Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"The two movies produced by your Daydream, 'Dirty Dancing' and 'Love Is Not For Sale', I like them very much, and I am very excited to watch them. Especially my mother, 'Dirty Dancing' is just right It happened when she was young, and she also participated in the Peace Corps project to promote the idea of ​​the JFK Commander overseas."

Speaking to Ronald were theater managers from New Jersey and New York, Thomas Stephenson, Jr., who Ronald had known from the Western film expo in Las Vegas.

His father owned five theaters in New Jersey and continued to invest in building new multiplexes in department stores on the outskirts of the city. The business gradually expanded to New York State, and formed alliances with theater chain operators in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and other states in the northeast.

Ronald's Daydream Films initially reached an agreement with them on the release intention, this time with the newly edited "Love Is Not For Sale" which has received an MPAA rating of R, and "Dirty Dancing", together I made a test screening to them, hoping to get a better release time and a screen for release.

Thomas Stephenson Jr. liked Ronald's movie very much. After he finished the test screening, he came to chat with Ronald and Douglas Hansen Jr., an important shareholder of Daydream.

"So, how many copies are you going to order?" Ronald asked the dashing cinema heir. Thomas Sr. gradually put him in charge of all aspects of movie theater operations, preparing him to take over when he had enough experience.

"My personal love is one thing, but business is another." Thomas Stephenson Jr.'s current position is the purchaser of his father's theater chain and several partner theaters in New Jersey. The schedule and the number of copies all have important suggestion powers.

"Oh, why do you say that? Your vision is very good, and your taste is very similar to that of the average American audience. I think from the business point of view, you should also order more copies of the movies produced by our company. "

Douglas Jr. and him are of the same age, they are both rich second generations, and they plan to inherit the business of their ancestors in the future, and they both like movies, so they have a common language.

"I personally like these two movies very much. Especially "Dirty Dancing" directed by Ronald. The narrative of this movie is very smooth and the emotions are mobilized in place. I was so moved that I almost cried at the end.

But business is business. Our movie theater operators in the Northeast still mainly purchase movies from the seven major studios. I hope you can understand. "

"Yeah, I understand, marketing issues." Ronald nodded.

This question, when he and distribution manager Cannold were meeting with movie theater buyers there on the West Coast,

I often hear similar statements.

The seven major studios will invest huge sums of money in the marketing of the film. They have a fixed number of movies released each year, and they have fixed suppliers when purchasing TV advertising time, newspaper layout, buying film critics, and even making posters on site.

The purchase volume is large and stable, and there can be great discounts.

This kind of daydream is like setting up a distribution company for filming "Dirty Dancing". "Love is not for sale" is still brought in by the way. All marketing costs are 30% to double the purchase price of the Big Seven.

If it is assumed that the two films are of the same quality and budget, cinemas are of course willing to buy the films of the big seven with deep pockets, and the marketing they invest can attract many audiences.

On the other hand, Ronald's movies are not starring well-known stars. The only thing the audience has an impression of is Ronald. And the movies released at the same time in the seven major movies are either starred by stars or old-fashioned series like 007. As long as the audience sees a name, they will want to watch it.

That's why Ronald set aside twice the production cost for marketing. At least let the movie theater feel that it is not a loss to buy their movies for screening.

But this is all known in advance. Ronald was neither disappointed nor blindly optimistic.

In the weeks since his return from Cannes, he and Michelle Cannold's team have traveled from Los Angeles, California, San Francisco on the west coast, to Seattle, Washington, and then to Las Vegas, Nevada. ,, and then enter the deep southern states.

There are no mega-cities in the southern states, like Texas is Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, it takes a lot of time to be evenly distributed among all the cities, which is very hard.

After turning around there, I turned north again, went to industrial cities such as Chicago and Detroit in the Great Lakes region of the Midwest, and finally passed through Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and finally came to the earliest thirteen states in America.

Along the way, Ronald basically understood the mentality of movie theater buyers and operators.

