Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 419 National Frenzy

   "Star Wars - Return of the Jedi" premiere, is different. Everyone came to the scene wearing Star Wars-themed T-shirts.

There are several kilometers of queues outside the cinema. Many fans dress up as the characters in the show, some dressed in Darth Vader's black armor, or holding Lu Zuotian's lightsaber, and some girls have their hair combed. Princess Leia's double bun.

   When Ronald came over, a TV station happened to be interviewing the audience. Some people said that they had already lined up here at 6:00 in the morning, and they were only lined up for the second lap.

   Walking past the line, at the main entrance of the theater, some lucky ones who got invitations to the premiere can see the movie two hours earlier than others.

   Security guards at the theater, in uniform, are maintaining order, and only those with invitations are allowed in. Ronald took out the invitation and handed it over. Looking back, the dense crowd stretched across the road.

  America is a nation with no history, and its citizens all immigrated from the old continent to the new world, so it has never been like the various ethnic groups in the old continent have their own heroic epics.

   This movie trilogy by Lucas, to these kids, is like a heroic epic. And thanks to the technology of the movie, it is an epic with figures, pictures, and special effects.

   Unlike the enduring TV series "Starfleet", "Star Wars" is more personal heroic and more dramatic. Although it was only six years old, it has left a deep imprint on a generation of young people in America.

   Star Wars’ incursion into American culture was all-encompassing.

   The SDI missile defense system announced by the commander this time was called Star Wars by many people. And his previous Evil Empire speech, which was also quoted by members of Congress, compared the Solvay Alliance to Darth Vader. This movie has entered the daily language expression of America.

  Although the Oscar Organizing Committee and the Directors Guild were very unhappy with George Lucas, they did not give him the best director or best picture affirmation, but only gave him some technical awards. But that doesn't stop teenagers across the country from seeing Lucas as the greatest visionary.

   Ronald is very envious. This kind of film that can embed himself in the language level is a more solid and permanent monument than Oscar. I don't know if I will be able to change the American language in one or two small places in the future.

   In addition to the invited friends in the circle, most of those who attended were lucky viewers who wrote letters to Lucas and were eventually selected.

  Lucas personally came to the scene to congratulate everyone on the final release of the final part of the trilogy. Soon, the curtain was raised and the film was officially shown.

   Ronald watched the movie with great interest. After the last movie "The Empire Strikes Back", Darth Vader claimed to be Luke's father. For three years, many viewers wondered whether this was Vader's lie or the truth.

  Princess Leia took off her elegant robe and put on a **** bikini to dance to Jabba, the slave owner. The audience made a loud drooling sound.

   Then came Luke, who built a green lightsaber, defeated Jabba and rescued the carbonized Han Solo. It was discovered that the Emperor was working on a second Death Star and wanted to destroy the rebels.

   After a series of battles, Luke faced the attack of the Emperor and Darth Vader alone. In the final battle, Luke chopped off Vader's mechanical hand. The emperor tried to lure him full of negative emotions and degenerate to the dark side.

  Luke heard the voices of Obi-Wan and Yoda, gave up negative emotions such as anger and fear, was unwilling to surrender to the dark side of the force, and was shocked by the emperor with the force of lightning. After all, Darth Vader couldn't resist the love between father and son, and pushed the emperor off the throne and fell into space. Too bad he died in the end.

The end of    is another Star Wars tradition. Everyone stood together and laughed happily. But this time there are three more Jedi Knights of the Force, Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Darth Vader's real body, Anakin.

  The audience began to shout and applaud enthusiastically. After three years of waiting, a complete and wonderful story finally came.

  Ten minutes passed before the audience stopped applauding. There were already several TV stations at the door waiting to interview the audience.

  Ronald has a special car waiting here to pick up some of their guests to celebrate the party. After eight years, George Lucas finally completed the Star Wars trilogy. He is the emperor tonight.

  Celebratory party, held right next to the Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. Champagne like a hill, big cakes, all kinds of food, and wearing a T-shirt, a completely different temperament from the average movie party.

   Ronald saw that his agent Nisita came to the scene and greeted him, "Rick, why are you here? Do you want to sign Chewbacca?"

  George Lucas fell out with the director's union, so he hired directors who did not belong to the union to play the last two films. The stars of Star Wars have long been **** by their agents. As for the two robots, C3PO and R2D2, they are not qualified to sign agents.

   So Ronald joked with him that he was going to sign the fluffy Wookiee.

   "I'm here to remind you, don't talk about Martha in front of George." Nisita whispered in Ronald's ear.

   "What?" Ronald was a little confused.

   "Ovitz told me today that George's wife Martha cheated on him and wanted to divorce him. So I came to remind you right away that when it's time to congratulate George, don't mention Martha's name."

