Santa Monica.
It was Thursday, February 1.
Simon arrived at headquarters at eight. Jennifer, who had come in ahead of him, carried a stack of documents as she followed him into his office.
Because Simon had been deliberately letting go of more and more things, and because he had been out of Los Angeles so often lately, Jennifer's authority, under Simon's direction, had grown steadily. She was almost taking on the role of Simon's internal spokesman.
In the past few weeks, the assistant had personally led a team to handle the financial audit for the previous year.
In the second half of last year, thanks to huge hits like The Bodyguard, The Sixth Sense, and Scream 2, the strong sales of The Bodyguard soundtrack, the success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game, the steady income from television projects, and overseas and home video distribution for films like Rain Man dating back to late 1988, Daenerys Entertainment's revenue had surged explosively.
Compared to the 110 million dollars in net profit from the first half of the year, even after excluding major second-half expenditures such as constructing Daenerys Studios and acquiring equity in EA, Daenerys Entertainment's after-tax net profit for the full year was still expected to exceed 500 million dollars.
With the steady flood of cash Daenerys Entertainment continued to provide, James Rebould had been ramping up investments in the new technology sector.
At present, the Westeros Company's stake in Microsoft had reached 21.3%. Ten percent of that had been acquired in the form of a loan from Microsoft's two major shareholders, Bill Gates and Paul Allen. The additional portion came from shares accumulated on the open market using funds supplied by Daenerys Entertainment. Gates had even come to see Simon in person because of it.
With the release date for Windows 3.0 approaching, and as beta builds leaked, Microsoft's stock price had begun rising again in recent weeks.
Holding 21.3% of Microsoft was already beyond what Simon had originally expected. The Westeros Company did not plan to increase its stake further.
The Westeros Company's stake in Intel had also risen to 15.6%, likewise the result of renewed accumulation since last year. To acquire that roughly additional five percent, Westeros had poured in nearly 300 million dollars, all of it money funneled from Daenerys Entertainment.
Simon settled behind his desk. Jennifer handed him the day's schedule, then set down her stack of papers and said, "The audit should wrap up next week. This is the briefing. Also, Warner's compensation proposal for you producing The Flash and Cyborg. Two million base per film, plus ten percent of domestic box office participation. And lastly, the recent novel and script acquisitions. One of them is the dinosaur sci-fi novel by Michael Crichton that you mentioned."
At the mention of Crichton's dinosaur novel, Simon lifted his gaze, one brow rising slightly.
Noticing his expression, Jennifer explained, "Amy negotiated directly with Mr. Friedman. Other studios had noticed the project too, and everyone made offers. We closed at 2.5 million. Two million for the outright purchase of the novel rights, and five hundred thousand for screenplay adaptation rights. That second part was something Mr. Friedman insisted on."
Simon nodded, understanding why Jonathan demanded it.
If Michael Crichton participated in the screenplay adaptation, then after the film's release he could also receive additional profit participation under the Writers Guild's Basic Agreement.
For an unpublished novel, 2.5 million was indeed a high price.
Crichton had built a solid name in fiction over the years, but before Jurassic Park, his screen projects had not been particularly successful. Last year he personally directed a crime thriller called Edge of the Trap. With a 17 million production budget, it earned a pitiful 3.3 million at the box office. Columbia Pictures had practically bled out over it.
That was also why Jonathan had been able to poach him from CAA to WMA so easily.
Come to think of it, if Simon had not shown interest, Jonathan probably would not have cared much about Crichton in the first place.
With that in mind, Simon asked, "When is the novel expected to be published?"
"Crichton has only just finished the story outline. At least not until the end of the year."
"Send the project materials over to the effects studio. I want them to draft a CG dinosaur development proposal soon. Everything else can sit for now."
Jennifer nodded and noted it in her memo pad, then continued, "Also, Fox's Joe Roth called yesterday. About Terminator. He asked if you're free tomorrow night to talk about it."
Simon looked puzzled. "Tomorrow night?"
"Roth is hosting a cocktail party at his house in Coldwater Canyon tomorrow night." Jennifer tore a page from her pocket notebook and handed it to him. "Here's the address."
"Hold onto it for me," Simon said, pushing the slip back. He looked at her and smiled. "Or better yet, come with me tomorrow night?"
Jennifer shook her head. "I'm exhausted lately. I'm going home to sleep."
"Then I'll climb over to your place after the party. Bel Air's pretty close to Coldwater Canyon. Leave me a window."
Jennifer's lips curved. "My uncle has a really nice hunting rifle. He'll shoot you like a wild boar."
Jennifer was still living at her uncle George Norman's place. Maybe because she was truly close to him, she did not have the same psychological burden Simon did about living under someone else's roof.
Simon put on a frightened look, then asked curiously, "Why a wild boar?"
Jennifer tilted her neat ponytailed head. "Could be a rabbit."
That's even worse than a boar.
Simon pretended to be offended and waved her off. "Get out. The boss is going to work."
Jennifer smiled, tidied his desk a little, and asked, "Coffee?"
"Mineral water. I'm cutting caffeine lately."
She nodded and left.
Simon lowered his head and skimmed the schedule again. A production meeting for A League of Their Own started at nine and was expected to run all morning.
Pre-production was ready, and filming would begin next week.
Because it was a female-centered film, Amy had been handling the project. Still, as one of the films in the ten-picture plan, Simon would attend the final production meeting in person.
