Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 987 Superman Tom Cruise

   "The CinemaScore score is given, and it is the highest A+, which is unique in action movies, congratulations!"

  The day after the premiere, Twentieth Century Fox President Leonard Goldberg personally called to congratulate. CinemaScore has always been a barometer of a film's box office. It has basically made no mistakes in predicting the domestic box office of a film. Major film studios are now paying more and more attention to this evaluation method, which is based on random surveys of live audiences.

  Many film companies also want to use this method to evaluate movies by themselves, but internal investigators are always influenced by different forces within the company. In the end, everyone still feels that the neutral CinemaScore is the most objective way to score.

Since the establishment of this research company, there have only been 10 films with an A+ rating in the past five years. There has never been such a high score for an action suspense film before. For 20th Century Fox, this score is like a Powerball. Like a lottery.

  All marketing actions can only attract the first batch of audiences into the cinema. After that, the quality of the movie has been spread by many viewers. After the first week, the staying power of the movie depends entirely on the audience's word of mouth.

  Because later audiences may no longer believe in the propaganda in the media, they will ask friends who have watched the movie how it is.

  CinemaScore is essentially to score the audience's word-of-mouth. And because they randomly sampled from ten theaters in different regions of the country, the authenticity of word-of-mouth is very high.

  Generally speaking, getting an A- movie can basically satisfy the multiplication effect of the chain reaction. That is to say, if ten viewers go to a movie, their word of mouth can influence more than ten new viewers to also go to see it. In contrast, action movies, horror movies, and other movies with no profound connotation, the scores obtained by CinemaScore will be slightly lower than the real word-of-mouth.

  This may be because the audience is too embarrassed to say that they like this kind of exciting movie and tends to lower the score. And for famous books, or movies adapted from famous Broadway plays, they will want to appear to be very cultured, and they will tend to overestimate the score.

As an action film, "Die Hard" got the highest rating of A+ with an average of less than two films a year. Now everyone knows that the movies produced by Ronald are no less popular than those directed by him. movie now.

"Honestly, I don't understand why the audience likes you so much? You seem to have a kind of magical power. No action movie has ever gotten an A+ score before." Goldberg was very emotional. Hollywood is willing to accept this rare ability. Call it "talent," "favor," or "luck."

Because in addition to those indicators that can be quantified, there are always some people who have mastered something that is difficult to express in words, and can always see advantages that others cannot see. Routine, get more than expected results.

   Ronald is now the favored one, and because of this, 20th Century Fox must step up cooperation with him.

"This is indeed beyond some of my expectations, Mr. Goldberg. Sometimes, we don't know why some movies are so good. Bruce (Willis)'s dedication, Alan (Rickman) ), the design of action scenes, the skills of director of photography De Bont, and the screenwriter’s relatively unrestrained ability to integrate elements of multiple types of films into one, these may all be the reasons for the success.”

In front of the president of 20th Century Fox, Ronald counted the meritorious officials and gave credit to most of the creative staff. Only the director John McTiernan who often came out of control during the filming was not listed by him. factors into success.

"Very good, you give me the list of heroes, and I will invite them all at the celebration party. If you have any other requirements for the movie, just ask..." Goldberg was in a good mood. Create history and add a great credit to myself for the few years in charge of the film business.

   "I think some movie theaters should be added to Die Hard. Also, can the film critics increase some public relations efforts? Some comments are not very fair to Bruce Willis."

"The copy has been sent to the technical field for urgent reprinting. As for the film critics, Ronald, you don't have to worry about them too much, and we can't force them to say something. We can't do anything under the protection of the First Amendment. We can influence film critics People, such as Albert in Chicago, will write some movie reviews that satisfy you."

  Hung up the phone, Ronald picked up the freshly released film reviews from Los Angeles and New York media that Richard personally delivered early in the morning, and slowly read them.

  Richard now has several assistant brokers who specialize in serving Ronald as a client. The film reviews sent this time have already been pasted with scissors and glue, divided into several comments, and neatly let Ronald watch, saving a lot of time.

  For example, for the overall perception of the movie, film critics from all over the world generally praised it. They say that Die Hard is "logical" in that the film creates a sense of scale that makes the viewing experience seem more important than its story.

  The scene of terrorists occupying the building was also praised as "textbook-like camera movement", and De Bont's cinematography work was highly recognized. Degovia's set design was also praised as "ingenious", allowing people to cut into the emotions brought by the story at a glance.

  Some people also praised the stunts and special effects, especially the scene where the villain played by Alan Rickman fell from the skyscraper in the end, and the scene where Bruce Willis was entangled with a fire hose and escaped from the explosion was phenomenal.

   As for Bruce Willis's performance, the opinions of film critics are very divided. Willis was credited with getting his breakout role in the role that transformed him from a teetering TV star to a movie star.

  Some people think that this John McLean character is a changed version of the actor in the TV series Blue Moonlight, with less comedy and more male hormones. Some thought it was a waste of his comedic talents not being fully utilized.

