Santa Monica.
The time was Thursday, February 1st, 1990.
Simon arrived at the company headquarters at 8 AM, and Jennifer, who had already arrived, followed him into his office, carrying a stack of documents.
Because Simon had been intentionally and unintentionally delegating many tasks, and had often been away from Los Angeles recently, Jennifer's authority had grown significantly under Simon's instruction, almost to the point of acting as Simon's internal spokesperson for the company.
In recent weeks, the female assistant had personally led a team responsible for the financial audit of the past year.
In the second half of last year, due to the massive success of films like 'The Bodyguard', 'The Sixth Sense', and 'Scream 2', the hot sales of 'The Bodyguard' soundtrack, the success of the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' video game, continuous revenue from television projects, and the overseas and video releases of films like 'Rain Man' from late 1988, Daenerys Entertainment experienced an explosive growth in revenue.
Compared to the net profit of $110 million in the first half of last year, even after deducting large expenditures such as the construction of Daenerys Studios and the acquisition of EA shares in the second half, Daenerys Entertainment's estimated after-tax net profit for the entire year is expected to exceed $500 million.
With the continuous influx of ample funds from Daenerys Entertainment, James Raybould had been consistently increasing his investments in new technology.
Currently, Westeros Company's stake in Microsoft has reached 21.3%, with 10% acquired from Microsoft's two major shareholders, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and the additional portion funded by Daenerys Entertainment through purchases from the open market. Gates even personally approached Simon regarding this matter.
As the release date of Windows 3.0 approached, Microsoft's stock price had begun to rise again due to the leak of internal test versions.
Controlling 21.3% of Microsoft's shares had exceeded Simon's expectations, and Westeros Company did not plan to further increase its stake in Microsoft.
Westeros Company's stake in Intel also increased to 15.6%, which was also the result of renewed acquisitions starting last year. Westeros Company invested nearly $300 million for this approximately 5% stake on top of its existing holdings, all funded by Daenerys Entertainment.
Simon sat behind his desk, and the female assistant handed him today's work schedule, then put down the documents in her hand and said, "The financial audit should be finished by next week. Here's a brief report. Also, there's a compensation proposal from Warner for you to serve as producer for 'The Flash' and 'Cyborg,' offering a $2 million base salary plus 10% of domestic box office gross for each film. Finally, there are materials for several novels and scripts the company recently acquired, including Michael Crichton's dinosaur sci-fi novel that you mentioned".
Hearing Michael Crichton's dinosaur novel, Simon looked up and slightly raised an eyebrow.
Jennifer noticed Simon's expression and proactively explained, "Amy personally communicated with Mr. Friedman. Because other studios also noticed Crichton's project, everyone submitted bids. The final agreed price was $2.5 million, with $2 million for the buyout of the novel, and $500,000 for the script adaptation fee, the latter being a result of Mr. Friedman's insistence".
Simon nodded, understanding why Jonathan had made that request.
By participating in the script adaptation, Michael Crichton could also receive additional revenue sharing based on the Writers Guild's "Basic Agreement" after the film's release.
For a novel that hasn't even been published yet, a $2.5 million offer was indeed a bit high.
Although Michael Crichton had made a considerable name for himself in the novel world over the years, before 'Jurassic Park', his involvement in film and television projects had not been successful. Last year, Crichton personally directed a crime thriller called 'Physical Evidence', which had a production cost of $17 million but only grossed a paltry $3.3 million at the box office, a total loss for the investor, Columbia Pictures.
This was also why Jonathan was able to easily poach him from CAA to WMA.
Speaking of which, if it weren't for Simon's expressed interest, Jonathan probably wouldn't have been very interested in Crichton either.
Thinking about this, Simon asked the female assistant, "When is the novel expected to be published?"
"Crichton has just finished the outline; it will be at least until the end of the year".
"Transfer the project materials to the special effects studio and have them present a CG dinosaur development plan to me soon. Other matters are temporarily shelved".
