On July 30th, as the summer season drew to a close, seven new films hit North American theaters this week. However, four of them had limited releases with less than 300 screens. High Gate Pictures' Italian art film "Four Stories" was given a limited release of just 11 screens.
The three mainstream releases, each opening on over 1,000 screens, included MGM's "Heart and Souls," Fox's "Robin Hood: Men in Tights," and Columbia Pictures' "Body of Evidence."
"Heart and Souls," starring Robert Downey Jr., tells the story of a man named Tommy who is surrounded by four ghosts after a car accident, clearly following in the footsteps of "Ghost." The film opened on 1,263 screens.
"Robin Hood: Men in Tights" is a parody of the Robin Hood legend, obviously trying to capitalize on the success of Kevin Costner's "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" from two years ago. It opened on 1,275 screens.
"Body of Evidence," a project Madonna pitched to Simon last year, is similar to "Basic Instinct" and features the pop star in a provocative role. It opened on more screens than the other two, with a total of 2,070.
During the week of July 30 to August 5, due to the mediocre performance of new releases over the past two weeks, the box office was still dominated by "The Pelican Brief," which opened on July 16.
In its third week, "The Pelican Brief" dropped 31% from the previous week's earnings, bringing in $16.82 million and bringing its three-week total to $72.83 million. It's expected to cross the $100 million mark within the next three weeks, with a final gross likely around $110 million.
Not only "The Pelican Brief," but the box office trends for Daenerys Entertainment's summer releases have also become clearer as August begins.
"Firm," which opened on July 2, crossed the $100 million mark in its fifth week with a weekly gross of $10.37 million, bringing its total to $104.93 million.
Given its fifth-week performance, "Firm" is expected to reach a total North American gross of $140 million to $150 million.
Another Daenerys Entertainment-related film, "Sleepless in Seattle," earned $6.03 million this week. In its seventh week, the romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan has grossed $116.31 million, with a final tally expected around $130 million.
Going further back, "Superman," which opened on June 4, saw its ninth-week earnings drop below $10 million for the first time, bringing in $9.39 million.
At the same time, "Superman" has reached a total gross of $332.11 million, with a final estimate around $360 million.
With three out of four major releases from other Hollywood studios, Daenerys Entertainment only managed the distribution of "Firm," allowing New World Pictures and High Gate Pictures' three summer films to benefit from significant distribution resources.
As a result, "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" (May 17), "Orlando" (June 11), and "What's Love Got to Do with It" (June 25), all mid-to-low-budget films, performed well compared to their budgets.
"Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story," with a $15 million production budget and $5 million for distribution, grossed $35.11 million in North America. New World Pictures nearly recouped the production and distribution costs through the domestic box office alone, ensuring substantial future profits from additional channels.
Tilda Swinton's "Orlando" had grossed $17.36 million by August 5 and was steadily approaching $20 million with weekly earnings still exceeding $500,000. The total investment for acquisition and distribution was only $6 million, making the film profitable.
Tina Turner's musical biopic "What's Love Got to Do with It" was a pleasant surprise.
With a $20 million total investment, the film grossed $42.63 million by August 5, and its weekly earnings were still $3.81 million. Reaching $50 million was likely.
While these three films' profits pale in comparison to "Superman," they, along with four major commercial films, marked Daenerys Entertainment's success with all seven summer releases. This consistency is what makes the latest rising star in Hollywood so formidable.
In the gambling-like film industry, how can anyone always win?
Simon didn't think there was anything special about it.
Of the seven films, four major ones were chosen using his foreknowledge, ensuring they were good cards to play. The other three, selected by New World Pictures and High Gate Pictures for the summer season, were of decent quality, further boosted by Daenerys Entertainment's strong distribution support.
Movies are a gambling business, but the game can be "card-counted."
Like Simon's memory of Disney.
By consolidating Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm, and Pixar Studios, Disney essentially held a strong winning hand, dominating the yearly North American box office top ten.
In recent years, Simon had worried about Daenerys Entertainment attracting unwanted trouble due to its high profile, hence the strategy of sharing profits through collaborations. This summer, three of the four major releases were distributed by other studios.
With Daenerys Entertainment smoothly merging with MCA and the growing strength of the Westeros system, those concerns are no longer an issue.
In the next few years, acquiring a national public TV network to complete its media layout, Daenerys Entertainment can fully display Simon's ambition to dominate Hollywood.
On the other hand, Columbia Pictures, owned by Sony, starkly contrasted with Daenerys Entertainment this summer.
To retain his position as Columbia Pictures' CEO, Peter Guber bet almost everything this summer.
From May 14, with the same release date as "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story," Columbia Pictures released six films by August 5: "My Family," "Cliffhanger," "Last Action Hero," "Dangerous Honeymoon," "Poetic Justice," and "Body of Evidence."
The cumulative production budget for these six films was $230 million.
However, by August 5, the total summer box office for these films was only $170 million, with Columbia Pictures recovering about $90 million from box office shares, not even covering the distribution costs, let alone the massive $200 million production budget.
"Body of Evidence," starring Madonna, had a $30 million budget but only grossed $8.54 million in its first week.
The market showed that audiences weren't particularly interested in Madonna's nudity, reflecting the overall failure of Columbia's summer lineup.
Columbia's failures weren't coincidental.
When managing Guber-Peters Company, Peter Guber and Jon Peters were veteran producers who, despite their familiarity with industry rules, achieved decent results without overstepping. But after taking over Columbia Pictures from Sony, the unrestricted control led to chaos.
