Simon returned to Los Angeles and got back to work. And during this time, one of the most high-profile things in Hollywood is undoubtedly the re-release of the "Star Wars" series.

In order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of the Star Wars franchise and also warm up for the upcoming Star Wars prequel series, on January 30, "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" reopened in North America with 2,104 screens. The status of the Star Wars series in the United States is similar to China's "Journey to the West", and this re-release can be described as 'one call'.

From January 31st to February 6th, seven days after the first week of the re-release, "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" easily earned $45.49 million at the box office.

Affected by the re-screening of the Star Wars series, a series of old films scheduled at the end of last year, except for a few awards season films such as "Soul Catcher" and "The English Patient", have entered the final stage.

On the same week's list, following Star Wars, "Breaking Bad", which ranked second at the box office, fell from $12.49 million last week to within $10 million in the 7th week of its release, earning $7.11 million, with a cumulative box office of 232.81 million in seven weeks.

Third place is "Soul Catcher".

From the screening, in the 9th week of the opening, "Soul Catcher" continued to earn $6.69 million with a 25% weekly decline, with a cumulative box office of $133.78 million.

It seems that the single-week box office of "Breaking Baby" is still higher than that of "Soul Catcher", but paying attention to the decline, it is not difficult to find that under the impact of "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace", "Breaking Bad" fell by 43% in the 7th week of release, while the decline of "Soul Catcher" was only 25%, which is much more stable than "Breaking Baby", and it is not a problem to hold on to the Oscars.

"Jumanji" in fourth and fifth place was almost tied with "The English Patient", earning $5.03 million and $5.01 million, respectively. However, the state of the two films is similar to that of "Breaking Bad" and "Soul Catcher".

"Jumanji's Game", which was released in its eighth week, reached a cumulative box office of $194.09 million with a weekly decline of 39%.

Also in the eighth week, "The British Patient" earned $5.01 million with a 19% drop in the same period, with a cumulative box office of $36.37 million.

In addition to the top five, "Wonder Woman 2", which was released in Thanksgiving last year, was completely closed.

In the 11th week of its release, "Wonder Woman 2" gradually reduced its screening scale to 565 screens, earning another $1.63 million, and the cumulative box office reached $415.09 million. With Daenerys Entertainment further shrinking the canvas of "Wonder Woman 2" in order to launch a new film on February 7, the film's subsequent box office will shrink sharply again, and it is expected that the follow-up will earn up to $2 million, and the total domestic box office will stay at around $417 million.

After the first week of the Star Wars re-release, Daenerys Entertainment also began to focus on the film business in 1996.

On February 7, a new box office week, "Two Smoking Guns" and "Following", which were well received at the Sundance Film Festival in January, were released at the same time.

Or Britain and the United States opened the painting at the same time.

Simon originally hoped that "Two Big Smoking Guns", which had far surpassed North America at the box office in the UK, and "Six Heroes of Light Pigs", which had far exceeded North America at the box office in the UK, would first open in the UK and accumulate popularity before moving to North America. However, after seeing the marketing plan for the packaging of British films in February proposed by the company's publicity team, Simon decisively approved the new strategy.

As for "Two Big Smoking Guns", the British box office in memory is 28 million pounds, which is undoubtedly successful, but it is far less than the 160 million pounds of "Six Heroes of Light Pigs", which broke the historical box office record in the UK, so even if there are some deviations, it has nothing to do with the overall situation.

In addition, the packaging and release strategy this time is not only "Two Big Smoking Guns" and "Following", but "BJ's Single Diary", which opened on Valentine's Day on February 14, is the most important.

Although the heroine of the new version of "BJ's Single Diary", which was advanced a few years in advance, is Julia Roberts, a typical American girl, the film is from the British from the behind-the-scenes team to the story content, and it is not too inconsistent to say that it is a British movie.

Let's talk about "Two Big Smoking Guns" and "Following".

Continuing the excellent reputation at the Sundance Film Festival, the two low-budget feature films that were first opened were widely recognized in the mass media in the United Kingdom and the United States. Moreover, according to Simon's proposal, not only Nolan's "Following", but also Guy Ritchie's "Two Big Smoking Guns" has also been labeled as "brain-burning", after all, the multi-line narrative of this film is far more complex than other similar projects in recent years, and it can indeed be described as brain-burning.

