Hollywood Hunter

Veronica came to Los Angeles to pick up Melbourne on March 1.

Janet completely lost her initial expectation when she was half pregnant. She sent away the ‘little annoying’ that she often talked about, was finally liberated, and flew to New York the next day.

Neither Simon nor Janet were worried that Veronica would take good care of Melbourne.

Because in February, Veronica suddenly decided to dismiss her job as chief financial officer of Johnston Holdings.

The Johnston family didn't stop this too much. Raymond Johnston hoped that Veronica could lay down work and return to life.

Veronica controls the family's finances, on the one hand, because of her ability, on the other hand, it was also the arrangement of Grandpa Janet when she was alive. The chief financial officer of many companies is often a key candidate for the CEO, so the importance of this position can be seen.

The Johnston family did not have other wealthy family infighting in the family, but Veronica took the initiative to give up the power in her hands, after all, this is what the next generation of family head Anthony Johnston hopes to see.

As for Veronica's giving up her job to help Simon and his wife bring their children, this matter is a bit puzzled for the entire Johnston family.

In the end, the reason was probably that Veronica had always favored Janet very much.

Although this reason seems difficult to justify, but including Raymond Johnston, there is no in-depth meaning.

Of course, the old man called and slammed the little guy to Veronica irresponsibly to the Simons.

Simon is very interested in Victoria's Secret parent company LimitedBrands. Janet, who has always been blind to Simon's judgment, identified this company as a key acquisition project for Cersei Capital's Apollo Management Company this year, so he personally rushed to New York to sit in.

Sending Janet to New York in person, Simon came to Daenerys Studios to start a new week of work.

Today is Monday, March 2.

As soon as she arrived at the office, the female assistant followed.

Reporting today's schedule and important things Simon needs to know, the female assistant handed over a few documents.

Simon first saw a box office report on the film discovery work of Daenerys Entertainment's three labels in the first two months of 1992. In the morning, there was a summary meeting of the three label directors on the film release work in January and February.

Not in a hurry to open the report, Simon looked at the female assistant and whispered: "Jenny is not at home tonight, do you want to go to me?"

The female assistant listened to Simon's apparently intentional cheating, gave him a blushing face, pointed to the stack of documents that Simon had pressed in her hand, and said, "There is also the effect of Wisteria Street planned according to your draft. Figure."

Simon just nodded, and winked at the female assistant ‘hunting down’.

Jennifer's white face became more rosy, and he hesitated for a while before saying: "Let's go to San Francisco."

"Then you arrange it," Simon said with a smile at the corner of his mouth, "However, the 767 sent the little guy to Australia. We can only take other planes. Also, since we are going to Seattle, we will arrange a regular meeting of the senior executives of Igreat tomorrow morning. Well, I want to know more about the recent business status of Amazon online store."

The female assistant nodded, took out a memo and memorized a few simple pens, looked at the little book in her hand, and seemed to ask casually: "Why send Moore to Australia, he is so young?"

Simon didn't feel too strange about the female assistant's problem, and of course he wouldn't tell the truth. He gave out the reasons that he had compiled a long time ago and said: "This involves some privacy in the Johnston family, so it is not convenient to tell you."

The female assistant hummed, raised her head, glanced at Simon with her bright eyes, and suddenly said with confidence: "My Seattle, you won't let you go away casually."

Simon did not hesitate: "Of course, you are a mother, you have the final say."

When Jennifer heard Simon’s phrase ‘you’re a mother’, her face turned ruddy again, put away the memo in her hand and said: "The meeting starts at a quarter past nine. I’ll call you later."

After speaking, he left the office.

Simon smiled and watched the female assistant go out before turning over the box office report in his hand.

Three labels have launched seven films in two months, which is equivalent to the annual distribution of some second and third-tier film companies. In fact, MGM has only released eight films in the past year.

Therefore, although Simon will not show anything to the outside world, he is still a little nervous about this obviously radical release rhythm.

Even within Daenerys Entertainment, there is no objection to the annual distribution of 40 movies on the three labels set by Simon.

Amy Pascal expressed concern about this.

