Chapter 383 Record-breaking movie production costs
"Hey? Where's that beauty?" The Italian actor who just went in didn't see Cameron Diaz when he came out. He regretfully made a gesture on his chest, as if he wanted to find the beautiful figure from the depths of his soul.
Think about it again.
"Hey, I even forgot to ask for my name." He regretfully walked to the phone booth next to him and called his agent to announce the good news, "Hey, front desk? I'm Matt, looking for my agent Hannah, which one is there?
Matt? Matt LeBlanc...Hey, Hannah, yes, the audition person asked me to wait for notification. She said not to change my hairstyle. It seems that I will definitely have a chance to get into the final interview. I have to tell me
Mother……"
"Well, at least I don't have to pick up offers from the San Fernando Valley. If I can't help it, I won't go. It's just a last resort when I'm desperate." After a while, Cameron Diaz also came out, and she entered the final round.
With the audition list, I can temporarily have money to live on for a few months.
"Hey, where's that handsome Italian guy?" Diaz also forgot to ask for that handsome guy's name. He clicked his tongue, turned on the accelerator of his second-hand car and accelerated to go to the party first..."
Ronald not only invited Scorsese and Coppola, but also asked directors from his own company to direct Coca-Cola commercials, just as a way to practice his skills and make some extra money.
Of course, Emile Adolino didn't do this commercial to make money, he just wanted to increase his influence. Shooting commercials for a big company like Coca-Cola and with a director of Scorsese's level, it was a big deal for him.
Said it was a good opportunity to improve one's status in the industry.
As for monetary income, Adolino's "Firebird" has begun to make money. Ronald will not treat people who bring profits to his company badly, and the money must always be provided.
The box office of "Firebird" dropped much weaker than expected, but actually improved by one place. This was mainly due to the support of Brooke Shields' fans.
The story of Brooke Shields going to the front line to work in the army was told by a news reporter as the reason for the high morale of the young men when they were interviewing the US military press officer at the front. Although he did not name the female star, many people relied on the name of the female star in the background.
The cheers of the soldiers guessed it.
Brooke Shields negotiated with Ronald and did not admit or deny it. She just expressed the hope that the soldiers would complete their mission safely and return victoriously.
She also has a lot of difficulties. In Hollywood and big cities on the east and west coasts, anti-war sentiment has always been very high. Labor is one thing, but openly supporting the war will damage her popularity in big cities (which are also important movie box office)
of support.
Of course, this vague approach is the best. In the southern states and some central states, in small towns with high patriotic enthusiasm, young men also flocked to the cinema to see the charm of Brooke Shields because of this incident.
, can make the soldiers so excited.
In addition to the box office of Firebird, even the video rental results of Brooke's previous movies also saw a significant increase.
At the same time, in the box office rankings, after 29 weeks and more than half a year of being in theaters, "The Love of Ghosts" finally withdrew from the large-scale release sequence and moved to the second round and in some theaters.
long-term screening.
This is because during the long weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the film finally exhausted its last bit of potential, and the weekend box office began to drop below a thousand dollars per theater. The number of theaters it was released in also dropped below 500.
After reluctantly bidding farewell to the audience and giving up its position as the box office king in 1990 to "Home Alone", "The Last Day" has grossed a total of 211 million at the domestic box office.
Paramount and Ronaldo's studios were making a lot of money. If "Home Alone" hadn't come out, this movie would have become the most discussed movie in the 1990s.
Unlike now, even at the celebration party, the vice president of Paramount who replaced Lindsay Dolan and Ronald were still discussing the potential of family movies and possible cooperation.
Although Chris Columbus was recommended by Ronald as the director of Home Alone, as an aspiring director, Ronald still felt unhappy by praising other directors in front of him.
If it hadn't been for the success of this movie, the other party would have congratulated me on my vision and discussed the possibility of a new romantic movie.
"Three people still have a higher box office than two people..."
Ronald, who interrupted the celebration party early and went home alone, talked to Diane.
"My dear, I still like the movies you made." Diane thought Ronald was unhappy and immediately came over to comfort her husband.
"I also think my shots are better, but that's not the quality of the movie, but the size of the movie's audience."
Nowadays, movies have become a special consumer product. Audiences need a reason to go to the cinema. The natural market capacity of a romance movie that two young lovers watch together is three times smaller than that of "Home Alone" with a family.
one part.
…
"So you also think you need to continue to increase marketing expenses?"