   "Oh, thank you." Ronald thanked Nisita, George Lucas is the most profitable director right now, holding two major killer series movies, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones. This kind of other people's private matter, a bad one, is known to Lucas, and it is not worth it to cause bad feelings.

   "Congratulations, Mr. Lucas. This movie is very good. It finally fulfilled a dream of watching New Hope when I was a child. Luke became a great Jedi warrior. I wonder if you will continue to make it?"

   Ronald took a chance and went up to congratulate Lucas.

"Oh, Ronald. Hello. Not for a while, I'm too tired, I've paid too much for this Return of the Jedi, and then I think I'll take a break." Lucas told Rhona De still had an impression, and had a brief chat with him.

   "It seems that his mental state is really not very good. On the night of the movie's big sale, he didn't seem to be too happy."

   "Hey, you don't know, this matter hit George hard." Nisita finally sent Ronald home and told him the whole story in the car.

  The original director of "Return of the Jedi" originally booked Spielberg, but the director's union prohibited union members from participating in Lucas' projects. Lucas experienced the rejection of David Lynch, Dutch director Paul Verhoeven and others, and finally found a Welshman Richard Marquand as the director.

   But Richard Marquand was on the pinewood studio in London, and he had a lot of trouble with the actors who played the three leading roles. In the end, Lucas had to take over halfway through and flew to London to pick up the directing job himself.

  George Lucas and Martha had a big conflict because George was busy with work. One of their adopted daughters was left in a high-end hotel during George's trip to London and Martha took care of her alone.

   Martha Lucas was originally a very good editor. Used to be Martin Scorsese's official editor, collaborating on all of Scorsese's best-selling works. But now it is unbearable for her to be a housewife whose husband does not come home.

  Masha later returned to the manor that Lucas bought and concentrated on renovating her own house. She hopes to cover the dome of a library with the stained glass of the Renaissance church, which looks very artistic.

  Who knows this glass-firing artist, take advantage of it. George Lucas pleaded bitterly, but could not restore Martha's heart, and the two only waited for "Return of the Jedi" to be released before announcing their divorce. The reason for not getting a divorce right away is for the final episode of the Star Wars trilogy, not to be disturbed by this gossip.

   Martha Lucas herself won the best editing Oscar for the editing of "Star Wars - A New Hope", and she is also very emotional about the Star Wars series, so the two agreed to announce their divorce later.

   "Oh, how could this be? The last time I saw the two of them, they were still very affectionate." Ronald sighed on the co-pilot.

"It's unavoidable. For a movie, especially a giant production like Star Wars, it usually takes a year or two to prepare, shoot, edit, and produce special effects. For a workaholic like George, he may not be able to talk to Martha when he goes home. A few words, no matter how much love is, there will be problems."

   "Then Masha is not miserable, she cheated first, didn't she get any property?"

   "What does this have to do with cheating? Is it your law in New York? California is a state where assets are divided equally." Nisita looked at Ronald in surprise.

   "Huh?" Ronald was surprised, "I don't know that."

   "California law stipulates that no matter who makes the most contribution to the couple's property after marriage, in principle, the principle of equal sharing is adopted after divorce. Generally, the woman has to bear the support of the child, and will share more."

   "Oh," Ronald thought, if he gets married in California in the future, it's better not to get a divorce.

   The next day, the nation awaited the box office results of "Star Wars - Return of the Jedi". The end result was $6.2 million.

   Ronald knew that the theater line of "Night of the Comet" would be compressed after he learned of this result.

   Over the weekend, "Return of the Jedi" raked in $23 million, making it the first film in American history to break $20 million at the box office in its opening weekend.

   "Night of the Comet" has been squeezed into only 700 theaters. Although the box office of the individual theaters has not dropped significantly, the total box office has fallen below 3 million US dollars to 2.4 million US dollars.

   Turn on the TV, full of Star Wars news and talk shows. Open a big newspaper such as the "Los Angeles Times", and news about Star Wars is also on the front page.

   At the end of the "Star Wars" trilogy, the audience frantically bid farewell to the three protagonists and their own youth. They've pushed this modern-day American epic from entertainment to front page, from NBC Entertainment News to NBC National News.

  English-speaking countries, Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, are also eagerly looking forward to the early arrival of the film copy, and the audience who can't bear it, come to New York to watch it on a transoceanic plane.

  Faced with the frenzy sweeping the world, Ronald's "Valley of Comets" had no choice but to retreat. Fortunately, it has accumulated more than 11 million box office in the first two weeks, plus 2.4 million in the third weekend, it is close to the box office score of 15 million.

   (end of this chapter)