What Ronald wants to buy are two types of movies, including movies starring several female friends. One type is a romance movie, and the other is a large-scale adventure action movie.
Including "The Legend of Billiejean" starring Helen Slater, "Streets of Fire" starring Diane, and "Some Kind of Wonderful" starring Leigh Thompson.
The box office of these movies is average, but for a long time, when people like Diane and Helen are recognized on the street, there is a certain chance that their performances in them will be mentioned.
Therefore, Ronald had to suspect that it was not that the quality of the finished films was poor, but that there were loopholes in the marketing efforts and they failed to find audiences who liked watching such films.
And buying the video rights of these movies from the studio, probably because the box office is not good, does not require a lot of money to do it. The daydream just needs to test the capabilities of Michelle Cannold, the distribution director.
Theoretically, the market for video tapes requires romance films, or action films that are more exciting than those shown on TV.
Mickey Kent looked at the list given by Ronald. The seven major film distributors include Paramount, Columbia/TriStar, and Universal. He smiled and said, "Don't expect too high. These people would rather let the copies lie in the warehouse."
, is better than distributing the video tape and losing money. But once someone is willing to bid to buy it, it is another matter. They will definitely raise the price as their work performance."
"Then let me circle some key points for you. I hope to get these movies. Even if the price is a little higher, it doesn't matter. The rest depends on whether the price is right." Ronald used a pen to circle a few key movies on the list.
come out.
"That's good, so they don't know which ones we really want to buy."
Gray-eyed Mickey left with a new mission, and Michelle Cannold stayed with Ronald to continue the discussion.
"Tell me, why are you so confident in these two types of films?" Ronald asked his chubby assistant Richie Lake, the star of "Hairspray", to make a pot of black tea and personally give it to his most important subordinates.
One of them poured a glass.
This is the thin-bodied porcelain given to me by officials from the Ministry of Culture there when I went to the other side of the Pacific Ocean. The white teacup has red roses painted on it.
"As I said, the audience for video tapes is either teenagers or housewives. The ratings of TV series are very strict. Just increase the amount of ice cream in the genre movies they like to watch..." Cannold took a sip.
I heard that this is a tea set specially used by leaders, and it is impossible for ordinary people to buy it in the market.
"Don't talk about these superficial reasons, Michelle. I want to hear your real thoughts. In Hollywood, we have no idea what movies are going to be the best, so why are you so confident?" Ronald gave him a refill in New York.
The finest Wuyishan black tea bought in Chinatown.
"Hey, I actually did it because of the confidence brought by our company's 'sticky fingers'." Michelle Cannold smiled and put the tea cup down. He explained his opinion. In this film, two girls picked up contraband
A cash-dealing comedy, it has fallen below the cost line just a few weeks after its release, and is about to be withdrawn from theaters.
But the sales figures for the video tape, which was released only a few weeks later, were particularly good. He hired a survey company to conduct on-site surveys, and most of the buyers were teenage girls. Although the sales volume of the video tape was far from that of "Dirty Dancing", which has long been popular,
, there is still an order of magnitude difference, but compared to some action movies, it is already very close.
This is still only half the power of teenage audiences (female audiences watch). What if it is replaced by a romantic drama? Then the other half of the teenage audience will also join the rental team. If some action scenes are added...
So he specially selected these movies that have always been remembered by the audience to negotiate the video rights. If this road goes well, then Daydream can adjust its focus to making these types of low-cost movies, and directly
Supplying the video tape market.
Unlike the cinema distribution market where you have to pay expensive tickets to enter, video distribution does not require millions in marketing expenses. As long as you pay the channel fee, you can enter the video rental store and quietly lie on the shelf to be selected.
This model is especially suitable for small companies like Daydream. The profit of a single film is not as good as that of successful theater movies, but it is worse than stability and steady flow.
This is also the reason why Daydream is very cautious about getting involved in theatrical distribution. If there is a box office bomb or a bad movie in the theater weekend, then in addition to tens of millions of production costs, it will be lost, and even the almost equally expensive marketing and publicity expenses will be lost.
, also in vain.
So when it encounters a bad movie, the company will basically lose nearly 20 million. Except for relying on Ronald's unparalleled vision to make the decision personally, no one else in Daydream has the power to decide on the project. Even Ronald
No matter how much money you make, even if you lose two or three movies a year, you still have to stop this behavior which is equivalent to throwing cash into the Hudson River.
…
Barrister Gray Eyes Mickey soon sent good news. Nowadays, major studios still believe that only movies that are successful at the box office have the potential to earn excess profits in the video tape market. The movies that Ronald is interested in are all domestic box office movies.