"It's better to watch three people than two."
The next day, Ronald repeated this sentence on the phone.
"What do you mean?"
"Your movie is R-rated, and your competitor's movie may be PG-13, unless your marketing is better than others..."
"Hey, what you said makes sense..."
James Cameron sighed deeply on the phone. He was under great pressure now.
Filming for the Terminator sequel has not yet been completed, but Carloco has already scheduled a release date for this summer.
Now Weinstein and his special effects team have begun to sprint towards the special effects shots of the T-1000 liquid metal robot. Carloco has invested a total of about 15 million in special effects funds, which is enough to make a medium-investment movie.
On Cameron's side, there are still many live-action special effects shots of gun battles, chases, and machine gun fire that have not been completed, and he is also under a lot of pressure now.
But Carloco was obviously very gambling. Not only did he not back down, but he also wanted to increase marketing expenses. He wanted to bring Ronald and other shareholders to a meeting to discuss additional investment. Cameron first met with Ronald
Ventilation, is it necessary to invest in such a desperate effort?
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Considering the record-breaking high salary for hiring Schwarzenegger before, and the investment that has been increased twice, if we still need to increase the marketing budget
, this movie may cost more than 100 million US dollars, becoming the most expensive movie in history.
This is like a paradox. If the production cost is relatively low, then the box office will not take much to recover the money. But now the production cost has soared to 70 million. If the marketing investment is not enough, it will definitely lose money.
And if a large amount of additional marketing investment is made, it will cause a further surge in investment, and more box office will be needed to recover the capital. In short, Carloco is like getting on a train without a braking system. It has to pass through a train immediately.
The bridge is about to collapse.
People on the train could only continue to add coal to the boiler, hoping that they could rush across the bridge at high speed before it collapsed.
"Terminator 2" can only be rated R (restricted) due to plot issues, and depreciation further pushes up the cost of marketing. In short, once Ronald agrees with Carloco's gambling strategy, then it will really
It takes a road until it gets dark.
"Really need to add so much budget?" The top management of Daydream was first summoned by Ronald for a meeting. They were also a little scared by this kind of courage that can only be seen in Las Vegas. After all, this is
In Hollywood, when they think of MGM, they think of studios, not casinos and hotels.
"I think it's worth a try. Anyway, Schwarzenegger has to participate in all the marketing roadshows for that huge salary. With this move, I estimate that I can almost help Carloco save tens of millions of budget.
It's still worth a try." Consultant Michael Gray is confident in this crazy plan, "The key is whether the quality of the movie can match his marketing?"
"I have confidence in my friend Cameron..." Ronald stopped other executives who wanted to continue raising questions, "It doesn't matter, anyway, according to the proportion, even if we lose money, we won't lose a lot. If this investment has
If there is any problem, I will be responsible for this part.”
Everyone immediately stopped questioning. Anyway, with Ronald’s personal support and his always brilliant vision, it seems that the images that have been produced for Terminator 2 must be very good.
…
"Want to add more?"
On the day of the meeting, as soon as Mario Casal, the founder and president of Carocco, proposed additional investment, all the small and medium-sized shareholders immediately turned pale. Why do they still need to invest more? Hollywood has never made such an expensive film.
What about movies...
Many people have begun whispering about the past of "Cleopatra". In that era, tens of millions were spent on filming the epic blockbuster, which almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox. If it hadn't been for the starring role of Richard Burgh
Burton and Elizabeth Taylor had romantic gossip, which invisibly promoted the movie. Audiences flocked to the cinema to see what Taylor looked like, so that Burton could divorce her and marry her...
But this kind of thing cannot be replicated. For a while, everyone was talking about it, and their voices gradually grew louder.
"We want to take a look at the special effects that have been completed..." Finally, those small and medium-sized investors reached a consensus. Whether the movie can make back its money must depend on the quality of the movie, so their proposal is also very "reasonable"...
…
Forced to have no choice, Mario Casal had no choice but to ask Winston, the special effects director, to take out the semi-finished special effects work he was currently working on and show it to investors. Before watching, everyone had to sign a confidentiality agreement.
"This? That's it?..."
As soon as those scenes were shown, investors went crazy. To be honest, some of the traditional special effects, explosions and other scenes that were filmed were not much improved compared to the first film. The shot of Schwarzenegger firing a Gatling gun
, which is quite interesting, but it’s not particularly outstanding in an action movie.
