Simon left London the next day for his next stop in Helsinki.

The official schedule of this trip to the UK is basically completed, but there are two other small things, none of which have been settled, which are the hot girls and Harry Potter that I remembered on the plane when I came.

Spice girls aside.

Regarding "Harry Potter", Simon privately searched the Facebook social network and other platforms in the UK, but failed to find a name named J. K. Rowling's lady immediately remembered that Western women often take their husband's surname after marriage. K. Rowling is a single mother, not necessarily this time.

Then he changed the method, mainly with J· K prefix searches, and even some online literary communities, still find nothing.

You can only give up.

In the end, he decided to try it himself, and on the next trip to Finland and Italy, Simon took the time to list the outline of the first part of the Harry Potter series roughly from memory, and also wrote a synopsis of the story, which he passed to Los Angeles and asked them to find a sought-after representative.

As for story inspiration.

Simon also took the old claim, stumbling upon a roadside wizard with black-rimmed glasses dressed as a little boy or something, and spending a sketch of Harry Potter.

Of course, in the future when the story is published, Simon does not intend to sign it, considering the layout of this IP, he does not plan to give the gunman the right to authorship, but gives a random pen name, J· K。

Forget about Rowling in the back.

As for what the future holds, that's all Simon can do, let it be.

Los Angeles.

While Simon was traveling around Europe, it was April 18, another Friday.

The Easter schedule has come to an end, and the previous films are still ongoing.

In the past box office week, the new version of "Hurricane Rescue" starring Jett Lee once again won the single-week box office championship, counting from March 28, it has been the third week of release, this action movie of Chinese kung fu combined with Hollywood template after a good start of $31.37 million in the first week, fell slightly by 43% in the second week, earning $17.88 million, and narrowed the decline to 26% in the third week, and collected another $13.21 million.

In three weeks, the cumulative box office of this low- and medium-cost budget film with an investment of $25 million has reached $62.46 million, and even if you count the $10 million investment in publicity and distribution, the cost has basically been recovered.

Judging from the current trend, "Hurricane Rescue" has a box office potential of $15 million to $20 million in the future, and the total domestic box office is expected to reach $80 million.

Although there is no hope of breaking 100 million, even Simon does not have too high expectations for this new version of "Hurricane Rescue", and the box office expectation of $80 million has exceeded everyone's expectations. The succession of Jack Cheng and Jett Lee in Hollywood has not only sparked another boom in Chinese kung fu movies among audiences, but Hollywood studios have also turned their attention to the other side of the ocean, and many studios have recently begun to approach there.

Then I found out that it was still a step too late.

This is going to talk about a Chinese kung fu movie launched again by Daenerys Entertainment last Friday, "Young Wong Fei Hung: Iron Horse".

Although the film's English title is translated as "Iron Monkey" in a very undisciplined way, the wonderful Chinese kung fu display in it has attracted a lot of attention under the craze caused by "Hurricane Rescue".

On April 11, "Young Wong Fei Hung: The Iron Horse" opened in North America with a scale of 1,514 screens, and in the first week of its release, it once again unexpectedly earned $10.36 million at the box office, almost breaking 10 million.

In April, such a stand-alone machine, with a Chinese movie theme, 1,514 screens is not a lot of screens, and 10.36 million US dollars in the first week, which can be called a small miracle.

With this little miracle, "Young Wong Fei Hung: The Iron Horse" even won the second place in the single-week box office list.

In the same box office week, the top two films in the North American film market are both Chinese, which is also a spectacle that has not appeared for many years.

With such a small start, the North American box office of "Young Wong Fei Hung: The Iron Horse" is expected to reach $25 million, which does not seem to be much, however, this old film produced in Hong Kong in 1993 was actually packaged and bought by Daenerys Entertainment.

Even if last year's "Rush Hour" brought Chinese kung fu to a lot of attention again, most people are used to looking forward after all, rather than looking for old movies.

Daenerys Entertainment is doing the opposite.

