Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 988 arranges a sequel

   Sure enough, "Cocktail" attracted a large number of Tom Cruise's crazy female fans, and broke through 10 million box office in the first weekend.

  Although 20th Century Fox is very satisfied with the box office momentum of Die Hard, and has increased resources investment, the number of movie theaters has rapidly increased from 1,200 to 1,450, which is almost the same as that of cocktails.

  But a good-looking story is not as good as a good-looking star. Tom Cruise throws the shaker bottle in the air in the movie, and then takes it fancy, which can cause female fans to scream in the movie theater every time.

  He is so handsome!

  The box office ranked second, the number one black movie star Eddie Murphy's trip to the United States (Coming to America). For this black film that was released on the weekend of the Fourth of July statutory holiday, Paramount has opened more than two thousand theaters. Movie theaters covering nearly every black ghetto in the country.

   Taking advantage of the Independence Day holiday in the first week, it raked in $21 million. However, the stamina of this movie is very poor. It dropped to 13 million in the second week, and the box office dropped by nearly 30% in the third week.

  Paramount's strategy of using 2,000 theaters to open the film is also very suitable for this pure fantasy film.

  The movie is about Zamunda, the only son of their monarch, who is an adult in an African, democratic, independent, and prosperous country. According to the management, he wants to marry the daughter of a domestic minister's family, but the Crown Prince Hakim is unwilling to accept an arranged marriage and proposes to study in America.

   When he arrived in New York, Crown Prince Hakim concealed his identity and lived in a slum. He hopes to find a woman in America who he can marry and fall in love with. The two are because of love, the second is not his status, nor is it because she has been trained to please him.

  Hakim fell in love with Lisa, the daughter of the burger shop owner, and the two fell in love. Afterwards, the king also came to New York, but because the crown prince concealed his identity, Lisa rejected his marriage proposal. The king was touched and called off the arranged marriage. Finally, Lisa was secretly invited to Zamonda, and the crown prince was surprised to find that the bride was Lisa at the wedding. Hakim proposed that if his status was still an obstacle to their marriage, he would be willing to abdicate and leave the throne to his cousin. Lisa smiled and refused, the two are true love...isn't it good to be a queen?

  Black audiences are very enthusiastic about watching movies, contributing more than 30% of the box office, and it is still growing. Because the blacks in America are different from the white immigrants, they are some survivors without ancestral origin. Eddie Murphy understood the black mind very well and gave them an imaginary, rich and powerful monarchy country as their imaginary hometown.

  A black crown prince came to New York, like a bumpkin, he can't even eat hamburgers, and he needs a local black to teach him. This is one of the few skills that every black person has! Moreover, local black girls also have the opportunity to marry the crown prince who owns a country. As long as they repeat the values ​​they learned in elementary school to an African local tyrant, they will reap the love of the crown prince.

  The black audience with a narrow ascending channel was very happy to watch it, and the white audience also liked this kind of comedy full of black gags.

   "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", which ranked in the top two for six consecutive weeks before, was squeezed to third by Cocktail. This live-action and animation hybrid work of Robert Zemeckis was previously rumored in the industry that the film was difficult to produce, and the test screenings were not well received. But after it was actually released, the box office was very high.

   At the beginning, the cartoon image of Roger Rabbit entered the human world, and then humans turned into cartoons and entered the animation world. This kind of shooting method was not highly evaluated by the test audience, and the low score made the distributor Disney a little scared.

  But this way of expression makes the children happy like Christmas. Is there any child who hasn't fantasized about entering the animation world by himself and saving the world with cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse, Transformers, and Universe Emperor Seaman?

   The low ratings of the previous test screenings were largely misled by adult audiences. Now the children all want to watch it, and they even bring the whole family out. This kind of movie naturally has an advantage in the number of viewers. Spielberg's production ability is amazing, and he can find Tongxin's favorite selling point every time.

   "Die Hard" unfortunately only ranked fourth. "Hollywood Reporter" also mentioned that this year's summer season is full of great movies, and the box office has increased by more than ten percent compared with the same period last year.

"cheers…"

   Ronald didn't have the slightest regret of not being in the top three at the box office. He and Joel Silver, another producer of the film, held a celebration party together. Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman and a kind of blond muscular dude playing a German were all on the scene. Many beauties who came to the party and wanted to enter Hollywood screamed happily.