Jennifer nodded, jotted the matter down in her memo, and continued, "Also, Joe Roth from Fox called yesterday about 'Terminator 2'. He asked if you're free to discuss it tomorrow night?"
Simon wondered, "Tomorrow night?"
"Roth is hosting a cocktail party at his home in Coldwater Canyon tomorrow night", the female assistant said, tearing a page from her pocket memo and handing it over. "This is the address".
"You hold onto it for me", Simon pushed the piece of paper back and smiled at the female assistant, "How about we go together tomorrow night?"
Jennifer shook her head, "I'm very tired lately. I want to go home and sleep".
"How about I come over to your place after the party? Bel Air is very close to Coldwater Canyon. Remember to leave a window open for me".
The female assistant curved her lips and said, "My uncle has a very good hunting rifle. He'll shoot you like a wild boar".
Jennifer was still living with her uncle, George Norman. In this regard, perhaps because of their close relationship, the female assistant didn't have the same psychological barrier about living under someone else's roof as Simon did.
Simon's face showed a fearful expression, but he asked curiously, "Why a wild boar?"
The female assistant tilted her dainty head, with its ponytail, and said, "Maybe a rabbit".
Even worse than a wild boar!
Simon waved his hand, feigning anger, "Get out. The boss needs to start working".
Jennifer smiled, tidied Simon's desk, and asked, "Would you like coffee?"
"Mineral water is fine. I'm cutting back on caffeine lately".
The female assistant nodded and turned to leave.
Simon looked down and re-read today's work schedule. The production meeting for 'A League of Their Own' was scheduled to start at nine o'clock and was expected to last the entire morning.
Pre-production for 'A League of Their Own' was already complete, and filming would begin next week.
Because it was a female-centric film, Amy was primarily in charge of this project. However, as one of the projects in the 10-film plan, Simon still had to personally attend the final production meeting.
Next, the rough cuts for both 'Ghost' and 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' had been completed, and in the afternoon, he would discuss the fine-tuning of the editing and soundtrack with the creative teams.
Just these three tasks would likely keep him busy until six o'clock in the afternoon.
Setting aside the work schedule, Simon picked up the materials the female assistant had just left. He removed the financial brief from the top, intending to review the final financial report only after the audit was fully completed, to save time.
The 'Jurassic Park' materials, which the female assistant had already introduced, were also set aside.
Simon quickly reviewed the producer compensation proposals for 'The Flash' and 'Cyborg', then signed his approval. The detailed contracts would be further negotiated with Warner by his subordinates.
Finally, there was a stack of novel and script copyright materials.
Like other Hollywood studios, after Daenerys Entertainment's operations became stable, it began to continuously acquire copyrights for various novels and scripts. Of course, most of these might ultimately go nowhere.
This is how Hollywood's large annual script development budgets are spent.
However, these expenditures are actually calculated into various other film projects according to Hollywood accounting rules.
Aside from 'Jurassic Park', there were a total of seven novel and script materials submitted. Simon quickly flipped through them. In addition to the basic project information, there were various annotations, such as which director was interested in the project, which star intended to appear, or the respective producer's opinion on the script.
The Hollywood circle was indeed small, or perhaps Simon's mind was too rich with information, but among the seven documents, Simon easily found a work he was somewhat familiar with: 'Thelma & Louise'.
As he recalled, this was a film directed by Ridley Scott, starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, and it seemed to have excellent critical and box office reception.
The project notes were personally written by Amy, stating that actresses like Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer, who had read the script, were all interested in starring. Therefore, the project could be approved for development, with an estimated budget of $15 million.
Fifteen million dollars would have been considered a major production a few years ago, but now it's only a medium-to-low budget.
Simon read through the synopsis and suddenly thought that this story might be something Kathryn could try.
Kathryn was definitely a feminist at heart, and she had just completed a similar road-style film, 'Near Dark', which made her well-suited to direct this project.
Thinking of this, Simon picked up a pencil and wrote his note on it, asking Amy to forward the script to Kathryn.
