The audition phase of the first season of American Idol wrapped up on November 16, with a total of 16 episodes, marking exactly half of the season's planned episodes. All 32 finalists were selected, and the show entered a winter break. With an average viewership of 31.7 million per episode and a 17.5% rating among the core 18-49 demographic, American Idol dominated its time slot and outperformed all other TV shows during the same period.
According to the schedule, the second half of the first season would return on February 6 of the following year.
To ensure that American Idol maintained its popularity during the two-month winter break, Daenerys Television created a comprehensive marketing plan.
In addition to regular ABC network promotions, all 32 finalists were required to interact with the audience on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, sharing behind-the-scenes updates, including their official vocal training during the break.
The theme song Dream It Possible, which Simon personally composed for the show, was another key part of the winter break marketing strategy.
Often, "commissioned work" doesn't result in the best creations. However, when American Idol producer Shane Derrick asked Simon to compose a theme song, his primary intention was to leverage the boss's fame. But when the production team received the song's sheet music from Simon in New York, they were floored.
Many on the production team came from Daenerys Records and were well-versed in the music industry. They had a keen sense of what made a great song. Dream It Possible not only perfectly matched the theme of American Idol in both title and lyrics, but the melody itself was on par with a lead single from a top-tier pop artist.
The word to describe it was simple: stunning.
They could only describe it as stunning.
It was painful to sit on such a gem and not release it immediately. After the initial recording of the demo was completed, American Idol producer Shane Derrick couldn't wait any longer and, at 8 PM Eastern Time, personally announced on his Facebook page that Simon Westeros had composed the theme song for American Idol and that it would be officially released on January 5, 1996.
Once Facebook promoted the post as a trending topic, the number of likes on Derrick's post surpassed 2.1 million within an hour of its announcement. Tens of thousands of users shared the news.
Among the hundreds of thousands of comments, most were filled with eager anticipation for Simon's new work. A small fraction of the fans expressed their excitement so intensely that they couldn't help but hurl playful complaints.
It wasn't even December yet.
A January 5 release for the single? Sure, this was normal for most artists' promotional cycles.
But couldn't it be released earlier?
Couldn't it?!
The anticipation was so overwhelming, and the wait so unbearable, that Simon's previous singles on Tingkebel's Broadcast website saw a significant spike in sales within the next 24 hours.
Following this, someone even created a petition website, rallying fans to demand that the American Idol team release Simon Westeros's single ahead of schedule. Whether it was for promoting American Idol or not, no one cared. They just wanted to hear Simon's new song.
With the help of Igrat, the petition site quickly became a hot topic, attracting countless netizens to vote.
In just three days, the petition garnered over 5 million signatures.
Even if many were simply jumping on the bandwagon, the American Idol production team had to take it seriously. Public opinion, when manipulated and utilized properly, could yield unexpected results, but it was also a force that had to be reckoned with.
After urgent consultations and a quick check-in with the boss, the production team announced on November 30 that the release date for the American Idol theme song would be moved up to December 15.
There could be no further compromises.
After all, the song's demo had just been completed, and there were still many steps involved, including producing the music video. It was impossible to release a half-finished product.
Additionally, Tingkebel announced that the theme song would be made available on Broadcast, which immediately boosted sales of the iPlayer music player.
In the North American box office, the second week of the Thanksgiving season, spanning from November 24 to November 30, quickly came to a close.
Daenerys's fourth 3D animated film, Beauty and the Beast, unsurprisingly remained at the top of the box office. Due to a lack of strong competition from new releases, the film's second-week box office dropped by only 23%, earning an additional $52.91 million. In just two weeks, the film had easily surpassed the $100 million mark, reaching a total of $121.63 million.
Martin Scorsese's new film, Casino, secured the second spot on the box office chart.
In its first seven days, Casino earned $16.91 million, making it the best-performing new release of the week, but the gap between it and Beauty and the Beast was stark.
With $16.91 million in its opening week, combined with its critical reception and box office trends, the film's final domestic box office was likely to land between $40 million and $50 million.
Warner Bros. had provided Casino with a production budget of $52 million. Now, the domestic box office was barely matching the production cost, and even if the film performed better overseas, breaking even at the box office would already be a relief. While the film might not lose money overall, considering the time investment, it was essentially a futile endeavor.
The third spot on the chart was another new release from November 24, Money Train, starring Wesley Snipes. The action film, which centered around an armored car heist, earned $13.18 million in its first week. With a production budget of only $30 million, the film's performance was quite decent.
In fourth place was another Sony release, The American President, whose second-week box office dropped by only 21%, earning $10.66 million. This aligned with industry expectations for the film's box office trajectory, and after two weeks, its total box office stood at $24.15 million.
However, with a production budget of $62 million, Sony had little reason to celebrate such box office numbers.
Fifth place went to The Conjuring 2, a New World Pictures release under Daenerys's banner.
Now in its fifth week, The Conjuring 2 saw a 25% drop in box office, earning $7.79 million. Its total box office now stood at $112.91 million.
Although it was far from the performance of Beauty and the Beast, The Conjuring 2 remained one of the most envied projects in Hollywood. With a mid-to-low production cost of $25 million and steady box office returns, the film had broken the $100 million mark domestically and overseas, making it the kind of low-investment, high-return project that every film studio dreamed of.
Outside the top five, another notable release was MGM's It Takes Two, which earned $7.43 million in its opening week, placing it sixth on the chart. The family comedy, starring the Olsen twins, had a production budget of only $10 million, so its opening week performance was right on target for the producers.
Paramount's Cutthroat Island, on the other hand, saw a massive 56% drop in its second week of release, earning only $2.17 million. With just $7.13 million in two weeks, and its two-week guaranteed screening deal coming to an end on December 1, Cutthroat Island was set to be pulled from theaters, locking in its abysmal box office performance.
