming requires a strong sense of adventure, or a lot of confidence in the script.

  Wait for next week, it is estimated that there will be a lot of news. "

  Nisita clapped her hands and told about helping Ronald find low-budget movies.

   "The theory you said, if the audience gets distracted from the plot, it's hard to go back, isn't it true? Why do I find it interesting?"

   "I'm not 100% sure, but in my experience, that's what happens in many movies." Ronald added a few grains of wolfberry to the cup, which Xiaoyan specially recited.

"Look at that movie, which is full of air, and was said by film critics to be worthless. The story is actually quite ridiculous, but the only good thing is that the supporting characters are as devoted as the protagonist, and the performance is very good. When you come, you will find that many plots in the movie are far-fetched.

  For example, how the puppet played by Kim Catroll lived from ancient Egypt to today. And that plot design, if a man other than Andrew McCarthy's leading man sees Sarah, she turns back into a puppet. But obviously he took Sarah out on a motorcycle, didn't many people see her?

   In the end, the male protagonist rescued the puppet from the crusher, why can he break the spell? It is also unclear what is explained here.

   But will these flaws make the audience play when they watch it?

Nope? When they watch the movie, they don't know the whole story, and they don't have time to think about some of the flaws. They are all immersed in Kim Cattrall's beauty and her constant change of clothes.

  The love story of the last two broke through many obstacles, and finally became a volume, the bad guy was punished, and the audience did not have any chance to get distracted from beginning to end. That's probably where the movie can beat flying over the top. "

   "Then, how can we achieve this?"

  Nisita nodded frequently, Ronald was talking about common sense, but common sense is indeed what Hollywood people lack most.

   "Then I don't know. This is just a result. The director may have a hundred ways to keep the audience in the plot. As long as this effect is achieved, basically the audience's reputation is not bad."

  …

"So I still use Dean Martin's 'That's Love' as the opening music. I thought about it, and I started with a 'Bohemian' opera aria, which is a famous song that most audiences have not heard before. It is not conducive to the audience to immerse themselves in the plot as soon as possible.

   On the contrary, this song by Dean Martin can be said to be a household name in America, and as soon as the audience hears it, they know it is a love romance.

  So they quickly resonated with Cher's middle-aged beautiful widow and started to look forward to who she would fall in love with..."

   Wanted to understand the key factors that produced a good reputation for the film, Ronald immediately put what he learned into practice and shared his views with Walter Murch in the editing room.

"Very common sense, very good. I always feel that there is something wrong with your cold little hands and the pictures of Cher's work. As soon as you said it, I understood. My two editing assistants have never heard of this. An opera, not known to be an aria from the famous love tragedy 'The Bohemian'."

   "Okay, since you agree, then I'll tell Jimmy Reiner to stop contacting Pavarotti."

   After another busy week in the editing room, Ronald was basically done with his part. The rest of the sound design, not his forte, was simply entrusted to Walter Murch, who was both capable of sound design and video editing.

  I started my vacation early, and only waited for the final mixing of the movie to see the overall effect.

   By the end of the third week, "Spirit" continued to swept the box office with its powerful appeal that immersed the audience from beginning to end.

In the third weekend of   , the box office of the single hall was still 4,200 US dollars, and the total box office of the weekend remained above 4 million.

   It seems that this small production that no one is optimistic about has the potential to stay in the theater for more than two months.

   Ronald learned a lot from the box office analysis of "Top Gun". In fact, movies with the same theme have a relatively certain audience. How much the box office, the final deciding factor, is actually how long you can stay in the movie theater.

  Now there are many shortcomings in the release of the season, but there is also a big advantage, that is, there is very little competition.

   "Spirit" ranks up and down, only some old movies that have been in theaters for more than ten weeks, including "Field Platoon" at the top of the list.

  The movie Ronald also went to watch. Oliver Stone is very capable, and the audience of this movie is much less than the average movie, let alone the story, and even the number of people who go to the bathroom.

   As for "Leaping to the Peak", word of mouth is getting worse and worse. From the perspective of an audience, it can only influence three new audiences through word of mouth. The single-house box office has fallen by $1,200, and it will soon fall below the cost line. It is estimated that it will be released next week.

  Cannon paid a lot of money to dig Stallone, the boss directed it himself, and found 1,700 theaters to release the film simultaneously. With such a big momentum, he was about to get out of the way.

  Film is really a very cruel industry. No matter how famous you have been in the past, no one will give in to the reputation of the star and watch it with your nose pinched.

  …

However, Ronald's other film that made a little more effort, this week's "Wonderful" starring Leigh Thompson and Eric Stoltz, was "very bad" at the box office condition.

   Sitting in the screening room of Paramount, director Howard Deutch and vice president Ned Tanin were all sitting in their seats, not daring to let out the air, just waiting for Ronald to express his opinion.

"Humph…"

   Ronald, who was sitting in his seat, was going to relax in Palm Springs, but was pulled here to analyze the problem of the movie and see if there was any way to remedy it.

   Ronald, who was not very happy, made a dissatisfied voice when he saw it for twenty minutes.

   "What, is there a problem here?"

  Ignoring the pale director Howard Deutch, Ned Tanin trusts Ronald's vision very much, and any voice he makes is very important!

   "Is there a cut here?" Ronald asked.

"Yes, there was originally a conversation where the hero Keith promised to send the neighbor girl Watts home. Later, Keith was attracted by the crush, Amanda Jones, and promised to send her home and released Watts' pigeon. ' director Howard Deutch explained to Ronald.

   "Why do you cut it like this? Isn't there a plot where Watts is angry? The audience sees this, it's very dramatic!"

   Ronald pointed to the angry look of Mary Stuart Masterson, who played Watts on the screen, and asked the director.

