Chapter 411 Valley Girl released

   "Lightning Dance" earned 4 million US dollars at the box office in its first weekend, surpassing "Gandhi" and "My Fair Man", which had received an Oscar, and rushed to the top of the box office list.

   More than 1,100 theaters were released at the same time, and the average weekend box office reached 3,500 US dollars. In this weak box office in April, it gave Paramount a huge surprise.

  Following the list is Coppola's "The Urchin of the World". In the third weekend of its release, the box office was only just over two million dollars, a drop of 30% compared to last week. The audience for original novel readers is dwindling rapidly, and Warner Bros. is already scaling back its screenings.

Ronald's eyes continued to move down, and the eighth place was the new film "Girls of the Valley" released by the Atlantic, with a total box office of 1.8 million at the weekend, just ahead of this year's re-screening of "ET Aliens". above.

  Ronald is very happy. This achievement is especially rare for the small production "Valley Girl". With a production cost of only US$700,000, the movie couldn't even hold its premiere. Basically, the box office in the first week can get back the cost of production.

  Drove to the Atlantic Ocean, the whole office was busy. In the big office, people from the distribution department were busy making calls one by one, trying to get the movie theater to arrange more shows for "Girls of the Valley".

   President Tom Coleman is in talks with "Girls of the Valley" director Martha Coolidge. Ronald was sitting outside in the lounge drinking tea.

   "Hi, Martha." The office door opened, and Martha Coolidge came out with a serious face, nodded with Ronald, and walked out without speaking.

   "Ronald, please come in." Tom Coleman invited Ronald in. Small companies still respect big-selling or possibly big-selling film directors.

  Probably because of the look on Ronald’s face, President Tom Coleman took the initiative to explain, “We won nearly 500 theaters for Valley Girls, but Martha thinks there should be more.”

"oh?"

   "You know, the weekend box office is 4,200 US dollars." Mr. President took out a cigarette, lit it and took a slow puff.

"Higher than Lightning Dance?" Ronald's first reaction was that he didn't believe it. He had also seen "Valley Girl", and he could only say that it was a slightly funny and warm romantic comedy, above the passing line. But not too much.

   "We're only showing in big cities in California and the East Coast, so it makes sense that the average box office should be higher."

"Oh", Ronald also wanted to understand. The audience of this movie is urban teenagers, and it is those areas with open values ​​on the east and west coasts. There is no development.

  However, with such a high single-house box office, it seems that Atlantic's distribution strategy is too conservative, which is probably the reason why director Coolidge was dissatisfied.

   "Can't we add some theaters?"

"It's hard. We are a small distribution company. Generally speaking, theaters have signed distribution agreements with big companies, unless our movie's box office far exceeds other competitors. But now the list is either a big hit or an Oscar. , The theater chain is not easy to adjust, you can see that our total box office is only ranked eighth."

  Ronald nodded, he came to discuss the release arrangement of "Night of the Comet" with the other party, and hoped that they made money from "Valley Girl" this time, and when it was his turn, they could sign more theaters.

"Actually, we are not a conservative company." Mr. President took a puff of cigarettes, he was afraid that Ronald would not be satisfied, "The main reason why we didn't spread out on a large scale was because Martha Coolidge was sued, she The sticking title is 'Valley Girl', which happens to be the same as last year's top three hit.

  The creator of the song sued us, and the court ruled that we did not violate the rules last month, because we did not use that song as an episode, and the court believed that the audience would not be confused about the name of the song and the movie.

  But this lawsuit has been delayed for a long time, and many theaters were not very optimistic about us before, fearing that the judgment would be against us. "

   "Tom, what about My Night of the Comet? When are we going to release it, and how many theaters are open?" Ronald asked.

  Tom Coleman pointed to Ronald, "I want to discuss this plan with you today", and he took out a release plan and explained it to Ronald.

"Our expected income will be good. With this single-house income, it is expected that many cinemas will have additional screenings, so that we estimate that the box office income can exceed 10 million. With this income, we can apply for a preferential loan from the bank, so book We can find at least 1,000 theaters with opening times."

   "That's great", Ronald smiled happily, this number is much better than he imagined.

"We give Valley Girls a month, and then the third weekend in May will be your 'Night of the Comet', and by the end of May, Star Wars Episode VI in the summer, and 007 in mid-June will start to preempt At the box office, we just found a slot to plug in."

   "In four weeks, looking at the trend of Valley Girls, it seems that they can still occupy a place on the box office list." Ronald thought, it would be impossible to withdraw them all at once.

