Chapter 343: The B-level movie that knocked down the box office champion of Beautiful Woman
"Huh? A beautiful woman was knocked out of the top spot on the box office list by a B-level movie?"
While having breakfast, Ronald looked at the Hollywood Reporter's box office rankings for the new weekend, and Disney's "Pretty Woman" was pushed to second place.
"This is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They opened in more than 2,000 theaters. It's higher than Pretty Woman in 1,500 theaters. It's normal. It's their first weekend..." Richard also took
I came over and took a look and said I understood.
"New Line Cinema, what is the distribution capability of this company?" Ronald saw that the distribution company column was a small company called New Line Cinema. There were many such companies in the 1970s, so in the
Drive-in theaters made a living by distributing European art films (with far more nudity than Hollywood).
But in the late 1980s, with the addition of PG-13 ratings in Hollywood and the demise of drive-in theaters, they gradually disappeared like Roger Corman's New World. I accidentally saw a movie ranked
The movie that topped the box office list was not released by Big Seven, and Ronald also wanted to learn from the experience.
"Robert Chayer founded this distribution company at the age of twenty-seven. He initially screened art films in college. He was deeply in debt in the early 1980s, but he had a good classmate, Michael Lynn, who not only helped him
We restructured our debts and purchased the rights to two blockbuster horror films, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and we have been relying on horror film series for the past two years.”
Richard had done some research on New Line, and he told Ronald about the history of New Line.
"But this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I don't really understand. When I went to see it last night, I found that it was just a B-level comic book adaptation movie with a rubber cover. It didn't seem to have much in common with the Fantastic Four.
gap……"
"Huh?" Ronald didn't quite believe it, and was going to go to the cinema to watch one at noon. Is this kind of movie adapted from a comic about a man in a leather suit really so attractive?
…
"Ah, hahahaha..."
The audience in the cinema made hilarious sounds from time to time. Many of them were fans of the original comics, and there were also many young viewers who came to watch the fun. The fights in the plot have a lot of the style of Xiangjiang martial arts directors, and some dialogues also have a sense of humor.
It is indeed the best choice for young couples to watch movies on weekends.
Of course, Ronald watched more than those viewers. Not only did he discover that Xiangjiang Martial Arts was highly involved, but he also discovered that the film's producer was Jiahe from Xiangjiang.
This movie was shot very cleverly, because most of the shots were night scenes, which made the four actors wearing rubber leather suits, accompanied by the big green turtle named after famous artists and scientists in history, unexpectedly not
Too many gangster scenes.
This is much better than the leather holster worn by the rock man in Fantastic Four. That holster was often shot under natural light, and many fighting scenes had to be replaced with another one, which took several times more effort.
But the final effect was not as good as this dark Ninja Turtle.
…
"Jackie, this movie was made by Golden Harvest? You guys are really good. Now it ranks first at the box office in America."
After returning home, Luo Nage dialed Jackie Chan's home phone number in Xiangjiang and congratulated them on their success in Xiangjiang.
"What turtle? I don't know. Wait a minute, I'll ask my brother. Hey! Did you hear that there's a movie about turtles, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film?"
Jackie happened to be having dinner with her brothers, so she asked about the people in the Chan family class at the dinner table.
"Boss, yes, Jiahe paid for the Hollywood shoot, but the money wasn't much..."
"Is it really true? Wait a moment..." Jackie Chan stood up. He seemed to have heard Ronald say that it was the number one box office on the weekend. He quickly walked to the back room with his mobile phone and asked for more information.
"Of course it's true. The second place is the beautiful woman I supervised. The handsome guys and beauties were all defeated by your small production of 12 million US dollars. The box office in the first weekend was 25 million US dollars..."
"How much? Twenty-five million? How much can Jiahe get?" Jackie Chan became excited when she heard this number.
"There are different adjustments. On the first weekend, you can probably get 70%..."
"Wait a minute, is it US$25 million in the first weekend?" Jackie Chan quickly calculated and found that just this one movie was more than what he had earned for many years of hard work and even injuries.
"How about you come to America for inspection? I can introduce you to some people in Hollywood, but I may not be able to accompany you the whole time. My son was just born..."
"Oh, congratulations, there is a successor to Luo Sheng. I'll ask Sister Jiao, and I'll go over and have a look after buying the tickets..." Jackie Chan, who has always wanted to go to Hollywood, has always been intimidated by language barriers and cultural barriers.
I was tempted to take a supporting role like "The Killer" again, but after a phone call, my mind was aroused by the number that Golden Harvest's production topped the box office charts in America.