A loser worth less than 20 to 30 million. Since this young director likes Roger Corman-style B-movies so much, just sell it to him and treat it as an indulgence of the eccentricities of an artist.
Just like Spielberg likes to collect copies of old Hollywood films, he keeps a copy of every masterpiece starting from silent films in his warehouse. And Martin Scorsese likes old films from abroad, especially from Europe.
, he piled a lot of them in his home. Coppola changed his interest and started collecting red wine, euphemistically calling it a reference for his own winery.
Ronald, people in the industry will also know in the future that this person's quirk is to collect B-level movies that do not sell well. Maybe the reason he makes movies that are always successful is to study why these losers fail?
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The copyright holders of these movies also need the consent of the director and producer to sell the video rights, and they quickly agreed to Ronald's bid.
Anyway, slowly collecting the hundreds of dollars in dividends generated after one TV broadcast is better than selling it all at once to Ronald who is willing to pay.
Only one producer had doubts about Ronald's true thoughts. He called Ronald specifically to ask about the situation.
"Ronald, it's me, Joel." Joel Silver waited for half an hour and received a call back from Ronald. He was very happy.
"What, what's going on with the marketing of Die Hard? Do you need my help?" Ronald thought it was because of Die Hard. This movie will be released in the summer season in July. Twentieth Century
Fox has completed the audience test screening and is very satisfied with the response of those lucky enough to see it in advance. It has decided to invest maximum resources to vigorously promote the film in the summer.
"Ah, fortunately, you have to attend the premieres in Los Angeles and New York. The response of the test screening audience of our movie was very good, and almost no one went to the bathroom. But my familiarity with celebrities is still limited. Can you give more
Get some?" Joel Silver wanted Ronald to bring some free traffic.
"Let me ask... it's hard to find celebrities' schedules." Ronald thought about asking Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise if they were free. They are both popular action stars. If they can come to support them,
The media will definitely break the news.
"I can hire Stallone here. Do you have any problem with him? Okay, anyway, he just shows up to make money for us. Can you hire Schwarzenegger? Why don't you come over and we can choose a couple?"
…
"I said, why did you buy the rights to such a movie that was so bad at the box office? That movie almost made me leave Hollywood." After Joel Silver and Ronald reviewed the list of invited stars, they seemed not to be there.
He brought up Ronald's purchase of the rights to "Streets of Rage" with interest.
This movie was financed and produced by him, directed by Walter Hill, who was popular at the time. The shooting cost was close to 15 million, and the domestic box office was only just over 8 million. At that time, Walter Hill was considered by Hollywood to be a former
His success was all due to luck, and he was reduced to a situation where he could not make any movies. Later, he relied on being a script doctor for Alien 2 and barely left Hollywood. However, no blockbusters came to him to direct.
Producer Joel Silver was even worse. He spent one million on a lighting engineer, another one million on Giorgio Armani as costume director, and another one million on re-dismantling the film to shoot the ending episode.
The scenery was brought back intact, which was considered by major studios to be a way of making money.
However, Joel Silver's luck was better than that of the director. He then relied on two blockbusters "Lethal Weapon" and "Predator" with a box office of over 100 million to regain his position as a top independent producer in Hollywood.
.
He was so impressed by the movie that almost killed him that he didn't believe the reasons Ronald gave when he bought the rights to the video tape. Today was a good time to test the waters and see if he could find out from Ronald's smart mind.
Order something to come out and study.
"It's nothing. My colleague thought that the subject matter of this movie might have a future in the video tape market, so he took a gamble." Ronald told the truth. Joel Silver did not argue about the price. The relationship between the two
Still very good.
"I said, Ronald. Don't talk about these superficial reasons. I want to hear your real thoughts. Anyway, I have agreed to sell the copyright to you. In Hollywood, which movies are popular and which are not, we are also connected.
Guess, why are you so confident?"
"Hey..." Ronald said to himself that he had paid for you to buy bad movies that had not done well at the box office before. Why do you still doubt that I have any secrets? "I really don't have any confidence. My company is not strong enough and I don't have any confidence."
Since you are so capable of producing, you can make some cheap movies and watch them on the video tape market."
"Are there no other reasons? In fact, there are many movies here that have not performed well at the box office, such as 'Weirdsce' directed by John Hughes, and 'Brewster's Millions', which Walter Hill wants to turn around.
', and have never crossed the profit line, why don't you give it a try?" Joel Silver tried.
"Modern Nanny" is a rare box-office failure made by John Hughes, who made all the popular movies in the past few years. It tells the story of how an artificial intelligence female nanny created by a computer helps computer idiots hold parties at home.
"Brewster's Millionaire" tells the story of a lucky baseball player who suddenly received his great-uncle's will and could inherit a $300 million fortune if he spent all $30 million within a month.