To run a movie theater, it is not very important to them which movie hits the market. The most important thing is to ensure that the movie you bought will not be released for less than a week, and it will not be offline because of insufficient audience.

Among the movies released every year, only about 20% or less can achieve an attendance rate of more than 50%, which can make movie theaters make a lot of money.

For those other movies, the most important purpose is to keep the business running without losing money. If you accidentally buy an independent film, but the attendance rate is low due to insufficient marketing and insufficient audience, those losses will make the theater operator lose everything.

After all, the movie theater business is a game of competition, who can fill up the seats more.

Along the way, Ronald got used to the feeling of their lack of confidence in their marketing investments. So he was about to explain his marketing plan to Thomas Stephenson Jr.

In addition to having invited film critics from major media to attend the special film critic session, Ronald also cooperated with the three major studios of Universal, Paramount, and Disney. During their gaps in marketing their films, Borrow their media resources.

The most important thing, of course, is to advertise on other TV stations with real money, and relying on the contacts accumulated over the years, myself and several leading actors have attended many talk show TV shows and accepted interviews on talk shows to expand the influence of ordinary audiences .

"I really believe in the power of daydreams," Thomas Stephenson Jr. smiled with a baby face. "You all mentioned these in the media kit. Of course I believe in your determination."

Some producers will stop investing in marketing because of poor box office, poor reviews from film critics, and low ratings from live audiences. Therefore, the operators of these movie theaters usually do not believe in the promises of the producers. Ronald explained and guaranteed again and again.

"Actually, I'm worried about two other things." Thomas Stephenson Jr. said to Ronald.

"Please tell us that we should be honest. There is nothing you can't say in order to make money, and you can talk about it." Douglas Hansen Jr. immediately showed his sincerity, took Thomas Jr. by the hand, and asked him to sit down and chat. It is rare for a movie theater operator who can express specific concerns to the producer.

After all, film is a very risky industry, and you need to calibrate your understanding of reality at any time. Many directors and producers who have turned into stars are often unable to distinguish whether other people's words are flattery or the truth, and they don't realize that they are surrounded by lies until the final box office fails.

"The first thing is the MPAA rating of 'Love is not for sale'. The operators of our movie theaters don't really like R-rated movies..."

Thomas Stephenson Jr. explains what's on the mind of cinema right now. When the movie rating system first appeared, movie theaters felt violent, and pornography may attract more adult audiences into movie theaters.

But several x-rated movies failed at the box office, and the average box office of r-rated movies will not be higher than pg's.

Those ordinary family audiences who watch "The Sound of Music" will not just go to the cinema to watch it even if they hear a good X-rated movie. They also have to worry about the impact on their families and children.

The mainstay of going to the cinema now, the teenage audience. Although I like those exciting plots, after all, R-rated movies need to be accompanied by adults, and many female audiences don't like too many violent scenes.

In the past few years, under the vigorous public relations of major directors such as Spielberg, MPAA has passed the new classification of pg-13. The new classification has a lot of less violent and... shots, but it can provide enough sensory stimulation. Most importantly, you don't need to look at your driver's license to see pg-13.

So PG-13 quickly replaced PG, and R-rated, and became the favorite of the teenage audience who watched the assistant, and the average box office was also the highest.

More importantly, watching these scenes that make people nervous or bloody, will make people excited, so that they can eat more French fries and popcorn. There is an unusually large amount of salt or sugar in it, which will make people thirsty and promote the sales of Coke.

Outside of the box office, pg-13 is also stimulating sales of other soft drinks and snacks in movie theaters.

"'Love is not for sale', our director Steve Rush is already making urgent revisions, and will submit the mpaa for re-rating immediately. We found this problem when we were on the west coast, so we made an emergency treatment, and it will be next week There are results."

As soon as Ronald's first stop on the national sales tour, Los Angeles knew he and Daydream's gang of rookies had made a mistake. An emergency meeting was held, and the conclusion was that "love is not for sale" needs to be substantially revised.

