"I like the two movies you produced by Daydream, 'Dirty Dancing' and 'Love Is Not for Sale'. They made me very excited. Especially my mother, 'Dirty Dancing' was just right.
It was something that happened when she was young, and she also participated in the Peace Corps project and went overseas to promote the ideas of JFK's leadership."
The person who said this to Ronald was Thomas Stephenson Jr., a theater manager from New Jersey and New York whom Ronald had known at the Western Film Showcase in Las Vegas.
His father owned five theaters in New Jersey, and continued to invest in building new multiplex theaters in department stores in the suburbs of the city. The business gradually expanded to New York State, and also cooperated with the Northeastern Connecticut, Pennsylvania,
Theater chain operators in Washington, D.C. and other states have formed an alliance.
Ronald's Daydream Pictures has initially reached an agreement with them to release the movie. This time, they will bring "Love Is Not For Sale", which has just been edited and received an R-rating from the MPAA, in conjunction with "Dirty Dancing".
I did a test screening with them, hoping to get a better release time and screen.
Thomas Stephenson Jr. liked Ronald's movies very much. After the test screening, he came over to chat with Ronald and Douglas Hanson Jr., an important shareholder of Daydream.
"So, how many copies are you going to order?" Ronald asked this aggressive cinema heir. Thomas Sr. gradually put him in charge of all aspects of cinema operations, preparing him to take over when he had enough experience.
"My personal love is one thing, but business is another." Thomas Stephenson Jr.'s current position is as the buyer of his father's theater chain and several partner theaters in New Jersey.
Both the schedule and the number of copies have important suggestions.
"Oh, why do you say that? Your taste is very good, and your taste is very similar to the taste of ordinary American audiences. I think from a business perspective, you should also order more copies of the movies produced by our company.
"
Douglas Jr. and he are of the same age. They are both rich second generations. They plan to inherit their ancestors' business in the future. They also like movies, so they have something in common.
"I personally like these two movies very much. Especially "Dirty Dancing" directed by Ronald. The narrative of this movie is very smooth and the emotions are well mobilized. I was so moved at the end that I almost cried.
But business is business, and our cinema operators in the Northeast still mainly purchase movies from the seven major studios. I hope you can understand."
"Yeah, I understand, it's a marketing issue." Ronald nodded.
This question was often heard when he and distribution manager Cannold met with movie theater buyers on the West Coast.
The seven major studios will invest heavily in the marketing of movies. They release a fixed number of movies every year, purchase TV advertising time, newspaper space, buy film critics, and even have fixed suppliers for on-site posters.
The purchase volume is large and stable, and you can get big discounts.
A daydream is like setting up a distribution company specifically for the filming of "Dirty Dancing". "Love Is Not for Sale" was acquired by the way. All marketing costs are 30% higher than the purchase price of the Seventh Group.
Double.
If we assume that the two movies are of the same quality and have the same budget, the movie theater will certainly be willing to buy a movie from the Big Seven, which has deep pockets, and the marketing they invest will be able to attract a lot of viewers.
On the other hand, Ronald's movies are not starring well-known stars. The only thing that the audience has an impression of is Ronald. And the seven movies released at the same time are either starring stars or old series movies like 007
, as long as the audience sees a name, they will want to watch it.
This is why Ronald set aside twice the production cost to spend on marketing. At least it should make cinemas feel that it would not be a loss to buy their movies and show them.
But this was all known in advance. Ronald was neither disappointed nor blindly optimistic.
A few weeks after returning from Cannes, he joined Michelle Cannold's team, starting from Los Angeles, San Francisco and other places in California on the West Coast, to Seattle, Washington, and then to Las Vegas, Nevada.
,, and then enter the deep southern states.
There are no very large cities in the southern states, like Houston, Dallas and San Antonio in Texas. The time spent has to be evenly distributed among all the cities, which is very hard.
After completing a circle there, it then turned north and went to industrial cities such as Chicago and Detroit in the Great Lakes region of the Midwest. Finally, it passed through Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and finally arrived at the seat of America's earliest thirteen states.
