Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   "How popular are Top Gun's tapes?"

   Ronald heard Tanin's plan, and after he went back, he contacted the two producers of "Top Gun" and asked about the sales of the videotape.

   "Let me tell you this, what you get from videotape sales may be more than your director's salary and bonuses."

   Jerry Bruckheimer on the phone, who seemed to be drinking too much, laughed out loud at Ronald before asking him to come to their y convention.

   "How much did you drink?" Ronald thought it was not easy.

   Bruckheimer, relatively speaking, is the calmer one of the two producers. Even he did not hesitate to say things like the y conference on the phone, and it seemed that he really sold a lot of videotapes.

"Come on, Ronald, there are a lot of chicks here, ah, hahaha..." Don Simpson grabbed the microphone. "Come on, the chicks here want to see you. You make them happy, too, and then we'll talk about the money. ,a ha ha ha…"

   "Clap...", a crisp slap, followed by the laughing voices of several young girls.

   "I have something to do tonight, I'll see you tomorrow." Ronald felt that the other end of the phone had become a grove of wine and meat, and he had reservations about this indulgent lifestyle. A young body can bring endless joy, but Ronald likes to enjoy it in private.

   "Then you... don't come tomorrow night, we have to be happy until late."

  The phone seemed to have fallen on the ground, no one picked it up, and the sound of laughter from men and women continued to come through the phone.

   Ronald hung up the phone and called his agent, Nisita.

   "How many tapes are sold out? I watch the producers of 'Top Gun' and I'm so happy they made millions."

   "Isn't it on sale yet? I heard that Paramount will start rolling out nationwide in mid-March. Many people are staring at their new pricing strategy. It's impossible to preempt the sale."

  Nisita hung up the phone suspiciously, then asked around with friends in the industry, and called Ronald again after half an hour.

"It's just going to the pre-orders of some video rental stores, maybe Simpson and Bruckheimer, they know the number of pre-orders is good, so let's celebrate. I asked a Paramount executive and he said it will be on sale in March. The plan is not advanced. Let me know if you have any new situation when you go there tomorrow."

   "Isn't it?" Ronald thought that the pre-sale numbers were just pretty good, as if it wasn't enough to make the two of them happy.

  …

   "Hahahaha... Ronald... Come here... You have a drink too, there are some big bottles of champagne here."

  Don Simpson was in his mansion in Beverly Hills. The next evening, Ronald, with the help of his butler, walked into the house and saw two producers.

   Their faces still bear the traces of last night's carnival. The two seemed to have woken up from the mixed effect of alcohol and drugs before they left, and their bodies, which had not been bathed, emitted a stench of tobacco, alcohol, and sensuality.

  There were also some women's underwear on the ground in a mess, colorful, setting off the remnants of the champagne.

   "How much did you sell? I heard that it won't be on sale until March?"…

  Ronald asked Bruckheimer, who was the more stable of the two. It turned out that the figure the two had given to themselves was that they could sell eight times more, for a total of 400,000 units. It seems far more than that now.

   "You have to learn to have fun, Ronald. Isn't it just for this moment that we are under so much pressure in this business?"

  Don Simpson came up and put his arms around Ronald, "Yesterday, those girls all wanted to have **** with you, hahaha..."

   "The pre-sale situation is very good. There are still three weeks before the official release. The number of pre-orders for 'Top Gun' is already close to the sales record of film and video tapes in Hollywood history."

   Bruckheimer finally had some sense and answered Ronald's question.

   "Break the record?" Ronald was taken aback, "What was the original record, I remember it was the 'Lightning Dance' produced by the two of you?"

"Yeah, hahaha, you're our lucky star. Shit, when Eisner and Katzenberg at Paramount were there, we didn't get much revenue from 'Blitzkrieg' tapes. Now They **** off, our pricing power is much higher. Hahaha…”

   "Ouch", Simpson stumbled, fell to the ground, and then hugged the bottle on the ground, snoring there.

  "Butler", Ronald waved, and asked the butler to bring a blanket for his master, so that Simpson would not sleep too cold.

"Jerry, tell me, this pre-sale broke the sales record. What's going on?" Ronald pulled Bruckheimer, facing the unpleasant body odor, and dragged him to the sofa. of inquiries.

  It turns out that the sales record for video tapes in the American market is Jane Fonda's aerobics. The original aerobic exercise in 1982, priced at 59.95, sold nearly one million sales that year (including other cheap LD disc formats).

   Since then, she has released new aerobic video tapes every year, and she can also harvest hundreds of thousands of video tape sales.

   And the videotape of the movie, because the price is expensive, generally 80-100 US dollars, so the sales are far less. The record for the highest sales is still held by "Lightning Dance" produced by Bruckheimer and Simpson.

   That's also because Paramount started selling videotapes before the movie was offline in order to experiment with the impact of videotapes on the box office.

