After its first week, because New Year's Day 1990 fell on a Monday, same as the preceding Christmas, 'Batman Begins'' second weekend also ran four days.
Among this week's newcomers, 'The Rocketeer', starring Tom Cruise and Meg Ryan, cost $45 million to make. Paramount had used less than scrupulous means to pry the project from Daenerys and arrived brimming with confidence, pouring another $20 million into marketing.
Yet even with obvious PR help, the film barely scraped a passing grade from critics; outlets like The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and The Washington Post dished out scalding pans.
Simon learned that to clear room for 'The Rocketeer', Paramount had pushed Oliver Stone's Tom Cruise vehicle, 'Born on the Fourth of July', all the way to next Easter.
But even a $65 million total spend, prime Christmas real estate, and the star power of Cruise and Ryan couldn't sell audiences on the film's awkward retro-sci-fi tone.
Pummelled by 'Batman Begins', 'The Rocketeer' managed only $11.98 million over its first seven days (Dec 29–Jan 4). It placed second for the week, miles behind 'Batman Begins'.
Another freshman entry, Steven Spielberg's 'Always', told of a pilot who returns as a ghost after a crash to share a different life with his girlfriend.
Yes, the premise sounds a lot like 'Ghost', though the plots diverge sharply.
Under lukewarm reviews, the fantasy-comedy opened to $7.18 million, ranking fourth for the week.
Third place again went to the Thanksgiving-season holdover 'Look Who's Talking', down 11% to $9.68 million for a running total of $135.77 million.
'Batman Begins', meanwhile, rode its record $82.39 million debut and a far broader audience than Simon's two previous films to an 8% bump, adding $88.79 million.
In just two weeks, batman begins had raced to an unprecedented $171.18 million domestic.
That pace all but guarantees the film will cruise past $400 million in North America.
With 'Star Wars' and 'E.T'. still years away from their re-release campaigns, 'Batman Begins' looks set to become the first movie ever to crack $400 million domestically.
While the press gasped and fans cheered, every studio instantly turned its gaze toward superhero comics ripe for adaptation.
They quickly discovered that America's two biggest comics houses, Marvel and DC, offered no room for outsiders.
Worse, both were already firmly under Daenerys Entertainment's thumb.
Marvel had long since become a wholly owned subsidiary, and DC's trinity, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, had been bought outright by Simon Westeros, throttling the entire DC stable.
Forget the untapped Marvel vault; just the newly-announced DC Cinematic Universe, on the back of 'Batman Begins' numbers, should feed Daenerys for a decade.
Box office, plus sure-fire video and TV windows, is only the start: after moving $130 million in tie-in goods week one, batman merch rang up another $150 million week two.
Trade trackers now project the film could push $2 billion in global merchandise sales over the next twelve months.
Thanks to brand premiums, retail prices on movie merch often hit ten times the manufacturing cost, leaving fat gross margins.
Even after every middleman takes a cut, the rights holder typically pockets 10–20% of the sticker price, depending on the item.
A projected $2 billion in sales should therefore funnel roughly $300 million, pre-tax and with almost no upfront spend, into the coffers of Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner.
Those eye-watering projections quickly turned Time Warner's initial euphoria into second-guessing.
Everyone knew Simon Westeros' hands-on stewardship created the hit, yet Warner could have invested in the picture, if only they'd said yes.
Instead, their deal limits Warner Bros. Pictures to a 15% distribution fee; the merged Time Warner collects only 10% of net merchandising profits via subsidiary DC Comics.
Even so, those two revenue streams should still deliver north of $200 million to Time Warner over the next few years, yet no one dares to tally what Daenerys will walk away with.
The math only gets more depressing.
Had a lesser studio held the rights, Warner could have leaned on Hollywood accounting, or simply torn up contracts, to claw back ownership of batman and friends.
With Daenerys Entertainment, that's impossible.
From day one, Daenerys embedded its own audit team in every Batman ledger, closing the usual loopholes.
Not that Warner would dare try anyway.
The industry still remembers how Daenerys handled Arista Records over 'The Bodyguard' soundtrack.
When Arista tried to withhold Daenerys' royalty checks, Simon Westeros yanked the album from the shelves, willing to kill a phenomenon rather than be cheated.
In the end, not only did Arista Records fail in its scheme, it was also fined twice the amount it had swallowed, and the label's president lost his job over it.
If Warner Bros. Pictures tried the same trick, Terry Semel felt Simon Westeros would just as readily halt every follow-up project in the DC Cinematic Universe until Warner coughed up everything it had devoured.
And, in the end, someone would probably have to take the fall, he, as Warner Bros. Pictures' CEO, was clearly the perfect scapegoat.
