Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 991 It’s the money-making season again

  "Before the National Congress of the Donkey Party: The Great Commander in 1996; After: He is finished"

   "Hahaha...", Ronald read the newspapers and magazines delivered by the public housekeeper while eating breakfast the next day. The headline of the Political Watch column in Newsweek had pronounced the Arkansas governor's political death sentence.

   "Unfortunately, he is quite handsome, smart and motivated." While drinking milk, Donna saw that the New York Times even wrote a classic lawyer joke for the governor.

   There are some folk jokes in America, which are actually not very friendly to certain groups of people. For example, there is a joke called "It takes a few so-and-so people to..." joke.

   For example, how many Poles do you need to change a light bulb?

  Three, one aligned, and the two below carried him around.

  New York Times political column, a reporter wrote a variant of this joke to the governor of Arkansas, "How many lawyers does it take in a room before someone will tell Mr. Governor that he has the right to remain silent."

Ronald leaned over to take a look. The governor was actually right about balancing the budget. However, after being ridiculed by the media, he probably wouldn't be able to continue working in politics, because no matter where he went, the joke would be irrelevant. Will follow him like a shadow. Just like Mundell, the incumbent leader joked in TV debates back then, no voters took him seriously.

   Called a car for Donna and sent her to work. In the two-story city apartment, Ronald leisurely sent work documents to his assistant in the New York office, the actor who played the lead role of the fat girl in "Hairspray", Ricky Lake, to sign.

  Lake is still thinking about returning to the film and television industry. After becoming an actor, doing other jobs makes people feel uninterested. My conditions are not good, I am too fat, and I have not received any invitations to audition for other roles.

   But Lake is actually very competent as an assistant. The fat girl works hard to satisfy Ronald as much as possible. In addition, she has lost ten pounds. It is normal to give her a role when the time comes.

"You call the people on the list and ask them to come and see me. Set up a good time and don't make them come again." Ronald was wearing a Hawaiian floral shirt and a casual vacation attire. He decided to meet at home Those who work for him, now he can also enjoy the privilege of a successful person when Weintraub met him at home to talk about work.

   "Okay, I'll make a call." Ricky Lake went to the telephone in the outer living room and made a call. Ronald looked at her back and didn't know what the fat girl was thinking, but the fat girl only had a future in comedy, but he didn't know how to make comedy. Besides, Lake was still too fat to lose another ten pounds.

  The first one to come was AngLee. Now he has his own office. While helping Ronald read the script and receiving a salary, he is still revising his own script. Best of all, he started bringing money home to his wife, and because she wasn't hanging around the house, she didn't have to watch him all day, and the family relationship got better.

  The two talked a lot about script selection, and Ronald was very satisfied. AngLee's talk session ended early, and there was still a little time to catch up on the past and talk about some news in the industry.

"Now in your hometown, are there any movies worth watching?" Ronald remembered that he would choose to send movies to the Palm Springs Film Festival at the beginning of next year. He planned to focus on Chinese movies, so he asked AngLee what's good in his hometown. The film can be bought and shown in America.

   "I haven't been back for a long time because I need a green card. This time I can go back with my wife for the Spring Festival." AngLee is very grateful to Ronald, and the green card guaranteed by his company will be obtained soon. With a serious job, my father can also be a little less strict with himself.

   "Then you can help the company take a look when you go back. There are quite a few audiences of Chinese descent in America who like CEK Kung Fu movies. Our company has to seize this market segment."

"I will, but my family hasn't produced many commercial films in recent years. Mr. Song, who is in charge of culture and entertainment, thinks that director Zhang over there won the Golden Bear in West Berlin, so the government supports literary films, aiming at the European three. Going to the big movie awards."

   It turns out that Anglee's hometown imposes heavy taxes on film screenings. It is difficult to make a good film in the first place. In the past few years, movies with good box office performances relying on a certain female writer's romance drama appeared. Now Chief Song has given great support to movies with a high probability of winning, with hundreds of thousands of subsidies for each movie, and tax breaks. Many people in the film industry who make commercial films have to go to TV stations to make a living.

  As for the two directors who won awards in Europe, director Hou won the West Berlin International Film Critics Special Award for "Childhood Memories" in 1985 (he is not as good as Yimou, and this award is a small award that ranks very low). And director Yang, who won the International Film Critics Award at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland with his "childhood sweetheart" in 1986 (the film starred in director Hou, and the two had a falling out), received great support.

