"The fund that Jenny put me in charge of with Ulia, the projects on nanomaterials and quantum computing, I don't know anything about that. And the establishment of Solvay College here in Boston, I've seen the materials, it's a very special school for paranormal children, and I'm not sure if I can do it well?"

"It's okay if you don't do it well. ”

"Huh?"

"All these projects you are responsible for are to be reserved for the little ones in your wombs, and if they can't get anything in the future, then they can only blame their mothers. ”

“......”

Boston the next morning.

In the manor mansion in the western suburbs of the city, Simon took a helicopter to visit Maria and her two daughters after breakfast.

Today is January 12th, Sunday, it is the coldest time of the year on the East Coast, it has snowed a few days ago, and the area around the manor is covered in plainness, Simon did not go out again after arriving, but just nested in a living room of the villa with Maria to chat, but the three boys greeted Simon and took the initiative to find an excuse to leave, apparently to make room for Simon and his mother.

The topic was about a fund that Janet had arranged for the two women to take care of when she came to see them at the end of last year, using the scientific resources of several top universities in Boston to work on a series of cutting-edge projects.

In addition, after the success of the Solvay Institute in Malibu, Los Angeles, Simon plans to gradually roll out similar academic programs around the world from this year, with the goal of selecting high-IQ children to train scientists like Albert Einstein and Marie Curie at the 1927 Solvay Conference that will influence the future of mankind.

The Solvay College project in Boston was naturally entrusted to two women, Maria and Ulyana.

At this time, looking at the woman curled up on the sofa next to him with a hesitant face, Simon couldn't help but reach over, stroked the woman's smooth face, and slowly scratched his fingertips to his neck, and after being held down by the woman in a panic, he didn't continue to go down, and said: "As long as you and Ulia do it seriously, it's okay if you fail, these things can't be successful at one time or in a short time." Even before the end of our short life, if we can complete half of it, it will be in vain. ”

Seeing the little man talking, Maria slowly withdrew the big hand that had just been stretched out, inexplicably reluctant, her body moved, and said: "Actually, I can see that these arrangements of yours are very beneficial to the future of our world. ”

Simon shook his head slightly: "I'm not as good as you think." ”

Maria blinked, blushed and nodded, "Of course I know this." ”

Good people don't take her over like robbers.

A blushing woman will always be more seductive, especially a woman with a dignified temperament who seems to be meticulous forever and suddenly blushes.

Simon reached out again, took the woman directly, hugged her beside him, and kissed her on the lips.

Maria was forced to kiss for a moment, barely running away: "Don't, no, baby...... It's still small. ”

"Don't worry, I know," Simon soothed, seeing that the woman's eyes were still a little flustered, he just hugged her gently, and took the initiative to return to the topic just now: "Actually, in recent years, more and more people have asked me, Simon, you have so much wealth, the kind that you can never spend it all, what are you going to do in the future?"

Seeing that Simon didn't continue, Maria relaxed a little and asked, "Have you thought of an answer?"

I understand a little when I say it.

Probably, the funds I am responsible for, and the projects I fund, are the answers.

Simon nodded: "Such a huge fortune, from a personal point of view, as a selfish person, if possible, of course I hope to leave it to my children in the future, so that the Westeros family will always be strong and strong." However, this is obviously unlikely, and besides, the fact that I am able to control this wealth now does not mean that the little ones will also have this ability in the future, and once they do not have the ability to control it, they will inherit too much wealth, which will only lead to disaster. ”

Maria chimed in: "And then?"

"Then, why don't you just open up a possibility? ”

Maria began to wonder again, "Huh?"

Simon said: "It's not very likely to pass it on to the children completely. Donate and set up various foundations, which is probably the best place to belong. However, I don't intend to let these foundations do the usual things like education, health care, environmental protection, and even meddling in politics to promote peace, which in my opinion will only lead to stagnation and reincarnation. ”

Maria apparently still didn't get it.

