Celia Miller had come to Los Angeles this time primarily to discuss the details of establishing the Westeros family's private military force with Simon. The plan had been set in motion at the beginning of the year, with preparations taking the better part of the last few months. Recently, it had begun to quietly roll out. While the training base remained in Ukraine, Simon didn't intend to recruit too many Ukrainians this time. Instead, he expanded the recruitment net to Eastern Europe, North America, Africa, and Latin America, essentially casting a global net.
There were many advantages to avoiding soldiers coming from a single concentrated region.
It maximized loyalty, reduced the likelihood of infiltration, and eliminated the risk of factionalism and cliques.
The recruitment target was young males aged 16, preferably orphans. Once they passed background checks and health screenings, they would undergo two years of cultural training and preparatory courses. This phase was primarily aimed at developing language skills and, most importantly, indoctrination.
After two years, another round of eliminations would occur, and those who remained at 18 would begin formal military training, lasting another two years. At 20, unless they were either eliminated again or selected for more advanced training, the recruits would join the private force, signing a 20-year contract with retirement at 40.
Maintaining a private military force wasn't exactly taboo in Western countries. The Rockefeller family had their own private army, and many current mercenary companies were essentially private armies. Last year's war in Rwanda had already cemented the existence of the Westeros family's private force as a reality.
This time, as long as things were handled properly, even if the existence of the force was exposed, there wouldn't be much to worry about. Simon didn't intend to build an army of tens of thousands or even thousands in one go. Instead, he would continue with a decentralized strategy, spreading forces across Eastern Europe, North America, Australia, and Africa.
Even if each batch only had one or two hundred people, over a decade, this would amount to one or two thousand.
This cycle would repeat itself.
The key was establishing a sustainable training mechanism.
Supplemented by ordinary mercenaries recruited through other channels, the Westeros family would have a powerful violent force ready whenever needed.
After Simon finished discussing these matters with Celia, it was already 10 p.m.
Simon personally escorted Celia to her guest room in the adjacent cliffside villa and then returned to the master bedroom upstairs. Janet, who could never stay up late, was already asleep, while Jennifer was still sitting at the bedside, flipping through a magazine, waiting for Simon.
After washing up, Simon lay down between the two women. Feeling his presence, Janet naturally snuggled closer, humming softly as she pulled him down to use as her pillow.
Jennifer reached over to turn off the bedside lamp and lay down as well, whispering to Simon, "The room for the two babies is ready. You can check it tomorrow morning."
Simon agreed, pulling Jennifer into his arms as well.
Resting her head on Simon's arm, Jennifer asked, "Is Sophie really going to send the two babies here?"
"That's what she says, but it could turn out like it did with you back then," Simon replied before asking, "Are you worried about not being able to take care of them?"
"Not at all, just worried I won't do a good job."
"That's impossible. You've taken great care of the three little ones and taught them well. Honestly, without you, who knows how Janet and I would've raised the kids? We're not exactly naturals at parenting."
Jennifer chuckled, recalling how Janet would often snatch Melbourne's ducklings to play with them. "That's why you two are such a perfect match—you're the same at heart."
"Oh, and what about you?"
"Me? Like the book says, I'm the big maid."
"Technically, the bed-warming maid."
"Well, Los Angeles isn't cold."
"Seems like you still haven't grasped the essence of Chinese."
"Hehe, it's too hard, and there's not enough time. By the way, Melbourne starts preschool next month. Do you think we should add Mandarin classes?"
Melbourne, born in December 1991, was nearly four years old, just the right age for school.
For the past few years, Jennifer had been overseeing the establishment of a school in Malibu, specifically for the children of high-ranking Westeros executives. The private school, which offered education from kindergarten through high school, had started operations last year, and Melbourne was set to formally enroll next month.
Since Melbourne began speaking, both Veronica and Jennifer had started early education with him. Simon had considered homeschooling the child entirely at one point.
In the end, he dismissed the idea.
