The total box office of "Night of the Comet" in the first week exceeded 5.5 million US dollars. Ronald heard the news on Sunday. Some more screening theaters were added in the middle of the week, and the average box office of a single theater for the week has reached
Five thousand.
This result was far beyond Atlantic's expectations. In the few days of the week, the box office did not drop much compared to the first weekend. This indicates that the film has a good reputation and is likely to have a strong box office in the second weekend.
Will last longer than the first weekend.
This kind of box office trend has made Ronald's second directorial work a sleeping beauty-like box office structure (sleeping hit). If Atlantic can invest more marketing funds and get more screenings, then
The potential of the opening weekend doesn't stop there.
But this is all hindsight. I chose Atlantic City in the first place because they were the only ones who believed that I could film science fiction subjects well.
"Your performance has attracted the attention of Mr. Ovitz. Someone from the seven major studios has also taken the initiative to contact CAA. Your choice for the third film will be much wider." Agent Niceta was in the office.
, said to Ronald.
"Of course that's very good." Ronald was happy in his heart. A person's status in the industry is often determined by his past history.
“In the film industry, due to the huge difference in box office, practitioners often have a roller coaster experience.
For example, you are familiar with director Peter Bogdanovich, a former Oscar nominee for Best Director and Best Screenplay. Since he failed to find a distributor for his girlfriend Stratten's posthumous work "They All Laughed", he himself
I spent 500,000 to buy the distribution rights of the film.
Then Peter used his production company to independently distribute the film. After spending three million US dollars, Bogdanovich was on the verge of bankruptcy and was now wandering around major film companies, hoping to take on another directorial project to earn more money.
Money pays debts.”
Niceta said to Ronald.
"Is it so miserable?"
"Yes, he just left CAA, and he is a little desperate now. I think his mansion will be replaced soon."
As Niceta answered, she took out a black envelope from the drawer and threw it over.
"This is an invitation to the premiere of Star Wars - Return of the Jedi. It's from Lucasfilm. It seems that George Lucas is also very optimistic about you." Niceta invited Ronald to come to CAA for an interview this time. Mainly
It's better to give him this invitation letter.
"It's a pity that Helen is not here." Ronald took out the invitation letter from the envelope. It was a large black letter and folded it in half. There was a red "Return of the Jedi" logo on the cover. Ronald opened it and found a premiere ticket inside.
And a t-shirt.
The navy blue T-shirt also has the words "Return of the Jedi". It seems that Lucasfilm hopes that everyone attending the premiere will wear T-shirts.
"Thursday at eight o'clock?" Ronald looked at the time on the invitation.
"Yes, you are the first group of lucky people among all Californians to see "Return of the Jedi". All other movie theater audiences have to wait until the early morning to watch the midnight show.
"All movie theaters?"
"Yes, almost all the movie theaters filming that day were given to Return of the Jedi. After all, it is the much-anticipated finale of the Star Wars trilogy."
"I have to make a call and ask." Ronald looked solemn, picked up the phone and called the president of Atlantic Pictures.
"Tom, I heard that starting from Thursday, all California movie theaters will be showing Return of the Jedi? What about our movie?"
"It doesn't start on Thursday, but on Thursday. Our movies will resume filming from Friday, but the number of screenings will be greatly squeezed. There is nothing we can do about it, Ronald. When the weekend is over, we will start next week
It will be released in theaters and will be compressed, unless the quality of 'Return of the Jedi' is not as good as expected, but that's Lucas."
"Okay, how much will it probably go down?"
"We are fighting for it, but there is Star Wars at the top, and "Flashdance" at the bottom, which has never dropped in box office, so we are not very optimistic. The number of theaters may have to be reduced to less than 900."
"Okay, okay. No, I'm not angry. There's nothing we can do about it. Who let us encounter this Big Mac?"
Ronald put down the phone, still feeling a little unwilling. Such a good movie had great momentum. Who would have thought that "Star Wars" would be so attractive to theaters?
Fortunately, I still have a weekend and a midweek where I can make a lot of money at the box office.
Monday soon came and the box office results for the second weekend were in. Compared to the first week, the weekend box office was almost unchanged, still a little over 3.5 million US dollars. Atlantic also scored some from "Valley Girl"
When the theaters came, it was shown in 968 theaters in total.
The scary thing is that the box office of "Flashdance" did not drop in its sixth weekend, but rebounded a bit. It just surpassed "Night of the Comet" by hundreds of thousands of dollars, pushing Ronald's movie to fourth place.
"How did they do it?" Ronald looked at the box office data on the "Hollywood Report". "Flashdance" did not increase the number of theaters showing this week. In the sixth weekend of its release, it suddenly exceeded the fifth week.
More than half a million, things are picking up again.