Simon patiently explained: "Human civilization, in my opinion, can be divided into three stages: the prehistoric era, the agricultural age, and the industrial age. Until the industrial age, that is, now, whether it is the subdivided steam age, the electric age, or the information age that has now unfolded, it seems to me that it is still just a different stage of the industrial age, and if no one changes, the result is likely to be a long time of stagnation and reincarnation, just like the agricultural age that has lasted for thousands of years. What I want is a radical change that will propel humanity into the next era of civilization and open up a whole new possibility for the lucky races in this universe, which I can only say is a possibility, because I cannot judge the good or bad of this era in the future. ”

The little man explained that Maria, who was the top intellectual in this society even though she focused on language subjects, thoroughly understood it.

There was an inexplicable sense of admiration in my heart.

Compared with those politicians and rich people who keep saying that they want to make the world a better place, this little man of his own is really thinking about the future of mankind.

Simon keenly noticed the change in the woman's expression and asked with a smile, "Suddenly in love with me?"

Maria's gaze dodged, then she mustered up the courage to look over again, and said, "I'm just sure that the little one in my belly has a good father. ”

Simon stroked the slightly bulging lower abdomen under the woman's undershirt, this time Maria didn't dodge, felt it for a moment, and of course didn't react now, but said: "The little guy doesn't necessarily think so in the future, and besides, many of the things I plan to do may cause strong controversy." ”

Maria gently pressed Simon's large hand and said, "Great people will always be questioned and slandered as they move forward, but history will give a fair evaluation." ”

"Heh, it's not as noble as you think, I just happen to be in this position and have enough resources. ”

Maria shook her head: "Many people who have access to more resources than you have never thought of doing this. ”

Saying this, Maria's mind came to mind the empire that collapsed a few years ago, and those who once stood at the pinnacle of power, and in the end all they left behind were countless ambitions that had dissipated in the long river of history.

Simon felt the woman's sudden melancholy, and probably guessed what she was thinking, but he didn't say much.

Maria didn't indulge in it for too long, came back to her senses, chatted with Simon for a few more words, hesitated a little, and said: "You should go and see Ulia more, I can see that when she was pregnant, it was really just an accident, no ...... I don't mean to depend on you. ”

"I'll go over after lunch. ”

"So, will you stay tonight?"

Simon's gaze swept over the woman's warm body, and he nodded, "Okay." ”

Maria shook her head, "I mean, you stay with Ulya." ”

Simon teased: "Are women so generous now, pushing their men to other women?"

"I'm your woman, but you're not my man. ”

"Oh......" Simon looked left and right, "Do you have any other men?" ”

Maria gave him a non-lethal look: "I mean, I just grabbed it from you." ”

"It sounds like I'm a robber. ”

Maria made a 'you are' look, paused, and said, "Or, I'll call Ulia over and have lunch together." ”

"You don't mind, of course I'm fine. ”

Simon said, seeing Maria take out her mobile phone, she stopped it with a smile, called the housekeeper, and directly ordered her to send a driver to pick up people.

Seeing the man's direct decision, Maria felt for a while that she still had to call Ulyana to explain. However, after thinking about it again, I understand that the man did this just because he didn't want any misunderstanding between her and Ulya, after all, she had good intentions, and Uriana didn't necessarily think so, if she thought she was demonstrating, it would be a good intention to do bad things.

And if a little man like a robber decides casually, it has nothing to do with her, and maybe it can make the two closer.

Connected to the same fate.

However, in order to avoid Ulyana's embarrassment, Maria still made a phone call to her eldest son Victor, asking them to have lunch and settle it out by themselves, and come back in the evening.

Simon spent a day in Boston and left early the next morning for the West Coast, heading to San Francisco.

The main thing is to discuss with the senior management of Igret, which will be released at the end of the month, the 1996 annual financial report of Igret, which the Weijia intelligence team obtained from Richard Mellon Scaife a few years ago, accusing the Internet industry of being a Ponzi scheme, and the spearhead of the attack is Igret.