  As long as they can win gold awards at the three major European film festivals and surpass their opponents, they will have far-reaching financial and resource support.

   "This is not a good strategy", Ronald felt wrong when he heard this strategy. This kind of niche film with its own characteristics should be the place where the film market is developed so that enough specific groups of people can watch it.

   Blindly making movies that conform to the aesthetics of Europeans will inevitably shrink the basic commercial film market, and will fall into a vicious circle. Commercial films will be less and less shot, and people will despise them if they do. If things go on like this, Ronald is not optimistic about the film development in AngLee's hometown.

"So, are there any good movies in the past that are worth buying the distribution rights of America?" Ronald felt that since he could nourish award-winning directors in Europe, the film market there should be okay in the past. Accumulation, there will always be some good movies.

"Do you still remember our club activities at that time? I went to the cultural department to borrow Mr. Hu Jinquan's movie", AngLee replied. After so many years in my hometown, only the movies of Li Hanxiang and Hu Jinquan are liked by overseas people, maybe Ronald also Will you consider buying?

   Li Hanxiang later went bankrupt at Guolian Company, and went back to Hong Kong to film Fengyue movies to pay off his debts. Only Hu Jinquan still insisted on his ideas.

"Okay, you have copies or videotapes there, and you can borrow them for me too. I want to see their works in the next few days." Ronald heard that one of the two was proficient in shooting clear, and the other was proficient in shooting. People who are proficient in traditional culture will have an interest, and it is good to satisfy their own hobbies.

  …

   Next up is Daydream’s distribution executive, Dolly Bernstein, who has done a great job of acquiring theaters, and Ronald already owns three of Manhattan’s Grind Theatres.

It's funny to say that although the Paramount Act that did not allow studios to buy theaters was overturned, the business of movie theaters has long since lost its former glory. Ronald made a price, and the original boss couldn't wait. Sold and left.

   Bernstein is very enthusiastic about work, and she is now mainly responsible for the video distribution business of Daydream.

   “We are doing very well in the videotape market this year, and we can even be said to be one of the top five videotape manufacturers. Few companies can get good reviews for every videotape like us.”

   Bernstein admired Ronald's vision in film selection, "Hairspray" is the sales champion in the video tape market. Especially in the black group, and the fat group is very popular. The protagonist in this movie, Fat Girl Lake, likes black culture, which is rare among black audiences.

  White people in Eddie Murphy's movies respect him at most because of the roles he plays, and few white people like black culture.

  However, the consumption power of black people is limited, and many people do not have video recorders. The video of buying "hairspray" shows that the main customers are fat people. Few movies take care of the mentality of fat people. Generally speaking, they are mainly ridiculed. Many comedy movies or comedy characters in movies are fat people. For example, Ronald’s good friend, John Candy is .

  The audience likes to see people who are not as good as themselves suffer. They can use compassion, and they can also watch people who are higher than themselves fall down, and there is additional pleasure.

   There is also a videotape sales winner produced by Daydream. It is a romance film "Love Is Not For Sale" jointly invested by Ronald and Bannon, which is also well received in the videotape market. Many of the buyers of this video are obedient "Geek" bookworms.

   These nerds who are not good at socializing by nature, maybe they don’t want to go to the cinema with their classmates and friends, and be ridiculed and ignored by those socialites, but it doesn’t prevent them from enjoying a romantic comedy at home where the otaku turns and the most beautiful cheerleader falls in love. Who doesn't have such a dream? What's more, as science geeks, they are usually children from upper-middle-class families, and buying a VCR is not a problem.

"In addition to these films made by Daydream, there are also videotape rights of films produced by other companies that you bought. The top two are 'Streets of Rage' and 'Billy King Legend', both of which are selling very well. Boss, You should find us more movies like this in the future." Bernstein said half-flatteringly, usually with a little admiration.

"You can't all rely on me, and you don't have to make money. Now that the videotape market is so good, big studios will soon realize that this market and taste are different from theater movies. I'm afraid we won't be able to buy such high-quality movies Lim's movie."