On the other hand, the collapse of Hong Kong films since last year has made many film companies in urgent need of funds, even if they want to sell at a price. As a result, Daenerys Entertainment spent less than $10 million in total, with an average of less than $500,000 each, in the name of distributing videotapes, including "Young Once Upon a Time: The Iron Horse" and so on.

Of course, when converted into Hong Kong dollars, the average price of each unit is nearly 4 million Hong Kong dollars, which is still quite considerable.

Now, "Young Huang Feihong: Iron Horse" has earned more than $10 million in a week, and several producers of the film, such as Golden Harvest and Media Asia, are suddenly not so 'impressive', and the feeling of being cheated is even worse than that of a producer of "Black Man" last year.

If more than 20 films are sold...... Not to mention all, even if only half of them have such market potential, it is a blood loss.

I thought that strictly guarding on a new project like "Police Story 4" would never make Hollywood too cheap, but I didn't expect that an old film that had been released for so many years would still be a big hit in Hollywood.

However, in addition to worrying, Hong Kong filmmakers, who were worried about their prospects because of the collapse of the Hong Kong film market, couldn't help but see a way out after the success of continuous Hong Kong films in Hollywood.

After all, it is an unpopular period between Easter and the summer season, after "Hurricane Rescue" and "Young Wong Fei Hung: Iron Horse", the third-ranked "Horror Ghost" fell back to within the 10 million dollar range at the box office this week.

Also in the third week of release, "Horror Ghost" earned $9.86 million again with a 32% decline in the box office after a 51% cut of $14.51 million in the second week, with a cumulative box office of $53.91 million.

Considering the film's box office curve, the film's domestic grossing total is expected to be between $60 million and $70 million, which is not as good as the possible $80 million expected for "Hurricane Rescue," but it used to be satisfactory relative to the $30 million production cost.

The fourth place on the list is "Xenomorph 2".

In the fourth week of its release, this sci-fi film with an alien theme earned $8.16 million again, and the cumulative box office reached $71.55 million, which has easily surpassed the first predecessor. Not only that, with the film's box office strength at this time, it is not a big problem for the local market to exceed 80 million, so it will also become the highest-grossing film in the Easter schedule, and of course, it is the highest-grossing of the 4 movies related to Daenerys Entertainment.

At number five on the list is "Cable TV Repairman".

However, also in the fourth week of release, Jim Carrey's comedy has slipped to $4.51 million at the box office in a single week, barely exceeding the $4.19 million in the ninth week of release of the second place "BJ's Single Diary", with a cumulative box office of $52.5 million, and it is expected that it will be difficult to break $60 million in China.

Considering the $35 million production and $15 million in publicity, Daenerys Entertainment obviously can't recoup its costs from local distribution and can only look overseas.

In addition to the top five, it is worth mentioning that the sixth place is "BJ's Single Diary".

In the ninth week of its release, with a box office of $4.19 million, the cumulative box office of this love movie has reached $138.26 million. Although the single-week box office is much less than that of "Cable TV Repairman", the box office curve of "BJ's Single Diary" is very stable, and it may not be impossible to hit 150 million.

Daenerys Entertainment executives look back on the entire Easter schedule and can't help but regret it.

Except for "BJ's Single Diary", which is to be counted in the Valentine's Day schedule, none of the four main movies in the Easter schedule have exceeded 100 million in China. However, the four movies were released at the same time, and such a result is not surprising at all.

Let's just say that "Xenomorph 2", which performed beyond expectations, if it weren't for the joint impact of "Hurricane Rescue" and "Horror Ghost" in Easter week, there would be no problem at all with the local breaking of 100 million. However, the cake of the film market is so big, if you take more, others will definitely have less.

Therefore, in this Easter schedule, the internal friction between the four films is obvious.

Of course, it's totally worth it considering the increased box office that has been spurred on by the four films because many viewers have been attracted to the cinema. If there are no four films from Daenerys Entertainment, not to mention that the extra share will definitely be eaten up by other studio films, and the Easter schedule for two consecutive weeks may not necessarily break 100 million at the box office every week, and even reach a high of $130 million in Easter week comparable to the summer and the end of the year.

