In recent years, Apple remained strong, and legacy operating systems like Unix still held a large share of the market.
So aside from drawing attention in the new-tech space and giving the stock a lift, Westeros Company's ten-percent increase in its Microsoft stake didn't stir up much of a reaction. Most people simply couldn't see Microsoft's potential to become a world-shaking tech titan.
With that matter settled, Simon's focus shifted back to Hollywood.
Another week in December slipped by.
For the week of December 8 to December 14, in its fourth week of release, Flying Beyond Innocence fell another 22% yet still pulled in $16.93 million, bringing its total to $100.125 million. It officially crossed the hundred-million mark, becoming the first film in the year-end corridor to break $100 million.
With the hot Christmas season about to arrive, even with heavyweight titles like Batman and The Rocketeer set to open, this family comedy, so perfectly tuned to the holiday mood, still had plenty of box office fuel left.
The industry had originally forecast a North American total of $150 to $170 million. When the new week's numbers came out, both the film's producers and distributors and outside tracking firms confirmed the domestic projection had risen to $170 million or even higher.
In Simon's memory, Flying Beyond Innocence had only made around $140 million in North America.
But the original version had opened in a quiet mid-October slot, nowhere near as strong as Thanksgiving. Its cast couldn't compare to one led by Mel Gibson, and it certainly didn't have the combined marketing muscle of Danielle Entertainment and Warner Bros. So a $30 million increase over the original was only reasonable.
With Flying Beyond Innocence breaking $100 million, the contract Daenerys Entertainment had signed with Warner Bros, the one requiring a single $100 million box office hit in exchange for the rights to Wonder Woman and The Bourne Identity, was now complete.
By any normal logic, a film poised to surpass $170 million domestically was guaranteed to get a sequel.
Under the contract they'd signed, Warner Bros had no right to participate in producing a sequel to Flying Beyond Innocence. Any sequel would be entirely under Daenerys Entertainment's control.
Amy was intensely enthusiastic about making a sequel. Simon, on the other hand, wasn't.
This kind of comedy, built around the gimmick of a baby talking, was hard to refresh in a follow-up. In Simon's memory, the two sequels had suffered a brutal drop at the box office, and he didn't think this time would be any different.
On top of that, after appearing in two films in a single year that both crossed the hundred-million mark, Mel Gibson's fee had risen again. In talks with Warner for Lethal Weapon 3, Gibson had quoted eight million dollars up front plus twenty percent of net profits.
Flying Beyond Innocence was projected to outgross Lethal Weapon 3, which had been a summer title. If they made a sequel, Gibson's quote would only go higher, not lower.
Yes, with the first film as a foundation, a sequel would still earn money. But it would also take up a prime slot next year. With better options on the table, that hidden opportunity cost wasn't something Simon was willing to swallow.
So unless someone came up with an idea truly better than the original, Simon had no intention of approving a sequel lightly.
Aside from Flying Beyond Innocence, Scream 2 dropped 21% this week, earning another $5.11 million for a total of $98.17 million, and it was expected to cross $100 million next week. But with next week's single-week gross likely falling under five million, and with heavy hitters like Batman squeezing the market, it would be difficult for the teen horror film to break $110 million domestically.
In its third week, The Gucci Documentary held to an impressive 19% drop, bringing in $6.39 million more and reaching $23.86 million after three weeks.
Gucci had poured all its expected profits into the film's marketing. Even so, based on Daenerys Entertainment's side of the investment, once the box office passed $20 million, the project had already begun generating profit.
Encouraged by The Gucci Documentary's success, other major luxury brands and Hollywood studios began reaching out to each other, trying to replicate its wins in both brand marketing and box office. Daenerys Entertainment also officially signed Madonna and publicly announced the launch of a documentary project following Madonna's global tour next year.
Finally, Driving Miss Daisy opened in its first week. With just thirty-two screens and excellent press, it posted a per-theater average above $23,000, earning $750,000 in its first week.
Adapted from a famous stage play and centered on race, the film had a production cost of only seven million dollars. A limited rollout that still brought in $750,000 was an extremely promising sign for its future.
Then, the day after those box office numbers came out, on December 16, the new round of Golden Globe nominations was announced.
Two Daenerys Entertainment releases under Highgate Pictures, My Left Foot and Driving Miss Daisy, received a combined five major nominations.
My Left Foot earned nominations for Best Actor in a Drama and Best Supporting Actress. Driving Miss Daisy received nominations for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, Best Actor, Musical or Comedy, and Best Actress, Musical or Comedy.
If you really thought about it, the summer smash The Sixth Sense also had every right to crowd into the Golden Globe lineup. If they submitted it, nominations for Best Motion Picture, Drama, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Drama, and Best Supporting Actor were all very possible.
However, because of the controversy that had flared up around the screenplay, and also to make room for My Left Foot and Driving Miss Daisy, Daenerys Entertainment chose not to submit the film.
It was worth noting that The Sixth Sense had already left theaters on December 7. The phenomenon-level horror film ran in North American cinemas for twenty-three weeks, finishing with a domestic total of $295.38 million, falling just short of $300 million.
In the final weeks, it was only making two or three hundred thousand a week. Unless they literally bought tickets to inflate the numbers, there was no chance of pushing it over $300 million. Daenerys Entertainment wasn't about to chase a title like that.
A total above $290 million already put it at number one for the year. Most media outlets believed that by year's end no film would surpass The Sixth Sense's box office.
And whether or not it crossed $300 million, Danielle Entertainment had already made a fortune. No one in the business was going to look down on the film simply because it stopped just shy of that threshold.
