hunt hollywood

Amy nodded, and said: "He said that Orion can't afford the money now, and hopes that we can postpone it for a month."

Simon smiled. Since the arrears started, Daenerys Entertainment should still not be able to get it after a month: "Is there any problem with the share of other projects?"

"No, Fox has already settled the box office share of "Instinct", a total of 3229 million US dollars, and the major TV networks will basically settle the accounts payable before the end of the month."

Simon thought for a while and said, "Keep watching. It's okay for Orion to delay for a few months. Everyone knows their situation, but if they continue to maliciously default, we will file a lawsuit."

In the midst of busy work, the two days of the weekend passed quickly.

The first day of "Rain Man" was $210 million, and the box office is expected to be only $800 million in the first week. Even with a 20% single-week decline, the North American box office of this film may only be more than $3000 million.Compared with the total investment of 4000 million US dollars, the loss of Daenerys Entertainment seems to have become a foregone conclusion.

However, in the following two days, the single-day box office of "Rain Man" has been showing a state of rising against the market.

After Saturday's $250 million, to everyone's surprise, "Rain Man" even reversed its single-day box office on Sunday, which was supposed to decline compared to Saturday's box office, and collected another $260 million.

When the accurate statistics of the first weekend were released, many people were surprised to find that in just three days of the first weekend, the box office of "Rain Man" has reached 728 million US dollars, which is already close to the general media's forecast of 800 million US dollars in the first seven days of the box office.

Chapter 222 Word of mouth (revision)

San Jose on the San Francisco Bay.

It was already December 12th, in the Willow Glen area in the south of downtown San Jose, and "The Sixth Sense of Spirituality" officially launched here from December 20th.

The original "Sixth Sense" story took place in Philadelphia on the east coast. Simon's body has never been to Philadelphia, but he has too many memories of San Jose, so he set the background of the story here.

Simon flew here from Los Angeles yesterday morning. In addition to visiting the class, he also dropped by several technology companies in which the Westeros Corporation has a stake.

Because this is the first time Simon has returned to the place where he grew up after his fortune, both the Bay Area media and the local government are very excited about this.However, Simon did not arrange various visiting schedules as many people expected, but spent most of his time on work.

Entering December, various media have been very keen to discuss how much money Daenerys Entertainment has made this year. Even the most conservative estimates are enough to make most Hollywood film companies feel jealous.

Now that he has occupied this body, Simon is destined to be unable to escape everything in the past.

Before Simon left for San Jose, Pat Kingsley announced that the Simon; Janet Westeros Foundation would donate $100 million to several San Jose schools and welfare agencies.This amount of money is a drop in the bucket compared to Simon's current net worth, but now that he has done it, the media can no longer say that Simon is too indifferent to the place where he grew up.Although, that's the truth.

Back in Los Angeles, Simon began his final plot twist for the upcoming Batman.

Over the past few months, Simon himself and the storyboard artists he hired have accumulated more than 2000 concept drawings and storyboard drafts, and some very important shots have also been specially made short reference animations.After such a long period of preparation, the entire movie can be said to have been completely loaded in Simon's mind, and the next thing to do is to present them on film.

After all, "Batman" will not be released until next year. In recent days, the most concerned about Hollywood is undoubtedly "Rain Man", which has been counterattacking.

After a low opening of US$210 million on the first day, "Rain Man" not only unexpectedly achieved a three-day box office of US$728 million in the first weekend, but on weekdays, the film's single-day box office revenue of nearly one million US dollars also seemed unexpected. .

Feeling this unusual, Daenerys Entertainment immediately conducted a questionnaire survey on "Rain Man" directly facing the audience.

As a result, 1000% of the 36 viewers surveyed in major cities in North America chose to watch the movie because they were recommended by relatives and friends around them. people.

Based on these two data alone, Amy Pascal and Robert Rehm, who are experienced in the industry, judged that "Rain Man" is producing a rare word-of-mouth effect.

Although Simon's "Run Lola Run" last year successfully evolved into an "event movie", it mainly relied on the gimmick of Simon's age, the hype of the media and the strong curiosity of the audience, while "Rain Man" really relied on its content. attracted the audience into the cinema.

Therefore, although it is still unclear how the box office trend of "Rain Man" will evolve into a national-level "event movie" again, at least one thing can be confirmed, "Rain Man" will definitely not be like everyone before. As predicted it failed.

As word-of-mouth continued to ferment, many media that were originally influenced by C also published positive film reviews of "Rain Man".

Amidst countless expectations, doubts, fears and other complex emotions, on December 12, the box office data for the new week was officially released.

Universal Pictures' unexpected blockbuster "Dragon Brothers and Mice" is still locked in the weekly box office champion position. In the second week of its release, the film received another 1217 million US dollars.

"Rain Man" follows on the heels of "Dragon and Mice".