   In short, "Lightning Dance" sold a record of 800,000 videotapes, and a few years later, no film will break it.

  The seven major studios, looking at the videotape sales data of more than 100,000 per movie, are actually not very concerned. It was not until recently that they discovered that companies such as Weston, who were OEMs, had made a lot of money and entered the cinema one after another.

   Therefore, starting from "Top Gun", Paramount first lowered the price, plus the advertising subsidy of Pepsi, this time the price of 26.95 is a new attempt.

  Who knows, this attempt…

  It was a success!

  Beginning last week, anyone watching TV has been repeatedly bombarded with that Pepsi Diet Coke ad shot by Ronald. At the end of the ad, there will be another line of words, reminding them that the "Top Gun" videotape will be available in both VHS and Beta formats. …

   In less than a week, viewers in major video rental stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, etc. have found that they can pre-order the "Top Gun" video that will be released next month.

   By the end of the week, the pre-order sales figures gathered from all over the country had broken the record for the highest sales of film and video tapes. "Top Gun" surpassed "Lightning Dance" and became the No. 1 video tape sales in history.

  No wonder the two producers were so happy after seeing the sales figures.

  Ronald watched the two producers who were stumbling about, still not sober from the rave hangover, and walked out of the mansion silently.

   "How much the **** did they share!

what! "

   Bruckheimer told Ronald that with the current pre-sale figures, as a director, Ronald can already get more than 200,000 shares. It is estimated that this number can be doubled when it is officially released.

   And total sales, Paramount's marketing experts estimate, could exceed 2 million. In this way, Ronald can get more than 600,000 shares with a 1% share.

  What if the two producers could share ten times their own, 10% of the sales? That's more than 6 million.

  No, definitely more than that.

   After Eisner left Disney, the two producers have become Paramount's remaining one, and one of the few producer groups who can operate blockbuster movies.

   With the shrewdness of the two of them, they will definitely have a big opening in the movie box office.

   And the income from the videotape, which was not taken seriously, must have been shared more by the two of them.

   Or, even further, Simpson and Bruckheimer might even have the same amount of control George Lucas has over Star Wars-derived revenue over videotape revenue.

  At that time, the derivative toys of "Star Wars" were owned by Lucas. Because no one believes that this kind of movie derivative toy will be bought.

  At that time, derivative toys were usually made of characters from TV shows or comics. Because those works have a long release time, they can lock in a large group of fans to pay for it. For movies, there is no chance to form a stable group of fans. By the time the toy is made, the audience has almost forgotten about the movie.

  So Lucas got the ownership of the derivative toys at a very cheap price. Twentieth Century Fox would instead take a share of the toys from Lucas.

Everyone knows the story behind   . Lucas became the richest director in Hollywood by relying on the characters of Star Wars.

   In 1987, the videotape, like the 1977 movie derivative toys, was not taken seriously.

   Ronald was very jealous.

   Who could have imagined this?

   It would have been nice to ask for an extra 1% at the time, and they would have agreed, right?

   A turbulent feeling kept churning in his chest.

   So much money!

   After working hard for so long, and with the help of dreams, the money earned directly from Hollywood is only two or three million. Fortunately, I made a fortune in the stock, and even so, it will exceed 10 million.

And these two producers, who can't do anything, rely on the performances of Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis and others, their own directors, and the help of the Navy, they can actually make more money than themselves from the video tapes. A few years of hard work more than ten times the money. …

   "It is estimated that I can earn 30 to 40 million yuan." Ronald stopped the urge to hit someone and parked the Ferrari on the side of the road.

   A Blockbuster video rental store, just down the road. Ronald wanted to see for himself who was buying the tapes and how they were selling so many all at once.

  A bust of Tom Cruise with an oxygen mask, standing at the entrance of the store. Next to it is a poster that says, "Bring Top Gun Home for 26.95!"

   "Give me a box." Ronald asked the clerk for a box and counted out two $20 bills for the other party.

  "Please leave your address and name", the clerk took out a reservation form and began to fill in.

   "Bud, West Hollywood..." Ronald registered with Bud's name.

  While waiting for the clerk to write the order and ask for money, Ronald asked him, "This seems to be a great purchase?"

   "Yes, there are a lot of people who have made reservations. We at Blockbuster have a priority agreement with the publisher, which is earlier than you can get the goods at the supermarket and 7-11 convenience store.

   Now our manager is still adding orders, so we have to pay the full amount to get the videotape as soon as possible. "

   "So expensive and selling so well?"

  $27 is still a lot of money for an average middle-class family. After all, renting a videotape at Blockbuster and watching it for three nights is only $3.

   "It's not expensive, sir." The clerk, a young man, like a high school student working here, said to Ronald.