   But there are also praises for Willis' acting skills, although some people are yin and yang, saying that the closer Bruce Willis gets to his own working-class background, his performance improves greatly. However, some people say that he has done what other action stars can't do, that is, he is flesh and blood and speaks like a NYPD detective.

  Before Bruce Willis, whether it was Stallone or Schwarzenegger, or anyone else, the most important thing was to have muscles that exploded on the screen and boxing skills that looked decent.

  But the performances of these people have more or less problems. Stallone's face is disabled, half of his face is expressionless, Schwarzenegger's English is not very good, and the speed of his lines is very slow, all of which have restrictions on the role.

  Bruce Willis was born in TV dramas anyway, playing a police detective with good lines and temperament, making people feel that he is really an NYPD. And the so-called short version in terms of muscle and boxing skills is subtly mitigated by his struggles with luck, elevators, buildings, and other unfavorable factors that are not only villains in this movie. For example, because he listened to the words of the passengers on the plane, he took off his socks and injured his foot when fighting, and the audience was also very worried about him.

   On the other hand, most of the fights in "Die Hard" are with firearms, which can also hide Willis' weakness of not being good at hand-to-hand combat scenes to the greatest extent.

   Contrary to Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman's performance was generally praised. Some say he has the best performance in the film, portraying a "perfect viper" poignantly.

   There are also comparisons between him and Laurence Olivier's performance in the classic Shakespeare-altering film "Richard III, Sneer," a vicious performance that is chilling.

  Roger Ebert also had a crush on Rickman, saying he was the best villain Hollywood had seen in a decade. Albert also took issue with Bonnie Bedelia's performance as John McClane's wife, arguing that her performance was also very realistic and deserved more time. The director should reduce some violent scenes and give this wife who works for Dongying people and does not have her husband's surname more space to play.

  Albert generally agrees with this movie, but he doesn't like this kind of deliberate genre film creation. He specifically focuses on the police captain's stupidity, which the writers set him up to be "deliberately useless and stupid" to create unnecessary obstacles for the protagonist, waste screen time and weaken the plot.

   Ronald almost laughed out loud when he saw this. This is a **** genre movie, an action movie, and you still judge it according to the requirements of a famous book adaptation and a big production? I'm not filming Shakespeare, does the villain have to be deep?

  Although Albert has criticisms of the film, he still recommends it to the audience as a whole. However, some of the few film critics have generally denied "Die Hard" and criticized it fiercely.

  Especially the Chicago Tribune, because Sisko went on his annual leave, and Cole, a film critic who was acting on his behalf, began to speak out, attacking the violent tendencies of "Die Hard".

"Die Hard presents a celebration of violence that not only exacerbates the violence that is rampant on the screen, but is also uninspired. His director wanted to perfect the action movie fight with a humorous and sentimental design. type.

We can definitely see from this that the director borrowed from the previous classic films "Poseidon", "Alien", or "Robocop", but in doing so, he lacked his own personality and made the whole film full of unnecessary unnecessary Violence…"

   "America is full of unnecessary film critics...", Ronald drew a big cross next to the substitute film critic's name, expressing his anger.

"This is an R-rated movie. If it's not violent, who will watch it? It's nonsense." Ronald accused while painting, "And the fight with a sense of humor, what does it have to do with Robocop and Alien? For reference, that is also for reference to Jackie Chan's action comedy. These uneducated film critics."

   Next, let’s look at Fox’s public relations. Can Sisko and Albert say something nice on next week’s TV movie review program to offset the impact. The Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Sun, are still very influential in the Midwest and South. The audience there still believed in the film reviews of these newspapers and the film review program of the two on PBS TV.

  Especially because these two people write their own scripts, they can continue to broadcast film reviews on TV. Compared with other programs, there is no fun without screenwriters, and the audience's ratings for their weekly film reviews are also rising.

  …

"I like this movie very much, I will give him a thumbs up recommendation", Albert was really well publicized, and stretched out a thumbs up to the audience and said, "Of course this is an R-rated movie, if you have children , I suggest trying a different cocktail, that movie explores the life choices of college students at work, worth going with father and child. What do you think, Gene?"

  At the end of the second week, Albert finally began to comment on last week's new film on TV.

"I'm hesitating, should I recommend it to him or not?" Sisko just came back from his vacation and was caught on TV, "I still decided not to recommend it. For action movie lovers, especially those who like Stallone's Action movies are not the same audience, this is a good movie, it definitely meets their expectations.

   But if it is an ordinary audience, I think what I said above is all the advantages of the movie, it is a classic, 100% action movie. Nothing else. "

   "This is an action movie, what else do you want?" Ronald straightened his coat, Sisko was very cunning, saying that he didn't recommend it, but he seemed to be recommending it. This not only maintains the dignity of the newspaper, but also does not cause any grudges with Fox.

   Ronald turned off the TV, went out and got into Bud Jr.'s car. Today is the premiere of "Cocktail" starring Tom Cruise. In return, Ronald also took some people to cheer for Cruise.