Next, rough cuts for Ghost and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were both complete. In the afternoon, he would meet with the key creatives to discuss the fine cut and the music, among other post-production plans.
Just those three items alone would likely keep him busy until six.
Setting the schedule aside, Simon picked up the documents Jennifer had left. He removed the top financial briefing, planning to read the final report once the audit was fully complete, saving time.
The Jurassic Park materials, which Jennifer had already summarized, went to one side.
He skimmed the producer compensation proposal for The Flash and Cyborg, signed his agreement, and left the detailed contract negotiations to his people and Warner.
That left a stack of novel and script rights packets.
Like other Hollywood studios, once Daenerys Entertainment's machine was running smoothly, it began continuously acquiring rights to novels and scripts. Of course, most of them would likely go nowhere.
That was how Hollywood burned through enormous script development budgets every year.
Still, those expenses could be allocated, by Hollywood accounting rules, into various film projects.
Besides Jurassic Park, there were seven other packets. Simon flipped through them quickly. Along with basic project information, each was covered in notes, which director was interested, which star might want in, what a producer thought of the script.
Hollywood was a small world, or maybe Simon's own memory was simply too full. Among the seven, he easily found one he recognized.
Thelma & Louise.
In his memory, it was directed by Ridley Scott, starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, and it had done very well both critically and commercially.
The notes were written personally by Amy. She said actresses like Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer, among others who had read the script, were all interested, so the project could be greenlit and pushed forward. The projected budget was around 15 million.
Fifteen million would have been a big production a few years ago. Now it only counted as lower mid-range.
Simon read the story outline and suddenly thought this might be something Kathryn could try.
Deep down, Kathryn was absolutely a feminist, and she had already made a similar road-style film with Near Dark. She would be a good fit to direct this.
With that thought, Simon picked up a pencil and wrote a note on the packet, telling Amy to pass the script to Kathryn.
Kathryn was about to begin shooting Point Break, but if she was interested, Daenerys Entertainment could certainly wait until she finished her current project before launching this one.
Aside from Thelma & Louise, the other projects did not catch Simon's interest.
Most of Daenerys Entertainment's key projects next year were already set, like Batman: The Dark Knight and external collaborations like The Fugitive, and there were still many slots unfilled. Simon had therefore granted the heads of the three labels broad greenlight authority. He did not want the ever-growing Daenerys Entertainment to rely solely on him.
By the time he finished reviewing Jennifer's materials, it was almost nine.
The A League of Their Own production meeting was held at Daenerys Entertainment headquarters. Jennifer knocked and entered to remind him that the director Penny Marshall and the others had arrived, and Simon stood to head to the conference room.
The next day was Friday, February 2.
Another week had passed, from January 26 to February 1.
Although in the week just ended Batman still held the number one spot with 23.4 million in weekly box office and a total of 326.76 million, Hollywood's attention was drawn instead to another film, a stage adaptation that had not seemed especially conspicuous at first.
Driving Miss Daisy.
Clearly, it was another Daenerys Entertainment release.
Before that, at the 47th Golden Globe Awards on January 20, Driving Miss Daisy went three for three, winning Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, Best Actor, Musical or Comedy, and Best Actress, Musical or Comedy.
Then on January 22, when the 62nd Academy Awards nominations were announced, Driving Miss Daisy swept in with nine nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, making it the most-nominated film of the year.
Including nominations for films like My Left Foot, The Bodyguard, The Sixth Sense, and Metropolitan People, Daenerys Entertainment received a total of twenty-one nominations for the upcoming Oscars, again ranking first among studios.
The distribution rights for Batman belonged to Warner. Terry Semel had originally hoped to campaign for a Best Picture nomination to boost the film's late-stage box office. But the Academy clearly had no interest in a heavily commercial comic adaptation. In the end it only picked up three technical category nominations, which were not counted under Daenerys Entertainment anyway.
But that was beside the point.
Back to Driving Miss Daisy. Until January 25, the film had been kept in limited release. Even in the two weeks around the Globes, the screen count had only risen into the low two hundreds.
Altogether, across seven weeks from December 8 to January 25, while Driving Miss Daisy's reputation and buzz continued to grow, the limited release kept its cumulative box office at only just over ten million.
On January 26, riding the surge of attention from the Golden Globes and Oscar nominations, Highgate Films expanded Driving Miss Daisy in one move, boosting the screen count from 278 to 895. Only then did its box office potential finally break open.
In its first wide week, Driving Miss Daisy earned 8.03 million across 895 screens, and its weekly chart position jumped from seventh last week to second place, just behind Batman.
After eight weeks, its total stood at only 18.37 million, which still seemed small compared to what Batman made in a single week in its sixth.
And yet, opening wide with 8.03 million and climbing to second on the weekly chart, during an awards season still packed with upcoming ceremonies between the Globes and the Oscars, it was easy for Driving Miss Daisy to sustain its heat. The film was clearly headed for a bright, steady long-run curve.
Based on that first wide-week number alone, the industry forecast was that the film's North American total could surge past sixty million.
The production budget for Driving Miss Daisy was only seven million, and its marketing push could not be compared to Batman at all. With 18.37 million earned after eight weeks, Daenerys Entertainment had already recouped all production and marketing costs.
A projected sixty million total box office meant it was a genuine hit.
Simon, of course, knew Driving Miss Daisy's potential did not stop at sixty million.
But no matter what, one obvious fact was impossible to deny: without anyone quite noticing, Daenerys Entertainment had once again created an unexpected box office dark horse.