After the consecutive holidays, the work and life of the North American public gradually returned to normal.
For Hollywood, the first full box office week of 1990 also passed quietly. During this week, 'Batman Begins' remained the focus of everyone's attention.
From January 5th to January 11th, in its third week of release, the weekly box office of 'Batman Begins' saw a significant drop, reaching 33% compared to the previous week.
However, because of the box office base of over $80 million from last week, although the drop for 'Batman Begins' reached 33% this week, the box office intake was still as high as $59.51 million. In three weeks, this groundbreaking superhero movie's cumulative box office quickly broke the $200 million mark, reaching $230.69 million.
Under the brilliance of 'Batman Begins' all other films of the same period seemed insignificant.
Because the media attention was as hot as the film's box office, during this time, many news stories related to this movie became the focus of intense media hype.
First, of course, was the DC Cinematic Universe plan born alongside 'Batman Begins'.
According to various sources, Daenerys Entertainment and Warner Bros. Pictures will jointly develop multiple superhero film projects under DC, such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, in the coming years, and link all the films together through a complete storyline to form a massive DC Cinematic Universe series.
After the news was officially released, not only did comic fans and moviegoers boil with excitement, but a large number of media outlets also began to find ways to dig up more news about the DC Cinematic Universe plan. A group of executives from Time Warner and Daenerys have become targets of pursuit for reporters these days.
While closely following the progress of negotiations between the two companies regarding the implementation details of the DC Cinematic Universe plan, another very topical piece of gossip spread quickly after the 'Batman Begins' celebration party last Saturday.
At the beginning of the 'Batman Begins' project, the main actors such as Adam Baldwin and Valeria Golino all signed long-term film contracts with Daenerys Entertainment. This was no secret to the outside world; at the time, many people questioned whether it was necessary for Daenerys Entertainment to do so.
As the film's box office exploded, rumours began that some of the main creators who had signed long-term contracts were dissatisfied with the salaries they received and hoped to renegotiate the agreements.
To express dissatisfaction with this behaviour, Daenerys Entertainment directly cancelled the additional cash reward plan, which was originally intended to give a total of tens of millions of dollars to all members of the 'Batman Begins' crew.
This rumour was simply too topical and enough to catch the public's eye, so it was quickly hyped up.
The media first talked about how much profit Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner could gain from the distribution of 'Batman Begins'.
With three weeks of domestic box office quickly reaching $230 million, there is no problem for the North American total box office of 'Batman Begins' to reach $400 million; next is overseas.
Batman can be described as one of the cultural symbols of Americans. Although it has very wide popularity globally, overseas audiences will not have the deep sentiments accumulated by Americans over half a century. Before the film's release, some industry media judged that the overseas box office of this movie would definitely not exceed the domestic box office.
However, the development of things exceeded everyone's expectations.
This phenomenal superhero movie created by Simon Westeros is truly full of so many breakthroughs. With the film's series of breathtaking film technology and action design details, even if Batman were replaced with another character, it could definitely be described as stunning, which is enough to ensure that overseas audiences will not have cultural acceptance barriers.
Therefore, the media is now generally optimistic that the overseas box office scale of 'Batman Begins' will be sufficient to match the domestic one.
Calculated based on a global box office of $800 million, the production and distribution parties can recover about $350 million in box office share. According to leaked distribution agreement data, the portion belonging to Daenerys Entertainment should be around $250 million.
According to the distribution progress of a movie in recent years, this money can probably be recovered within the next year.
Also able to harvest most of the intake within a year is the film's merchandise sales revenue. According to the $2 billion in merchandise sales for the next year predicted by the media, Daenerys Entertainment should be able to take in about $300 million. After subtracting the 10% that needs to be paid to DC Comics, there is still $270 million left.
Adding the two above, Daenerys Entertainment is sufficient to recover $500 million in funds through 'Batman Begins' in the next year.
Even if the production and promotion costs of the film are directly calculated as $100 million, the net profit Daenerys Entertainment obtains from this project in the next year can reach $400 million.
Next, during the income period from one year to five years later, the subsequent merchandise sales, home video distribution, and television broadcast income of 'Batman Begins' will definitely be higher, not lower, compared to the first two intakes. You know, according to the latest statistics, with the further expansion of the home video market, the average proportion of global home video income from Hollywood movies in total income has exceeded 45%, while the proportion of box office income in total income has fallen below 30%.
