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It is now her second year on the job.

Daenerys Films was in its founding stage last year, and the income from "Run Lola Run" was not counted in the contract period, so there was only a share of income from "Death Comes", and the salary she received was not much.

But this year, 5% of the company's net profit will be shared. According to Daenerys Pictures' operating performance so far, even if all other projects in the second half of the year are not tepid, the previous "When Harry Met Sally", " Pulp Fiction, Who'd Be a Millionaire and Survivor were enough to bring her no less than $1000 million.

If the forward equity reward of the same value in the contract is counted, Amy's annual salary this year will exceed 2000 million US dollars.In the whole of Hollywood, except for the top seven executives who own shares in the company, there is no purely professional manager who can get an annual salary of more than 2000 million US dollars.

Many times, Amy herself doubts whether she is worth so much.

This suspicion has recently turned into worry again.

You know, she can get 2000 million US dollars this year, so what about next year?If Daenerys Pictures maintains the current growth rate, her income will definitely be more by then.

This year, Simon will definitely not be able to afford the money.

However, according to the original contract, if Simon does not want to continue to bear her huge salary, he only needs to pay 100 million US dollars in liquidated damages before she can leave.

Thinking about it occasionally, Amy felt that if it was her, she would probably do this.

After all, such a terrifying salary is enough for Simon to poach a company manager who is far better than her.The acquisition of New World Entertainment by Daenerys Films has once again aggravated Amy's concerns, because she discovered that the current CEO of New World Entertainment, Robert Rem, has far more qualifications than her in all aspects.

Ever since Simon negotiated the deal with Jack Welch and others, Amy has been worried that Simon will let Robert Rem replace her.

Across the desk, Simon saw Amy nodding, with a relaxed expression on his expression, and then said: "By the way, Robert also made me a condition. Although the position is below yours, he hopes to directly treat me Personal report, I agree. Also, after Iger joins the job, it will probably be the same. Your qualifications can hardly suppress the two of them, and you should be aware of this. So, I hope you can accept this and work with them. people working together.”

Amy was a little surprised, but she agreed quickly. After thinking about it, she took the initiative and said, "Simon, since the position adjustment is going to be made, I think I can re-sign a salary contract."

Simon turned the page of the information in his hand, looked up at Amy, and said with a smile, "Are you not satisfied with the current salary plan?"

Amy felt Simon's relaxed and somewhat teasing tone, and wanted to roll her eyes at her young boss, but held back, and said, "What I mean is, the current salary is too generous, I can take less Some. Like, um, 2% would do.”

"It's not necessary," Simon shook his head, and said, "Amy, you took a lot of risks when you resigned as the vice president of Fox Pictures to work for a brat like me. For more than a year, You work almost seven days a week and haven't taken a vacation yet. As a boss, I can definitely give you full marks. I always think that hard work is more important than talent. If you don't take care of this company, just rely on me Man, it is impossible for Daenerys Films to reach the level it is now. So, you are totally worth the reward. Of course, after the contract expires, Daenerys Films will definitely develop further, and if you still plan to stay Next, I will not offer you such a high sharing clause again."

Convincing Amy to let go, the two began to discuss the two documents in front of Simon.

In the next few days, Daenerys Films' audit of New World Entertainment continued, and another week of the North American summer vacation passed quietly.

During the week from July 7th to July 8th, one of the most concerned events in Hollywood is undoubtedly "Pulp Fiction" successfully achieved a box office breakthrough of 7 million.

In the sixth week of its release, "Pulp Fiction" received another US$6 million, and the cumulative box office reached US$987 million, becoming the second film produced by Daenerys Films in 1 to break 566 million at the box office.With the box office of "Pulp Fiction" exceeding 1988 million yuan, many people are turning their attention to "Instinct" released on July 7, wondering whether this new film can complete the "relay" with "Pulp Fiction" and continue to sprint to the 15 million box office club .

During this period of time, various topics about "Basic Instinct" in the media have never stopped.

In the last week before the release, a gossip newspaper in Los Angeles also revealed that the actor Michael Douglas refused to attend the promotional event of "Instinct" because of a poster problem, which once again attracted media attention.