"Don't keep Sister Jiao busy, I'll find a private plane to pick you up. I'm familiar with this, so just wait for the call." Ronald has always liked Jackie Chan's action movies. He came to Hollywood to investigate, and Yu Gong
It's a good thing personally.
…
"If Fantastic Four hadn't been sold to Warner Bros., wouldn't it have been possible to release internal copies and get good results?" David Simkins, Ronald's script supervisor, also knew about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles box office
After watching the news, like Ronald, he was unimpressed with the production level. It was just a normal B-level exploitation film, so why did it do so well at the box office?
"It's hard to say, but it's useless to talk about it now. It's a completed deal..." Ronald pointed to the "Other People's Money" script he bought and asked David Simkins to advise him.
, and together we changed it from a stage play script to a movie script.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Because the script of the stage play must comply with the laws of three unities and facilitate rehearsal on the stage, the characters have been simplified to five.
The most important among them is Jorgensen, a veteran industrialist in New England and the second-generation owner of a cable factory (the role of Gregory Peck in Ronald's dream).
Then there are the Jewish capitalists on Wall Street, the alligators who acquire companies, Garfunkel. (The buffoon played by Danny DeVito in Ronald's dream.)
The third character who tells the story is Mr. Coles, the general manager of the cable factory.
Of course the movie couldn't be shot like this and more characters had to be added. Ronald and David Simkins discussed it for a long time and decided to add cable factory workers and some supporting characters from Garfunkel.
Of course, the role of the daughter of the cable factory owner Jorgensen's lover and secretary, a practicing lawyer in New York City, was Ronald's original idea when he bought the script, to please Diane.
Ronald and Jerry Sterner, the author of the play, also had a phone call. The other party was absolutely convinced that his film could be handed over to a director like Ronald who made a very real commercial film like "Working Girl".
It was overjoyed.
He told Ronald about his own mentality. This film, which promotes America's long tradition of respecting entrepreneurs, is an attempt to correct the negative stereotypes of business people on Broadway caused by the "conspiracy of left-wing college dropouts".
.
Nowadays, whether in Hollywood or on Broadway, artists with left-wing ideas definitely account for the vast majority. Back then, those high-spirited entrepreneurial movies praised self-made entrepreneurs who led a group of people to overcome obstacles and create a big business.
Already nearly extinct.
A group of playwrights, actors, and directors who don't understand business operations at all. When they meet entrepreneurs in the plot, they add a villain role to them. In short, when the conflict cannot continue, they arrange an evil capitalist to do all the bad things.
Just do it.
Ronald also feels that this trend is not a good thing for the entire society. There are good people and bad people among entrepreneurs, and they are all the same as ordinary workers. The image of a certain industry continues to be negatively presented in movies and TV dramas, which has a negative impact on the entire society.
Bridging conflicts and strengthening consensus in society is not always a good thing.
The playwright Jerry Sterner is obviously a pure white Anglo-German, as can be seen from the image of the Wall Street liquidators arranged in his movies. He has a very Jewish name and likes to eat donuts.
, I wake up alone in bed every day, with no one to share my wealth.
Although the boss of the cable factory has an illegitimate daughter, is having an extramarital affair with his secretary, is not very efficient at running the factory, and is unwilling to take measures to protect himself from a hostile takeover, he is a loser, but he is the backbone of this society.
.
This kind of "bringing order to chaos" is actually going from one extreme to another. It seems that there are no bad guys among those who run the factory. No matter how many wrong things they do, they are still the most pious people under God.
Ronald put pencil stars on the backs of these characters. He had to revise the background stories of these characters. Director Jorgensen was no longer the tall man, but had dictatorial, domineering and other shortcomings. And the acquisition
Under the very boring surface of the Jewish liquidator, there is actually a heart longing to love and be loved.
This movie is actually a bit of a reversal of the verdict of American bankers and industrialists who have been criticized in recent years, showing their weakness and helplessness from another angle. Like ordinary people, they also face censure and grievances from their families.
And the longing for a lover.
So you have to be very careful when handling it. Ronald doesn't have much clue yet, he is just organizing the fragments of these stories back and forth.
"Ronnie, Jacky's plane is coming..."
Diane came over to remind.
"Okay, let's go pick it up." Ronald smiled and hugged Diane.
"Have you chosen the leading actor for me?" Diane glanced at the script and began to feel anxious. If she can cooperate with an actor with outstanding acting skills, it may be an opportunity for her performance level to be re-recognized by the critics.
.
"I approached Mr. Gregory Peck. He was a little interested and asked me to discuss it in detail after I finished revising the script." Peck always likes to play these roles of America's conscience.
"I mean that young one..." Diane came over and acted coquettishly.