Therefore, this earnings report will be related to the next crucial long and short game in the technology stock market.

Scheduled to be released on January 22, Egrete will hold a special press conference, with the impressive revenue and profit figures to follow, focusing on promoting Igret's changes to public life, helping local jobs, promoting social efficiency, and so on.

In short, it is to weaken the impact that a certain article and related public opinion may have on the new technology industry in advance.

By the time Simon returned from San Francisco, another box office week in January 1997 came to an end.

In the week from January 10 to January 16, the first thing that attracted attention was that the local box office of "Wonder Woman 2" officially exceeded the $400 million mark, becoming the only film released in 1996 to break $400 million at the domestic box office.

Specific aspects.

Last year's Christmas "Breaking Bad", after overtaking "Game of the Brave" last week, in the fourth week of its release, it still ranked first in the single-week box office with a good 29% weekly decline, and collected another $27.16 million, with a cumulative box office of $197.19 million in four weeks, and it is about to break 200 million.

From a strong opening week of more than $70 million on December 20 last year to a three-week domestic box office overtake of "Jumanji" in three weeks of release last week, "Breaking Bad" has surpassed the expectations of the two major producers, Daenerys and MGM.

At present, the blockbuster here is only the local box office, and it is expected to exceed 250 million US dollars, which is enough to recover the total investment of only 105 million US dollars in production and publicity and achieve profitability. Not only that, but most importantly, the successive successes of "007: Spectre" and "Breaking Bad" over the past year have made an amazing start to the planned 'Agent Cinematic Universe'.

After "Breaking Bad", "Jumanji" barely held the runner-up position on the list.

However, compared with the $27.16 million of "Breaking Bad", the box office of "Jumanji" has fallen to $13.72 million in a single week, which is also the reason why this week's decline has narrowed again compared with last week's big drop.

In the five weeks after its release, "Jumanji's Game" has a cumulative box office of $169.71 million, which is about $30 million away from the 200 million threshold. Although it is not a big problem to collect another $30 million in the future, the local box office of the film probably stopped at the early 200 million, and there is a high probability that it will not even exceed 210 million.

Fortunately, according to the film's $82 million production and $35 million publicity, the local box office is $200 million, and the film can get more than 60% of the share in theaters, which is still enough to recover costs and achieve a small amount of profit. It's just that compared with the prediction that the industry was generally more optimistic about this CG blockbuster than the relatively traditional "Breaking Baby" before its release, the reversal of reality is really difficult to make Warner, who is in charge of distribution, too happy.

Then came the third place on the list, "Soul Catcher", which was almost on par with "Jumanji".

In the sixth week of its release, "Soul Catcher" received another $12.65 million with the largest 27% box office drop in a single week since its opening, only a little more than $1 million away from the previous "Game of the Brave".

Compared with other super blockbusters that succeed and fail as a matter of course, Gus Van Sant directed and starring Matt Damon, Robert De Niro, Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale, etc., this dark horse literary drama with a production cost of only $10 million has also successfully exceeded 100 million at the box office this week, reaching $1071.7 billion.

This year's Golden Globe Awards are coming this Sunday, January 19.

As an awards season hit, "Soul Catcher" was stimulated by the subsequent succession of various awards until the Oscars, and the box office curve must be very good, and it is conservatively estimated that the local box office can reach more than $150 million.

Fourth place went to "Madame Peron" starring Madonna.

This biopic film, which opened on December 20 last year, simply made the producer Paramount regret it so much that he wanted to hit the wall.

In order to avoid the competition at the end of the year, Paramount began on December 20 and arranged a two-week screening for the film, spanning Christmas and New Year's Day, completely avoiding the fierce competition at the end of the year, and only started large-scale opening on January 3, as a result, the box office trend of the film proved a serious mistake in Paramount's distribution strategy.

Let's start from the beginning.