Ronald was also a little surprised. The movie he bought to please two female friends, Diane starred in a rock star "Rage Street", and Helen starred in the modern Jeanne d'Arc movie "Billy... "Golden Legend", unexpectedly gained very good recognition in the video tape market.

  So good that even NBC and ABC's late-night theater shows came to buy Ronald's TV rights to fill the list that seemed empty due to the writers' strike. With an income of several hundred thousand, Ronald carefully studied the reasons for the success of these two Cult films.

  In fact, they all have the characteristics of the B-level movies shot by Roger Coleman and specially used for drive-in theaters. They are suitable for teenagers and overall exciting, but they are not suitable for the mainstream market.

  If poetry is used as an analogy, this kind of movie has no sentences. Some occasions are particularly hot and beautiful, and have moving emotions. But it does not meet the taste of the mainstream market and is only suitable for some people. Viewers who like it will like it very much, and they must buy a box of the video tape for collection.

  For example, "Street of Rage" is especially suitable for young male audiences who like the godfather. They don't understand the rules of the adult world at all. This movie with a childish plot just fits their mentality.

  The "Billy King Legend" is the girl version, a beautiful woman who has been wronged by others. Relying on the power of friends and public opinion in society, she defeats authority, washes away her grievances, and wins love. Young girls also like it very much, it's all their dream plots.

  The sales of these two films have greatly exceeded Ronald's own estimates. The original intention was to please the two of them, and the copyright of the video tape was prepared as a gift for them.

   If you want to transfer it now, it will be very troublesome, and you will have to pay an expensive tax. The cash in Diane and Helen's hands is probably not enough to pay next year's federal tax.

  Although it was a gift to the other party, Ronald still had to pay an expensive federal gift tax. If it exceeds the lifetime gift amount that a person can get (usually a few million dollars), in order to make up for the legal loophole, the two beauties have to pay inheritance tax (looking at this year's income, the capital value of the two movies has exceeded the amount) .

  In addition, if the two beauties want to transfer the ownership of the movie in the future, they will have to pay capital gains tax. If the old George fails to run for the presidency and does not continue to defer the preferential tax law.

Ronald consulted lawyer Lindsay Dole. In this case, it is best to set up a trust, put the property rights of the two movies into it, and make Diane and Helen the beneficiaries respectively, so that they can continuously get The assets in the trust are annuities produced every year. You can enjoy the benefits without all kinds of troubles.

  Ronald felt that it was not good to set up a trust for only one movie, because the value of the two Cult movies was still rising.

  The video tape market is filled with young people, low-level blue-collar workers, and some white-collar movie lovers. It is a combination of many different market segments. This is very different from a unified market in the film market that is dominated by young male and female teenagers.

   The more niche you are, the easier it is to pay for what you like. Both films have high potential for sequels, licensed comics, licensed toys, dolls, and video games, among other things.

  So the final solution is not to directly transfer the copyright, but to transfer the income rights of the video tapes every year to the two as income. In the future, when there are more assets like Ronald, we can arrange a unified trust and list both of them as beneficiaries. In the future, Aunt Karen and cousin Donna can also deal with it in this way.

  In this way, they can get the peripheral income of their own works every year, without having to raise funds, and handle the production of sequels and derivatives by themselves, as long as they collect checks at home four times a year.

  …

  The third person who came to see Ronald was Ed Bastian from Price Waterhouse CPAs.

"In addition to the 2nd quarter earnings of these tapes, your overseas copy sales of Boxer Fighter also made you a lot of money, as much as a domestic box office success. And the most profitable 'Dirty Dancing' , the income from the video tape is very stable, and it has brought in another 20 million, and there are two soundtrack records. The original version is still very strong, and there are more Dirty Dancing. This may be because many songs are not in the movie. The sales have started to fast Decreased."

   "Hey, I don't know how to invest now, should I still buy Coca-Cola?" Ronald had a happy trouble. Hollywood is such a magical place. After a movie is sold well, it can continuously bring huge income to the main creator.

  Patrick Schwitz, the leading actor in "Dirty Dancing", has evolved from buying a small ranch, buying a large ranch, to buying some Arabian horses to participate in horse racing, and then doing a breeding business.

  Screenwriter Linda Gottlieb talks about her successful experience in the Jewish community in New York every day, and has no intention of writing scripts at all.

