The day after the dinner at the Raybould family, Janet began to approach the Blackstone Group about acquiring a stake in Blackstone Financial Management.

In the midst of the busyness, Thursday is fast approaching.

Blockbuster chose to list on the NASDAQ exchange, Simon and Janet got up at seven o'clock and rushed directly to Midtown, where Blockbuster Chairman and CEO Wayne Hueyzanga and Daenerys Entertainment Amy and others had already arrived.

Everyone hurried to breakfast and arrived at the NASDAQ Exchange lobby on 42nd Street, which was already crowded.

In addition to the management of Daenerys and Blockbuster, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Diane Keaton and other big-name filmmakers were invited to help today.

If other companies wanted to do this, an expensive appearance fee would certainly be indispensable, and it might not be available, but for Daenerys Entertainment, it would be just a few phone calls away. Because the invitees are all filmmakers who live in New York, they don't even need to pay for travel expenses.

Simon's presence was also supportive.

At eight o'clock, after taking Janet to show her face in front of the media, the two temporarily hid in the lounge upstairs of the exchange and waited for the bell-ringing ceremony to arrive.

Robert De Niro and others also arrived.

Simon also met Kathryn Bigelow, whom he hadn't seen in a while.

After "Thunderbolt Blue Angels", Catherine lived most of her time in New York.

Simon could sense that the woman was clearly deliberately alienating her from his relationship, and he didn't force it. Catherine has always been a very solitary personality and can't possibly be a vassal of someone, and Simon doesn't want Catherine to be his vassal.

"It's a remake of an old 1962 film called 'Terror Corner', which tells the story of a convicted criminal who takes revenge on the judge and lawyer who sent him to prison. Spielberg had been working on the script for the project for a long time, but it never took a shot, and he recently asked Martin and I if we would be interested in taking over, and Martin had read the script that Steve had written and thought it was terrible, so he was hesitant. ”

Inside the lounge.

Simon, De Niro, and the others sat on the couch chatting about recent events.

Martin Scorsese is already looking for his next new film while taking care of the later stages of "Goodfellas", and Denima is about to join the group to start filming a biographical film "Speechless Asking the Sky", which is expected to be released at the end of the year, which makes him still maintain two relatively prolific big-screen works this year.

The "Cape of Terror" that is being talked about right now can only be counted as next year's project.

The box office of "Cape Terror" in memory was very good, but since this is a Spielberg-led project, Simon does not plan to interfere.

Of course, if "Cape Terror" is filmed by Universal as in the original time and space, and Simon can successfully win Universal this year, this movie will still be in his own hands.

Amy and James have been keeping a close eye on MCA's developments recently, and Simon's plan is to wait for Cersei Capital's M&A team to be established before finding the right time to formally launch a takeover offer for MCA, which can help Cersei's M&A team open up the situation.

After chatting with De Niro and the others for a while, Simon got up and came to Janet and Catherine, who were hiding next to them and gossiping.

In January, New York was the coldest time of the year, and when they entered the room, everyone took off their thick coats, and Catherine was wearing a black turtleneck, and was affectionately leaned against Janet in a white sweater, which naturally gave her a little more CP.

It was a three-seater sofa, with Catherine next to one armrest, and Janet sitting in the middle.

Seeing Simon coming, Janet, who was originally wrapped around Catherine, immediately moved to the other side and gave up the middle position to Simon.

Simon also sat down unceremoniously, and saw Catherine move slightly to the side, so he deliberately leaned towards the woman's side, and naturally, he was thrown a roll of his eyes.

Janet smiled and leaned over Simon on her shoulder and said to Catherine, "Look, it's still such a bastard." ”

Simon pretended to be dissatisfied: "Shouldn't you avoid the person concerned when you say that?"

Janet pouted, "Just to let you hear." ”

Catherine smiled and looked at the two bickering, and said, "I saw that you were boxing with people in Melbourne, don't look like this again in the future, you will get hurt." ”

Simon nodded and asked, "How is the preparation of your new film, do you need my help?"

Catherine's new film is called "Shocking Point", which is roughly counted as a cop movie.