Mismanagement, lavish spending, laziness, nepotism, blind investments—these issues plagued Columbia Pictures, making losses inevitable and profits occasional.
On August 6, after the disappointing opening of "Body of Evidence," Sony officially announced the removal of Peter Guber and Jon Peters from their positions, with Michael Schulhof, President of Sony's US division, temporarily taking over Columbia Pictures' operations, reporting directly to Sony CEO Norio Ohga.
Additionally, Sony sent in an accounting team to audit Columbia's finances.
The sudden personnel shake-up was met with relative silence from Sony, but Peter Guber expressed his dissatisfaction in a media interview, hinting at a possible lawsuit against Sony for wrongful termination.
The North American media spent the entire weekend discussing the turmoil at Columbia Pictures.
Even on Monday, August 9, the front page of the Los Angeles Times covered the latest news about Columbia Pictures, with rumors suggesting the financial situation was worse than expected, potentially leading to over $1 billion in asset write-downs for Sony.
Sony's market value was around $17 billion at the time.
Peter Guber's dismissal occurred two years earlier than Simon's memory. In the original timeline, Sony didn't take action until 1995.
Simon remembered Sony's colossal asset write-down related to Columbia Pictures, amounting to $2.7 billion.
When Sony bought Columbia Pictures, the equity price was $3.4 billion, plus $1.6 billion in assumed debt, totaling $5 billion.
In recent years, Sony had invested over $1 billion to resolve various legal disputes and fund Columbia Pictures.
The $2.7 billion write-down nearly wiped out half of Columbia's assets. This failure led to Akio Morita losing control of Sony and passing away a few years later.
This time, influenced by Simon and Daenerys Entertainment, many things changed.
However, Sony's massive blunder with Columbia Pictures remained inevitable.
Columbia's summer losses alone would exceed $200 million. Over a few years, Peter Guber and Jon Peters had left the studio severely weakened. Sony's upcoming asset write-downs wouldn't be much lower than Simon's memory.
This event served as a reminder for Simon.
Providing people with sufficient funds, trust, and freedom doesn't guarantee returns.
If you do, you might end up with a mess.
As the Westeros system grows, expanding his business empire requires delegation. However, unrestrained delegation could be disastrous.
At breakfast in the Shell Villa, while reading the newspaper, Simon shared his thoughts with Janet, who nodded exaggeratedly, "I understand, I understand."
Janet was Simon's eyes overseeing the Westeros system.
Seeing her playful demeanor, Simon asked, "Is there a problem?"
"No," Janet shook her head, giving him a sidelong glance, "Are you planning to have Aunt come over to take my place and help manage things? Don't worry, I won't let you get away with it."
"..."
After finishing the last bite of her specially prepared pregnancy breakfast
, Janet wiped her mouth with a napkin and leaned over to kiss Simon on the cheek, "Have fun in San Francisco today. No need to come back tonight. You can tell Jenny you'll be back, and I'll cover for you."
Simon carefully held Janet as she sat on his lap, gently stroking her swollen belly, avoiding the previous topic, "Want to go to the UK together next week?"
After months of preparation, Nokia would officially go public on the London Stock Exchange next Friday.
Janet hugged Simon's neck, resting her cheek against his head, "I don't want to go anywhere, just want to stay home."
Simon thought for a moment, "In that case, I won't go either."
"Go, go. Staying with a pregnant woman all day is boring."
"It is quite boring and troublesome."
"Ugh, I'll bite you."
Feeling his ear being nibbled, Simon said, "After this month, I'll try to take time off to be with you during your maternity leave."
Janet rubbed the faint teeth marks on Simon's ear, "You've lost all credibility with me, workaholic."
"This time, for sure. We'll bring Mel back for a while. He shouldn't be unfamiliar with his parents."
Janet didn't mention Veronica this time, softly agreeing. She chatted a bit more with Simon, then around nine, Simon left for the airport to fly to San Francisco.
At ten, he arrived at Egret's headquarters, where several executives were waiting.
Today's discussion was about Egret's upcoming project, a classifieds website.
This was one of the key projects in Egret's expansion plan following the recent $1.5 billion financing.
Classifieds websites, like 58.com, Ganji.com, and Baixing.com, were familiar to Simon.
The existence of so many classifieds websites indicated their commercial potential.
In Simon's memory, unlike the myriad of Chinese classifieds websites, North America had a near-monopoly with "Craigslist." However, Craigslist's free model granted it a dominant advantage.
Simon didn't think US classifieds websites lacked commercial prospects. Business models evolve through exploration, but first, you need enough users.
Moreover, the idea of a classifieds website had been suggested within Egret before.
Simon had deliberately delayed it until now. He had even had someone apply for the "58list" brand and domain, a nod to 58.com, for a bit of personal amusement.
Delaying the project until now was mainly because launching it would disrupt a $200 billion traditional newspaper industry.
The print media in America was highly developed at this time, from world-class cities like New York and Los Angeles to remote fishing towns, each often had its own newspaper.
Americans also had a widespread habit of subscribing to newspapers.
In this vast industry, most newspapers had dense classified ads for "jobs," "housing," etc., which often accounted for half of a newspaper's total revenue.
The entire federal print media industry currently earned over $20 billion annually from classified ads.
Now, once Egret's free classifieds website is launched, allowing users to post various ads online for free, it's clear how severely it will impact the traditional classified ad business.
_________________________
[Check out my Patreon for +200 additional chapters in all my fanfics! $5 for all!!]
[w w w . p a t r e o n .com / INNIT]
[+50 PowerStones = +1 Chapter]