In the seven days of the first week, "Rain Man"'s final box office reached 1165 million US dollars, almost exceeding 800% of the first week's forecast of 50 million US dollars.People who had no expectations for this movie found that with such a box office start, coupled with the film's continuous spread of word-of-mouth, it is not impossible for "Rain Man" to hit the [-] million box office club.

In addition to "Rain Man", "Steel Magnolia" and "Scream" produced by Daenerys Entertainment continued to earn US$766 million and US$573 million at the box office, ranking fourth and No.5 on the list respectively.

"Dead Poets Society", which opened in the second week of painting, received another US$163 million this week after last week's box office of US$208 million. In just two weeks of screenings, the cumulative box office of "Dead Poets Society" has reached US$371 million.

"Dead Poets Society" has officially opened a large-scale screen this week with as many as 1693 screens, which is more than the 1621 screens after the emergency deployment of Universal Pictures' "Dragon Brothers and Mouse Brothers". In addition, the film has been screened for two consecutive weeks With the accumulated word of mouth, few people doubt that "Dead Poets Society" will win the box office champion of Christmas week.

In addition to "Dead Poets Society", there are three other films that will be released on a large scale this week, namely Disney's 2D animation "The Adventures of Oliver" based on Dickens' "Oliver Twist", and Fox's film that has won a series of Golden Globe nominations. But the mediocre "Working Girl" and "My Stepmother Is an Alien" that MGM took over from Columbia Pictures after abandoning "Rain Man" .

Compared with the 1693 screens of "Dead Poets Society", the scale of the opening screens of the other three new films is relatively low. "The Adventures of Oliver" is 952 yuan, "Working Girl" is 1051 yuan, "My Stepmother Is an Alien" is 1106 yuan.

Like "Dragon Brothers and Mouse Brothers", due to its strong reputation, the scale of "Steel Magnolias" this week has also expanded again, reaching 1613 yuan, becoming the third Christmas film with a screen size of more than 1600 screens.

This year's Christmas Eve is still spent by Simon and Janet together. After Christmas, the crew of "Batman" began to leave for Melbourne one after another, but Simon had to wait until after New Year's Day.

Perhaps because the previous months were too deserted compared to previous years, with the arrival of Christmas, the market in North America experienced an explosive growth this week.

Although there are only four new films that have been drawn on a large scale, in the week from December 12 to December 23, many old films that have been released for several weeks have seen a strong box office rebound.

However, in this world, there are always people who are happy and others who are sad.

Since the box office and word-of-mouth of "Rain Man" began to counterattack, MGM executives have been in a strong sense of anxiety.

If the box office of $1165 million in the first week is not so unacceptable, when the box office data of the new week comes out, United Artists chairman Tony Tomopoulos, who has decided to give up the distribution rights of "Rain Man", only feels that his Jobs may be lost.

On December 12, the box office will be announced for seven days during Christmas week.

Compared with last week's total box office of 7319 million U.S. dollars, this week's market soared 68% to 1 million U.S. dollars.

"Dead Poets Society", which has the largest number of screenings, lived up to expectations in the first week after accumulating word of mouth in the previous two weeks, reaching US$1901 million, and successfully won the single-week box office champion in Christmas week, with a cumulative box office of US$2272 million.

It is obvious that Daenerys Entertainment's another billion-dollar box office club film was born in 1988.

However, compared to Dead Poets Society's expectations, it was "Rain Man" that surprised everyone this week.

In the second week of its release, the number of screening screens of "Rain Man" was still only 1136. However, with the further development of word-of-mouth, the box office of this film, which has apparently successfully evolved into a phenomenon-level film, not only did not fall, but soared 45% in the second week. %, reaching $1667 million.

Even though the box office of several other films such as "Dragon Brothers" and "Steel Magnolia" have risen to varying degrees this week, the 45% decline in "Rain Man" is still amazing.

You know, the reversal rate of "Dragon Brothers and Mouse Brothers" is only 18%. "Steel Magnolia" increased the number of screens to 1613, and the theme fits the festive atmosphere very well. The decline rate of this film is only 25%.

Moreover, due to the different box office bases last week, the box office of "Dragon Brothers and Mice", which fell by 18%, was 1367 million US dollars this week, while the box office figure of "Steel Magnolia" was actually only 921 million US dollars.

With the number of screens unchanged, "Rain Man" achieved a box office drop of up to 45%. The single-week box office figure jumped from $1165 million last week to $1667 million.In two weeks, the total box office figure of this film, which was originally predicted by many people to be only US$2000 million at the North American box office, has reached US$2832 million.

At the same time, such box office data also officially means that the seven films produced by Daenerys Entertainment this year have completely achieved the grand slam of the North American box office breaking [-] million.

Of course, a horror-comedy takeover from New World Entertainment was naturally ignored.

