Chapter 341: How to jump in the queue and release a movie during the award season?
"I think these two films are very potential projects, and they are worthy of completing their distribution work no matter what."
Although Mike Medavoy has gone to TriStar Pictures, after all, he was responsible for the two movies, and he wanted to complete the two movies both emotionally and rationally.
So he still called the richest man, Mr. Kluge, and tried to make a final push.
"Potential? Unrealized potential is not worth mentioning..." Kluge has been ridiculed enough by his friends. The smug pride he felt in acquiring Orion has long since disappeared, and he has no good attitude towards this old subordinate.
.
"I have watched some clips of both movies. From what I watched, they both have the potential to win Oscars. Especially, these two movies are also watched by Ronald. His understanding of the director is
No other producer in Hollywood can match it.
He knows best when to intervene directly and when to trust the director and starring actors. This ability can ensure the final artistic effect of the film. I have been working in the industry for decades and I have never seen a young man handle this matter so perfectly.
people."
Mike McDavoy also wants to try to convince Kluge that although he has left Orion, his name will still appear on the movie as an executive producer, and fans will remember his name.
"I'm talking about box office potential, you..." Kluge exploded. He has invested in so many movies. Even if he gets an Oscar nomination, what use will it have to the box office?
Before he bought a large amount of Orion stock, the company released "Mozart" and "Platoon", which won multiple Oscars in a row. Because the box office increased after winning the awards, they were still passable.
But since he became the big boss of Orion, he has not won a nomination for four consecutive years. Nominations and awards have a far different impact on box office.
Not to mention that Milos Forman, the director of "Mozart", spent the past two years working slowly and meticulously on "Valmont," which even cost him his underwear.
He also wanted to invest in Orion by winning the Oscar, hoping to form synergy with his cable TV business, instead of constantly losing money, losing money...
"Okay, Mr. Kluge, if you don't want to continue distribution, then according to the contract, we can transfer the copyright of the film to Ronald and stop the loss appropriately..."
Mike Medavoy fulfilled his final obligation to the richest man Kluge. Then he persuaded Kluge and let Ronald take over the overall rights to the two movies.
After that, whether these two films won awards or box office, they had nothing to do with Orion. Although they still had to display the title logo of Orion Pictures due to the reason of applying to the MPAA Film Association.
"Okay, let's start our plan in this way." Ronald was still sure of recovering his investment in the two movies. He immediately established two project companies and took over the ownership of the two movies.
But although Ronald is confident, Columbia Pictures is not confident enough. In other words, their CEO Peter Guber or Vice President Jon Peters is not confident enough.
They said that they had just purchased the overseas and TV package distribution rights from Orion, and for a while they did not have the remaining funds or schedule to take over the distribution work of two films that required a lot of public relations investment to compete for awards.
Anyway, the two of them were wearing the same pair of pants, and Ronald couldn't tell which one had the problem with him.
Guber may have had factional issues with Oga's good friend Ronald because he was recruited by former chairman Akio Morita. Ronald recommended Frank Price as president, which posed a vague threat to him. Again, in
There is a small entity within the company, TriStar Pictures, which has its own team of people (Mike Medavoy has recently joined) to operate it.
Perhaps Peters was unhappy because Price, who was recommended by Ronald, replaced him as vice president. Or maybe Kim Basinger, whom he had been chasing after so much, was picked off by Ronald.
Not to mention, he was recommended to join the "Batman" crew, and his career skyrocketed out of his control.
Anyway, no matter how they communicated, they both insisted that Colombia's film schedules were all arranged, especially during the year-end period when competing for awards, and Ronald's two new films could not be included.
In fact, this reason was very high-sounding, and Ronald was indeed speechless. This kind of blockbusters are all scheduled more than a year in advance at a screening conference in Las Vegas. The seven major producers
The factory has a coordination mechanism to try to prevent movies with the same theme and type from colliding.