   "Lisa...", Ronald saw the heroine Elizabeth Sue at a glance. She was dressed similar to the rich girl in the movie today, with a light blue shirt and blond messy hair.

   "Hi, Ronald." Sue was still very excited when she saw Ronald. At that time on the set, she almost got caught in the tail of the helicopter, but it was Ronald who saved her.

   "The movie with Tom is out, how does it feel?" Ronald asked her.

   "It's like a dream, I may be the most wanted object of American girls now." Elizabeth Sue laughed, who wouldn't want to fall in love with Tom Cruise? Even if he's just a bartender at a bar.

   "Tom, Mimi...", Tom Cruise and his wife soon saw Ronald and came to hug him and say hello.

   "Congratulations, when will your new Vietnam War movie start shooting?"

"It will start next month. There is no nasty screenwriters' union picket in the Philippines. Oliver (Stone) has applied for an exemption." Tom Cruise was very enthusiastic about the movie, and pulled Ronald to say few minutes.

  I didn't listen to Ronald's seemingly ridiculous suggestion to play the idiot in "Rain Man". Now he has regretted it after watching some clips. At that time, if the United Ronald put pressure, there was every chance to get the role and squeeze Dustin Hoffman away.

  Unfortunately, at that time Ovitz said that this was an opportunity to cooperate and learn from the actor...

   "We have to take a photo with the fans." Mimi Rogers came over with her mouth crooked, and pulled her husband away. After the efforts of their agents, they finally appeared in public together. Tom Cruise smiled at Ronald, as if to say that I have to listen to my wife, turned around and left with Rogers.

   "Get back together?" Ronald asked Paula Wagner in the back.

   "..." Paula Wagner curled her lips and said nothing. Mimi Rogers is not an easy celebrity wife to deal with. She is also well-informed. When she was an "audit" girl for Scientology, she got along well with many popular celebrities.

Even Sonny Bono, whom Ronald worked with, was once her VIP customer. She used a Scientology Dianetics measuring instrument like a multimeter to make many alien exiles, and the toxins left behind "audit".

  …

   "Cocktail's CinemaScore score is B+? Hahaha, it seems that we have no rivals for Die Hard."

  The second week of Die Hard and the first weekend of cocktails collide. On the second day, Ronald and Joel Silver communicated on the phone, waiting for the score of the biggest competitor to come out.

  Generally speaking, A+ movies are twice as long as B+ movies in terms of screening length, and the single-house box office is about 20% more. It won't be too much up and down.

  Hollywood's most accurate box office forecast is not for nothing.

   Got the box office guarantee, Ronald relaxed and went to Palm Springs to enjoy it.

   "Mr. Ronald, your call." Ronald, who was soundly asleep, was woken up by the waiter by the hot spring. This call has been repeated three times.

   "Ronald, why don't you answer the phone, you have to come back soon"

  Joel Silver on the phone looked anxious.

"What's wrong?"

   "The box office was overtaken by cocktails. In the second week, we had a box office of 8.5 million, and a single restaurant had a box office of more than 6,000. Who knew that the cocktail restaurant had 8,000, and it broke our record in the first week. It ranked first."

   "Hey? Didn't they say they only have B+?"

   Ronald got up and woke up from the lazy state of vacation.

   Driving back to Los Angeles in a hurry, Ronald ran to Joel Silver. Upon entering, Silver was arguing with a CinemaScore manager.

"Your rating disrupted our marketing plan. This rating must be your mistake. I don't know if you overestimated our movie or underestimated Cruise's movie. In short, it is a very serious mistake. I We will consider withdrawing our cooperation with you."

"Mr. Silver, you can't blame us for this. Since our company was established, we have evaluated hundreds of movies every year. Except for this movie, none of them went wrong. The reason why the box office of this cocktail is inaccurate is a special reason. Circumstances caused."

   "What special situation?" Ronald interjected, nodding with Joel Silver by the way.

   "Mr. Li, you are the director, of course you also know Tom Cruise's position in the hearts of American girls."

   "Yes, I'm asking you what the reason is..." Ronald was a little annoyed, he wanted to know why the box office was overshadowed by the B+ cocktail, what did the manager say about Tom Cruise's status. Nonsense, most of this status is due to the consequences of his filming of Top Gun.

   "We have a guess... That is, Tom Cruise has too many fans, surpassing all other male stars. They go to the cinema, not to watch movies, but to see him."

"Impossible? Half of the audience is watching Tom?" Ronald calculated the box office gap between normal B+ movies and this cocktail. "There were many male stars before? For example, Harrison Ford, not This situation..."

"This is different. Tom Cruise is Superman, the only one of all Hollywood stars. This is what we added to the questionnaire for the cocktail audience. There is an extra question in it. If Tom Cruise does not star in this movie Movie, will you still watch it? This is the result."

   "Eh..." Ronald took over the results of the new questionnaire, and the numbers on it made him and Joel Silver look at each other in dismay. More than 40% of the audience, and more than 70% of the female audience, went to the cinema only to watch Tom Cruise.

  (end of this chapter)