   "If you want to invest in the securities market, I suggest you transfer this part of the income to a corporate entity in Los Angeles." Ed Bastian gave Ronald an idea.

   "Why?" Ronald was puzzled, isn't it all my business?

   "For tax avoidance?" Ed Bastian took out a document, which was a professional plan he had prepared before coming.

  It turns out that in America, in addition to paying personal and corporate federal income tax, you also have to pay state income tax. Ronald's residency registration, and his voter eligibility, fell in New York State. His income in California will be taxed separately from his income in New York State.

   Moreover, the state income taxes in both states are progressive. In other words, if the annual income limit is exceeded, the state tax rate that Ronald will have to pay will increase from the low 2% to 4%, 7%, and finally 9%.

  But if the income is included in the two states separately, Ronald can deduct the taxes of other non-resident states. This saves the extra 4% tax on the tax base of several million dollars.

   "My income for the first half of the year is in New York State, right?" Ronald asked the other party.

   "Except for the tens of thousands of dollars in dividends from your previous directorial works, yes." Ed Bastian looked at the information and confirmed it.

   "Well, the second half of the year will belong to the company in California." Ronald wrote down in his notebook that he was about to open a new company in California and register a new identity. Such a technical adjustment saved millions of dollars in taxes.

   This Puhua partner is not bad at paying his consulting fees.

   "If your income should be classified as a California company, then you'd better find a California brokerage to open an account for your stock investment, otherwise your California income declaration may be flawed."

   "Okay, you recommend some reliable ones, and I'll let Lawrence do it." Ronald agreed, so let's buy Coca-Cola.

  …

   After a busy day, the video tape that AngLee promised has also been delivered, and several of Hu Jinquan's movies are included.

   "Does it feel a bit boring?" Ronald sat on the sofa and watched his "Xia Nv" slowly. The rhythm of this movie is not suitable for modern Hollywood, and the story is relatively boring, but the aesthetics and temperament are still outstanding.

  Ronald was very happy to watch. This pure Mingfeng clothing and way of speaking made him see what the director wanted to express.

  It’s just a Chinese film, some are very old, but the beauty in his arms, Christie Turington, is very boring. Turington didn't watch movies, but only watched Ronald, sitting in his arms, looking at the tough facial lines, she adored him a little bit.

  Cindy Crawford didn't come today. She has a good relationship with another Hollywood movie star, and she might be able to take him down. She can't make excuses for this kind of event. They are all people in the Hollywood circle, it would be bad if the agent spread the news.

   "Then don't watch it," Ronald turned off the video recorder, and stared at Christie Turington intently. As an outstanding model, the facial lines must be very temperamental, because of Ronald's help, Turington is now the chief model of Eve Saint Laurent.

   "Bo..." They stared at each other for a long time, and Christie took the initiative to kiss Ronald's lips. Immediately, their lips pressed together passionately.

   A warm feeling came from his chest, and it was Christie who hugged Ronald tightly.

   "FDA just approved the Governor of Arkansas, who spoke at the Donkey Party Convention, as an over-the-counter sleeping pill, and surgeons across the country can prescribe it to treat insomnia."

  The NBC Late Show host, Johnny Carson, made a joke about the hapless guy. Now that the screenwriters are on strike, all the talk show hosts have to bite the bullet and come up with their own jokes. Finally, he has become the laughing stock of the whole country. If he is caught, he will be black to the end.

   "Ah..." Turington and Ronald were together, as comfortable as eating the most inedible ice cream for a model, and were placed on the sofa uncontrollably, with their backs touching the remote control.

   "Zi..." The TV station changed the channel, "He may be the most boring speaker at the donkey party conference", and ABC is also desperately hacking him to rescue Dukakis, the candidate for the general.

   "Ah... Zi...", CBS is also teasing, "This speech, for the audience, the most favorite word to hear is 'finally...', and they can't wait for the end.

"Ah...Zi...", "This Kansas, no, Tennessee, not..." The host of the local black channel pretended not to know that the governor was from that small southern state, "By the way, a young man from Little Rock, Arkansas , when he finishes speaking, the audience will grow beards..."

   "Crack...", Ronald pulled out the remote control from under Turington's body, and turned off the TV viciously. Without distraction, he began to look carefully at Turington's pretty face again... and then kissed it.

  (end of this chapter)