As the release approaches, Fox Films launched a huge poster of "Instinct" several stories high in the bustling areas of major central cities in North America. This poster even appeared in Times Square in New York.

However, in this poster, Michael Douglas, who is the new actor and the absolute hero of "Basic Instinct", is completely invisible. In the whole poster, only the heroine Linda Fiorentino is dressed sexy like a queen. Sitting on the sofa with crossed legs, holding a cigarette in his hand, his chin is slightly raised, and his expression is dangerous and arrogant.

Anyone who has watched the original "Basic Instinct" will definitely have a deep memory of a certain episode of Sharon Stone sitting on the sofa with her legs up and her bottom exposed when she was interrogated. Many "crazy movie fans" will pause to watch it frame by frame. Of course, the actual Can't see anything on it.

But that shot has been talked about by too many people for many years.

This episode will still appear in the new version of "Instinct", and the shots shot by Brian De Palma are no less than Paul Verhoeven. In order to provoke topics as much as possible, Simon deliberately prepared this poster.

Due to the hot market attention of "Instinct", after a period of hard work, Fox Pictures once again expanded the scale of the release. When it was released on July 7, the number of screens for "Instinct" finally reached 15.

As expected, "Basic Instinct" was officially released, which unsurprisingly triggered more intense media controversy.

Moreover, due to the many previous works of Simon, although they will also cause various discussions, if you count carefully, whether it is "Run Lola Run" or "Pulp Fiction" directed by Simon himself or "The Butterfly Effect" handed over to others " and "Death Comes", the scripts of those films are all excellent.

However, this time, in the eyes of many people, "Basic Instinct" is completely a bare-bones pornographic film. This film has no bright spots except for a large number of bed scenes. One of the worst works in Westeros, even attracted many condemnation from Simon's personal fans.

Chapter 185 First Weekend Box Office

malibu.

It's a new Monday, the windows were not closed last night, and the cool morning breeze kept stirring the floor-to-ceiling curtains leading to the terrace and slipping into the bedroom.

The sky was fully lit, and Janet opened her eyes, knowing that Simon must have woken up, but she didn't move because she was entwined with him, so she rubbed and rubbed, and soon completely lay on the man's body, her face stuck to him With a dazed chest, he said, "Shall we sleep for a while?"

Simon put his arms around Janet's waist, feeling the skin-to-skin feeling, and said softly: "The designer hired by the company made a model of the Batmobile, do you want to come and see it this afternoon?"

Janet hummed a little dullly, and then said, "Not interested."

"Ok."

Simon smiled, and patiently allowed Janet to lean on him for a while, before he lifted her up and put her aside amidst the woman's dissatisfied moaning, and began to dress and wash.

It was seven o'clock in the morning.

After half an hour of jogging on the treadmill, Simon simply took a shower, changed his clothes, and began to prepare breakfast for the two of them.

Just after putting the two stacked sandwiches into the oven, Simon took out a few oranges from the refrigerator and was about to make juice when Janet, who was only wearing a loose men's shirt, floated in from outside.

After cutting the orange with a knife, Simon turned his head to look at the woman, and said with a smile, "Why don't you sleep?"

"I'm not with you," Janet came to hug Simon, raised her face slightly and kissed the man's lips, then stopped suddenly, raised her hand and cut across the top of her head to Simon's mouth, making several consecutive gestures Suddenly, his eyes widened: "You grew taller again?"

Janet's beautiful eyes always carried an attraction that Simon couldn't resist, especially the way her eyes widened in surprise.

Nodding his head, Simon looked at the woman's beautiful eyes and said with a smile, "It seems to be a little longer."

Janet was immediately sad, stretched out her arms and hugged Simon tightly, buried her head on his shoulder and lamented: "Oh my God, my boyfriend is still growing, woo, I'm already an old woman."

Simon felt the obvious insecurity in Janet's half-truth and half-fake babble, held up a woman's delicate face that was no less than a girl's, bowed his head and kissed it, and comforted him: "Okay, baby, you value maintenance so much, Even ten or twenty years from now, it will definitely be the same as it is now."