Many plots that director Rush put in the finished film, such as an intimate scene between the heroine Cindy and her ex-boyfriend football player, and many explicit dialogues among high school students discussing boyfriend and girlfriend, have been deleted.

Director Steve Rush's creative freedom was interfered with, and he lost his temper with Ronald. Said that he is no longer the director who made epoch-making youth films such as "fast-paced Richmond High School", but has become a profit-seeking businessman.

This made Ronald very sad, and he was really speechless.

Rush is justified in being angry that "Love Is Not For Sale" degenerates completely from a "fast paced" kind of realistic movie to a teen rom-com that barely scratches the surface of reality without its portrayal of the real life of a high school student across.

"Make money first, as long as you can make money in this movie, you will have more creative freedom in the future." Ronald thought for a long time, and had to repeat to him what Roger Coleman said to himself back then. listen:

"Listen, Director Rush. As long as you modify this movie according to my opinion, you will never have to work for me in the future."

Steve Rush was really moved by Roger Coleman's golden sentence, and cut the movie to the pg-13 standard exactly according to Ronald's meaning. Ronald saw the revised version in Chicago last week, and has urgently submitted it to MPAA to wait for the revised rating.

"Very good. If I can get a pg-13 rating, my theater will increase the number of copies purchased, and I will also persuade other operators in the alliance. They are all very optimistic about my vision."

Thomas Stephenson Jr. was very happy that his opinion was valued by Ronald. Daydream is now in the initial stage, and it is very good to be able to value the opinions of movie theater operators.

"The second thing is that you want to get better movie reviews." Thomas Stephenson Jr. stretched out his second finger.

"The urban suburbs in the Northeast are one of the most educated places in America. Children here take drama and art classes in high school. Most of their parents are college graduates, and their judgment on movies is quite Rely on the recommendations of film critics.

Especially places like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and DC have strong trust in the film reviews of several New York newspapers. "

The box office of a film in its first week of release is determined by the number of viewers it attracts. In the Northeast, the effect of film critics is much greater than in the Deep South and Midwest.

Sometimes, the film reviews on the New York Times and the New York Post, the evaluations of this doctrine and that genre, can only be understood by higher education residents in middle-class communities in the suburbs of New York.

"We are working hard on this. I can at least guarantee that the media in New York will most likely speak well of us."

Things like buying film critics cannot be spread out. When Ronald mentioned this level, he could understand it better than practitioners in movie theaters.

In addition to spending a lot of money to sponsor their annual meeting at the Chicago Film Critics Association, Ronald is also sponsoring a retrospective of their favorite women's films at the New York Film Critics Association, as well as next year's New York Film Critics Association Awards.

Of course, the money was distributed through various foundations, trusts, and cultural promotion associations through the old money relationship of Douglas Jr.

At the same time, Ronald also found his personal lawyer Lindsay Dole, and through his boss's relationship in the New York City Hall, sponsored some large movie theaters with ancient histories subsidized by the government.

In short, in order to make Daydream's first two films released by himself a hit, Ronald searched for a lot of connections, spent a lot of money and resources, and must do his best.

"Then I have no doubts, I will order a copy of your film according to the highest standard." Thomas Stephenson Jr. finally let go, "Also, my mother really likes 'Dirty Dancing', can you help her and Her sister, Amoy, put on a special show?"

"Haha, no problem, Manager Cannold will arrange it." Ronald shook hands with him tightly.

"You have to be careful of the Jewish group in the New York film industry. I heard some news that someone is going to target you." Thomas Stephenson whispered two words in Ronald's ear while shaking hands. sentence.

Then he raised an eyebrow at Ronald and Douglas Jr., and turned to find Cannold.

"What did he say?" Douglas Jr. saw that Ronald's face was not right, so he came over and asked.

"He said that the Jews in the New York film industry wanted to do something about our film." Ronald covered his mouth with his right hand and told Douglas Jr.

"Hmph, there's a lot of Hollywood here, what kind of trouble can the Jews make?"