New York.
A Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side.
The date was Monday, December 18.
Simon and Janet had come over on Friday, mainly to tape an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to promote Batman.
Because of various social obligations, they hadn't returned to the West Coast over the weekend.
Last night, they attended a reception hosted by New York's newly elected mayor, David Dinkins. In November's mayoral election, Dinkins had successfully defeated Rudy Giuliani.
The final stage of the election had coincided with the small stock market crash in October. Dinkins's campaign team had then launched a fierce attack using a scandal revealed by James Rebould, involving improper remarks Giuliani had made while investigating the Michael Milken case. It cemented Dinkins's late-stage advantage and led to an easy victory.
Westeros Company had provided substantial support during Dinkins's campaign, though Simon himself had no explicit political demand.
Or if he did, it was simply this: to announce to North American political circles that Simon Westeros had begun playing the game, and to make his political stance clear.
He still got up early.
New York had recently had snowfall. Central Park outside the bedroom window was blanketed in white, and the cold felt sharp.
After breakfast, Simon said goodbye to Janet and headed to the airport alone to return to the West Coast.
During this time, Janet had never let go of her management of Cersei Capital.
But compared to the earlier operations tied to constantly shifting Japanese stock index futures, the positions aimed at the North American bond market were mostly long-term bearish contracts. They didn't require minute-by-minute monitoring. The sub-fund teams had also been granted a degree of autonomy, which was why Janet could travel everywhere with Simon.
The U.S. junk bond crisis triggered by October's market dip had continued for months. Under their established plan, Cersei Capital intended to liquidate all positions and exit the North American junk bond market before the New Year. So in the last few days, Janet planned to stay in New York to personally handle the final phase.
Simon intended to fly to Australia for Christmas after attending Batman's premiere on December 20, and he was very busy these days as well.
Back in Los Angeles, because of the time difference, it was still a little past nine in the morning, right when the workday began on the West Coast.
Jennifer returned with Simon. While they were still on the plane, the assistant told him that today Australia's Qintex Group had officially signed an acquisition agreement with MGM.
Before that, the detailed terms of Qintex's MGM acquisition had already been published in the media.
In recent years, MGM's boss had long been widely recognized as the Las Vegas tycoon Kirk Kerkorian, but in reality this major studio was still a publicly listed company. Kerkorian held only 70% of MGM's shares.
The various rounds of "capital maneuvers" he'd carried out around MGM had all been conducted through that seventy-percent stake.
This time, Qintex would pay one billion dollars in cash to acquire the 70% equity stake in MGM UA from Kerkorian, becoming the controlling shareholder of the old studio. The deal also meant Qintex would assume more than seven hundred million dollars in MGM's various debts.
Qintex's own operations were already hanging by a thread, and in recent weeks the well-connected North American media had dug all of that up. The outside world largely didn't believe in the deal, and many couldn't help linking it to Simon, believing that thanks to his close ties with Australian capital, Daenerys Entertainment might step in to help revive MGM.
After all, the forces involved behind the MGM acquisition weren't limited to Qintex. There were plenty of other Australian investors hoping to enter Hollywood's media space. Otherwise, with Qintex's own strength, it would have been impossible to complete the transaction.
Simon had accepted an invitation from Qintex chairman Christopher Skase to attend the signing luncheon for the MGM acquisition at noon. But in truth, he had no intention of helping MGM.
At least, not until he had control of the company. Until then, he had no intention of meddling.
After returning to the West Coast, Simon went straight from Los Angeles International Airport to Daenerys Entertainment headquarters in Santa Monica.
A meeting was already waiting for him.
Last Wednesday, Daenerys Entertainment had officially completed its acquisition of EA shares. In the end, for fifty million dollars, it took over thirty-five percent of the PC game development and publishing company from several of EA's original major shareholders, becoming EA's largest shareholder.
Compared to the initial acquisition budget of three hundred and fifty million, buying thirty-five percent of EA for fifty million valued the company at just one hundred and forty million. That was far below EA's market cap of around one hundred and seventy million before the deal closed.
EA's shareholders were betting on Daenerys Entertainment's content development strength.
Once Daenerys Entertainment came on board, if it could help EA develop a breakout hit on the level of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, then selling thirty-five percent for fifty million was absolutely not a loss. And because console games had been reviving in recent years, EA had originally planned to enter the console space anyway, but Nintendo's harsh royalty system made them hesitate.
EA had even been considering working with Sega to port its games to Sega's platform. With Sega holding under ten percent market share in both North America and Japan, that wasn't exactly a smart move.
Now, thanks to Blizzard Studio's preferential agreement with Nintendo, and the negotiations deliberately carried out around that arrangement, after this investment, EA's titles could enjoy the same royalty discounts as Blizzard Studio. That was also why EA's shareholders quickly signed the stock sale agreement with DaenerysEntertainment.
Once news of the deal became public last Wednesday, EA's stock surged over the next three trading days. In three days, it gained more than seventy percent, and by Friday's close its market cap had climbed to $290 million. In other words, in just three days, Daenerys Entertainment's fifty-million-dollar investment in EA had achieved more than a hundred percent in paper gains.
Obviously, EA's original shareholders also benefited handsomely from the stock surge.
This morning's meeting was also a tacit understanding on both sides: they wanted to strike while the iron was hot and keep stimulating EA's share price through more good news.
During negotiations with EA, Simon had already instructed Nancy to look into purchasing certain rights suitable for game adaptations. This meeting was to discuss that, and then publicly announce it afterward.