In comparison, MGM gave up "My Stepmother Is an Alien" that "Rain Man" took over from Columbia, because the word-of-mouth collapsed immediately after the painting opened, and there was no splash at all in the hot market on Christmas Monday. up any waves.

The $2000 million family comedy grossed just $381 million in its seven-day opening week.

When the media took notice of this, all that was left to MGM was pure sarcasm.

MGM chose "My Stepmother Is an Alien" instead of "Rain Man", which was not expected at the beginning. The original plan was actually quite perfect.

A sci-fi family comedy like "My Stepmother Is an Alien" is completely in line with the schedule of Christmas, compared to the road movie where two men go all the way.

Although Columbia Pictures was not optimistic about the film during the internal screening stage, MGM executives generally believed that even if "My Stepmother Is an Alien" was worse, it should be better than "Rain Man".

Desire is beautiful, reality is cruel.

"My Stepmother is an Alien" had a box office of US$381 million in its first week. Even if MGM can get 55% of the box office share from the theaters, it can only recover US$209 million.

According to the original contract signed with Daenerys Entertainment, "Rain Man" accumulated a box office of 2832 million U.S. dollars in two weeks. According to the 15% distribution commission ratio, MGM could get 425 million U.S. dollars. Needless to say, the difference between US$209 million and US$425 million is just that the expected share of these two weeks is already close to the selling price of US$500 million when MGM let go of "Rain Man".

There are rumors in the circle that just after Christmas, Kirk Kerkorian, the big boss behind MGM, flew from Las Vegas to Los Angeles in person because of the "Rain Man" incident. They gathered together and cursed.

Although there were media reports that MGM would file a lawsuit against Daenerys Entertainment, trying to claim compensation based on some loopholes in the contract between the two parties, this matter obviously will not have any follow-up.

Not to mention that Daenerys Entertainment is unlikely to leave the first and last to MGM, and MGM, which is now called dilapidated, does not have enough financial strength to file a lawsuit with Daenerys Entertainment.

In the face of the unexpected box office explosion of "Rain Man", apart from MGM, who are beating their chests, the most tangled is undoubtedly a few big names under C.

When the box office curve of "Rain Man"'s counterattack gradually became clear, Barry Levinson, Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise all became the objects of close pursuit by the paparazzi.

The trio's previous disdain for "Rain Man" is still vivid, and now, the paparazzi's favorite thing to do is to chase after the trio and ask them what they think of "Rain Man".

Faced with the pursuit of the media, Barry Levinson tried to choose to disappear completely, but in front of the uncrowned king who had made up his mind, this strategy obviously failed.

Barry Levinson disappeared from Tokyo for just two days over Christmas before being scooped up from Tokyo by the omniscient media.

Dustin Hoffman, who had been hiding in the UK for a "vacation" before, tried to express some intentions that the success of "Rain Man" also had his own and others' credit, but the result was more intense ridicule.

On the other hand, the harassment from the media also affected Tom Cruise's "Born on the Fourth of July". Oliver Stone had no choice but to stop working. Stay at home in the Los Angeles mansion.

Instead, Cruise's agent, Paula Wagner, congratulated the success of "Rain Man" very generously. In addition, Cruise did not directly communicate with Barry Levinson before "Rain Man" was released. Daenerys had conflicts in entertainment, and she didn't talk as much as Dustin Hoffman, which made him in a better position than the other two in this public opinion turmoil.

With the dust settling on the box-office form of "Rain Man" and "Dead Poets Society," Hollywood was surprised to find that of the seven films Daenerys Entertainment produced this year, "When Harry Met Sally," "Rain Man" "Neither "Dead Poets Society" was written by Simon himself. Even "Scream", although it is rumored to be Simon's idea, he did not sign it.

Since the beginning of "Run Lola Run", the subsequent "Butterfly Effect", "Death Comes", "Pulp Fiction" and other films have unconsciously given people a feeling that Daenerys' entertainment is completely supported by Simon alone. a feeling of.

Because of this concept, even when the summer film "Pulp Fiction" and other films were successful again, Daenerys Entertainment still relatively easily won several projects such as "Bodyguard" and "Future Leap".

Now, Hollywood has completely woken up from its previous concepts.

It's clear that Simon Westeros picks his scripts as much as his creative talent.

It is well known that Daenerys Entertainment has hoarded a large number of copyrights. At the beginning, many media once laughed at Simon's lavish behavior.

Now, it is obviously not so difficult to grab the projects that have been held by Daenerys Entertainment. However, those projects that Daenerys Entertainment has expressed interest in but have not yet obtained have immediately become the most popular projects in Hollywood. object of close attention.

Chapter 223 New Year's Eve Reception (Revised)

Daenerys Entertainment Headquarters, today is December 12, the last day of 31.

