Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 10 Exchange of Interests
After delivering four takeout orders at the pizza shop in the morning, Link rode his bike to the movie theater in the Hollywood Grove Shopping Center to find out what was going on.

In North America and Europe, the first quarter is the off-season for the film market.

There were not many commercial blockbusters released during this period, and theaters mostly showed low-cost, literary, independent films, and other relatively niche films.

Although the box office revenue of this type of film is unstable, the distribution cycle is long, and theaters can get more box office share when negotiating with distribution companies than commercial films.

Therefore, in the first quarter in North America, niche films became the mainstream of the market.

The movies released recently include the comedy film "Son of the Dark Knight" produced by Paramount.

Walt Disney's animated film Beauty and the Beast and the thriller The Hand that Rocks the Cradle.

Universal Pictures' "Fried Green Tomatoes", Columbia-TriStar's fantasy adventure film "Hook", and Miramax Films' black comedy "Reservoir Dogs".

Among them, commercial films such as "Beauty and the Beast" and "Hook" were released at the end of last year and have continued to this day.

In terms of box office, the current annual total for Hollywood films is relatively average.

Last year, only six movies grossed over 6 million dollars in North America, and the total North American box office was only 43 billion dollars.

Unlike twenty years later, when the inflation rate was high, there were still thirty or forty movies that grossed over 100 million in North America every year, with a total box office of over billion.

Among the movies currently in theaters, only "Beauty and the Beast", "Spy Kids" and "Hook" have grossed over 100 million yuan.

The box office performance of niche genre films is mostly in the range of 10 to 200 million US dollars, and independent films that exceed 200 million US dollars are rare.

Quentin's "Reservoir Dogs" was released in North America for two weeks and earned 94.6 US dollars at the box office. Including overseas regions, the total is about 180 million US dollars.

Compared with the production cost of 120 million, this figure is medium among independent films.

However, this type of film is relatively new, and is called an "aesthetic violence film" by the media, the best "B-level film" of the year, and it has opened a new era of Hollywood's aesthetic violence revolutionary films.

After the movie was released, it received high praise from filmmakers in the industry, and director Quentin Tarantino also became a famous young director in Hollywood.

-

"welcome!"

Come to the Grove Mall Cinema.

As I walked into the lobby, a movie poster of "Reservoir Dogs" caught my eye.

On the poster, five men wearing sunglasses, black suits and thin black ties are walking forward side by side. They are Mr. Blue, Mr. Gold, Mr. Pink and others in the movie.

Today is a weekday and there are not many people coming and going in the cinema lobby.

"Good afternoon, man. Is your manager here? I'm a director and I want to talk to your manager about something."

Link stood in front of the ticket counter and asked the staff who was selling tickets.

"Director? What do you want from our manager? Well, he is here, but I'm not sure he has time to see you."

"Hey man, you just need to help me contact someone and tell your manager, a reliable-looking guy, who said he has a way to increase the theater's attendance rate. I hope to meet him and talk to him."

Link pushed a $10 bill in front of the staff.

"Do you have a way to increase theater attendance?"

"Of course. I never lie."

Link shrugged in relief.

The staff member collected the tip, picked up the phone on the counter and called the person in charge of the theater.

Link tapped the counter with his fingers and stared at the staff member closely. He saw the other party nodded and said yes and would bring him up in ten minutes.

Link breathed a sigh of relief.

Ten minutes later, Link was guided by the staff to the office on the upper floor of the cinema.

The hallway was dimly lit, and the soles of shoes tapped on the floor, making a clattering sound, and Link couldn't help but become nervous.

He used to be a purely technical director who was not good at dealing with investors and theater people, and he didn't know how to please rich women.

This also meant that he had few opportunities to direct commercial blockbusters in the past.

However, if we look into the reasons, the main reason is that they have no confidence in their own strength and their grasp of the market trends is not accurate enough.

I am worried that the movie will suffer a huge loss at the box office and I won’t be able to explain to the investors. I am also worried that the movie will lose too much money and affect my personal career and reputation.