Simon insists on this, on the one hand, is for the further expansion of Daenerys Entertainment and occupying more markets, on the other hand, it is also for the purpose of accumulating more copyrights in a short time, and at the same time playing Daenerys Entertainment’s role in the theater market and The potential of the video tape market, with sufficient copyrights, can also lay the content foundation for Daenerys Entertainment's next step into the cable TV and even the more long-term streaming media market.

Whether it is the cable television era in the next two decades, the streaming media era, and even the booming video tape market at this stage, the demand for content resources is very strong.

Merger of MCA, and control of MGM, Simon can use thousands of film and television copyright resources in name, but I have to admit that the copyrights of a large part of these film and television works are too old, unless it is "Troubled Times" Classics such as "Beautiful Woman" and "The Wizard of Oz", otherwise, most people would not be too interested in watching an old film decades ago.

Of course, if the facts prove that this rhythm is not feasible, Simon will not be stubborn.

If a company wants to prosper in the longer term, the most important thing is that it must face its own mistakes and make timely changes instead of standing still.

Open the report in hand, the data of 7 movies in the previous two months appeared in front of me.

In the first two months of 1992, Daenerys Entertainment’s Daenerys Films, New World Pictures and Gaomen Films released seven movies, namely "Scream", "Dancing Country Heroes" and "New "Bridge Lovers", "Falling Dogs", "Ghost Chaser 4", "Double Dragon Club" and "Love in High Heels".

Among them, "Scream" and "Dancing Country Heroes" are released by Daenerys Pictures, "Xinqiao Lover", "Falling Water Dog" and "Love in High Heels" are published by Gaomen Films, "Ghost Chaser 4" and "Ssangyong" "The Meeting" is published by New World Pictures.

"The Scream" is a musical starring John Travolta and Heather Graham. It is also a project inherited from Universal Pictures. The musical is clearly Travolta's famous fame. After participating in "Pulp Fiction", Travolta's popularity has rebounded in recent years, so the film's budget has reached 15 million US dollars.

However, after the opening of the scale of 1,107 screens on January 17, this old-school song and dance film, which is obviously already somewhat outdated, only had a box office of $1.98 million in the first week.

The sluggish opening results made "The Scream" basically finished in just two weeks, with a total box office of 3.51 million US dollars.

Lost money.

Fortunately, the budget cost of 15 million US dollars, the loss is not too tragic after all.

Hit by the failure of this film, Travolta will probably be completely'transformed' next.

Simon also used a pencil to circle the name of the heroine of "The Scream" Heather Graham.

This **** actress who is only in her early twenties this year has the exquisite appearance of a Barbie doll. In recent years, she has appeared in various types of films such as "Psychedelic Cowboy" and "Dragon Brother and Rat Brother". "It's considered the first female lead movie, and the partner is John Travolta. But it turns out that this beautiful vase that Simon remembers has always been very active in Hollywood has no commercial potential.

He randomly drew a cross on the name, and Simon looked at the data for the next movie.

"Dancing Heroes" is also a musical, directed by a newcomer from Australia, named Baz Luman.

That's right, it was Buzz Luman who directed the famous "Moulin Rouge" by Yuan Shikong.

Unlike "The Scream" which tends to the old-school disco style, "Dancing Country Heroes" is more inclined to a dance film. Moreover, this Baz Luman's feature film debut has the director's strong personal style, passion, gorgeous, and lively. At the same time, the film does not pretend to be sophisticated, whether it is a pleasing dance or a concise plot, it has a clear commercial atmosphere.

Compared with the 4.6 points of failing film reviews for "Scream", the comprehensive media rating of "Heroes of the Dance Country" released on February 7 reached an excellent 9.5 points.

Because of uncertainty about the film’s box office prospects, the Daenerys Films team adopted a small-scale release model. In the first week, 38 screens were opened, and the final museum reached $28,000. In such an unpopular period, this It used to be excellent. After the second week of word-of-mouth on 76 screens in the second week, "Heroes of Dance Country" expanded its screening to 681 screens on February 21.

As of the past weekend, the three-and-a-half-week period of "Dancing Country Heroes" has been drawn, and the cumulative box office has reached 9.31 million US dollars.

