Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1494 Buy a Season Ticket and Get a Free Movie Ticket
"The Lion King grossed over $40 million in 2,550 theaters in its second week of release (the first week of large-scale release), with an average weekend box office of over $16,000 per theater..."

Ronald was reading The Hollywood Reporter at home, and the box office column in it shattered his box office dreams.

This is the best opening weekend box office performance in Hollywood this year, and in history, it is second only to two super blockbusters, Jurassic Park and Batman Returns.

Ronald felt that he had not seen the potential of The Lion King at the box office. In fact, it was not his fault that he had a bad eye. Last week, The Lion King ranked only tenth at the box office. As a movie with a limited release, this result is actually very good. But Ronald did not expect that this result was achieved by only two cinemas.

Disney's Katzenberg played a marketing trick. When The Lion King was released, it was only shown in two theaters in the United States: Disney's El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles and Radio City Music Hall in New York.

These two cinemas can accommodate 1,100 people, and more than 5,000 people, respectively. They are Disney's largest movie theaters in the United States.

For a whole week, there were only two places in the United States where you could see The Lion King. Ticket prices were raised to a record-breaking $30. Tickets sold by scalpers were even more expensive, at over $80.

Therefore, in the first weekend of the film's opening, the two theaters contributed an average of more than 790,000 in box office revenue, and the first weekend box office revenue was close to 1.6 million. This broke the record for the highest box office revenue of a film that opened in less than 50 theaters, which was held by Star Wars that year. The original record of Star Wars was achieved by 40 theaters.

In the first weekend, combined with this week's midweek box office, these two cinemas have earned more than 3.8 million for The Lion King.

Ronald didn't watch the miracle of the two theaters carefully, so he didn't notice it for a while and misjudged the box office potential of The Lion King. Now it seems that The Lion King has a clear hope of challenging Jurassic Park's global box office record and is likely to take the throne of the highest-grossing animated film.

The Lion King, which is suitable for all ages, has a much larger audience base than Forrest Gump. However, two weeks later, Forrest Gump was released nationwide, and the Lion King was already in its fourth week. It seems reasonable to aim to beat the Lion King's fourth week box office at the opening weekend of Forrest Gump.

Ronald put down the documents and picked up the box prepared by Diane. He was about to fly to New York to attend the premiere there. The premiere in Los Angeles was organized by Paramount, which didn't cost much, so it was held in its own studio.

When I got to New York, I just daydreamed about spending money, additional marketing budget, and creating some momentum...

……

"Mr. Li, your blanket..."

The stewardess was used to Ronald sleeping on the plane. Ronald thanked her and fell asleep.

“You jump, I jump!”

After arriving in New York, Ronald was still mumbling to himself after getting in the car. There had been too many things going on recently, and he was a little tired. He slept very soundly on the plane. He seemed to have dreamed about some movie, but he could only remember very little of the content.

I just remember a handsome guy approaching a fat girl from behind and saying this line to her. It seems that the fat girl's clothes are not modern, but from the Industrial Revolution period. Maybe it's a romantic love drama from that time?

Ronald wrote down this line and asked his assistants to check it out later, although such a line and the time limit might not necessarily lead to any results.

"Mayor Rudy wants to talk to you..." The bodyguard in front of the car handed over the phone. What did Rudy want to talk to him about as soon as he landed?

"Ronald, this is my first victory parade speech..."

Rudy approached Ronald when the New York Rangers hockey team was holding a victory parade after winning the NHL championship Stanley Cup.

Unlike the disappointing Knicks, the Rangers defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3:2 in the seventh game of the finals, winning the team's first NHL championship in years.

In 1940, the Rangers won the Stanley Cup, and the owner of the old Madison Square Garden just paid off the mortgage on the stadium that year.

On the night of celebrating the championship, they put the bank mortgage loan documents inside the Stanley Cup and burned it... Fans believed that this action desecrated the sacred Stanley Cup, causing the team to be cursed and not win the championship for more than 50 years.

Another theory is that it was Darden, the general manager of the American ice hockey team in Madison Square Garden. During World War II, because a large number of players joined the army, the boss stopped investing and the American team temporarily withdrew from the NHL.

But after the end of World War II, the then-operator of Madison Square Garden supported the NHL to break its promise and prevent the American team from returning to the NHL. This made Dutton very angry and cursed that as long as he lived, the Rangers would not win the championship.