Simon has some impressions of this film, one of Keanu Reeves's early works, and the participation of Patrick Swayze, the actor of "The Ghost Is Not Gone", the film's surfing and skydiving action scenes are very classic, although the anarchist views expressed are not liked by mainstream film critics, they are very successful commercially, and they have a very die-hard fan base.

Until many years later, Hollywood actress Megan Fox, who became famous with "Transformers", named her son Bodhi after the character played by Patrick Swayze in "Shock Point", and the Chinese equivalent word is 'Bodhi'.

Catherine heard Simon's casual inquiry, looked at the little man next to her with a smile and said, "Warner has officially set up the project, Keanu and Patrick have also agreed to participate, and filming will probably start in the second half of the year." ”

The cost of "Shocking Point" is expected to exceed $20 million, which is already a big production for Catherine.

Hollywood's prejudice against female directors is deep-rooted, and without Simon's connection, Warner would not have been so happy to agree to the investment, and the original Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze would not necessarily agree to participate.

Catherine knew all of this.

Everyone chatted, and the time quickly came to a quarter past nine, and the staff came in to inform that the bell ringing ceremony was about to begin, and everyone got up and left the lounge.

The exchange is already overcrowded.

Simon and the others appeared on the stage, and the flashing lights in the hall immediately lit up wildly again.

After Wayne Huizzanga gave a speech, everyone gathered at the console and pressed the trading button together, and the bell ringing ceremony was completed.

This is followed by the pre-opening inquiry phase.

Because of the strong subscription demand during the roadshow, Blockbuster's offering price was finally set at $17, compared to the underwriters' initial recommendation price of $13 to $15, and the issue of 15 million new shares raised $255 million.

$255 million, which is enough to fund Blockbuster's expansion in the coming year.

As a result, shareholders and management unanimously rejected the underwriters' proposal to increase the issuance.

In the first round of inquiry, the quotation jumped directly to the range of $17.5 to $18.5.

After completing his platform task, Simon and his party left temporarily, and there was a celebration reception at noon, and today's guests could decide whether to attend according to their own arrangements.

Simon was definitely going to be at the noon party, but there were a few things to do before he needed to return to his apartment on Fifth Avenue.

Catherine was about to leave, but was forced to take her home by Janet.

There are already some people waiting here, staff from a genetic research institute in the UK.

It's simple.

After collecting blood samples from Simon and Janet, several staff members confirmed something to Simon again, and hurriedly left to fly back to the UK.

Catherine watched all of this, but she felt confused.

Janet leaned into her ear and whispered a few words of explanation, and the woman understood.

Then, thinking that Simon and Janet were about to get married, there was still some sourness in my heart.

Inside the NASDAQ exchange floor.

After three consecutive rounds of bidding that lasted for an hour, Blockbuster's opening price was finally confirmed at $19.5.

Then, when official trading began, the stock price immediately broke through the $20 mark.

At the beginning of the celebration reception at noon, Blockbuster's stock price has exceeded $23, and trading is still very active in the afternoon.

By the end of the trading session on Thursday, Blockbuster's stock price was finally fixed at $26.5, up 56% from the issue price of $17, with a total market capitalization of $2.199 billion.

As a result of its participation in the IPO, Daenerys Entertainment's stake in Blockbuster remains at 35%.

The total cost of the two investments was about $210 million.

By the end of the day, Daenerys Entertainment's $210 million investment had increased to $770 million, with a return of more than 300% in just one year. In fact, the reason why Blockbuster's stock price was able to rise sharply on the first day of listing was mainly because of the great success of Daenerys Entertainment in this investment.

Daenerys Entertainment's huge book profit stimulated investors' enthusiasm for buying, and the market sought after it, which in turn made Daenerys Entertainment's investment more successful.

After the IPO is listed, the major shareholders and management of the listed company will enter a quiet period according to the usual practice.

However, this will not hinder the normal operation of Blockbuster.

On the second day of listing, Bestview announced that it would acquire the Errol video cassette chain headquartered in Baltimore on the East Coast, compared to Blockbuster, which already had more than 1,200 chain stores across North America at this time, Errol only had 250 chain stores in New York, Washington and other states on the East Coast.

The final purchase price between the two parties was $40 million, in a cash-and-stock deal, and Blockbuster would also assume Errol's debt.

The deal has been under negotiation since Blockbuster's IPO, and the official announcement on the second day of the listing is also a positive thing.