In the afternoon, Simon welcomed a special guest, Mr. Stan Lee, the current chairman and publisher of Marvel Comics, and the creator of superhero characters such as Captain America, Spiderman, and Fantastic Four.

Due to work reasons, Stan Lee still lives in New York now, and this time he came to Los Angeles for vacation.

In the past few months after the merger with New World Entertainment, Simon and Stan Lee have met several times, but the two parties have not had the opportunity to discuss Marvel's future development plans.

"Batman" is about to start filming. Stan Lee, who has always been very concerned about the film and television adaptation of Marvel superheroes, took advantage of the year-end vacation to visit Simon and discuss this matter by the way.

"Stan, Daenerys Entertainment will definitely develop Marvel superhero movies, but now is not the right time. We all know that compared to "Superman" and "Batman", such as Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, etc. It’s very difficult to shoot Marvel superheroes.”

"But we can start with some easier projects, can't we?" When it comes to business, the 66-year-old man is no longer as witty as he used to be, and said solemnly: "Simon, "The Punisher" is good, he is no different. Yes, no special effects, why cancel this project?"

Jennifer brought in a pot of coffee at this time, and Simon didn't stop talking, saying, "Stan, you must have read the script, it's a Stallone "First Blood" style shootout movie, completely lost the 'punishment' The essence of the author's story."

Stan Lee took the coffee from Jennifer, thanked him, and continued: "Simon, the script can be modified."

Simon took a sip of coffee and said, "Then the original project needs to be completely overthrown and started from scratch, and, frankly, Stan, I'm not optimistic about the box office prospects of "The Punisher."

Stan Lee couldn't help but shook his head, and said, "I really don't understand what you're thinking, Simon, you now own all the copyrights of Marvel's superheroes, but you're going to shoot DC's "Batman"."

"I started working on Batman before I took over Marvel."

"So, what about Superman and Wonder Woman?"

Simon looked at the old man who was obviously getting emotional, and said with a smile: "Stan, don't you think it's a very fulfilling thing to hold the copyrights of DC's heavyweight superheroes on the basis of Marvel? ?"

Stan Lee thought for a while, then laughed, but said again: "Okay, Simon. But, how long do we have to wait here?"

"Five years," Simon said: "Five years later, Daenerys Entertainment will start planning the film and television projects of Marvel superheroes. experience."

Simon is now the boss of Marvel, and since he has made up his mind, Stan Lee didn't bother too much.The two continued to chat about some trivial business of Marvel Entertainment, and before they knew it, more than an hour passed.

When it was almost time to get off work, Simon sent Stan Lee out of the office, and Jennifer, who was sitting outside, picked up a prepared invitation letter and handed it to Simon.

Simon handed the invitation letter to Stan Lee and said, "Stan, this is the invitation letter for Daenerys Entertainment's New Year's Eve reception tonight. It will start at seven o'clock and the location will be in Palisades. If you are interested, you can come over."

Stan Lee accepted the invitation letter and said cheerfully, "I will definitely attend on time."

After sending Stan Lee away, Simon glanced at the outer office, which was temporarily occupied by Jennifer.

Susan Landis was fired last Friday, and the two scripts of "Rocket Expert" and "Firebird Attack" prepared by Simon a few days ago have now fallen into the hands of Paramount Pictures.

There is no possibility of misunderstanding in this matter. After selecting the two scripts, Simon just put them in the office casually, and did not contact the copyright owners of the two scripts, nor told others about it.

Until last Friday, Simon asked Jennifer to make a few tentative phone calls, and the two projects that had been unavailable were suddenly taken down by Paramount, which obviously cannot be explained by coincidence.

Susan Landis has served as Simon's secretary since the establishment of Daenerys Entertainment, and has accumulated some friendship.Since the other party did not cause any loss to Daenerys Entertainment, Simon was not interested in taking a small shrimp, and simply fired the other party.

However, reminded by this incident, Simon also began to pay more attention to secrecy.

Tonight is New Year's Eve, and when Stan Lee left, Simon left work early and rushed to the mansion on the hillside of Palisades.

The New Year's Eve reception hosted by Daenerys Entertainment started at 05 o'clock in the evening. When Simon arrived here, it was less than 30:[-]. He got off the car in the courtyard and asked a few words about the party company employees who were busy around. Two daughters, Janet and Catherine, were found on the second floor of the villa.

Seeing Simon's appearance, Janet, who was choosing a dress, sent away the stylist who was helping her in a low voice, leaned over and kissed Simon, and said, "You came just in time, help me see which one to wear tonight The dress fits."

Simon looked at Catherine, who had changed into a long silver dress that fit her personality very well, and said, "As long as you don't clash with Catherine."

Janet also glanced at Catherine, and said with a smile: "I don't choose this kind of dress that makes people have no courage to approach."

Catherine argued dissatisfiedly in a low voice: "Why am I not letting people get close?"