Ronald thought for a while and called producer Don Simpson. Since he had helped him so much, he should be able to explain the reason.
"Aha, Ronald, you are the fourth person to call me today and ask about this matter. You are very sharp." Don Simpson answered with a yawn as he seemed to have just woken up at almost noon.
"Who are the first two?"
"Michael Eisner of Paramount, Katzenberg, and Michael Ovitz, the president of CAA. No one else has my phone number, hahaha."
"Then what is the reason? Have you done any marketing? It doesn't seem like it." Ronald asked.
"I'm telling you the 100 percent truth without discounting," Don Simpson seemed to be blowing his nose on the other end of the phone. "The only extra thing we did last week was release the videotape."
Ronald hung up the phone and began to think about this problem. The seven major Hollywood studios spent a huge amount of money and influence to prevent video recorders from becoming popular in America. Who knew that "Flashdance" was still used in movies?
When it was released, the video was released immediately, which actually led to box office growth. It was really an unexpected thing.
The only answer is that many viewers who watched the video once chose to watch it again on the big screen in the cinema. They believe that the effect of watching the video in the cinema is much better than watching it on a small TV at home.
Invisibly, the video tape has become a publicity channel. Anyway, most of the customers who buy or rent video tapes watch it with their family and friends. They think it is better to go to the cinema to buy a ticket to see a better screen effect. However, a video tape actually brings
attracted several moviegoers.
"Ring, ring, ring..." The ringing of the phone interrupted Ronald's thinking.
Ronald picked up the phone. It was Aunt Karen calling him.
"Ronnie, you haven't called your aunt for a long time. Aunt misses you."
"My fault, aunt. I've been busy with the movie release these past few weeks. By the way, have you and Donna gone to see it?"
"Donna went to see it and said that you did a good job and Comet did a great job. But that's not my cup of tea. I just want to see movies that reflect family life."
"Okay, aunt, you know, I'm only twenty-three years old this year. When I get older, I will definitely make a family-themed movie. Then we can watch it together."
"Of course, of course, you are a good boy. I am waiting for that day, but if your film career succeeds or fails in the future, you promised me that you must go back and get a university degree..."
Ronald chatted with his aunt for a while and felt very happy. His family was still thinking of him. His aunt must have known that the new movie was released, so she called him to congratulate him. Next time, Richard must remember to remind himself that the new movie will be released.
You have to call your family first.
Ronald continues to work as a screenwriter on a new karate-themed film.
After chatting with Vidal for several days, Ronald gradually came up with an idea. Let the villain, the boy who bullies the protagonist Danny, be also a karate practitioner.
And what he practices is the kind of karate moves that focus on ferocious attacks without leaving any baseline. That's why Danny is very afraid of him, dare not resist, and is unable to resist.
Finally, Danny found a Japanese teacher, and finally learned the Goju-ryu method, defended and counterattacked, and defeated the villain.
Do not actively attack the enemy, but learn skills and wait for others to bully you before fighting back. This is also in line with the Eastern philosophy of Goju-ryu. Learning martial arts is to prevent bad people from attacking you, not to attack.
other people.
Ronald felt that this story had a deeper content than the one he originally wrote. The competition between the two was not just a competition between two boys for a girl, but two philosophies, two methods, two
Intelligent competition.
One is the traditional American preemptive strike, relying on force to attack those who are inferior to oneself. The other is the traditional Chinese wisdom, striking later, focusing on doing one's own thing, and practicing force in order not to be attacked by others.
In this way, the conflict in the story can have another level. The masters of the two protagonists are actually competing, not directly, but who can teach a better apprentice. This kind of structure can be added to many dramas
conflict, and emotional experience.
"Tony, let me tell you a story. A kid transferred to Los Angeles to attend high school. He met a beautiful girl in school and the two had a crush on each other."
Ronald went to his usual hair salon and asked his hairstylist Tony to tell his story. Ordinary audiences are not like professional screenwriters. They listen to your story from an appreciative perspective. If it is not interesting, they will
So he stopped listening, and Ronald knew there needed to be improvement.
Tony kept responding to Ronald's stories with a yes, and sometimes asked a few questions.
"Danny found a teacher, he was Japanese. He taught him the philosophy of Goju-ryu karate, which is to use both attack and defense, both attack and defense."
"What?" Tony didn't know why and continued to look at Ronald in the mirror and trim his hair.
"It's just attack and defense, just use one move."
"How is it possible? When you hit someone with your fist, they will have an opportunity to hit you."
"That's it, just turned around like this."
"Oh, don't move, don't move, I will break it if you do this."
"Okay, okay." Ronald ended the story in failure. It seems that we have to find a way to tell this journey of learning and the Eastern wisdom philosophy of karate in a way that ordinary audiences can understand.