Chapter 332 The top five in the box office rankings account for two
The first weekend's box office results were delivered to Ronald immediately. "The Dragon King Part 2" topped the box office rankings. Thirteen hundred theaters grossed thirteen million in box office over the weekend.
It was the best opening weekend for any of Ronald's films.
Happiness comes suddenly.
On Sunday night, Ronald celebrated with his aunt and her boyfriend at their new home in Staten Island, along with their childhood friend, Douglas Hansen Jr.. His aunt's boyfriend, Eric, made the trip.
A sumptuous dinner was enjoyed by everyone.
After dinner, Ronald received a call from Weintraub, informing him that "The Kid Part 2" was about to top the box office charts. Douglas Jr. took a large bottle of champagne from home and celebrated.
"I hope our new film will go as well, cheers!"
Little Doug's annuity from the family fund has been expanded five times by his grandfather. He has more money to invest in Hollywood.
"Moonlight Sultry" led by Ronald approached him for capital allocation, and the two agreed to invest together after signing the issuance contract.
"Are you still in the top three in Top Gun?" Little Douglas asked.
"Fourth, the two new films are still very strong. But I am already quite satisfied. The box office of the movie 'Top Gun' is amazing, and now the weekly box office decline rate is less than 5%."
After Ronald found out the news, he told everyone.
"Top Gun" has great box office stamina, with a weekend box office of close to 6 million in its sixth week. The total box office will soon exceed 70 million.
This phenomenon is actually a good omen. The last movie with such a strong box office was Spielberg's "ET".
Maybe these two movies did something right. Ronald couldn't figure it out for the moment. He could only wait for the box office analysis data to come out before making a summary.
"Is it that movie starring Debra Winger and Robert Redford?" Douglas Jr. asked.
"Yes, that's right."
Ranking second at the box office is "French Open Condor". They have almost the same number of theaters as "Long Wei Boy Part 2", but their single theater box office is only about two-thirds of Long Wei's, and the final revenue is 800
million box office.
The third place is the comedy movie "Back to School". In the second week of its release, the weekend box office of 1,600 stores was not as much as the French Open Condor. Like most screwball comedies, the box office decline is not bad.
The fourth place is "Top Gun" which has been in theaters for six weeks.
In addition to the fifth place, "Spring Is Not a Day to Read" directed by John Hughes, Ronald alone accounted for two of the top five movies in the weekend box office rankings.
"When was the last time there was such a grand event?" Douglas Jr. was very satisfied with Ronald as a friend. He had become famous and did not forget to involve himself in investment. There was some compliment in his words.
"Spielberg, Lucas, there are quite a few situations like this. Don't do this." Ronald smiled and gave the younger boy a shoulder.
Little Douglas made an exaggerated motion to fall down, and then the two burst into laughter.
"I watched the French Open Condor, and I always felt that the stars were a bit redundant, and the case was also very complicated. I didn't understand it the first time I watched it, but I figured it out after I watched it the second time."
Douglas Jr. is also very concerned about Hollywood movies now, and always goes to see new movies when they are released. This way he can have some fun talking in the industry.
"I don't know about you yet, but you just wanted to take a second look at Deborah Winger and Daryl Hannah."
"Why do you think so bad of me?" Douglas Jr. looked hurt. "Actually, I have watched many movies now and know some basic plots. This movie always makes me guess what is going to happen next.
When I see Redford, I know that he will be a prosecutor who upholds justice, and he has a lot of humor. Beautiful women will fall in his arms. When I see Wenger, I know that she is a smart beauty..."
"There is indeed this problem, and I have discovered it. But this movie only relied on stars to star in it to attract financing."
"Then Moonlight Sultry will also have to change the character to be consistent with the image of the star in order to win over the star?"
"I don't think so, because this movie is centered on the heroine. Nowadays, there is still a gap in influence between female stars and male stars, and I don't want to find a famous star to play the male lead."
Douglas Jr. took another bottle of whiskey and the two continued to drink. Finally, he slept in the guest room of Ronald's house.
…
"Ronnie, your phone number seems to be your agent calling you." His aunt's boyfriend made him a hearty breakfast the next day.
"Thanks, Eric." Ronald answered the phone.
The call was from agent Niceta. He had received countless calls congratulating Ronald in the morning, and then the two selected some that had to be answered in person and asked Ronald to call back.
Ronald didn't want his private life in New York to be disturbed, so Niceta and the others temporarily served as Ronald's manual operators.
"Ned Tanin from Paramount congratulates you and asked you when you will return to Los Angeles this week to discuss the release of your new film.
Disney's production director Katzenberg also called to ask if "The Evil Husband", which you serve as a producer, is premiering in Los Angeles this weekend. Are you interested in attending?
There are several male stars who have personal relationships with him and Eisner who want to work with you, and they want to take advantage of the premiere to meet you and have a chat."
"Who?"
"Michael Douglas, and Australia's Mel Gibson."
"Okay, I'll go back in the middle of the week." Ronald and the two male stars are acquaintances. Since they want to meet him, it seems that "Top Gun" played a role in Tom Cruise's star status.
It makes them very interested in chatting with their director who can make famous male stars.
Besides, Helen will definitely have to attend the premiere. The movie may not do well at the box office, so she has to go and comfort herself.
"John Hughes also called to congratulate you. After Molly Ringwald left him, he planned to transition into adult comedy. One of the scripts he wrote before was a gender-reversed version of 'Pretty in Pink'. Find it now.
If I can’t find the director, I’d like to ask you if you have any recommendations.”