Janet put her face on Simon's cheek, but asked a little tricky: "What about 30 years later?"

"Uh, 30 years later, I'll be 50 years old."

Upon hearing this, Janet buried her head on Simon's shoulder and whimpered again: "A 50-year-old man must be more attractive to little girls."

Simon had no choice but to say, "I'm very attractive to little girls now, and this kind of thing can't be prevented."

Janet raised her hand and thumped Simon: "."

The two were intimate for a while, Simon sent the woman to get dressed, and quickly brought two breakfasts to the dining room by himself.

When Janet came back, she had already changed into her daily T-shirt and slacks. Although she was sad to find that her boyfriend had grown taller again, since she realized some of Simon’s potential tendencies, women rarely wore them anymore. My favorite high heels.

Wearing high heels for a long time will deform the feet.

People always sat across from each other at the dinner table, but Janet liked to be next to Simon.

Picking up the orange juice and taking a sip, Janet picked up the sandwich and bit it lightly, as if she had completely forgotten what happened just now, and said, "Mom called yesterday and asked when you are going to Australia?"

It is confirmed that the filming location of "Batman" will be arranged in Melbourne, and Daenerys Films has already sent people there to scout the scene. Simon himself will definitely go to Melbourne to see it before the filming starts.

After thinking about it for a moment, Simon said: "Next month, after accepting New World Entertainment, I will focus on the preparation of "Batman"."

"Australia has given a lot of support to the film industry in recent years. If you shoot there, you can get a large tax rebate for this project," Janet turned her head to the side, obviously not clear, and said: "Anyway, Dad will definitely help you."

After breakfast, Neil Bennett and Ken Dixon had their car ready, Simon was off to work in Santa Monica, and Janet was going to an architectural design firm in Beverly Hills.

The plot of Dumei Point Park has been won, and Simon provided a sketch based on the Iron Man mansion in his memory. During this time, Janet has been staring at the specific design work.The project is expected to start next year.However, it is not easy to build such a villa on the tip of Cape Dumei. If Simon wants to live in it, he may have to wait patiently for two or three years.

Because of the way, Janet and Simon took a car until downtown Santa Monica, and then changed to the wine red Land Rover driven by Ken Dixon and rushed to Beverly Hills.

Simon's original Chevrolet SUV has been disposed of by Janet and replaced by a black Land Rover.As soon as the car entered 4th Street in downtown Santa Monica, where Daenerys Films headquarters is located, Simon saw that there were many more people gathered outside the company headquarters today.

After the success of "Who Will Be a Millionaire", not only several reality shows of Daenerys Films, but also many other production companies and TV networks themselves are brewing reality show projects that do not require the participation of screenwriters.Moreover, after the proposal provided by the Producers Union was rejected by the Screenwriters Union last month, Simon heard that the new contract being brewed by the Producers Union was even bigger than the previous one because of the changes in the situation brought about by "Who Will Be a Millionaire". One serving is even harsher.

With the strike lasting half a year, the WGA has few options.

If the two sides can't reach an agreement next month, anyway, the autumn file has been completely delayed, and the producer alliance may break the can and continue the stalemate.But tens of thousands of mouths are waiting to eat. If the WGA continues, it may really cause a tragedy of the collapse of the union.

As the initiator of the reversal of the current situation, during these days, screenwriters have always gathered outside the headquarters of Daenerys Films to express their dissatisfaction.This kind of thing is very common in Western society, and Simon has gradually become commonplace.As long as these people do not interfere with the operation of Daenerys Films, the two parties will live in peace.

However, when Simon's car came outside the parking lot of the headquarters, he discovered that the new group of people were not members of the screenwriters' union, or in other words, there were two groups of people today.

There are still some members of the WGA union working tirelessly outside the headquarters of Daenerys Films, but today more people came to protest "Basic Instinct".