Coupled with the general praise of the media and the curiosity of the audience stamped by the brain-burning labels, the two films successfully grabbed considerable public attention in front of the re-release of Star Wars.

In the first week of the opening week from February 7 to February 13, the second week of the re-release of "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" still reached $26.35 million, and "Two Smoking Guns" and "Following" successfully grossed $5.41 million and $4.65 million respectively with 763 and 712 screens of comparable scale.

The two box office figures may not seem like much, but they are only one week, and the box office receipts of the two openings directly exceed their production costs.

Not only that, but the average of the computing museum, "Two Big Smoking Guns" reached 7,092 US dollars, and "Following" was also as high as 6,530 US dollars, and in the cold schedule in February, less than 1,000 screens were screened, and such a museum could basically be regarded as a big seller. At the same time, the two films also followed Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Soul Catcher and Breaking Bad, squeezing into the top five of the weekly box office list, ranking fourth and fifth, respectively.

Subsequently, on February 12, during the premiere of "BJ's Single Diary" at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, the main creators of the two films "Two Big Smoking Guns" and "Following" attended the show together.

With the popularity at this time and the lack of a strong rival market in the near future, it is expected that the two films can easily be screened for a long time until Easter at the end of March, and the North American box office will easily rush to the range of 20 million to 30 million US dollars expected by Daenerys Entertainment, and it is not impossible to even break through 30 million.

Considering that both films are only a cheap investment of two or three million dollars, and the box office returns in North America alone are tenfold, plus overseas receipts, the profit level of the two projects is no less than that of some blockbusters with mediocre market performance.

February 14, Valentine's Day.

As Daenerys Entertainment's first title film in 1996, "BJ's Single Diary" opened on a large scale in North America with 2,513 screens.

The same piece of praise.

After the word-of-mouth ban was lifted on the second day of the premiere, the film's comprehensive media score quickly reached an excellent score of 8.3 points.

"Variety" magazine commented that "BJ's Single Diary" is another clever, alternative and delicate love movie after "When Harry Met Sally" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral".

Julia Roberts' self-destructive performance of gaining 30 pounds on his own initiative was also recognized by the media.

The New York Times commented that Julia's weight gain not only did not hide the actress's charm, but made her more charming. The famous film critic Roger Albert also praised Julia's double breakthrough in image and acting in the Chicago Sun.

Although the Valentine's Day schedule also has Warner's "Vegas Holiday" starring veteran comedy star Chevy Chase and Paramount's "Friends" actor Matthew Perry and Mexican actress Salma Hayek starring the romance film "Silly Love Comes True" opened at the same time, but under the bombardment of the bundled release strategy pushed by Daenerys Entertainment's three films together, even the re-release of "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" has been overshadowed, and the attention of the other two new films is even more incomparable.

On the other hand, after the re-release of Star Wars and Daenerys Entertainment's packaged marketing strategy re-stimulated the market, the industry generally predicted that during the Valentine's Day box office week that started on February 14, the total box office in North America in a single week will once again hit the 100 million yuan mark, and most of the share will be divided by the most concerned films.

This was also proven by subsequent facts.

Even though the blockbuster movies that have risen rapidly in recent years have taken over the glory, Julia Roberts' box office appeal hasn't waned much, and with an excellent story, the Hollywood actress, who is not an American sweetheart, is more like an American sweetheart, has re-energized her market potential.

In just the first weekend, "BJ's Single Diary" successfully won $26.29 million at the box office, and easily reached the level of a big hit of more than 10,000 in three days.

Then, in the full opening week from February 14 to February 20, the first-week box office of "BJ's Single Diary" finally reached $37.62 million, and the average of the Seven Days Pavilion was close to $15,000. For this film, which also took the initiative to get out of a stable and long-term line before the Easter schedule, this is a quite remarkable opening result.

The second-ranked "Star Wars: Phantom Menace" was expected to even have a reverse decline this week, but it was hit by several new films such as "BJ's Single Diary", but the reversal not only did not materialize, but the box office fell by 22% in a single week, earning $20.61 million.

Warner Bros.'s "Vegas Vacation" ranked third, but it was the next level at the box office in its first week, earning only $11.76 million. With 2,054 open screens, which is equivalent to barely exceeding $5,000 per museum, it is conceivable that after the Valentine's Day box office week, this film will be quickly eliminated.