Along the way, Ronald has basically understood the mentality of movie theater buyers and operators.
When running a movie theater, it is not very important to them which movie is the best-seller. The most important thing is to ensure that the movie you buy will not be offline within a week of its release due to insufficient audiences.
Among the movies released every year, only less than 20% can achieve an attendance rate of more than 50% and can make cinemas make a lot of money.
For other movies, the most important purpose is to keep operating without losing money. If you accidentally buy an independently produced movie, but the attendance is low due to insufficient marketing and insufficient audiences, those losses will make the cinema lose money.
The operators lost all their money.
After all, the movie theater business is a competition of who can fill the seats more fully.
Along the way, Ronald had grown accustomed to their lack of confidence in their marketing efforts. So he was about to explain his marketing plan to Thomas Stephenson Jr.
In addition to having invited film critics from major media to attend the film critics' special event, Ronald also cooperated with the three major studios, Universal, Paramount, and Disney. During their free time in marketing their own films, Ronald
Borrow their media resources.
The most important thing is, of course, the real money spent on advertisements on MTV and other TV stations, and with the connections accumulated over the years, he and several leading actors attended multiple talk show TV programs and accepted interviews on talk shows, expanding his reach among the general audience.
Influence.
"I believe in the strength of daydreams," Thomas Stephenson Jr. smiled a little baby-faced. "You all mentioned these in the media package. Of course I believe in your determination."
Some producers will stop investing in marketing due to poor box office, poor reviews from film critics, or low ratings from live audiences. Therefore, the operators of these cinemas usually do not believe in the promises of the producers. Rona
Decai explained and guaranteed again and again.
"Actually, I'm worried about two other things." Thomas Stephenson Jr. said to Ronald.
"Please tell us, we should be honest with each other. There is nothing we can't say to make money, and we can talk about it." Douglas Hansen Jr. immediately showed his sincerity, took Thomas Jr.'s hand, and asked him to sit down and talk in detail.
It is rare to find a movie theater operator who can express specific concerns to producers.
After all, movies are a very risky industry, and you need to calibrate your understanding of reality at all times. Many directors and star-turned-producers often cannot tell whether others’ words are flattery or the truth, and they will not be able to tell the truth until the final release.
I realized I was surrounded by lies.
"The first thing is the MPAA rating of 'Love Is Not For Sale'. Our cinema operators don't really like R-rated movies..."
Thomas Stephenson Jr. explained the current thinking of movie theaters. When the film rating system first appeared, movie theaters felt that violence and pornography might attract more adult audiences to the theaters.
However, several X-rated movies have failed at the box office, and the average box office of R-rated movies is not higher than that of PG movies.
Those ordinary family viewers who watch "The Sound of Music" will not just go to the cinema to watch it even if they hear about a good X-rated movie. They also have to worry about the impact on their families and children.
Nowadays, the main group of moviegoers who go to movie theaters are teenagers. Although they like exciting plots, after all, R-rated movies require the company of adults, and many female viewers don't like too many violent scenes.
In the past few years, thanks to the vigorous public relations efforts of major directors such as Spielberg, the MPAA passed a new rating of PG-13. The new rating has many less violent and... shots, but can provide enough sensory stimulation. The most important thing is
Yes, you do not need to see your driver’s license to watch PG-13.
Therefore, PG-13 quickly replaced PG and R-rated movies, becoming the favorite among young moviegoers and earning the highest average box office.
More importantly, watching these scenes that make people nervous or have their blood pumping will make people nervous and eat more French fries and popcorn. The unusually large amounts of salt or sugar in them will make people nervous.
People are thirsty, which increases the sales of Coke.
In addition to the box office, PG-13 is also stimulating sales of other soft drinks and snacks in movie theaters.
"'Love Is Not For Sale', our director Steve Rush is already making urgent changes and will submit it to the MPAA for re-rating soon. We discovered this problem when we were on the West Coast, so we made urgent changes and it will be released next week
There are results.”