"It's hard to make a breakthrough. The market in big cities is limited, and the single-house box office of juvenile funny comedies generally drops very quickly. Of course, we will adjust according to the situation. I will use 700 to show your movie."

   Ronald is very happy, the Atlantic has money, and can immediately expand the scale of the screening and make copies. After working hard for a long time, it's time to finally meet the audience and decide the outcome with a flop.

  After finishing his work here, Ronald went to see Cameron again.

  Gail is not a housewife type woman, and the house is a bit messy. Cameron sat alone at the desk, typing away. The Commodore computer that Ronald gave him is displaying lines of text.

   On the other side of the table, there is a typewriter with a stack of papers typed out on it.

   "What is this?" Ronald saw Cameron stop, picked up the paper curiously and asked him.

   "This is a job that Gail found for me. You know that the shooting of 'Terminator' has been postponed, and I have no money, so I have to write scripts for the studio."

   "Hehe, me too." Ronald saw the title above was "Aliens (Aliens, "Is this the sequel to Aliens? Director Ridley Scott?"

   "Yeah, they think it's time to start a sequel," Cameron saw Ronald looking seriously, "What do you think? I purposely typed in two places so that the two projects can be separated."

   "I don't know, but the alien lens is disgusting and terrifying. It's not easy for you to surpass it."

  “It’s exactly the same as my idea, so I titled the sequel Aliens, so that it can focus on battle scenes, just like a hero who keeps killing multiple aliens and rescues humans.”

   "Fighting plus terror?" Ronald thought well, "It's really difficult to write a sequel, and we have to take care of the characters of the original and create new ideas."

   "What? You're also writing a sequel?"

"Yes, the sequel to First Blood. I plan to let Rambo's prison term expire, and then go to Vietnam to rescue the prisoners of war abandoned by America. But Rambo has PTSD in the original work, and he has a very negative view of the government and the motherland. How? Let him produce this transformation, I am still thinking of a way."

   "Use love. Love heals wounds."

   "That's right, I'm trying to find a Vietnamese girlfriend for him. Let's exchange it after finishing writing."

   "OK", Cameron is going to write again after taking a break.

   "By the way, how is your heroine looking?"

   "Debra Wenger has intentions and is talking."

   "Oh, she's not bad, she's a good actress with a gentle touch."

After bidding farewell to Cameron and returning home, Ronald finished writing the script outline of "First Blood 2" and submitted it to Stallone for approval through Nisita. If he agrees, Ronald can get the first payment, and then continue.

  Unexpectedly, on the second day, Nisita told him that the script outline had been rejected.

   "Why? What's wrong?" Ronald completely expanded on the story given by Stallone.

   "Sly said you spent too much time on Rambo's transformation, leaving not enough time for him to fight in Vietnam."

   "It's nonsense. In the beginning, Rambo was released from prison, and then he went to Vietnam to kill the Quartet? Then why didn't you change the name and finish the filming, so how can the audience who have watched the first part turn around?"

  Nisita glanced at Ronald, got up and closed the door tightly, "I don't know, is it the reason for that incident?"

   "Shxt! No way?" Ronald was shocked, and he blamed himself for his younger brother's attempt to **** Cynthia Rhodes?

   "I protested to Mr. Ovitz, but he was also very tough."

   "Let's forget it." If Stallone was dissatisfied with himself, then it would be useless to modify it. "At worst, I will sell some stocks, and it's not that I can't survive."

"Don't say that, I got you a new screenwriting job." Nisita breathed a sigh of relief. When he went to Ovitz's office to protest in the morning, Ovitz scolded him and told him to go back and think about Stallone. And Ronald, who can bring more profit to CAA. If Ronald insisted, it would be difficult.

   "I didn't offend someone this time, did I?" Ronald joked.

   "Of course not," Nisita laughed, "On the contrary, it's your benefactor."

"It's Columbia's president, Frank Price, the one who paid 350,000 for your debut screenplay 'My Brother's Protector'. Recently he gave Universal a bargain by letting go of 'ET Aliens', Was stepped down by the people of the new owner Coca-Cola.

   But he can stay in Columbia for another six months before officially leaving the job. No, another owner of a record company wanted to enter the film industry and asked him to recommend candidates. Frank Price thinks of you, thinking of your musical scripts for Stallone and RSO Records.

   'My Brother's Protector' didn't end up filming, he wanted to get things sorted out before he left. "

   "What's the price?"

   "Two hundred thousand dollars, adapt a news story, will you do it?"

   "Do it, why not? Frank Price is still very reliable in his payment." Ronald rubbed his hands excitedly.

  (end of this chapter)