Both movies didn't have much love content between men and women, and there wasn't much ice cream content that TV stations couldn't broadcast, which Ronald didn't really want.
"What, you don't want it? Or is there something special about the Streets of Rage?" Joel Silver chuckled. Today, he was going to learn two things from Ronald.
"Hey, let me be honest with you. Actually, it's because this movie is Diane's first adult role as a heroine. I want to buy it as a gift to her to make her happy." Ronald didn't want to leave Michelle behind.
The secret that Er Cannold came up with was leaked out, and he quickly moved out Diane Lane to try to deal with it.
"Ah?" Joel Silver looked at Ronald strangely, are you serious? In order to please a woman, the money is large enough, and it is not like giving a house to make the woman benefit.
Copyright trading just makes beauties smile.
"Then I also have the rights for sequels and adaptations. Do you want to buy them together?" Joel Silver still didn't believe it and tried again.
"Sequels and adaptations? Do you have all the production rights?" Ronald suddenly remembered that when he watched this movie, he dreamed of several video games that were adapted from the film's image style and characters.
of.
"Do you really want it?" Joel Silver was shocked. He put aside his suspicion. It seemed that it was really a business venture and to please women. He looked at Ronald's handsome figure and was speechless. "Ronald
He is really good at pleasing women, incomparable, incomparable..."
He turned back to pick up the pager and called the secretary, and took out the paperwork for "Streets of Rage". He dug out the production rights document from the box and handed it to Ronald, "My production rights here are full.
You can use it to make a sequel, a TV series adaptation, or a Broadway stage play. It's cheaper for you."
"I want my lawyer to take a look at this." Ronald put away the document and continued to taste red wine with Silver.
"I asked, what is director Walter Hill doing now? Did he stop having sex with you later?" Ronald thought of the director who made Diane, who was not yet twenty years old, look so mature and charming.
It was on the set that I discovered the charm of Diane's transformation into a woman. In the movies she made after that, no director could make her so charming and turn her into a young girl on the screen.
】
"He just finished filming Schwarzenegger's new movie 'Red Heat', and he actually went to Moscow's Red Square to shoot the exterior scenes. After General Secretary Mikhail came to power, they also began to learn from their southern neighbors.
It opened the door to this kind of artistic creation.”
"That's rare..." Ronald thought to himself, don't be greedy after watching China make two Hollywood blockbusters and earn a lot of US dollars.
"You didn't invest in that movie? You and Walter Hill didn't work together again?" Ronald remembered that Joel Silver and the director had been best partners.
"If the ups and downs of Hollywood have taught me anything..." Joel Silver held up his glass of wine to express his kindness to Ronald, "it's to work with capable people rather than being competed by the market.
The unlucky ones who were eliminated. I hope they can return to the top. This kind of thing has happened, but the chance is too small. Many people died because they expected a director to make masterpieces again."
"Well, I will remember this..." Ronald also raised his glass.
…
"So what, I need to add one thing here..." Ronald received the visiting gray-eyed Mickey. The copyright transfer contract that the barrister asked his top Harvard students to modify was placed on his desk and was read by Ronald.
"Where?" Mickey Kanter raised his eyebrows. Did he overlook something?
"Here, I would like to add a clause after sequels, TV series, stage plays, and adaptation rights... as well as the copyright for adaptation in any other form of entertainment, as well as the copyright for all derivative products."
"It's interesting. It seems you have a new direction?" Mickey Kanter knew that this kind of legal document must be rigorous. Ronald added it specially, so he must have already had an idea.
"Yeah, I might find someone to draw comics, or rewrite it into a novel and publish it." Ronald chuckled.
"Or the Japanese video games that are popular all over the world?" Mickey Kanter is one of the few lawyers in Hollywood who has inside knowledge of Nintendo and Universal's Donkey Kong game copyright cases. He smiled at Rona
De said.
"Or video game rights." Ronald stamped the contract.
"Cheers!" In the afternoon, Ronald gave the contract to Joel Silver, had it checked by his lawyer, and issued a check to buy the full media adaptation rights.
"I've asked someone to prepare a ribbon and wax seal for you to give away." Joel Silver waved to his secretary and asked the secretary to take out the official version of the contract, as well as a rectangular box for outer packaging, which is indeed suitable for giving to female friends.
.
From now on, all the rights to adapt this movie will no longer belong to him. When Ronald succeeds, he can only receive a small percentage of dividends from the original producer under the rules set by the Producers Alliance.
"Cheers!" Joel Silver also raised his glass and clinked it with Ronald. Why did he always feel that he would suffer more from this than from the transaction.