At the first stop of Ronald's nationwide sales tour in Los Angeles, he knew that he and a bunch of rookies from Daydream had made a mistake. An emergency meeting was held and the conclusion was that "Love Is Not for Sale" needed to be significantly revised.
Many plots that director Rush included in the finished film, such as an intimate scene between the heroine Cindy and her ex-boyfriend's football player, and many very explicit conversations among high school students discussing boyfriends and girlfriends, were deleted.
Director Steve Rush's creative freedom was interfered with and he lost his temper with Ronald. He said that he was no longer the director who made such epoch-making youth films as "Fast-paced Richmond High"
, turned into a profit-seeking businessman.
This made Ronald very sad and he was really speechless.
Rush's anger is reasonable. If "Love Is Not For Sale" does not depict the real life of high school students, it will completely degenerate from a "fast-paced" and realistic movie into a teen romantic comedy that only scratches the surface of reality.
Crossed.
"Make money first. As long as you can make money in this movie, you will have more creative freedom in the future." Ronald thought for a long time and had to repeat what Roger Corman said to him back then.
listen:
"Listen, Director Rush. As long as you modify this movie according to my opinions, you will never have to work for me again."
Steve Rush was really moved by Roger Corman's golden words, and cut the movie to PG-13 standards exactly as Ronald wanted. Ronald watched the revised version in Chicago last week
The version has been urgently submitted to the MPAA and is awaiting revision of the rating.
"Very good. If I can get a PG-13 rating, my theater will increase the number of copies it buys, and I will also convince other operators in the alliance. They are all very optimistic about my vision."
Thomas Stephenson Jr. is very happy that his opinions are valued by Ronald. Daydream is now in the initial stage, and it is good to be able to value the opinions of cinema operators.
"The second thing is that you have to get better movie reviews." Thomas Stephenson Jr. raised his second finger.
"The urban suburbs in the Northeast are one of the most educated places in America. Children here take drama and art classes in high school. Most of their parents are college graduates, and their judgment of movies is quite high.
Rely on recommendations from film critics.
Especially places like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and DC have strong trust in the film reviews of several newspapers in New York."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The box office of a movie in the first week of its release is determined by the number of viewers it attracts. In the Northeast, the effectiveness of film critics is greater than in the Deep South and Midwest
Much bigger.
Sometimes, only well-educated residents of middle-class suburban communities in New York can understand the film reviews in the New York Times and the New York Post.
"We are working hard on this. I can at least guarantee that the media in New York will most likely say good things for us."
Bribing film critics is something that cannot be discussed in a general way. When Ronald talks about it to this extent, even movie theater practitioners can understand it.
In addition to spending heavily at the Chicago Film Critics Association to sponsor their annual conference, Ronald is also sponsoring the New York Film Critics Association to sponsor a retrospective of their favorite women's films, as well as next year's New York Film Critics Association awards.
Of course, all this money was disseminated through the old money connections of Little Douglas, through various foundations, trusts, and cultural promotion associations.
At the same time, Ronald also found his personal lawyer Lindsay Dole to sponsor some government-subsidized large movie theaters with ancient history through his boss's connections in New York City Hall.
In short, in order to daydream that the first two films he released would be an instant hit, Ronald searched for many connections, spent a lot of money and resources, and made sure to do his best.
"Then I have no doubts. I will order a copy of your movie according to the highest standards." Thomas Stephenson Jr. finally relented, "Also, my mother really likes 'Dirty Dancing'. Can you provide a copy for her and
Her sister Tao is putting on a special show?"
"Haha, no problem, Manager Cannold will arrange it." Ronald shook hands with him tightly.
"You should be careful about the Jewish groups in the New York film industry. I heard some news that someone is going to target your Dirty Dancing." Thomas Stephenson secretly whispered two words into Ronald's ear while shaking hands.
sentence.
Then he raised his eyebrows at Ronald and Douglas Jr., and turned to find Cannold.
"What did he say?" Little Douglas saw something wrong with Ronald's face and came over to ask.
"He said that the Jews in the New York film industry wanted to do something against our movies." Ronald covered his mouth with his right hand and told Douglas Jr.