Now that the matter was settled, Time Warner's goal was to push the DC Cinematic Universe forward as quickly as possible.
Santa Monica.
Inside the conference room at Daenerys Entertainment headquarters, it was already Friday, January 5, 1990.
After a full day of meetings, the two company teams, led by Amy Pascal and Terry Semel, had spent the time discussing the follow-up cooperation and the DC Cinematic Universe slate.
The original contract had stipulated that many details could be renegotiated after 'Batman Begins', such as Warner's distribution-fee percentage on future films.
A 15% commission across all channels was actually extremely high.
Because the DC Cinematic Universe involved so many vested interests, the only concrete outcome after an entire day, besides a ten-film slate stretching over the next five to seven years, was a preliminary agreement on the revised distribution fees.
Terry Semel hadn't yielded much ground; he'd merely broken the fees down into domestic, overseas, home video, and television platforms and made some concessions there.
After negotiations, on future coproductions released by Warner Bros. Pictures, the domestic distribution fee would drop to 12.5%, the overseas fee to 10%, and the combined home-video and TV revenue commission would also be 12.5%.
Of course, marketing costs for each channel would still be tallied and deducted separately. Yet with Daenerys Entertainment's strict financial oversight, Warner had little room for manoeuvring.
Additionally, for any projects where Daenerys Entertainment handled distribution, this same fee structure would apply.
The meeting wrapped at five in the afternoon.
Walking out together, Terry Semel asked the question uppermost on his mind: "When will Simon be back?"
Amy handed her folder to her assistant Vanessa. "I've no idea. I called him after the opening-week grosses came in; he said he was taking Janette to Antarctica".
Terry Semel raised an eyebrow. "Antarctica?"
Amy laughed. "Yep, Antarctica. Melbourne's relatively close, I suppose, I don't really know. But it's summer in the Southern Hemisphere; Antarctica's at its warmest, and I think it's constant daylight, perfect for a trip".
"And then?"
Amy shrugged. "I haven't been able to reach him the last few days. He never said when he'd return, probably not until the end of the month".
Terry Semel gave a wry smile. "Then he'll definitely miss this weekend's celebration party".
"Mm", Amy nodded. "One more thing 'Batman Begins' is doing great, so Simon had me draft a bonus plan; about three million each for the two leads, one million for the supporting cast, and rewards for the rest of the crew. Total outlay's roughly twenty million. Just letting you know: Warner doesn't share this expense, but on future projects such bonuses will be part of the overall budget".
Terry Semel nodded. "Twenty million, well compared with Daenerys's haul, that's nothing".
Amy smiled, aware that Terry Semel had been wrestling with the numbers, and let the topic drop.
After seeing off the Warner contingent, Amy headed to her office.
Nancy Brill had arrived early and was on the sofa in the reception area, leafing through a document.
Seeing Amy enter, Nancy stood and hugged her. "How did the Warner meeting go?"
"There'll be more haggling; too much to cover", Amy said. "What about you, did you sort out Rhode Island?"
Nancy had flown back from Rhode Island that afternoon over the toy-plant issue.
For 'Batman Begins' merchandising, Daenerys Entertainment's Rhode Island factory had taken on production of the most profitable lead-character action figures. Lacking experience, they'd sold out every toy from that plant in the first week. Nancy's trip was to re-coordinate factory output and, through her old Hasbro contacts, outsource orders her own plant couldn't fulfil.
Hasbro's headquarters is also in Rhode Island.
"All sorted", Nancy said. "Actually, selling out last time wasn't bad, sales surged even hotter once we restocked. Simon's told us before: hunger marketing really works. Oh, I brought back some limited-edition toys, want any to give away?"
"Absolutely, set aside a few. My nephew asked at Christmas and I came up empty; my parents scolded me".
Laughing, Amy motioned Nancy to sit, then went to her desk, opened the safe, took out an envelope, and handed it over. "Simon asked me to give you this".
Nancy opened it: a $5 million check. "What's this?"
"A bonus", Amy said, sitting beside her as Vanessa brought coffee. Cradling her cup, Amy went on, "You know Simon, your contract can't be changed for now, so this is extra compensation".
Nancy tucked the check into her bag without hesitation. "Did he offer, or did you ask for me?"
"I brought it up, but he was happy to do it", Amy said. "He really cares about you".
Knowing Amy meant nothing romantic, Nancy still feigned annoyance. "That sounds awfully ambiguous".
"Right, I forgot you're single", Amy laughed. "Actually, it's just as well we don't rush to revise the contract. When the three years are up, the company will probably be going public, and you'll land a new deal with options".
Nancy perked up. "Simon talked to you about an IPO?"