Schooling wasn't just about learning academic knowledge. It was also about exposure to the outside world and learning social skills.
Because of Simon's influence, Melbourne had already begun learning Mandarin in recent years. When Jennifer asked about adding Mandarin classes to the school curriculum, Simon replied, "No need. Adding it might make the other parents uncomfortable, but he should still learn. We'll continue as we have, with private tutoring for him."
Over the years, Simon's inner circle had grown accustomed to the many peculiarities about him, and they'd come to accept them as normal.
However, even with his immense fame, power, and wealth, Simon still preferred not to flaunt certain things unnecessarily to the outside world.
Mandarin was one of those things.
The two of them chatted in low voices for a while until Simon felt Jennifer's hand tracing circles on his chest. Understanding her intent, Simon smiled, gently moved Janet aside a bit, and whispered into Jennifer's ear, "You take the lead, don't wake Janet."
As August arrived, the North American summer box office season was entering its final stretch.
The biggest box office battle between July 28 and August 3 was the showdown between two newly released films: Waterworld and King of Fighters.
Waterworld, with a budget of $175 million, earned a mere $25.19 million in its first week, unexpectedly losing to King of Fighters, which was produced by MGM.
King of Fighters, an action movie adapted from the Mortal Kombat video game, had a budget of only $18 million, barely qualifying as a mid-range production and featuring a B-movie vibe. Yet, in its opening week, it earned a surprising $32.75 million, outpacing Waterworld by $7 million.
Thanks to the tiered revenue-sharing agreement between MGM and the theaters, the studio could retain 90% of the box office earnings after covering basic expenses, roughly equivalent to 75% of the total box office revenue. This meant that in just the first week, MGM had recovered the entire $25 million production and marketing budget.
This success wasn't entirely coincidental.
Simon had started focusing on fighting games during the development of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game, which had been a success. As a result, Daenerys Entertainment's game division had paid special attention to the production and release of such games. Leveraging this foresight, after the complete acquisition of EA at the end of 1991, the gaming division acquired Midway, a Chicago-based game studio, in early 1992.
Midway happened to be the developer of Mortal Kombat.
The first Mortal Kombat game was released in 1992, selling 900,000 copies in a year. While it didn't match Daenerys' best-selling series, it was still a decent success.
However, this was far below the sales figures from the original timeline.
Simon didn't remember the exact sales numbers from the original Mortal Kombat, but it had certainly surpassed a million copies and had even rivaled the Street Fighter series at one point.
After Simon personally took an interest, the gaming division devoted more effort to the sequel. After two years of development, Mortal Kombat 2 was released three months ago, with Daenerys Entertainment providing full marketing support. Since its release at the beginning of May, Mortal Kombat 2 had sold over 500,000 copies by the time King of Fighters hit theaters.
Video game sales curves differ from movie box office trends and are more akin to music album sales, with games often continuing to sell well for a year or two.
With over 500,000 copies sold in just three months, the game division projected that Mortal Kombat 2 would sell around 3 million copies over the next two years.
Another blockbuster hit for Daenerys Games.
MGM's adaptation of the game into a movie was essentially a form of cross-promotion. Thanks to the success of Mortal Kombat 2, the $7 million marketing budget for King of Fighters had an impact equivalent to a $20 million marketing campaign for other films.
Simon had always been cautious when it came to video game adaptations.
There were too many examples of disastrous failures, while successes were few and far between.
For this reason, Simon had initially passed the adaptation of Mortal Kombat to MGM, thinking it was a way to transfer the risk. Otherwise, Daenerys' subsidiary New World Pictures could have produced the movie themselves. To his surprise, the film became a sleeper hit.
With an opening of $32.75 million, even though popcorn flicks tend to have steep drop-offs, the domestic box office was on track to reach at least $70 million, and the film was expected to perform well overseas as well.
Compared to Warner Bros., which was struggling with Waterworld, and Disney, which had stumbled with Judge Dredd, MGM was having a lucrative summer, especially with the success
of Clueless, which had a budget of just $12 million and grossed $23.07 million in its opening week, another example of high returns on low investment.