In order to compete for next year's Oscars, Colombia plans to release two films that are expected to compete for important Oscar awards in the eleventh and twelve months of the year.
One is "Danger", a film directed by Ronald's friend Robert Reiner. It is adapted from Stephen King's novel of the same name. It is also a psychological thriller. The story is very interesting, and the protagonist is a best-selling novelist.
, a story about being tied up at home by a female book lover. It is a very funny story written by Stephen King.
The other one is called "Speechless", directed by Penny Marshall, who is also a good friend of Ronald and has directed Diane. This film is an adaptation of a true story, telling the story of Thayer, a New York doctor who used drugs to make people sick.
There are stories of patients who contracted epidemic encephalitis between 1917 and 1928 and recovered, but soon became cataleptic again.
These two movies have distinct characteristics. They are both adaptations of best-selling books or memoirs. The stories rely heavily on the performances of the director and actors, and have budgets of 2000 to 300 million US dollars. They are typical mid-range productions, aiming for Oscars.
The biggest feature of this kind of movie is that it is released at the end of the year. Because the 1991 Oscars were established to commend movies released in 1990.
The film that impressed the judges the most was undoubtedly the film released at the end of the year closest to the voting time.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Ever since Jane Fonda's movie "Homecoming" revealed this secret, the year-end schedule has become increasingly crowded with films competing for awards.
Ronald knew both directors well and knew that it would be impossible to persuade them to give up their scarce schedules. With no other choice, he had to find his daydream distribution manager, Michelle Cannold, and a public relations consultant.
Michael Gray, discussing whether he could handle the distribution of two films himself.
"It is very difficult. As you know, all the slots at the end of the year are booked in advance. Orion was in turmoil before, and the slots they booked were not locked, and now they have been snatched away by the Seventh Group.
In particular, Scorsese's 'Goodfellas', released by Warner Bros., and 'The Bet' by new producer Miramax, both secured their spots early and were allocated a lot of late-year schedules."
"This guy, Mr. Kluge, the richest man, wants to sell the company. Why don't you tell us earlier? Warner Bros. aside, we can't compete with Miramax. Their boss filmed me in Cannes a few years ago.
His flattery..."
Ronald is becoming more and more dissatisfied with the richest man. Although Orion's business is small, it can't be dealt with so casually? You have nothing to do with it, why don't you just give me whoever I want to do it with?
"Even if there are theaters willing to show our movies, I'm afraid the battle for public relations and marketing is not optimistic." Public relations consultant Gray also thinks the chances of winning are slim.
Like the schedule, public relations resources before the Oscar nomination battle are limited, and these resources are often tied to the seven major studios. For example, the two famous Chicago film critics Roger Ebert and Gil
En Sisko, their weekly film review column, recommends a fixed number of movies.
In order to compete for prizes, the Big Seven often reserved film review slots for that time period in advance. Ronald could usually jump in when asking them to write film reviews, but during the most intense year-end period, it was not so easy.
Like theater resources, this is not a problem that can be solved purely by money, at least not in the short term.
For a while, the meeting reached a deadlock. Of course, Ronald could not release the film during the awards season at the end of the year, but by doing so, not only would two films with great potential to compete for awards miss a good opportunity, but neither of the films would rely on stars.
If a commercial film fails to enter the Oscar competition, it will have a profound impact on the box office.
Everyone discussed it for a long time, but there was no good solution. Maybe postponing it for a year and participating in the next Oscars would be a solution.
But within a year, no one knows what will happen. The decision to postpone the release of "Valmont" for one year was made before, and the ending of "Valmont" with nothing in sight also made Ronald feel risky.
"How about we take a break, watch a comedy, and relax..." Cannold proposed the idea of adjourning the meeting. Everyone was a little sleepy, and inspiration can only come when you need to relax.
Ronald nodded in agreement and pointed to the video tape cabinet in the corner of the office, where many video tapes were collected and used for reference.