In short, this curse was so effective that in the 1980s, the Rangers' former second-tier team, the New York Islanders, whose home games were on Long Island, qualified for the NHL and won the championship for four consecutive years, winning one more Stanley Cup than their former parent team, the Rangers.

Islanders fans often held up "1940" signs to humiliate Rangers fans during New York derbies.

This championship was equivalent to completely breaking the 54-year curse. The fans of the Rangers were very happy and asked the team to hold a victory parade in Manhattan.

This matter reached Dolan, who wanted to give up the victory parade because the commercial value of the NHL was relatively low and he did not want to spend any more money to apply for assistance from City Hall in Manhattan, New York.

Regardless of whether this makes sense in business, if there is no victory parade for the fans who have not won a championship for more than 50 years, their resentment may be directed at the team owner.

After Ronald learned about it, he immediately called Mayor Rudy, put Dolan aside, and settled the matter directly.

Tomorrow, in the Broadway area, there will be a victory parade, starting from Battery Park and ending at City Hall, where Mayor Rudy will give a speech to celebrate New York's first professional sports championship since he took office.

"No problem, don't worry. I've arranged everything." Ronald has already paid a high price, and the floats along the way, various performances, and some appreciation activities for old fans participating in the victory parade are all ready.

"Hahaha, great, I'm going to do something big tomorrow..." Rudy was very happy about the championship. Ice hockey and basketball are a bit similar, both are ethnically bound professional sports. Just like the NBA is played by the most black people, ice hockey is almost all white people.

The same is true for fans. Many of those who watch the Knicks games are middle-class white people in Manhattan. Fans who watch ice hockey are almost all white people, and the most loyal ones are those from blue-collar families.

And these are exactly Mayor Rudy's most loyal supporters.

The section of Broadway from Battery Park to City Hall is also known as the Canyon of Heroes. On the second day, a large number of floats with performances from various ethnic groups, along with the winning Rangers team, arrived at the end of the parade, City Hall.

There, Mayor Rudy gave a speech to the millions of people who attended the parade. He congratulated the Rangers for winning the championship in the first year of the change of ownership, which had not been won in the past 54 years.

Not only did Rudy invite representatives of retired players who had not won a championship in the past half century, he also invited all the living mayors since 1940, half to celebrate the end of the curse and half to show off to them.

"This is Mayor Koch, who won two World Series titles with the Yankees. This is Mayor Dinkins, who won a Super Bowl with the Giants..."

"Boo..." When talking about Dinkins, there was a huge protest from the audience. Rudy's move was like roasting his predecessor on the stove. "Let's not forget that he was still the mayor when the Rangers started this season..."

"Boo..."

It would have been fine if I hadn't said it, because after I said it the fans below booed even louder.

"Finally, we would like to thank the players, coaches and owners of the Rangers for bringing us great pleasure!"

"Oh oh oh..."

Rudy is still very good at being sentimental in public. In the end, he attributed part of the victory to Ronald, allowing the new boss to enjoy the cheers of the fans.

Although Ronald did not go to watch the Airport Rangers' games, free pizza and beer after the win became a regular feature. The fans also supported the boss who brought them good luck.

Ronald declined the opportunity to speak on stage, as he did not want to take credit for the team he had taken over halfway through. Anyway, the fans saw clearly that half of the Stanley Cup was due to the transfer operations of the former general manager appointed by Paramount, and half was due to the strength of the players.

This refusal to go on stage to receive credit just happened to stop Dolan, who also wanted to receive credit.

To be a boss that fans like, you have to be willing to spend money... Ronald is very good at this trick. He arranged for many team members to provide convenience at the terminal of the victory parade. As long as you are the owner of any season ticket within three years from last season, you can get free food and drinks, and a "Forrest Gump" movie ticket package, which can be exchanged for two movie tickets and a popcorn and coke package.

The Rangers are one of the New York professional teams with the highest percentage of season ticket owners, selling more than 10,000 sets of season tickets each year, with only a few thousand individual tickets left for each home game.

In this big giveaway, Ronald gave away movie tickets worth about 60,000 US dollars, which also helped to make up for the opening weekend box office of "Forrest Gump".