"Where's his friend?"
"It is said that he said that if he could not find a heroine like Molly Ringwald, he would not start filming, and Hughes fired him."
"Where can I find a director who is good at making youth films?" Ronald replied. Hughes is a bit similar to himself. They are both outsiders who broke into Hollywood and are relatively productive, so they have not formed their own team for the time being. They are project and other people.
status.
"Finally your former boss, Roger Corman, called to congratulate you."
"Hey? Why did he think of me? Is he unhappy that he didn't have a cameo in the second movie? I'll give him a call back."
Ronald put down the phone and dialed Coleman first.
"Ronald, congratulations, you must ask me to guest star in the third film. I feel that I did a good job playing the organizer of the karate championship. My wife likes my performance very much."
Sure enough, Roger Corman mentioned his guest appearance at the beginning.
"Hahaha, definitely. I haven't started thinking about a sequel yet. Producer Weintraub's energy is now more focused on his business as an MGM/United Artists executive. It looks like the third one
Not so fast."
"As long as you remember me, I'll have to make a cameo in the next movie."
"My next movie will be about Italians. Roger, you are Jewish."
"What's the matter? When people reach a certain age, they will look more and more like Italians. Don't forget that I also made a cameo in The Godfather Part II."
"Okay, okay, I'll leave you with an interesting role when the time comes."
Ronald joked a bit with Coleman and asked him what else he wanted.
It's a bit strange that Colman called in such a hurry. Except for the release of his debut film, which Colman specially invited to dinner to congratulate him, Colman didn't pick any of the subsequent movies and called him as soon as the first weekend results came out.
.
"I want to congratulate you. You have found the knack of making commercial movies that will hit the market. Before, I saw that you often chose different themes, and I was a little worried. Now that your sequels are so good, I feel that you are qualified to be a director in the future.
It’s a great future.”
Ronald sighed, why are Roger Corman's requirements so strict? He was not satisfied even in Top Gun, but he was even more satisfied with the second film of The Kid.
Roger Corman explained what he meant.
This is the first sequel made by Ronald, and it uses the same formula as the first episode. Daniel is in love with a girl, and a love rival wants to stop him and humiliate him for some reason. After special training by Master Miyagi
, starting from an inconspicuous place, introducing unique tricks of philosophical thinking, and finally defeated the opponent and won the beauty back.
This shows that Ronald has mastered the successful formula of a certain type of film. Roger Corman has seen many short-lived directors who disappeared into obscurity after their natural talent was exhausted. But Ronald has jumped out of making films based on talent.
By using the method of making movies, now he can make a living in movies for the rest of his life.
"Hey, thank you, Roger. Yours is definitely the happiest thing that ever happened to me."
Ronald was very happy to hear Corman say this, and he didn't feel underestimated at all. This is the way to consider whether to green light a film project from the audience's perspective and from the producer's perspective. Roger Corman's experience may be a bit outdated.
, but his method is still worthy of careful study.
"Am I one of the best graduates from Corman Film University, Roger? Am I the best among the youngest graduates?"
"You are number one at the box office, but your artistic achievements are not."
"Ah? This makes me so sad. Is there anyone who has achieved more than me? Who? Is it Jim? I'm surprised that in your mind, I'm not number one?"
Ronald chatted happily and joked with his former boss.
"Your business acumen and imagination are of course number one. Even Jim is no match for you at the box office." Roger Corman chatted with Ronald, still treating the script assistant in the company as before,
Neither did he disdain communication because of Ronald's low status back then, nor did he compliment Ronald because of his success now.
"However, from the perspective of the pinnacle of film art and the maturity of your directing skills, I still prefer another person.
You know, Ronald, the movies I make and the movies I admire are completely different things.
The films I shoot are all low-cost plasma horror films, but what I like to watch are films by masters with sophisticated skills and outstanding abilities such as Bergman from Sweden and Akira Kurosawa from Japan. Those from America and America who have worked in the New World
Among directors, Coppola and Scorsese actually have more control over the film than you do."
"Hahaha, you are really merciless to me." Ronald laughed loudly. Coleman compared him to the master, which was actually a compliment.
"By the way, who is that Coleman University graduate who is better than me? Does he have any works?"
"Hey...he is not as lucky as you. Ronald Jonathan has his own ideas when making movies, and the movies he made are all very good, but his first big commercial Hollywood production was messed up with the star. In the end, the heroine sang
Dee Han asked the studio to choose one of the two, and he was kicked out.
There have been no movies made for several years now.
By the way, do you know what is the biggest difference between you and him? The works he directed are actually very good, but why did you succeed and he failed?"
"Why?"
"Because his movies don't make money! Hollywood can tolerate many shortcomings of directors, such as lust, moral corruption, love of manipulating others, and love of making money from projects. All of these can be tolerated. The only one that doesn't make money is a capital crime.
Keep it up and don’t make movies that don’t make money in the future.”
"Thank you for your advice, Roger."
Ronald put down the phone. He understood something. Coleman was a little worried that after his continuous commercial success, he would also start to learn the mistakes of other directors and make some art films to promote his own ideas.
"Actually, when I chose the directing project, I didn't consider the artistic value or sales concept. It was not a dream choice."
Ronald smiled and picked up the phone again and called the next person on the call-back list.
"Oops, I forgot to ask Roger what the name of Jonathan is. If there is a chance, brothers and sisters can share resources.
Hmm, but it sounds like he likes to make art films, which may not be suitable for me. I’ll ask Coleman next time I have a chance.”