As the project's box office failure became clear, the fallout surrounding the film was overwhelming.
Paramount, Carolco, and the film's key creators began pointing fingers at one another, with scandalous details emerging almost daily.
In the end, Simon had to step in to manage the narrative.
The primary reason was that Martin Campbell, who directed Cutthroat Island, was also the director of the Wonder Woman series. With Wonder Woman 2 already in production, neither Daenerys nor Warner Bros. would allow Cutthroat Island's negative reputation to tarnish the Wonder Woman sequel. Once the two media giants exerted their influence, the controversy surrounding Cutthroat Island was quickly redirected.
The outcome was clear.
Martin Campbell, having caused a stir elsewhere, returned quietly to Daenerys to focus on making Wonder Woman 2 without demanding more than what had been agreed upon in his initial contract. This was precisely the outcome Simon had hoped for from the start.
Meanwhile, Paramount was left to deal with the wreckage.
Despite the Seagram Group's acquisition of Paramount, they had not lost faith in the entertainment industry, but this debacle likely made it clear that Hollywood was not as easy to navigate as they had hoped.
Carolco Pictures declared bankruptcy and began liquidation proceedings.
In contrast to the original timeline, in which Renny Harlin and Geena Davis narrowly avoided involvement in the project, the new male and female leads, William Baldwin and Daryl Hannah, saw their careers take a significant hit.
William Baldwin, arguably the most handsome of the Baldwin brothers and a promising action star, would find it difficult to secure projects of the same scale in the years to come, thanks to Cutthroat Island.
Daryl Hannah, who had become famous in the early 1980s for her role in Blade Runner, had spent years trying to break into the A-list. She had enjoyed solid opportunities, working with stars like Robert Redford,
Tom Hanks, and Michael Douglas, but had remained stuck in a state of semi-fame, always recognizable but never quite a superstar.
Cutthroat Island, a female-led film, had been a major opportunity for Hannah to break through.
But the failure of the project proved disastrous, leaving her career in worse shape than Baldwin's.
Overall, since the IPO last year, Hollywood had experienced a significant reshuffling, and with Daenerys Entertainment no longer holding back, other studios had faced a tough year.
Of the seven major studios in Hollywood, only Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner remained under American control.
The other five studios had all fallen into foreign hands: Sony controlled Columbia and was phasing out the brand, while 20th Century Fox's owner, though having emigrated to the U.S., still operated out of Australia. Paramount had been bought by Canada's Seagram Group, MGM was controlled by an Australian consortium led by the Johnston family, and Disney had been acquired by France's Vivendi.
In this environment, even if the other five studios wanted to fight back against Daenerys Entertainment's dominance, they were unlikely to succeed.
Not to mention the Westeros system's growing influence in federal politics. Even without that, foreign capital trying to take on domestic capital would always face challenges in any country. The government, as they say, "stands with its own."
As for Time Warner, thanks to Simon's continued efforts, the relationship between the two companies remained strong. Even if General Electric acquired Time Warner in the future, the partnership would likely remain intact.
With no way to compete with Daenerys Entertainment in business, and other means of suppression proving equally futile, by the end of the year, particularly in the case of Sony Pictures, Paramount, and Disney, the major studios quietly scaled back their production schedules for 1996.
While this was a necessary move, it was clearly part of a downward spiral.
The market space that these studios vacated would be entirely absorbed by Daenerys Entertainment and its allies. As a result, Sony and its peers would find their market share shrinking further and further. By the time they realized what was happening, they might have already been reduced to second-tier studios in Hollywood.
Malibu, Daenerys Studios.
On the afternoon of December 1, Simon's final work appointment was with MGM executive Sherry Lansing to discuss the packaged financing deal.
Recently, Lansing had poached two key finance executives from the bankrupt Carolco Pictures to MGM, giving her access to Carolco's former financing channels.
Even though Carolco had taken a massive hit with Cutthroat Island, the two executives had received positive responses when they approached their previous financiers about MGM's new financing plans. Everyone knew that MGM was essentially Daenerys Entertainment's little brother, with the powerful Westeros system backing it.
Moreover, considering how successful many of Daenerys Entertainment's projects had been over the years, even with MGM leading this new venture, Simon Westeros's involvement made it a highly attractive investment opportunity.
Simon had recognized this dynamic.
The rise of many second- and third-tier movie companies often came from a few unexpectedly successful films early in their development, creating a virtuous cycle for a period of time.
If this new plan to attract foreign capital succeeded, but the projects in the package didn't perform well, there would likely be no second chance.
After all, no one was foolish.
Therefore, the initial projects needed to offer substantial returns. The bigger the success, the more capital would flow in afterward.
Reluctantly, Simon weighed Twister and Independence Day and eventually decided on the latter.
This would be a significant gamble.
Additionally, Independence Day director Roland Emmerich was from Germany, and the financing channels MGM inherited from Carolco largely consisted of German tax-avoidance capital. Coupled with Emmerich's reputation from the DC Universe films, attracting German investors would be much easier.
Of course, this plan wasn't limited to Germany.
Whether from Europe, Asia, Australia, or even Latin America, anyone who wanted to participate could do so.
The only requirement was that they assume the risks.
In the original timeline, Independence Day had a $75 million budget and grossed $800 million worldwide, delivering a return of more than ten times the investment. Simon certainly wasn't going to give up full control. Therefore, Daenerys Entertainment would invest 15% in the entire package to share the risks. In addition to handling distribution and securing 12.5% of the distribution fees, MGM would also invest 15%.
All in all, 40% of the profits from the package would end up in the hands of the Westeros system.
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