And, looking at the signs like 'Basic Instinct is trash', 'You're no longer welcome in San Francisco', 'Discrimination, it's discrimination', 'Stop smearing gays' and rainbow flags in some hands, Simon Just understand what's going on.

In recent days, "Basic Instinct" has indeed caused intense controversy in the media, but after all, it has not reached the level where Lionsgate's release of "Anger in the Sky" in the original time and space touched the fundamental beliefs and caused thousands of people to gather.However, gay organizations in the San Francisco area, a stronghold of homosexuality in North America, were very unhappy with the portrayal of homosexuality in "Basic Instinct."

As an oriental person in his bones, Simon neither approves nor disapproves of homosexuality, or he doesn't have much feeling at all.Therefore, it is difficult for Simon to understand why gays are so resistant to this movie. He even heard that a few days ago, many gay organizations in the San Francisco area specially distributed spoiler leaflets like "Katherine is the murderer" at the entrance of the theater to prevent audiences from entering the theater. .

The Land Rover slowly drove through the crowd into the company parking lot, and Simon entered the office building through the side door.

After convening an hour-long weekly meeting to confirm the progress of the company's various projects, the executives dispersed their busy work, Simon and Amy continued to stay in the conference room, and Jennifer sent the box office data report of the past weekend to come over.

After working so hard for so long, I finally got to see the results today.

Although the media had mixed reactions and were more inclined to criticize, "Basic Instinct" still achieved a box office of 1675 million U.S. dollars in the first three days of its release, and successfully won the North American box office chart for the three-day weekend. With a scale of 1776 opening screens, the box office of a single theater is close to 1 US dollars, which is already the average hall standard for blockbuster films.

"Journey to America" ​​starring Eddie Murphy has entered its third week of release and is still No.2 on the list.

Following last week's box office drop of 45%, "Journey to America" ​​narrowed its box office decline to 21% this weekend, and received another 1041 million US dollars.Due to the amazing start of the first week with 3615 million US dollars, the cumulative box office of this film has reached 6651 million US dollars in two and a half weeks.

In comparison, this week's No. 3 new film "Tiger Hunter", produced by Warner Bros. Pictures and starring Clint Eastwood, only got $907 million in box office in the first three days of its first week.Although this box office result is not too bad, it is expected that the box office will reach about 1300 million US dollars in the first week, but compared with the 1675 million US dollars of "Instinct", it can only be described as a failure.

Speaking of which, the two films of Warner Bros. in this summer, "Funny Farm" on June 6 and "Tiger Hunter" on July 3, coincided with the two films produced by Daenerys Pictures "Pulp Fiction" and "Basic Instinct" collide.

Chevy Chase's "Funny Farm" is nearing its end due to lukewarm reception, grossing just under $2500 million. "Tiger Hunter" may perform slightly better at the box office, but it is also far below Warner Bros. Pictures' expectations.

In addition, "A Fish Named Wanda" starring Sandra received another $563 million in three days last weekend.Because of the strong word-of-mouth, the film has been released for two and a half weeks, and the cumulative box office has reached 3096 million US dollars.

By the time Simon and Amy were at Daenerys Studios headquarters checking the box office figures for the past weekend, the same box office report had already spread throughout Hollywood.

It got 1675 million U.S. dollars in three days. Even if it is calculated based on the proportion of 70% of the whole week's box office in the three days of the weekend, the first week of "Basic Instinct" will not be less than 2300 million U.S. dollars.

Although the previous "Journey to America" ​​just won a box office of US$3615 million in its first week, in this era, there are only a handful of films that break through US$2000 million in the box office in the first week. With a 45% box office drop, "Basic Instinct" has enough potential to continue to break through the [-] million mark at the North American box office.

In fact, when looking at "Basic Instinct"'s opening-weekend numbers, most people wouldn't doubt that it will be like Daenerys' other two films, "When Harry Met Sally" and "Pulp Fiction." "Sprint to the [-] million mark like that.

The topic of "Basic Instinct" is too hot. Even if it didn't enter the cinema in the first week because of the controversy, in the following weeks, the audience is likely to be affected by the further spread of the film's topicality and some word-of-mouth effects. Select Watch Movies.