All in all, the pros outweigh the cons.

Daenerys Studios.

Towards the end of the week, Amy Pascal had a meeting with the heads of several of his studios, returned to his office, and began to ask his assistant Vanessa Lind about some work.

It's mainly about the recent confession of his own boss.

For example, the idea of a romance film called "My Best Friend's Wedding", the negotiation of the rights to "Godzilla" between Hu Soni and Toho of Japan, and the fantasy idea called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" that I just got yesterday.

"Ronald Bass has accepted the screenwriting job, and I have also forwarded the story idea to Julia, and there is no response from ICM for the time being. As for "Godzilla", Toho's attitude is a little vague. ”

"I don't want to hear this ambiguity. ”

"I'm sorry, Ms. Pascal, but it's clear that based on what we've got, Sony was already going to negotiate with Toho, and now, we're stepping in, and with Daenerys Entertainment's appeal in Hollywood, the Japanese know who it's better to work with if they're not stupid. But, they should be waiting for us to quote now. ”

Amy thought about it a little and roughly understood: "Dongbao wants to participate in the investment?"

"Yes," Vanessa Lind, who has been following Amy conscientiously all these years, said, "According to the information we have received, the cooperation between Toho and Sony was not intended to be invested, but only enjoyed a certain profit share. However, now that Daenerys Entertainment wants to take over, in the eyes of the Japanese, the box office will be quite guaranteed, and they will naturally not miss the investment opportunity. ”

"In that case...... Amy thought for a moment before saying, "Let's keep our copyright team in touch with Toho, but we'll wait for the offer from there." ”

Vanessa nodded, she also thought the same, since the Japanese have already determined their minds, there is no need to lose more initiative, let the other side put forward their own conditions, Daenerys Entertainment is better to bargain, after saying this, Vanessa handed over a folder: "Also, here are a few writers who are good at children's fantasy." ”

Amy took the information and opened it as she said, "You can get off work first, and I'll leave after reading this." ”

Vanessa agreed, and said with a smile: "Actually, Ms. Pascal, you don't have to be so tired, and it doesn't matter if you leave work early." ”

—————

Amy just smiled, knowing that Vanessa cared about herself, but didn't explain much.

In general, there are two types of directors of big Hollywood studios, one is good at creativity and the other is good at management.

Michael Eisner was very creative, and even added an additional title of chief creative officer to himself during his time at the helm of Disney, and also served as the host of a Disney Channel show.

As for those who are good at management, they are often lawyers or accountants, and take Disney as an example, Eisner's original deputy Frank Wells was a lawyer, while Eisner controlled the general direction of Disney, Wells helped take care of various administrative affairs, and the two worked together tacitly in the eighties to quickly bring Disney to life.

If it weren't for Simon's big butterfly, Disney would still shine in the 90s.

Although she started out as an assistant, Amy Pascal later became a producer, and she thought she should have been a creative executive. It's a pity, well, of course, it's not a pity here, but, with the rapid growth of Daenerys Entertainment, coupled with the fact that she has an inspiring boss above her head, Amy can now only devote herself to management.

Frankly, with the current scale of Daenerys Entertainment, she is actually a little powerless, so Amy has no complaints about her boss's flat structure design that decentralizes her power and transfers it to Nancy Brill, Robert Iger, and even the heads of the three studios.

After all, along with her boss, Amy knows very well that she can still stay in this position at this time, mainly because of the affection accumulated over the years, not because of her ability, so she also puts herself in the right position and does what she can.

One of the keys is to make it as easy as possible to explain what someone has written down.

Just like the script of "My Best Friend's Wedding", the copyright of "Godzilla", and the idea of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", with the experience that Amy has accumulated over the years, it seems to be inconspicuous, but in the end, you will often find that there are too many things involved.

The most typical is the DC Cinematic Universe.

At the beginning, she was also responsible for the copyright of DC superheroes, and she was personally responsible for negotiating them one by one.

Therefore, if she does these well, even if the greatest credit will still be credited to her own boss, she is still indispensable in it.