Paramount's fourth-place "Silly Love Comes True" was in much the same situation, with 1,674 screens and only $9.13 million in its first week.

Under the impact of three new films, Guy Ritchie's "Two Big Smoking Guns" successfully held on to the fifth place.

In the second week of release, due to the success of the first week, Daenerys Entertainment increased the number of screens of "Two Smoking Guns" and "Following" to more than 1,000 screens, coupled with the popular schedule of Valentine's Day, "Two Smoking Guns" fell to $7.53 million with 1,076 screens in the second week, and the box office fell by 39%.

Although Nolan's "Following" was squeezed out of the top five, it still managed to hold on to the sixth place on the list with an increase of 1,029 screens, earning $6.21 million, also achieving a 33% reversal.

Although this week is special, Daenerys Entertainment has raised the domestic box office expectations of "Two Smoking Guns" and "Following" to more than $30 million at the same time.

As for the total box office of "Two Smoking Guns" is definitely higher than that of "Following", it is not surprising to all parties. After all, "Following" is really brain-burning, and if you don't take the movie seriously, you may not be able to understand it, and it lacks some interest, and "Two Big Smoking Guns" is more storytelling and interesting, even if the audience can't figure out all the clues, just a wonderful performance of a group of weirdos, you can also get a very rich viewing experience.

Returning from China, followed by Valentine's Day on Feb. 14 and Simon's 29th birthday on Feb. 22, Simon stayed in Los Angeles for two weeks.

Until February 24.

Month.

At the same time, it was the beginning of a new week, and Simon finally left Los Angeles again and set off for the East Coast.

The previous Friday, which was also the day before Simon's birthday, continued to persist for more than half a month, facing the Nasdaq index, which rose by more than 5% in three weeks and further rushed to a high of 6,700 points, the Tiger Fund, which suffered an overall loss of nearly 80%, officially announced its liquidation. The Tiger Fund, which reached $12 billion more than three months ago, cleared all its short positions and left only $2.8 billion.

After issuing a public apology letter to investors, Julian Robertson, the founder of Tiger Fund, said that after completing the redemption of the last remaining funds, he would close Tiger Fund, disband the team, and would not set foot in the hedging field in the short term.

It can be described as frustrating.

As a leader in the field of hedge funds that have grown rapidly in recent years, the liquidation of Tiger Fund has shaken the entire industry.

However, in addition to a large number of investors who have suffered direct losses, the field of capital hedging has attracted more and more attention from all parties, after all, this is a zero-sum game, and the other side of the Tiger Fund's loss of nearly 10 billion yuan is that in recent months, some people have made nearly 10 billion dollars from it.

It's not easy to find out who made the money, but it's enough to make too many people follow it one after another.

Simon has been reducing the size of Cersei Capital's hedging department, betting on Soros's side of the funds, and targeting Southeast Asia. Therefore, the feast of dividing up the Tiger Fund, Cersei Capital did not make much profits, and the team of Cersei Fund Management Company, which has also been standing on the opposite side of the Tiger Fund since the end of last year's election, has only made a cumulative profit of $1.2 billion in more than three months because of its conservative holding strategy.

As a result, most of the Tiger Fund's losses have fallen into the hands of other hedge capital.

Simon has no regrets about this.

Even Simon himself thought that the Nasdaq's turn was likely to be around December last year or even January this year, and the long profits that should have been made were already made last year, and Simon also kept in mind the business principle of not making the last penny, after all, if it continues, maybe the Nasdaq will only collapse in one day, and it will be able to swallow up most of the profits accumulated for months.

Falling into the bag is for safety.

No matter what the field of investment, the biggest mistake of too many people is that they can't let go when they should close, and it is difficult to give up when they should put it down, and occasionally laugh at other people who choose to stop in moderation and seem to miss out on more benefits.

Eventually, these people tend to draw water from bamboo baskets.

In addition to the fiasco of the Tiger Fund, Richard Mellon Scaife of the Mellon family left the market when the principal of $300 million was less than 40 million. On this trip to the West Coast, in addition to visiting the pregnant women as usual, Simon's other thing to do is to make some follow-up arrangements for the Mellon family.