"Watch something that takes no brainer..." Cannold didn't want to watch those comedies that required brain power, and just wanted to relax. His hand reached out to David Zucker's nonsensical masterpiece "The Sky".
"Don't watch this kind of vulgar movie. Is there a comedy with a more elegant style?" David Simkins is in charge of scripts and production. He doesn't like this kind of low-grade movie.
"My Fair Lady" by Sting Hoffman.
"It has to be stylish and effortless. I recommend you to watch this one..." Michael Gray is also a movie lover, and he reached out to a South African movie from the early 1980s.
"Is God Crazy?" This movie was not very popular when it was released in America. Cannold and Simkins had not yet entered Hollywood and had not watched it in full, so they sat down to watch it.
"I have also met the producers of this movie. When they came to America, it happened to be the time to impose sanctions on the white South African government, and they almost didn't show it here. It was released..."
Ronald smiled. He also recalled the very embarrassing situation when the movie "God Is Crazy" wanted to be released in America, but no one was willing to show the movie as originally planned.
The film's investors, the South African film distributors, the Trosky family, have had a road to distribution in America that is full of ups and downs...
"Eh...", Ronald suddenly thought. It was the same for them back then. The theaters were unwilling to show their movies due to certain political reasons. As a result, they relied on their own abilities and dealt with the theaters alone. It took them four years.
Step by step, this movie turned into a box office winner.
"What if we distribute it ourselves instead of going through theaters?" Ronald asked suddenly after waiting for the movie to finish screening.
"Publish it yourself? How is this possible? This is not the time when the MPAA had no classification..."
Michelle Cannold, who knows a lot about the distribution business, is not very enthusiastic about this idea. In the early days, there were no unified standards for movie theaters in each state, so the film distribution business was fragmented, and each producer had to deal with it individually.
Dealing with movie theaters in various states and cities.
The MPAA rating agency established later, the famous Hays Code, was established to unify the screening standards of various states. Later, there were national theater chains, and the film distributors did not need to form their own distribution team to tour the states with copies.
.
"There is no legal requirement that you must go through a theater chain to sign a screening contract with a cinema, right?" Ronald asked.
"No, America is a free country. The reason why no one does this is because the cost is relatively high...eh..."
Michelle Cannold also suddenly figured out that the so-called high cost is compared with the mature distribution system of theaters. Now that the theaters have no time for the distribution of Ronald's two movies, they can organize it themselves.
, but the cost is lower.
"If so, how much does marketing and PR cost?", Ronald asked consultant Gray.
"The cost is higher, but if you don't do simultaneous screenings across the country, many materials can actually be reused."
Simultaneous nationwide release is also a required action due to the theater system and the gradual popularization of video tapes. Because most movies are released on a large scale, if they are not released simultaneously, the audience who watch the movie at a later time is likely to
You will see pirated videotapes coming out first.
But they are commercial films with stars. These two films also rely on Oscars to increase their popularity. There is not much concern in this regard.
"If it is slowly released in different states and at different times, we actually don't need to print so many copies, and we can save a lot of money." Suddenly, the ideas opened up, and everyone had new ideas.
"You should study it and prepare a feasibility report." Ronald gradually felt that this was feasible.
Everyone went to make plans for the release of the two movies. Later, it was gathered together with Ronald. Although he had a good idea, the cost still made him frown.
Distributing a movie is indeed no joke. The cost of production of copies, transportation, marketing in various places, public relations for the Oscars, and the cost of building a team to go to movie theaters in various states to promote it.
Even though Ronald had connections with Hollywood cinemas in several states on the east coast, and was friendly with the Palm Tree Cinemas invested by Saudi princes, the huge expenditure still easily exceeded tens of millions of dollars, almost as much as the movie
of production costs.
"No wonder the medium-sized studios that want to challenge the permanent distribution business have suffered heavy losses..." Ronald looked at the numbers at the bottom of the report and sighed. He finally understood why Orion lost a lot of money so easily.