Therefore, the income of 'Batman Begins' in subsequent channels can at least match Daenerys Entertainment's income in the first year.
Overall, Daenerys Entertainment can obtain at least $800 million from the distribution of 'Batman Begins' through various channels within the next five years.
As the distributor, Time Warner's share of income from various aspects will not be less than $200 million.
$1 billion, this is exactly the total profit scale of 'Batman Begins' generally recognized by most media.
Daenerys and Time Warner can earn $1 billion with 'Batman Begins', so what are the salaries of the male and female leads?
The media immediately exposed them.
Adam Baldwin, the actor playing batman, $300,000. Valeria Golino, the actress playing Catwoman, $200,000.
The two added together are only $500,000.
The salaries of other supporting roles in the film are even cheaper by comparison.
Because of the release of 'Batman Begins', Adam Baldwin and Valeria Golino have quickly accumulated a group of fans.
Under the sensationalized reports of the media, which feared the world was not in chaos, seeing that their idols could only take such a small salary while Daenerys and Time Warner could earn $1 billion, fans naturally began to be dissatisfied. Many fans started to demand through letters and phone calls that Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner renegotiate the contracts and give their idols a raise.
The relevant news was originally released by Daenerys Entertainment, so they naturally responded quickly to this situation.
CNN, a channel under Turner Broadcasting System, which has not yet been acquired by Time Warner but has always maintained a close relationship with the company, quickly produced a special report after the news fermented, visiting the current situation of several Hollywood actors who were on the final shortlist for the role of Batman last year.
Compared to the already famous Adam Baldwin, of the last few shortlisted actors from last year, the most successful one had only just landed a regular role in an ABC TV series; even more dramatically, some had even fallen to certain "movie" sets in the San Fernando Valley.
Subsequently, "The Hollywood Reporter" also exposed the details of Adam Baldwin's five-film contract.
Besides the low salary of $300,000 for the first instalment, the total value of Adam Baldwin's remaining four film contracts is actually as high as $30 million, with an average salary of $7.5 million, which is completely at the level of an A-list star. Compared to the salary Christopher Reeve received from the three 'Superman' movies back then, Daenerys Entertainment has been very generous.
"The Hollywood Reporter" also pointed out that relying on the popularity brought by starring in the 'Batman' series, Adam Baldwin can not only take roles in other movies at an A-list star's salary level but also obtain many other lucrative advertising endorsement incomes. These accumulated are definitely higher than the income of most Hollywood stars.
In addition, the same is true for other actors whose fame has soared in 'Batman Begins'.
Without the opportunity of 'Batman Begins', most of these people would not be known to the public and would even fall into the situation of those actors who were on the batman shortlist but ultimately failed to be selected.
Because of the importance of the DC Cinematic Universe plan to Time Warner, Warner Bros. Pictures CEO Terry Semel directly stated in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" that Warner Bros. Pictures will never work with those filmmakers who lack the spirit of contract.
Hollywood movie companies usually sign additional option contracts with actors in their key projects, especially new actors. This matter actually represents the interests of the entire Hollywood studio class.
Therefore, following Terry Semel's statement, Hollywood studio executives such as Joe Roth of Fox Pictures and Sherry Lansing of MGM-United Artists also spoke out, expressing that they would boycott filmmakers who lack the spirit of contract.
Pure words always lack persuasiveness. A seemingly unrelated small incident that happened next made many Hollywood stars and filmmakers shudder.
After completing 'Born On The Fourth Of July' in collaboration with Tom Cruise, Oliver Stone, who is preparing for his new film 'The Doors', publicly stated that he does not intend to invite Meg Ryan to serve as the female lead for this biographical film about the story of The Doors band.
Subsequently, the veteran Hollywood director John Schlesinger, who directed 'Midnight Cowboy', also publicly clarified that his new film 'Pacific Heights' has been confirmed to use Melanie Griffith as the female lead; previous rumours that Meg Ryan might appear were completely nonsense.