For Daenerys, giving the Mortal Kombat adaptation rights to MGM had been a misstep, but it was still a case of keeping the profits within the family.
Following the strong opening of King of Fighters, MGM quickly announced plans for a sequel and reaffirmed their commitment to a mid-budget approach.
Meanwhile, Jurassic Park 2, the biggest hit of the summer, earned another $8.07 million in its ninth week of release, bringing its total to $381.76 million as it steadily marched toward the $400 million mark.
Apollo 13, which opened over the Independence Day weekend with a massive $56.31 million, also continued to perform well.
From July 28 to August 3, in its fifth week, Apollo 13 saw a 29% drop, earning another $12.78 million, bringing its total to $143.57 million. At this rate, the film's final domestic gross was expected to land between $170 million and $180 million.
Major Payne 3, which had finished its run in June, ended with a domestic box office of $176 million, putting Apollo 13 on par with this Easter hit.
If 1994's box office chart had included hits from other studios, by 1995, Daenerys Entertainment had firmly established its dominance.
So far, four films had crossed the $100 million mark: Jurassic Park 2, The Man from Earth, Major Payne 3, and Apollo 13. All were produced by Daenerys Entertainment, and none were co-productions with other studios.
Beyond Daenerys, films like Die Hard 3 and Casper had made it into the top 10 of the year's box office rankings, but their combined grosses didn't match Jurassic Park 2 alone, mirroring a future situation Simon remembered: other studios' top 10 films combined would pale in comparison to a single Star Wars or Avengers film from Disney.
The era of media monopolies had fully arrived.
On August 4, a new box office week kicked off the latter half of the summer season.
As with MGM's release strategy, many studios had held off on their releases to avoid the early summer blockbusters, and this week saw four films opening on over 1,000 screens: Disney's Dangerous Minds, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Warner Bros.' Something to Talk About with Julia Roberts, Paramount's Virtuosity with Denzel Washington, and Fox's low-budget family comedy Bushwhacked.
None of the four films had budgets exceeding $30 million, and while they affected the existing releases, none emerged as a major hit.
The best performer, Julia Roberts' romantic drama Something to Talk About, grossed just $16.61 million in its first week. Meanwhile, King of Fighters saw a steep but expected 54% drop in its second week, earning another $15.21 million and bringing its total to $47.96 million.
Warner Bros.' Waterworld saw a 43% drop in its second week, adding $14.35 million to its total for a cumulative gross of $39.54 million, with a final domestic total of about $60 million expected, $20 million less than in the original timeline.
On August 11, the new box office week began with two major releases: MGM's The Net, starring Sandra Bullock, and Fox's romantic comedy A Walk in the Clouds.
That day, Simon left for Europe to be with Sophia as she prepared to give birth.
The flight from Los Angeles to Rome covered over 10,000 kilometers and took about 12 hours, with an expected arrival time of 9 a.m. local time the next morning.
The A-girl, as always, was accompanying him.
Once the plane stabilized, Allison handed Simon a stack of documents she had just received.
It was a set of property listings.
The A-girl gave a brief explanation: the properties had been sourced by the Westeros family's private real estate team in Asia.
It was part of Simon's usual routine of acquiring properties.
Upon hearing that some of the properties were in South Korea, Simon flipped through the documents to find the ones in question. There were three properties, all located in the Yongsan District of central Seoul, akin to Manhattan's Upper East Side.
As Simon reviewed the materials, his mind wandered to other thoughts.
He realized he had neglected South Korea in recent years.
As one of the Four Asian Tigers, South Korea would, in the future, directly compete with the Westeros system in several industries, including electronics, gaming, and even film and music. If Simon couldn't control these industries, it would be best to suppress them, and the earlier the better.
However, now wasn't too late.
In fact, the best time to lay the groundwork in Korea would be 1997.
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