   "Mr. Goldberg..." Ronald saw the representative of 20th Century Fox coming in from the door, but he didn't expect that Mr. President himself came to congratulate him.

   "Call me Leon," Leonard Goldberg is all smiles. The box office of the second week of "Die Hard" was even higher than the first week of the same period, with a slight increase of 7%.

  Twentieth Century Fox needed such a big production to boost revenue. After hearing the box office figures, he immediately decided to congratulate Ronald in person. This rises instead of falls, indicating that "Die Hard" will stay in the cinema about one-third longer than expected. Any movie with a strong box office may not necessarily win the top spot. The most important thing is to be a nail in the movie theater.

  Studios look at the released movies, there are two most important indicators, one is the opening weekend box office. The other is the decline index. The decline index of "Journey to America" ​​is 30%, and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is slightly better, also 25%. And "Die Hard" is a scary -7%, not only did not fall, but rose against the market.

  This kind of "reversal" phenomenon often appears in low-cost movies. This was the case in some of Ronald's earliest films. Because of insufficient marketing investment, many times it is purely based on word-of-mouth from the audience.

  But this kind of blockbuster movie that the big studio has arranged in advance to be released in the summer file, this rarely happens. This clearly means that you have won the lottery, you have won the Powerball lottery, and this movie is likely to be a big commercial success.

"Is it possible to arrange the shooting of the sequel? Think of a way to make Alan Rickman appear in the sequel? I see that the film critics are full of praise for his performance and give him the highest score." Goldberg The purpose of coming here is mainly to persuade Ronald and Silver to start filming the sequel.

"Of course, I'm discussing with Joel (Silver)." Ronald made no secret of his ambition to take advantage of the victory, and invited Goldberg into a small room to discuss with Silver. Preparations for a sequel.

   Ronald and Joel Silver glanced at each other, and sure enough, as they expected, Twentieth Century Fox would put a sequel on the agenda. They were still discussing what plot should be filmed in the sequel.

   "Allen is a genius in acting, but he is not suitable to appear in the sequel." The accused person shook his head lightly.

  At the end of the first part, the villain boss played by Alan Rickman fell off a skyscraper and died. This ending made both Ronald and Silver feel very regretful. At that time, they didn't know that the movie would cause such a big response. If they knew that they shouldn't just kill the villain like this, they might as well go to prison and write After the jailbreak, it is logical to get the beginning of the sequel.

   But now that this is the case, there are only two ways to keep Rickman and Willis together in the sequel:

  Either use the cliché of the twins and let Alan Rickman come back to play the twin brother of the original boss. This idea was quickly rejected by Ronald, not because Ronald didn't like vulgar plots (he also made a lot of them himself), but because of a glass. This movie is very realistic, although a NYPD wife never It is impossible for a housewife to become an executive of the company, but the various characters in it really give people a feeling of living by my side.

   This is also an important reason why Bruce Willis' protagonist John McClane can be successful. They have weaknesses, and his partner, a black detective, is a little guy who gets bullied by stupid bosses. Which of us hasn't had this kind of "I'm so good, it's all because the boss is stupid" complaint.

  So the story of the second part must also be very realistic, at least giving people a feeling that there are such people around me. This kind of twin writing is suitable for those soap operas and action movies that are not so real, such as "Dare and Magic" which is currently being filmed in Australia. Once the human skin mask is removed, the dead can be resurrected.

  In short, "Die Hard" must not be written like this. The protagonist McClane still has to be a bit useless. He is suppressed by his superiors in his daily life, and he is only asked to save the world at a critical moment.

   Another method is not to make a sequel, but to make a prequel.

Goldberg wanted to do this very much. He strongly asked Ronald to start filming the second part as soon as possible, whether it was a prequel or a sequel, so that Alan Rickman would come back and continue to fight with Bruce Willis. This is Box office code.

   But this request is impossible to fulfill, because if the two have met before, in the story in the first part, it is unreasonable for the two to not know each other when they meet for the first time.

   Besides, Ronald felt that it was never a good idea to make a prequel. Audiences want to see what happened next, no one likes to see what happened before.

   "I have to continue to find suitable adaptations of adventure novels," Ronald expressed his thoughts. Original author Roderick Thorpe's novel, "Nothing Lasts," also, like Die Hard, has no sequel. He also did not continue to write a series of novels with McClane as the main character.