"No matter what they do, we just do our own thing."

The film sales journey continued, and Ronald's last stop was New York City. This is not only a sweet hometown, but also a place where film critics are picky, and where there are the most concentrated large-scale movie theaters in the country.

New York has always been one of the holy places of drama, and various large-scale movie theaters have been built very early. The population density here is also the highest in all of America.

Therefore, New York has inherited many large movie theaters from history, and there are many large screening halls that can accommodate thousands of people, or even three to five thousand people.

After entering the 1970s, the impact of television made these movie theaters decline. The impact of attendance on halls is much greater than that of medium and small cinemas.

These movie theaters, either being torn down due to urban sprawl or limited to showing some midnight movies, were dubbed the Mill Cinema.

There are also some of the most luxurious, occupying the best locations, once star-studded grand theaters, which are subsidized by the New York City Hall. A large number of retired corporate executives, the second generation of old money, have occupied various committee positions after retirement, and provided subsidies for these places that brought them memories.

At the same time, they can also get more scarce tickets to ballets, operas, or movie premieres starring stars. These are the status indicators that distinguish these people from ordinary people. Not those tickets to Broadway musicals for tourists.

Therefore, the movie theater viewing held in New York is different from the previous ones. The people who came were all in suits and leather shoes, dressed as if they were going to an opera.

"We invited several experts to help us evaluate the two films of Daydream." Several movie theater operators came over to introduce to Ronald.

With subsidies, in fact, these large movie theaters are not private enterprises to some extent. All kinds of people who have the power to issue subsidies have to show their power.

Therefore, it is also rare that there are not all movie buyers here, and there are many people who do not understand movie business, so they have to invite some experts to help them make a judgment.

"This is Aaron Russo, the producer of the TV series 'SWAT 4587 (wise guy)' with high ratings." Ronald shook hands with him, and he recognized this tall but greasy guy Fatty was the expert hired by Weston Films when the 'Dirty Dancing' project was established.

"Is this the Jew who wants to trouble me?" Ronald thought to himself.

"Who is this……"

"Mr. Tisch needs no introduction." Ronald shook hands with another so-called expert, who was the patron of Tisch College at New York University and the youngest son of the Tisch family. Their family is old money, and they have a part of the New York Giants in the NFL football league.

When I wanted to do Dirty Dancing, it was this Steve Tisch who was uncomfortable with the script about a Jewish girl falling in love with an Irish boy.

The two sides did not continue talking, and Ronald felt the malice in the other's eyes.

"We're showing Dirty Dancing right now," Daydream's distribution manager Michelle Cannold announced as the screening began.

After 100 minutes, the movie ended in a carnival dance with the accompaniment of the theme song. The subtitles began to scroll upwards, and the lights in the hall came on.

Cannold invited several experts to the front desk for their opinions.

"What's the point of comment? I've never seen such a ridiculous movie. Burn the copy and file a claim with the insurance company."

That TV show producer Aaron Russo came up to the front desk and started rants about Dirty Dancing

"Huh?" Ronald stopped Douglas Hansen Jr. who was about to go up and argue with him.

He himself jumped onto the stage in front of the screen.

"What, am I wrong? What are you filming? The daughter of a Jewish doctor who elopes with dancing poor Irishmen? Make a film with a basis in reality."

Aaron Russo looked at Steve Tishi who was sitting below, and was encouraged by the latter to continue to provoke.

"Who the hell are you? You are the only one who can comment on my movie." Ronald was not polite to him, and pushed the fat Russo away.

"You loser, you lost the battle with me for the production rights of this movie, and you just uttered wild words here, I think you should get out."

Unable to satisfy himself, Ronald pushed Russo several times and knocked him off the stage.

"Where did the garbage come from, let's continue talking about business." Ronald saw Douglas Jr. took over, locked Russo with a wrestling technique, and pulled him out.

He turned his head to look directly at Steve Tisch below, and asked, "Does anyone else have some reliable art reviews for movies?"

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