Soon after, news came out that Barry Sonnenfeld, a famous Hollywood cinematographer who served as the cinematographer for famous films such as 'Blood Simple' and 'Big' and is currently preparing for his first directorial film 'The Addams Family', firmly stated to Paramount executives that if Paramount insisted on Meg Ryan as the female lead, he himself would withdraw from the project. Other actors who had already been confirmed for this famous TV series adaptation project also publicly stated that they did not want to work with Meg Ryan.
Things happened once, twice, and a third time; as long as one is not stupid, one can probably see the problem.
Meg Ryan's grudge with Daenerys Entertainment is almost completely public. This Hollywood actress, who quickly rose to the A-list relying on 'When Harry Met Sally', terminated her remaining two movie option contracts with Daenerys Entertainment soon after becoming famous.
Daenerys Entertainment and CAA had a conflict because of the 'Rain Man' incident. As a result, the seemingly unrelated Meg Ryan and several main creators of 'Rain Man' were all dropped by CAA.
Unlike Dustin Hoffman, Barry Levinson, and Tom Cruise, who are already deeply rooted in Hollywood, Meg Ryan had just become famous and had not yet completely established a firm foothold in Hollywood.
Then, this actress first opened her mouth wide for a huge salary after becoming famous, subsequently terminated her contract with Daenerys Entertainment, and also starred in 'The Rocketeer', which Paramount Pictures stole from Daenerys Entertainment. The grudge can be said to be getting deeper and deeper.
Most crucially, the box office of 'The Rocketeer' also ended in failure. In Hollywood, without box office support, you are nothing.
Coupled with the current public opinion atmosphere.
A proverb would flash in the minds of most people following this matter: beat the dog before the lion.
Beat the dog before the lion.
To describe it with a another idiom: killing the chicken to scare the monkey.
Even a year ago, if Daenerys Entertainment wanted to blackball an A-list actress, it would have been a pipe dream.
However, last year's ten-film plan directly linked more than half of Hollywood closely with Daenerys Entertainment. Five of the traditional big Seven got projects from this ten-film plan. Of the remaining two, MGM began to move closer to Daenerys Entertainment due to the intervention of Australian capital.
Finally, Paramount did not get any projects from the ten-film plan because of the two scripts 'The Rocketeer' and 'Fire Birds', so it didn't need to give Daenerys Entertainment face.
Although 'The Rocketeer' project failed, as long as Meg Ryan was willing to significantly reduce her salary, relying on the popularity of 'When Harry Met Sally', Paramount management was still happy to pick up a bargain.
However, while Daenerys Entertainment might not be able to influence the decisions of Paramount's top management, exerting influence on specific film projects was easy. The public boycott by the main creators of 'The Addams Family' against working with Meg Ryan was the result of Amy's efforts; even if Paramount didn't care about Daenerys Entertainment, these filmmakers were still looking forward to working with Daenerys Entertainment.
Paramount ultimately could not go against the wishes of all other main creators and forcibly cast Meg Ryan.
Outside of The Big Seven, under the brilliance of Daenerys Entertainment, as long as there were other options, other second- and third-tier film companies simply didn't need to make an enemy for themselves for the sake of one Meg Ryan.
An A-list actress completely lost her foothold in Hollywood in an instant in the face of Daenerys Entertainment's strength. While many Hollywood stars sighed and were wary of Daenerys Entertainment's power, the male lead of 'Batman Begins', who was originally somewhat unwilling, smartly dismissed all thoughts and proactively stated in an interview with "Entertainment Weekly" that he felt very honoured to participate in the filming of 'Batman' and would definitely do his best to play the role well in the subsequent series, and so on.
After Adam Baldwin spoke up, whether or not they had certain thoughts, the other main creators also smartly expressed their attitudes publicly or privately.
Thus, this conflict, which had not yet brewed, ended quietly in an atmosphere of gossip.
After giving a stick, one always has to give a sweet date.
Daenerys Entertainment subsequently announced that because of the film's huge box office success, it would issue an additional cash reward to all crew members who participated in the filming of 'Batman Begins'.
However, the total amount of everyone's bonus was directly halved to $10 million.
$10 million or $20 million is insignificant compared to the profit Daenerys Entertainment can obtain from the 'Batman Begins' project; halving the bonus was also an attitude.