"I asked Niceta to make a list, let's meet and chat one by one..." Ronald opened the drawer and took out a list, which was all the names of movie-level male stars.
al pacino,
Dustin Hoffman,
Danny DeVito,
Tom Hanks……
Diane noticed that all the actors here were good-looking, and not many of them were good-looking.
"The role of Garfunkel is first subdued and then strong, so I have to find someone of average height. If I cast Tom (Cruise) or Warren Beatty, then the audience might initially treat them like
I can’t hate it,” Ronald explained.
"I know, let's go pick up Jackie." Diane looked back at the list, and it seemed that Al Pasino and Tom Hanks were more handsome in comparison.
…
"Jackie!"
"Luo Sheng..."
Ronald hugged Jackie Chan at the door of his home, who came on a Sony business jet. This time he came with his wife Jiao Jie in the name of vacation. He didn't bring any of Jiahe's management and martial artists with him, for fear of leaking.
information.
"Is this the eldest nephew? Come on, Uncle Jackie will give you a greeting gift..."
Jackie Chan looked at little Roger's eagerness and liked it very much. She asked Sister Jiao to take out the precious Jade Guanyin with a red string and put it on little Roger.
"You kid, you have your nobility." Jackie praised little Roger and translated it to Ronald through Sister Jiao.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Unlike my son, except that he is double-boned (extremely strong bones) like me, he is also slow to read, and he will make trouble."
"That's not a good job to take over from you as an action star, hahaha..."
Jackie didn't wait for the jet lag, and she energetically asked Ronald to talk about Hollywood movies. The last time he came to film, he was "The Killer", but the director looked down on him and made him a supporting role, which made him the first time.
Entering Hollywood was a fruitless endeavor.
"This Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, are they really that powerful?" Jackie Chan returned to the topic.
"That's not to say that she can't compare with the beautiful women that I supervised and were shot by Disney." Ronald showed him the newspaper.
"Can I go and see it?" Jackie is a person who is quick to talk and will go to watch the movie soon.
"Don't you take a break first?"
"I can't sleep. I've had enough sleep on the plane. I'm so anxious that I just want to watch this movie."
"America's box office is really amazing."
After watching the movie, Jackie Chan could only sigh. The martial arts in this movie were actually very average, and he couldn't understand the jokes. On the way back, he kept talking about 25 million
U.S. dollars, twenty-five million U.S. dollars.
"Can Golden Harvest really be divided into so many?" Jackie Chan's mind is now filled with the box office.
"Then you must be able to surpass many of these martial arts moves by just editing them. American audiences have never seen acrobatic action movies like yours. Let me tell you, your movie videos are very popular in rental stores.
of."
"Really? I haven't seen a damn copper." The more Jackie Chan listened, the more uncomfortable she became.
"Didn't Jiahe give you any money?" Ronald was also surprised. In Hollywood, this is all handled by the Screen Actors Guild, and the actors will not lose a penny.
Ronald analyzed some knowledge about the film distribution system, and Jackie Chan was shocked. It turned out that Golden Harvest had been lying to them all along.
Golden Harvest has always said that overseas distribution costs are very high and it is not profitable. Only the box office revenue in Japan is relatively regular, Jackie Chan can get some, plus the endorsement contract given to him by the Japanese manufacturer, so he can still recover some money.
As for America, Southeast Asia, and Europe, there is basically no return money.
"You don't have a union...forget it, didn't you protest with Jiahe?" Ronald was also shocked by the backwardness and recklessness of the Hong Kong film industry.
"We can't even see the accounts for overseas costs. How much does Boss Zou say? After so many years, not only my company, but also the Jiahe satellite companies of my senior brothers have not seen anything outside of Japan.
A share of the overseas box office dime.”
"Not all movies make money, but this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Golden Harvest made a lot of money." Ronald touched his chin.
"How do you say that?" Jackie Chan asked. He had already made up his mind to start exploring the American market through Ronald's relationship.
"This movie was actually played by a few unknown actors. Because they wore rubber hoods, they didn't show their faces. Only the female reporter had a few close-ups.
So in fact, these people are not recognized by the audience. What the audience recognizes are Einstein, Michelangelo and those turtles. What will they bargain with in the future? So the sequel of Golden Harvest still has to make money."
"Didn't Jiahe make a lot of money?" Jackie Chan scratched his head. In recent years, he had not worked hard after being seriously injured. Instead of working hard for Jiahe, it would be better to develop in Hollywood.
"Don't worry, you can live in Hollywood for a while, and I will accompany you to slowly investigate the industry here." Ronald chuckled. If Jackie Chan really came to Hollywood to develop, he would definitely be able to break through based on the rental rate of his video tapes.