Now that there is a movie box office subsidy system, he has enough confidence in the box office and the quality of the movies, which makes him more confident and motivated to do things. When he came to the general manager's office, the staff knocked on the door and heard the response of "Come in".

Link followed the staff into the office.

The office was brightly lit. There was a solid wooden desk placed horizontally next to the floor-to-ceiling window, similar to the one where Link made love with Nicole Kidman in his dream.

The theater manager was sitting behind his desk looking at documents, with his side facing the floor-to-ceiling window, making it easy to see his appearance.

This is a middle-aged man in his mid-thirties, wearing a brown shirt and combing his hair back like Al Pacino. He has thick hair and is a rare outlier among middle-aged men in Europe and the United States.

Before coming, Link found out that the manager's name was Jerome Preston, a more British surname.

Seeing the two people come in, Jerome Preston put down the documents in his hand, glanced at the staff, and then his eyes fell on Link.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Preston, my name is Link, I'm a director, nice to meet you!"

Link greeted politely.

"Hello Mr. Link, I heard that you have a good idea to increase theater attendance? I hope this is not a joke."

Jerome Preston pointed to the seat opposite him.

"Of course, Mr. Preston, I'm here to seek your cooperation, and jokes won't do me any good."

Link smiled and sat down calmly.

The staff left and closed the door.

"Mr. Link, may I ask what your solution is? I'm sorry, I have a lot of work to do, and I hope we can get straight to the point in our conversation."

"That's the style I like, too. Mr. Preston, I have two ways to increase theater attendance. One is to help theaters increase attendance in the short term, and the results will be seen within a month. The other is a long-term approach that will take several months or even years to plan. I don't know which one you'd like to hear."

Link pulled out a folder and opened it on his desk.

When Jerome Preston saw him take out the documents and the pen, his attitude became serious.

“What about the short term?”

"In the short term, it's very simple. I'm a director and I have an unreleased movie. If theaters are willing to release my movie, I guarantee that the theater's attendance will increase in the short term."

Link said with a serious expression.

Hearing his words, Jerome Preston's expression became more serious, even gloomy.

He got news from the staff that someone had offered suggestions to help increase theater attendance, but he didn't quite believe it was true because a marketer with such ability would not need to use this method to meet him, the manager.

Out of curiosity and boredom, he chose to meet the other party.

After meeting him, I realized that Link was a young man, which made me more certain of my previous opinion.

However, seeing that Link had a calm expression on his face, he sat down and directly proposed two methods, long-term and short-term, and took out a folder, obviously he came prepared.

This also made him a little curious about Link's method.

When he looked at Link expectantly, wanting to hear his brilliant ideas, Link said that showing his movies in the theaters would guarantee an increase in theater attendance in the short term.

Damn, what a fucking idea.

Since the 40s, in order to prevent industry monopoly, the American film industry has implemented a system of separating the three lines of brokerage companies, film production and distribution companies, and theater chains. Directors no longer have direct contact with theater chains and do not need to personally find theater chains to distribute their films. Instead, film distribution companies contact theater chains.

Now Link, the guy who claims to be a director, has directly skipped the distribution company and found him, the cinema manager. He also brazenly said that as long as his movies are shown, the cinema's attendance rate will definitely increase.

In Hollywood, even big directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Oliver Stone, and George Lucas can't guarantee this.

For example, the new movie "Hook" released by the great director Spielberg this year suffered a box office loss of 30 to 40 million.

How can Link, an unknown Asian director, guarantee this?
Jerome Preston felt fooled, and he leaned back in his office chair with a sullen look on his face.

"Hey man, if that's what you're thinking, please leave right now. I don't have time to listen to your jokes."

"Mr. Preston, the short-term plan I mentioned is true. It's a pity that you don't believe me, but time will prove that I am an honest person. In addition, this is my long-term plan. I believe that Mr. Preston will be interested after reading it."

Link's expression remained unchanged as he pushed the folder to the middle of the desk.

Jerome Preston looked at him, then looked at the folder on the table, hesitated for a few seconds, and opened the folder with a pen.

(End of this chapter)