After all, the audience for dance-oriented musicals is limited. The main creators of "Heroes of Dance Country" are all Australians, and they lack sufficient popularity in North America. Therefore, the Daenerys Films distribution team has no intention to increase the scale of distribution. .

However, in three and a half weeks, the box office of 9.31 million US dollars has already secured the North American box office of at least 20 million US dollars for this musical.

On the other hand, although "Dancing Country Heroes" is an Australian movie, it is actually a project chosen by Simon himself, so it was invested by Daenerys Entertainment's Australian branch. As a newcomer and new work, there are no big stars. The budget cost of "Dancing Country Heroes" is only about 3 million U.S. dollars, but in this way, it also enjoys part of the Australian government's tax rebate.

Compared with the fiasco of "Scream" at the box office, "Dancing Country Heroes" is undoubtedly a surprise.

Simon invested in Buzz Luman based on his prophetic advantages, mainly for his other two blockbuster films, the modern version of "Romeo and Juliet", the famous work of Xiao Lizi, and later "Moulin Rouge." Simon does not have much memory of "Dancing Country Heroes", so he has no expectations.

The result was a surprise.

Only North America can reap the box office of 20 million US dollars, and it is no problem to double it globally.

Under omni-channel operation, this film with a budget of only US$3 million may bring Daenerys Entertainment a net income of no less than US$30 million.

It also marked a few strokes on Baz Luman's name, and Simon continued to look at the next film.

"Lovers in the New Bridge", a romance film starring Juliet Binoche, this film gave Simon the impression that the male and female protagonists embraced and stood on the bow and shouted. Later, this shot was used by Cameron. On the "Titanic".

This romance film with a budget of 160 million francs can be described as the most expensive romance film ever produced in France, equivalent to 28 million US dollars.

The production process of the film went through ups and downs, and after it was released in Europe, it proved to be a disaster.

Gaomen Pictures obtained the distribution rights of this film. The original expectation was not high. It only hoped to take advantage of the gimmick of "the highest budget cost", and it signed a pure agency distribution contract with the French filmmaker.

Facts have also proved that this film is a tragedy.

Gaomen Pictures arranged a small-scale release of 103 screens on January 10. The box office in the first week was only 130,000 U.S. dollars, and the box office in North America was only 190,000 U.S. dollars.

It is calculated that Gaomen Pictures will lose about $600,000 in publicity costs on this project, and can only expect to make up for the later release of the video tape.

The release date of "Falling Dog" is January 31, the second week after the end of the Sundance Film Festival.

This time, because of the proper publicity strategy, the market performance of "Falling Water Dog" is very good.

The opening scale of 336 screens, the first week of seven days, received 4.37 million US dollars, the museum reached 13,000 US dollars.

Subsequently, the screen size increased to about 500 yuan. In four and a half weeks, the cumulative box office of this low-cost drama has reached 11.73 million US dollars, and it is expected to reach 15 million US dollars before the downgrade.

Compared with the budgeted cost of 2.5 million US dollars, the project can be described as a big profit.

Gaomen Pictures has therefore signed a contract of intent with Quentin for the next film, and Simon is also somewhat looking forward to what Quentin’s next work will be after Pulp Fiction is gone.

Next.

"Love in High Heels", a feature film by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, tells a tortuous story between two generations involving indecent love and murder.

Almodóvar’s "Tie Me, Tie Me" last year caused a lot of controversy. Daenerys Entertainment had a chance to get this movie, but in the end she gave up on her own initiative. Nor did it fall into the hands of the original Miramax, but was taken by Orion, and the box office was not stunned.

For the current "Love in High Heels", Gaomen Pictures signed a distribution contract of US$300,000 in advance plus a 50-50 profit share, including the omnichannel copyright in North America.

After opening a small-scale painting with 166 screens on February 7th, within three and a half weeks, the cumulative box office of "Love High Heels" also reached 1.37 million US dollars, and the total box office is expected to reach 2 million US dollars.

Overall it is a small profit.

The five films released by Daenerys Films and Gaomen Films are generally divided into profits and losses.

The last two films of New World Pictures, "Ghost Chase 4" and "Double Dragon Club", performed very well in the market.