Kathryn was about to start shooting 'Point Break', but if she was interested in this project, Daenerys Entertainment could certainly wait for her to finish her current project before starting this film.
Aside from 'Thelma & Louise', the other projects failed to capture Simon's interest.
Daenerys Entertainment's key projects next year are basically external collaborations like 'Batman: The Dark Knight' and 'The Fugitive'. There are still many project vacancies, so Simon has given the heads of the three labels sufficient authority to greenlight projects. He also doesn't want the increasingly massive Daenerys Entertainment to rely entirely on him alone.
After reviewing the materials sent by the female assistant, it was almost nine o'clock.
The production meeting for 'A League of Their Own' was held at Daenerys Entertainment's headquarters. Jennifer pushed open the door to remind him that the film's director, Penny Marshall, and others had already arrived, so Simon got up and headed to the conference room.
The next day was Friday, February 2nd, 1990.
Another week had passed, from January 26th to February 1st.
Although 'Batman Begins' still held the top spot for weekly box office with $23.4 million in the past week, bringing its cumulative box office to $326.76 million, Hollywood's attention was drawn to another, originally less conspicuous, stage play adaptation film.
'Driving Miss Daisy'.
Clearly, this was another film produced by Daenerys Entertainment.
Prior to this, at the 47th Golden Globe Awards for American Film and Television on January 20th, 'Driving Miss Daisy' won all three of its nominations, taking home Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
Subsequently, in the nominations for the 62nd Academy Awards announced on January 22nd, 'Driving Miss Daisy' garnered a total of 9 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, making it the most nominated film at this year's Oscars.
Including nominations for films like 'My Left Foot', 'The Bodyguard', 'The Sixth Sense', and 'Metropolitan', Daenerys Entertainment received a total of 21 nominations at the upcoming Academy Awards, also ranking first among all studios.
Warner Bros. held the distribution rights for 'Batman Begins', and Terry Semel had originally hoped to campaign for a Best Picture nomination for the film to boost its later box office. However, the Oscar judges were clearly not interested in this highly commercial comic book adaptation, and the film ultimately received only 3 technical awards. The related nominations were also not counted under Daenerys Entertainment's name.
Of course, that's beside the point.
Returning to 'Driving Miss Daisy', the film maintained a limited release until January 25th, only increasing its screen count to just over two hundred in the two weeks surrounding the Golden Globes.
Overall, from December 8th last year to January 25th, a period of seven weeks, although the word-of-mouth and popularity of 'Driving Miss Daisy' had been continuously rising, due to limited screening scale, the film's cumulative box office barely exceeded $10 million.
On January 26th, capitalizing on the high attention brought by the Golden Globe awards and Oscar nominations, Highgate Film simultaneously increased the number of screens for 'Driving Miss Daisy' from 278 to 895, finally unleashing the film's box office potential.
In its first week of wide release, 'Driving Miss Daisy' grossed $8.03 million across 895 screens, jumping from seventh place on the weekly box office chart to second, just behind 'Batman Begins'.
After eight weeks in theatres, its cumulative box office reached only $18.37 million, seemingly incomparable to 'Batman Begins' weekly box office in its sixth week.
However, with its first week of wide release reaching the second spot on the weekly chart, and given that this is awards season with many accolades between the Golden Globes and the Oscars, the box office momentum for 'Driving Miss Daisy' can easily be sustained, and this film is destined to achieve a remarkably strong and long-lasting box office curve.
Based on its first week of wide release grossing $8.03 million, industry predictions suggest that the film's total North American box office could very likely exceed $60 million.
'Driving Miss Daisy' had a production budget of only $7 million, and its marketing and distribution scale was completely incomparable to 'Batman Begins'. With a cumulative box office of $18.37 million over eight weeks, Daenerys Entertainment had already recouped all production and marketing costs.
An estimated total box office of $60 million is already considered a major success.
Simon, of course, knew that the box office potential of 'Driving Miss Daisy' was more than $60 million.
However, in any case, it was an undeniable fact that Daenerys Entertainment had once again, out of nowhere, created a box office dark horse.