  So everyone decided to find some other adventure novel writers in the market, graft them on to John McLean, and then do some adaptations. In the end, the three parties agreed to start searching. Anyway, the production rights for the next sequel are in the hands of Ronald and Silver, and it is impossible for 20th Century Fox to shoot without them.

   Ronald asked David Simkins to take over the work of the novel search, and when the results were available, he and Silver were on hand to evaluate them.

   "Bruce, why are you leaving?" The three came out, just in time to see the protagonist Bruce Willis wanting to go out, and a group of beautiful girls who wanted to enter Hollywood pulled him and refused to let him leave.

   "Ah, Demi is about to give birth recently, she is very nervous at home, this is her first child. If I don't go, I don't know what will happen again."

   "You are a good husband", Ronald understood Demi Moore, and Willis became one of the top Hollywood action stars as soon as the movie came out. She herself missed Ronald's "working girl" because of her pregnancy. Seeing that the gap between her and Willis was widening, one could imagine the anxiety in her heart.

"Our party will last until the day after tomorrow. You go back and appease your sweet wife, and then come over to have fun with us. Ronald doesn't like parties. He's boring. It's too boring for you to leave. Aaron is another British Gentleman, it's not like we can let go and have fun." Joel Silver has just finished preparing for the sequel, and now he can only think of dying drunk in the arms of women and wine.

"Sounds very attractive, it would be even better if there is better beer and barbecue." Bruce Willis is still a kid from a blue-collar family at heart. Recently, Demi has been making trouble at home without eating OK

   "Then serve beer and barbecue, I'm sure you'll come tomorrow. Hahaha..." Joel Silver was overjoyed. People like Ronald are too literary and artistic, how can they know the joy of binge drinking?

  Ronald, on the other hand, felt that people like Silver had no taste. Except for their explosive figures, none of these beauties had received any good education, and their conversation was boring. He likes women who are temperamental, have their own ideas, and can communicate with him.

   But this does not prevent Ronald and Silver from cooperating in business. In Hollywood, this kind of straightforward and rough people are more reliable collaborators than those stars who never say no.

   "Then I'll go first," Ronald also left, just in time to send Goldberg, the president of Fox, back. Silver also winked at Ronald. Recently, he hasn't had many new film preparations. Ronald has started several projects now, which are exactly the sizzling steaks in the eyes of big companies like Fox.

   "Ronald, I came here by writing a check, and I'm just waiting for the second part of your Die Hard project to be approved." Goldberg sighed in the car. The current studios not only depend on the face of the stars, but now even the producers with a record of continuous sales have to beg and coax them.

   When I have two more blockbuster movies and have accumulated enough qualifications, I will leave this position and start my own production company. These days, independent production is easy and profitable.

  However, Goldberg is very cautious. He obviously has not forgotten those colleagues. After leaving the position of executive in a major studio, they lost more money and made less money. He doesn't intend to really work as a producer, but wants to sign a few more film distribution contracts with Fox with a lucrative hush money, and then leave this crater-like seat.

  I also saw that Tom Cruise's bad movie sold more money than his own company's masterpiece. He now fully realizes that no one in Hollywood knows whether a movie is profitable or losing. It is safer to pursue the unconditional distribution contract and then rely on the distribution contract to make money.

  How much gold parachute he can get, how many release contracts are tied to the resignation contract, depends on Ronald's performance.

   "This movie is groundbreaking. I think Joel and I have the right idea. Don't rush to make a sequel. Get the right script and success will come."

"But I want to release your movie now. We still have a lot of vacancies next year. We don't set any conditions for your new movie. We can be your release. As you can see, our marketing department is very capable , working very well with your marketing consultant named Gray."

   "But my two projects now have Samsung as the publisher." Ronald knew that the other half was showing favor, and the other half was also a little superstitious about his own vision. "

   "Don't you still have a romantic movie? The director is the screenwriter of your debut..." Goldberg is always paying attention to Ronald's movements.

   "But it's a small production, are you interested too?" Ronald didn't expect that Fox was also interested in "Deeply Loved". If a small production is released by a major production company, the marketing cost is actually similar to that of a medium production, and more expensive than a large production. Therefore, few big studios are willing to be distribution companies for small productions, and most of them are bought to fill the gap.

  According to what Goldberg said, is this going to release "Deep Love" as an official schedule movie?

   "Small productions can also be changed into large productions..."

  (end of this chapter)