The first week was 2300 million US dollars, so if the box office of the second week is counted as a 20% drop, the movie can also collect another 1800 million US dollars at the box office.

The income of more than 4000 million US dollars in two weeks is not only enough for Fox and Daenerys Pictures to recover all the production costs of 2000 million US dollars, but this result is also enough to squeeze into the top [-] of the annual North American box office list .

then.

With the opening weekend's box office coming out, the whole of Hollywood has begun to study the success of "Basic Instinct".

Femme fatale.

This is an important element that many film companies generally capture. In addition, of course, there is 'sex'. Although the Hollywood strike is still going on, various studios have begun to collect scripts with similar elements.

Simon knew, however, that the fundamental reason for the success of "Basic Instinct" was actually the strong topicality of the movie due to various controversies.

For the box office performance of the film industry, the quality of the film itself is of course important, but when the topic of the film reaches a certain level, even if it is a completely bad film, it can still achieve a very good box office.

The "Blair Witch" in the original time and space in 1997 proved this point. Because of the phenomenon-level discussion upsurge, a DV movie with a production cost of only tens of thousands of dollars actually won nearly 2.5 million dollars at the box office worldwide. , Thousands of times the rate of return, can be called a miracle.

In all fairness, Simon's previous works, in addition to their own quality, are also largely blessed by the halo of topicality. The director of "Run Lola Run", the youngest winner of the Palme d'Or for "Pulp Fiction", and now the intense controversy of "Instinct".

Simon also knows that after more than two years of films, the public's curiosity about him is destined to gradually cool down.If the films produced by Daenerys Films want to continue to be successful, in addition to ensuring the quality of the film itself, Daenerys Films needs to invest more energy in the promotion of the film, and it is impossible to have the current shortcut .

In the ongoing media discussion, the first week passed quickly.

From July 7 to July 15, the box office performance of "Basic Instinct" was higher than the media generally expected, reaching 7 million US dollars.Followed by "Journey to America", the box office in the third week of its release was 21 million US dollars, and the cumulative box office was 2392 million.

Warner Bros.' "Tiger Hunter" ranked third, with a final box office of 1319 million US dollars in the first week.

According to the current situation, Warner is likely to repeat the mistakes of last year.

In 1987, Warner Bros.'s best-grossing movie was "Lethal Weapon," which was dropped in the unpopular schedule at the beginning of the year.This year, so far, Warner Bros.'s best movie at the box office is still Tim Burton's new film "Beetlejuice", which is very underestimated in the Easter schedule.

Chapter 186 Birthday Party (Revised)

Santa Monica.

In a five-story office building on 2nd Street not far from the headquarters of Daenerys Films, this was originally the headquarters of a real estate company.

Last year's stock market crash led to the collapse of the North American property market. The dismal real estate company moved to the Ocean Park area in the south in order to save money. Simon rented out the entire five-story office building and used it as the office of Daenerys' special effects company.

Although this office building is not as large as the two-story office building of Daenerys Films Headquarters, and there is no separate parking lot, the total area of ​​the five-story office building is still much larger than that of Daenerys Films Headquarters. This happens to meet the needs of Daenerys' special effects company.

After several months of adjustments, Simon has integrated Alias ​​Research and Wavefront Technologies, which were acquired at the beginning, and Mark Silvers, the founder of the original Wavefront Technologies, will serve as the president of the new company.

During this period of time, Daenerys Special Effects has been continuously recruiting. In just over three months, the number of employees has reached more than 110, which is twice as large as Daenerys Films.

However, compared with Daenerys Films' continued to make huge profits through "When Harry Met Sally" and "Who Will Be a Millionaire" and other projects, Daenerys' special effects are still completely burning money. In terms of status, Simon also plans to incorporate Daenerys special effects into the upgraded Daenerys Entertainment Company in the next process of integrating New World Entertainment.

It was already July 7, in the afternoon.

In a small conference room for Daenerys special effects, Simon, Terry Semel, and Mark Silvers from the special effects company are sitting around their desks and watching a shot on the projector.