"Huh, there's a lot of Hollywood here. What kind of trouble can the Jews make?"
"Ignore them, we just have to do our own thing."
The film-selling tour continues, and Ronald's last stop is New York City. This is not only his sweet hometown, but also a place that is criticized by film critics, and it has the highest concentration of large movie theaters in the country.
New York has always been one of the holy places for drama, and various large-scale movie theaters have been built since early. The population density here is also the highest in America.
Therefore, New York has inherited many large movie theaters from history, and there are many large screening halls that can accommodate thousands of people, or even three to five thousand people.
After entering the 1970s, the impact of television made the decline of these cinemas obvious. The impact of attendance on halls is much greater than that of medium-sized and small cinemas.
These movie theaters were either demolished due to urban expansion, or they could only play some midnight movies, and were named grindhouse movie theaters.
There are also some of the most luxurious theaters, occupying the best locations, where stars once gathered, and are subsidized by the New York City Hall. A large number of retired business executives and second-generation old money occupy committees with various names after retirement.
Duty, provide subsidies to these places that bring them memories.
At the same time, they can also get more scarce tickets for ballets, operas, or movie premieres starring stars. These are the status indicators that distinguish these people from ordinary people. Not the tickets for Broadway musicals that are given to tourists.
.
Therefore, the movie theater viewing party held in New York was different from the previous ones. The people who came were all in suits and ties, dressed as if they were going to an opera.
"We invited several experts to help us evaluate the two Daydream movies." Several movie theater operators came over to introduce Ronald.
After receiving subsidies, in fact, these large cinemas are not private enterprises to a certain extent. People with the power to issue subsidies have to show their power.
Therefore, what is rare here are not all movie buyers, but many people who do not understand movie management. They have to hire some experts to help them make judgments.
"This is Aaron Russo, the producer of the now highly rated TV series 'Wise Guy'." Ronald shook hands with him. He recognized this man who thought he was tall but was greasy.
Fatty was the expert invited by Weston Pictures when the project of 'Dirty Dancing' was being developed.
"This is the Jew who wants to trouble me?" Ronald thought to himself.
"Who is this……"
"Mr. Tisch needs no introduction." Ronald shook hands with another so-called expert. This is the sponsor of NYU Tisch College and the youngest son of the Tisch family. Their family is old money and the New York Giants of the NFL.
Team, they will have a part of the shares.
When I wanted to film "Dirty Dancing", it was Steve Tisch who was uncomfortable with the plot of the script depicting a Jewish girl falling in love with an Irish boy.
The two sides stopped talking, and Ronald felt the malice in the other person's eyes.
"We're showing 'Dirty Dancing' now," Daydream distribution manager Michelle Cannold announced as the screening began.
After 100 minutes, the movie ended with a carnival dance to the accompaniment of the theme song. The subtitles began to scroll upwards and the lights in the hall turned on.
Cannold invited several experts to the front desk to express their opinions.
"What else do you want to say? I have never seen such a ridiculous movie. Burn the copy and file a claim with the insurance company."
Aaron Russo, the TV show producer, came to the front desk and started spouting rants about criticizing "Dirty Dancing."
"Huh?" Ronald stopped Douglas Hansen Jr. who was about to go up to argue with him.
He jumped onto the stage in front of the screen.
"What, am I wrong? What are you filming? A Jewish doctor's daughter will run away with a dancing poor Irishman? Movies must be based on reality."
Aaron Russo looked at Steve Tisch sitting below, got encouragement from the latter, and continued to provoke.
"Who the hell are you? You're just here to comment on my movie." Ronald was not polite to him and pushed Fat Russo to his knees.
"You loser, you lost the fight with me for the production rights of this movie, and you just uttered arrogant words here. I think you should get out."
Unsatisfied, Ronald pushed Russo several more times and knocked him off the stage.
"Where did this rubbish come from? Let's continue talking about business." Ronald saw Douglas Jr. taking over, locking Russo with a wrestling technique and pulling him out.
He turned back and looked directly at Steve Tisch below, and asked: "Does anyone else have some reliable artistic criticism of the movie?"