"We at Best, the rent for the first three days is $3, but from the fourth day, it will be an additional $3 every day. Many people are busy with work and forget to look after renting it, and it may be the weekend when they return it. Yes, the fines sometimes exceed $12.

   And this movie is wonderful, I went to the cinema to watch it several times. Some of my classmates joined the navy. It costs four or five dollars for each movie ticket, and you can buy it back and watch it every day.

   Also, when your friends come to your house for a party, you have to show them a good movie, right? What's more exciting than 'Top Gun'?

   There are fighter duels, falling in love with a beautiful teacher, and the interludes are also very good. Just buying the singles of the Berlin Band is quite expensive.

   And if you buy this video tape back, you can play it hundreds of times without any problem. So it's cheap, isn't it? "

   "You said it, it's really cheap." Ronald heard the clerk say this, and immediately felt that the price was not expensive.

"Haha, let me put it that way." The clerk was very happy, "Is your VHS VHS or Beta? VHS? Well, I'll write it down for you. Here's your change, and the reservation receipt. You can use this receipt when the time comes. to receive the goods."

   "Thank you," Ronald put the receipt in his wallet.

"Actually, you can also watch more. There is a video recorder at home. When relatives and friends come to the house as guests, there must be some good movies to entertain, right? In fact, you can prepare three or five videotapes, so that if there are children who come to your house, you will be Their best Uncle ever."

   "You're right, but other videotapes are too expensive, the cheapest ones costing seventy or eighty dollars." Ronald looked around at the plus-size label. …

"So the director of Top Gun is a good person, such a good-looking movie, and it sells so cheaply. Look over there, those old Stallone movies from ten years ago also sell for 70. After I watch them, it will be difficult to sell them. , there are 26, who still buys 70, you are right."

   Separated from Talking Movies, Ronald the "good guy" seems to have found infinite motivation to move forward.

Jumping into the car, Ronald's first thing on his way home was to give the manager of the videotape distribution at Weston Films, and now the manager of Daydream Films, Mi, who was in charge of the distribution business of "Dancing Hot". Shell Cannold called.

   "Michelle, when you were in Weston, who made the videotape? How much did it cost? Are the sales channels still available?"

   "I'm looking for a video tape factory in New Jersey. I still keep the contacts of video tape rental companies across the country. What, do you want to make video tapes?"

"Yes, Top Gun broke the sales record for video tapes in a week. After the price was reduced to 30 dollars, the market is much bigger than before. We will also make video tapes for hot dance, and use the same 30 yuan as them. price to sell."

"It turns out that I am in Weston, and the sales of a movie are generally between 100,000 and 200,000. Occasionally, if it exceeds 400,000, it is considered a big sale. At the price of 30, unless the sales can exceed one million, it will not make money. "

   "It's definitely breaking one million, and the pre-sale is close for a week. I think it can sell two million boxes in total."

   "Boss, of course I hope you can make a video business, I have a lot of resources here. But I have to remind you that 'Top Gun' was last year's box office champion, which is the key to their big sales.

  Our marketing expenses would make the $30 price unprofitable if Spicy Dance didn’t make the top 10 of the year. "

"Hey, I know..." Ronald calmed down a little. "You should contact the factory first to see how low the cost can be. Also, this videotape, in addition to traditional channels, is also available in department stores, supermarkets, and convenience stores. The store sells, you also help me test it out and make a plan.

   If we had half, no, one-third the sales of Top Gun, we could make a fortune too. You take the lead. "

   "Haha, I'm going to make a plan." Michelle Cannold also felt the smell of money, a lot of money.

   "Anyway, we still need to make a box office success first, and then leave it to the market to decide."

  Ronald called his agent Nisita again, "Rick, fuck, they're probably going to sell two million boxes, two producers son of a bitch, they're making money."

   "How much?" Nisita quickly got up from the bed, "How much?"

   "I think this result will shake the industry. When I watch your old films, the studios will remake videotapes and sell them. I'll go to see the contracts you signed with them at that time and see how much videotape revenue you can share.

   I remember that the last time the Directors Guild and the Writers Guild went on strike, the division of videotape rights was written into the union agreement.

   Doing this is equivalent to creating a rich source of money for directors and stars. "

   "Okay, hurry up."

  Ronald felt great immediately. If there is a union agreement, at least the basic remaining dividends will not be less. By the way, how did you sign the film contract of your own director, the videotape dividend?

   "What's the matter? Are you going out so late?" Paula Wagner woke up in bed and asked her husband.

   "Yes, Ronald's film Top Gun is selling out, and I have to go to the office to check all his directorial deals."

   "Sold out? How much?" Paula also came to the spirit.

   "Possibly over two million boxes."

   "How much? Two million?" Paula also got up.

   "Be careful, don't be so excited when you're pregnant." Nisita felt that she was finding clothes for her wife to put on.

   "I'll go to the office with you to find a contract, and Tom will score the last one."