   "I...this..." Dutch glanced at Ned Tanin.

   "It was my request, because the movie was overtime by a few minutes, so I asked Dutch to cut a bit of it."

"But why cut it here? I'm puzzled. Mary Stuart Masterson in particular did a great job. Where did her anger come from? There was no Keith angering him before, and now she And Keith is not a couple, why is Watts so angry with Amanda?

  Even if Watts likes Keith, they are good friends, and they won't be so upset just because their best friend is dating the person of his dreams. And Watts later drove the car to help Keith chase Amanda, and the mood here was too much for the audience to play. "

   "You haven't written it down yet?" Tanin hurriedly asked Dutch to record Ronald's opinion.

   "Because...because I showed the finished film to John Hughes, and he said that this section is relatively flat and can be deleted to make up the required duration."

"Two minutes overtime, you might as well cut out a complete plot. Although this scene is flat, it explains the key factors. Why did Watts get angry, and why did he help the driver to pick up Keith and Amanda? Dating... Keith failed to get Amanda home because the car Watts loaned Keith broke down."

  Howard Deutch made a quick note in a small notebook.

"By the way, this broken car is very interesting. It's very small, but the headlights are very big. Girls will like it. What model is this? I've never seen it before." Ronald stopped criticizing and changed it. topic.

   "This is a European miniCooper. America only introduced more than 1,000 cars a decade ago. We got it from a garage."

  Howard Deutch was interrupted by Ronald and almost missed Ronald's train of thought.

   Ronald actually knew that the movie would not be good after seeing this.

   There are two or three more times to cut out the key background plots that are not colorful.

  For example, Keith invited Amanda to a restaurant for dinner. Originally, Amanda's rich ex-boyfriend was going to beat him there. For perfection, Keith temporarily changed the restaurant to make them empty.

This episode of    was also deleted, which led to the fact that when Keith and his ex-boyfriend were about to quarrel later, he said that he was too timid to go to the restaurant, which also made the audience confused.

   "Hey..." Ronald lamented. This episode makes me play again.

   "What's the matter? Isn't it good here? Write it down, write it down." Ned Tanning glared at Howard Dutch.

   "This is John again?"

   "Yes, the opinion of John Hughes, he said that this episode is too long, the transitional plot is flat, and it is not interesting."

   Ronald glanced at Dutch, and said indifferently, "You really listen to John Hughes."

"I…"

  Dutch blushed. He was born as an assistant director of Hughes, and Hughes was kind to him, so it was natural. Because of the timeout, he also went to Hughes to discuss it first.

   But who makes the movie not good at the box office? More than 1080 theaters, only the first weekend box office of less than 3.5 million, and the box office of a single theater is less than 3500.

   He also lost his head for a while. Ronald was the one who helped him get this directorship back, and he also helped him deal with technical accidents, so he should have invited him to take a look.

   At that time, I thought Ronald was too busy, and maybe there was some jealousy who thought he was too young. On the contrary, Hughes was nearly forty years old, and he was the teacher who led him to his debut, so he didn’t have much mental burden to ask for advice.

  Hey, I deserve to be scolded by Ronald.

   Ronald actually admired Dutch's directing skills, and he was very thoughtful in handling some small areas.

  At the end of the movie, Amanda began to appreciate Keith, but found that Watts had a love for Keith, and returned the expensive ruby ​​earrings to Keith.

   Keith caught up with Watts, who was crying alone. The two embraced on the empty road at night. The camera slowly rose behind them, and the close-up shot gradually faded away, turning into an overhead shot, which was very beautiful.

   The subtitles begin to rise to the beautiful singing of the children's chorus "I Can't Stop Falling in Love with You".

   Finally Watts came to Keith to buy the earrings for Amanda and put them on for himself. The two chatted when they were there when they went to buy earrings together, and whether Watts thought it would be theirs when they tried them on.

   Ronald loves the handling of this segment, Amanda's kindness, Keith's sudden realization of who he really loves, and a tearful Watts, big close-up on screen. There are many places that make the audience emotional.

   Ordinarily, the box office is not so bad.

The    subtitles went up again, and Keith and Watts walked into the distance. The singing began to overshadow the voices of the two of them.

   "Huh?" Ronald squeezed a question out of his throat.

   "What's the matter, is there a problem with the ending here?" Tanin became angry again.

"I want to ask, why didn't Watts return the ruby ​​earrings to Keith here? Keith bought them with his college tuition, and Watts was his best friend. I believe the audience saw this, They all think that the kind-hearted Watts will let Keith take the earrings back, so as not to delay his life, go to college?"

   Ronald asked, pointing to the two people walking away from the screen.

   "This...was originally filmed, but..."

   "Hughes said it's not important, right? Isn't my opinion important? You're not going to ask me?"

  Ronald is a little pissed, judging by this ending shot. If these small links are well edited, the box office of the film may even be doubled. It's a pity that the three leading actors performed exceptionally well.

   In several key places, the plot is missing, only one minute of footage is missing, but the audience has been made to play two or three times.

   And the final ending, the key finishing touch, let Dutch cut it. The emotions of the audience were brought here layer by layer, just like a football wide receiver, who had already obtained a request in front of the end zone, and was about to score a touchdown, but inexplicably threw the ball out of bounds.

   "I..." Director Dutch was speechless.

  Ronald felt a pity for this movie, a few small details were not handled well. It is also impossible to recall all copies and re-modify them now.

   "Take it all down, and if the company has plans to make a videotape, change it all over." Ned Tanin instructed Dutch, and then sent Ronald out of the screening room with him.

   "Why, you want to make a videotape for this movie?" Ronald asked Tanin.

   "Yeah, the pre-sale of Top Gun's videotape is very hot, and the company decided to use the new pricing strategy to try it on other movies as well."