In the first week of screening, "Madame Perón" earned $1.02 million at the box office with only 22 opening screens, with an average of $46,000, which is already a very good result. But then, in the second week of the movie, that is, the New Year's Day week from December 27 to January 2, the same 22 screens, the number of films not only did not decrease, but jumped to $77,000, and the weekly income reached $1.69 million.

What this means, goes without saying.

Even if the film's reputation in the media is only barely passing, the audiences in New York and Los Angeles who opened the screening obviously liked the movie, otherwise there would not be such a super-high average that was crowded in the next week.

It's a pity that Paramount didn't even take the last chance.

According to the operation idea of the award-winning film, on January 3, "Madame Perón" still only got 704 screens, and finally from January 3 to January 9, the first week of large-scale opening, the box office of the film was only $11.3 million, in stark contrast to the average of $16,000.

In the past week, Paramount finally reacted and quickly increased the screening scale to 1,319 pieces.

Unfortunately, the best times were missed.

The reason why the popular schedule is a popular schedule is that enough audiences have the time and motivation to enter the theater to watch the movie, and the unpopular schedule is just the opposite, not only because the holiday has passed and the reason why work has resumed, but also because people psychologically believe that it is no longer a good time to watch movies.

In short, "Madame Peron", which lacks a sufficient audience base and has to compete with other films that still have momentum, and has only more than 1,300 screens after all, only barely achieved a slight reversal in a box office week from January 10 to January 16, not even a percentage point, and earned $11.46 million.

In the four weeks from the screening, the cumulative box office of "Madame Peron" finally reached $25.47 million.

It is conceivable that if Paramount can be bold and open on a large scale after only one week, and grab a popular New Year's Day week, the box office and trend of "Madame Perón" will change significantly.

Even, if Paramount gives up the screening at the end of the year and opens directly on a large scale, or adopts a release idea equivalent to "Soul Catcher", even if it is still squeezed by a lot of blockbusters, it is a biographical song and dance film that does not conflict with other film themes after all, and it can still gain considerable living space, and maybe the box office will exceed $50 million now.

It's a pity that there are too many 'ifs' in this world, and there will always be only one 'result'.

In the face of media discussions, the upright Queen Mai couldn't help but spray directly for a while, saying that when she showed the movie to Simon, her good friends were optimistic, but the conservative Paramount messed things up. The queen moved out all her 'good friends', and Paramount, who really made a mistake, could only endure and couldn't refute it.

And then there's Wonder Woman 2.

Although it grabbed the fifth place on the list, after all, it was hit by "Game of the Brave", "Breaking Bad" and even "Soul Catcher", and the single-week box office of "Wonder Woman 2" has only $6.98 million left, although the cumulative box office officially broke through the 400 million mark, reaching $400 million 5.71 million, but the follow-up box office potential is probably only $10 million, and the initial local 500 million expectations are completely out of play.

In addition to the top five, it is worth mentioning that the British Patient is also ranked sixth.

is different from "Madame Peron", which is actually more suitable for commercial films, with the same focus of the awards season, this literary film with a niche theme that is not suitable for large-scale screening is still only 636 screens in the fifth week of its release, earning $4.65 million in the past week, with a cumulative box office of $18.17 million.

With the arrival of the Golden Globes, MGM only increased the number of screens to 1,103 screens this week, and will remain there until the Oscars in March, during which various media awards and union awards continue to stimulate audiences, and the ultimate goal is more than $50 million, which is enough for the film to recover $27 million in production costs.

If it finally becomes the big winner of the Oscars, the prospects for overseas distribution will be even brighter.

In the past, "The British Patient" relied on this stable long-term distribution strategy, with a domestic box office of nearly $80 million, and even better overseas, because the Oscars in the nineties were very strong in gold content and appeal, and audiences in other countries also bought it, and finally the overseas box office exceeded 150 million, and the global box office accumulated 230 million US dollars, and all parties involved in production and distribution made a lot of money.