With the deal, Blockbuster will have more than 1,500 stores and the largest videotape rental chain in North America, although it still has less than 20% of the market.

With the announcement of the acquisition of Errol, Blockbuster's stock price also rose slightly again on Friday, as expected, and closed above $28 on Friday.

With the successful completion of the IPO, Blockbuster will also start to expand into overseas markets.

On the other hand, Blackstone received an offer from Cersei Capital to buy Blackstone Financial Management led by Lawrence Fink, and initially rejected it directly.

Despite the feud between Blackstone CEO Steve Schwartzman and Lawrence Fink, Blackstone Financial Management has had a stellar track record since its inception, and Blackstone is reluctant to let go of its fast-growing subsidiary.

It wasn't until Lawrence Fink threatened to lead the team out en masse that Schwartzman reluctantly relented, but still offered $200 million.

Blackstone Financial Management's revenue figures for the last year were $33 million, and net income attributable to shareholders before taxes was about $7 million.

Because of the debt crisis in the second half of last year, even most of the listed financial companies on Wall Street have a recent price-to-earnings ratio of only a dozen times. Blackstone's offer of $200 million to Blackstone Financial Management is equivalent to a price-to-earnings ratio of nearly 30 times, which is naturally impossible for Cersei Capital to accept.

After the Blockbuster affair, Janet stayed in New York to continue the Blackstone Group to negotiate the acquisition and other divisions of Cersei Capital, while Simon returned to Los Angeles over the weekend with Amy and others.

On Daenerys Entertainment's side, from January 12 to January 18, the box office of "Batman: Time to War" still fell by 31%, collecting another $41.06 million. However, within four weeks of its release, the film's cumulative box office also quickly rushed to $271.75 million.

At the same time, on January 19, Daenerys Entertainment's first new film released in 1990 was also officially released, called "I Want to Go Home".

This is a film that Ella Deutchman bought from the Venice Film Festival last year, and at that time a total of three films were selected, and this one was the only one that was finally negotiated.

Starring Gérard Depardieu, a famous French actor with more than 10 César Award nominations and awards, "I Want Home" tells the story of an eccentric American cartoonist who takes his wife on a trip to Paris.

However, since it was placed in January, Gaomen Pictures obviously did not have much expectations for the box office of this movie, and the number of screens opened was only 523, which can be regarded as a work to fill the release schedule.

Daenerys Entertainment's recent publicity focus is still "Pretty Woman" in February.

The film's confirmed release date is February 9, the week of Valentine's Day.

The management was initially not very optimistic about the project adapted from a noir feature film about the love story of a call girl and a financier, but the final result of the film was excellent. If it weren't for Daenerys Entertainment's movie release plans for the whole of this year, it would even consider changing to a more popular schedule.

Speaking of which, Daenerys Entertainment has confirmed a film release list of 12 films in 1990, according to the release time of "I Want to Go Home", "Pretty Woman", "Crazy Fat Treasure Variety Show", "Kid in the Cornfield 2", "Ghost Love", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "Ghost Chaser", "Family Journey", "Angels at the Same Table with Me", "Dances with Wolves", "The Intersection of Life" and "Home Alone".

In addition to the films distributed by the company itself, there are four other films in last year's 10-film program, namely "Sleeping with the Enemy" with Fox, "Shaking the Hand of the Rocker" with Disney, "Ten Days of Danger" with Universal Pictures and "Pink League" with Columbia Pictures.

A total of 16 films, which is the same size as last year's release.

Simon's main job when he returned to Los Angeles was to sort through the 16 films in various stages of production and distribution, and at the same time confirm some of the 1991 projects in advance.

According to the plan, Pixar will launch its first 3D animated film "Toy Story" at the end of 1991, and the last "Scream" series "Scream 3" is also scheduled for next year, in addition, there will be Madonna's music documentary and foreign cooperation "The Outlaw", "Terminator 2" and other films.

It's just that these are clearly not enough.

Fortunately, with the continuous expansion of Daenerys Entertainment, the company, like other Hollywood studios, has a number of projects that can be approved at any time, and a large number of Hollywood solo producers are also very much looking forward to cooperating with Daenerys Entertainment, and the projects in the hands of these people are more abundant.