After the premiere in New York, Ronald took a few days off and flew back to Los Angeles to wait for the release of Forrest Gump.

When he came back, Ronald couldn't sleep because he had a good rest. He sat in his seat on the private plane and read a lot of newspapers and magazines that his assistant bought for him in New York.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave The Lion King three and a half stars, saying it was "another brilliantly Disney-esque animated feature. The saga of Simba, whose deeply buried origins are in part Greek tragedy and certainly Hamlet, is a learning experience for parents and unforgettable entertainment for children."

But his TV review partner, Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune, was not too fond of The Lion King. Siskel said that the film was not as good as "Beauty and the Beast" from an artistic point of view, and not as good as "Jurassic Park" from a technical point of view. "The Lion King" is a good movie, but not a great movie.

Most of the film reviews in the newspapers are of this view. The Lion King is a very suitable movie for the whole family, but the artistic level is not very high. It seems that Shakespeare's story and the source of ancient Greek tragedy make this movie more suitable for adults than children.

"Ah..." Ronald could only shake his head at the comments of these film critics. It is suitable for adults, which is good for the box office.

Anyway, this is a movie that both adults and children like to watch. If there is one more child or one more adult who wants to watch it, the result will be three or more movie tickets...

It is indeed a bit strange to find the meaning of life and artistic achievement from a family-friendly animated film.

Ronald put down the newspaper and continued reading the magazine. The quality of film critics in magazines is often higher than that of film critics in newspapers.

Newspapers are highly timely and have a significant impact on box office sales, so many journalists who write film reviews for newspapers need to pay more attention to the effectiveness of film reviews. Magazines, on the other hand, are not so timely. By the time a film review is published, the film has often been released for two weeks.

So they have the space to look at the quality of movies more objectively. The readers of the magazine are also more educated, so some expressions can be more in-depth.

"Ok?"

Ronald frowned while holding a copy of Newsweek. On the copy was a picture of OJ Simpson. The picture looked like a frontal mug shot of OJ, very similar to the mug shot taken when a suspect is arrested.

The headline on the cover of the newspaper was "Tracking the Blood Trail." The special feature on OJ Simpson in this issue of Newsweek revealed a lot of information about the blood trail investigation by the LAPD.

Turning to the inside, film reviews have also been compressed into a very small space, and the OJ Simpson case is still squeezing out the space for various other social news.

Putting down Newsweek, Ronald picked up Time...

"Fuxk! What is this?"

Ronald was shocked when he saw the cover of Time magazine. The editors of Time magazine also used OJ Simpson's headshot as the cover, but... they used software to darken the original photo from Newsweek.

On the cover, OJ Simpson's face appears very dark, without any layers. This not only deepens the readers' stereotypes about black people, but also makes him look very threatening, like a black man who suddenly jumps out of the darkness of Central Park to rob people.

Then there is the very provocative title "An American Tragedy."

"What is this? Is it that Simpson has been trying to enter the white circle and marry a white wife for so many years, but in the end he still committed a crime and was suspected of murdering his wife?"

Ronald touched his chin. As one of the most serious magazines read by Americans, this is not the first time they have done this. The last time they brightened the photo of Michael Jackson, they compared it with when he just debuted, suggesting that MJ's skin and appearance are more like white people than before.

Soon, this cover photo was criticized by many other media. After all, there was the original photo from Newsweek. When the two magazines were compared, the purpose of smearing OJ Simpson was obvious.

Time magazine was soon accused of racist editorials and yellow journalism. After a few days, they could no longer hold on and had to apologize for their inappropriate remarks.

Ronald didn't know what these Jewish-owned media outlets were up to. Wouldn't this just add fuel to the fire in a country that was already divided because of the Simpson case? It seemed that the name of "Times" didn't need such eye-catching headlines and photos to attract sales.

The OJ Simpson case continues to make news. Ronald's "Forrest Gump" is about to hit theaters.

During the three days of the weekend, Ronald received a lot of real-time information from all over the place. Generally speaking, in big cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, the audience numbers of Forrest Gump and The Lion King were roughly the same, and it was difficult to tell which one was better.

On Monday, the box office statistics were finally released.

First place, Forrest Gump, $24.45 million.

Second place, The Lion King, $24,425,000.

"Thank God, I gave away more than 60,000 tickets!"