At least, it's not convincing enough for the audience to come to the cinema just for this shot.
The T-1000 liquid robot, for which high hopes have been placed, is even more outrageous. The computer software developed by Weston's team currently only has some rough low-quality renderings that can be viewed, and the crude and grayish
The materials, and the boxy model like Transformers, are both disgusting.
“Are you just going to let the audience watch Lego?”
One investor began to mock the special effects, which sparked a chorus of approval.
"Director Ronald, what do you think?" Amidst the noise, a shrewd Wall Street investor asked Ronald in a low voice unmoved.
"This is an epoch-making special effects picture, something you have never seen before..." Ronald, who has always been full of confidence in Cameron, said that he had dreamed about the picture. It corresponded one-to-one with Winston's special effects production picture.
I got up and figured out a lot of the production process and techniques. I was nodding my head in admiration. When I was asked, I immediately blurted out.
"Um?"
Suddenly, many investors heard the news and stopped talking. The conference room suddenly became quiet. Everyone looked at Ronald, waiting for him to say anything else.
"Why are you looking at me? Look at this picture. This is the amazing innovation of Winston's special effects team and director Cameron. Look here, and here, tsk tsk, tsk tsk, what a clever editing, combining real shots
The combination with computer special effects is so seamless that I think Hollywood movies may change something after this movie."
Ronald ignored these people and looked at the screen alone and kept making tut-tsk sounds.
"What will change?" the Wall Street investor boldly asked.
"Perhaps future movies, without such computer-generated special effects scenes, will not be able to become box-office blockbusters of the year. At least some of the movies will be like this. I can't wait to see it."
"Oh..." With a bang, the investors started discussing again. Some shrewd ones even ran to Ronald's side, hoping to find out some new information from his conversations with the special effects team that would help them grow.
A few words of faith.
"Thank you. Your speech today is a very good education for those ignorant investors. They dare to question the quality of the movie and the carefulness of the marketing plan. They are really overestimating their capabilities. A layman comes to teach an expert. We are stuck.
Rocco's plan, like the movie itself, is also epoch-making..."
After everyone voted for additional investment, Mario Casal came over to express his gratitude to Ronald.
"You'd better be..."
Ronald wasn't too interested in Carloco's big words, but he only supported him for Cameron's sake. As for the so-called marketing plan, I don't know how much money will actually be spent on effective marketing.
"Why do you think so? Of course it is very good marketing. You will know when the time comes..." Mario Casal was still boasting there, and Cameron came over to hug Ronald.
"Thanks for your trust……"
"I never doubted..."
"I have to go to the studio. It has to be released in July. I can't waste a day now." Cameron looked at his watch and said he would go back to filming soon.
"take care……"
Ronald thought to himself that making a movie like this would be much harder than commuting on time for his recent filming of "Other People's Money." Looking at Cameron's long beard, he was probably too busy to even find time to reunite with his wife.
With. Kathryn Bigelow is also working on her own new film...
It is better to find an actress as his wife, otherwise the two of them may not see each other for half a year since they are on two crews.
…
"The marketing plan for Terminator 2 is very huge. There is still more than half a year before the release. A trailer has been filmed to hide all the plots and not to spoil the important plot of the second part (Terminator in the second part)
The second part is a good robot that protects John Conrad). There are only scenes of the T-800 being assembled and produced in the robot factory of the future. It will be broadcast continuously on the TV station from now on, which is really generous."
Ronald told Michael Gray about the marketing plan he learned from Terminator 2.
"We are also increasing some marketing investment. The Silence of the Lambs needs more momentum. Otherwise, I would be embarrassed for these creators who have performed so well. We will first increase the investment by five million, hold one more large-scale premiere, and then increase
Screening of the city, meeting with the audience..."
Ronald didn't include this thriller in last year's awards season, and he felt a little sorry for Jonathan Demme. Now that he sees Carloco's trust and investment in Cameron, he feels that he must also be worthy of the artist who trusts him.
them.
"Okay, I'll make arrangements. But...it's the end of January now. Even if we try a lot, this movie may not be able to get many nominations by the end of the year."
"I don't care so much. This movie is indeed good. I think Hollywood may not be able to see a movie like this come out in three to five years. Regardless of the awards, I must do my best at the box office and let as many people see it as possible.
It would be a shame not to watch a movie like this.
Anyway, those film critics are in their off-season right now, so if we spend more money, we must manage it well and try our best to get them to give more praise..."