Santa Monica.

It's Thursday, February 1.

Simon arrived at the company's headquarters at eight o'clock, and Jennifer, who had arrived early, followed him into the office with a stack of papers.

Because Simon has been letting go of many things, consciously or unconsciously, and often not in Los Angeles during this time, Jennifer's authority has grown under Simon's instructions, and she has almost assumed the role of Simon's voice within the company.

In recent weeks, the female assistant has been personally leading the team in charge of the financial audit of the past year.

In the second half of last year, Daenerys Entertainment's revenue exploded due to the sales of films such as "The Bodyguard", "The Sixth Sense" and "Scream 2", the hot sales of the soundtrack record of "The Bodyguard", the success of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" video game, the continued income of television projects, and the overseas and videotape distribution of films such as "Rain Man" at the end of 1988.

Compared with the net profit scale of 110 million US dollars in the first half of last year, even excluding large expenditure items such as Daenerys Shadow's city construction and investment in the acquisition of EA equity in the second half of last year, Daenerys Entertainment's after-tax net profit for the whole of last year is expected to exceed 500 million US dollars.

With Daenerys Entertainment continuing to deliver abundant funds, James Raybould has continued to increase his investment in new technology areas.

At present, Westeros's shareholding in Microsoft has reached 21.3%, of which 10% is accepted in the form of loans from Microsoft's two largest shareholders, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and the remaining part is absorbed from the open market by Daenerys Entertainment, and Gates personally approached Simon because of this matter.

As the release date of indos 3.0 approaches, Microsoft's stock price has started to rise again during this period because of the outflow of the closed beta version.

Microsoft's 21.3% stake has already exceeded Simon's expectations, and Westeros does not plan to increase its stake in Microsoft in the future.

Westeros' stake in Intel has also increased to 15.6 percent, also as a result of continued absorption since last year. Westeros invested nearly $300 million in the 5% or so stake on top of its original holdings, all of which were channeled by Daenerys Entertainment.

In addition, Westeros continues to invest in new technology companies such as Igret.

Simon sat down behind his desk, and the female assistant handed over the work schedule for today, put down the papers in her hand and said, "The financial audit will probably be over next week, and there is a briefing here." Plus, there's a Warner pay package for you as a producer on "The Flash" and "Cyborg," with a base salary of $2 million per film plus a 10% share of the domestic box office. Finally, there are a few films and script materials that the company has just bought recently, including the dinosaur sci-fi by Michael Clayton that you mentioned. ”

Hearing Michael Clayton's dinosaur, Simon raised his head and raised his eyebrows slightly.

Jennifer noticed Simon's expression and took the initiative to explain: "Amy personally communicated with Mr. Friedman, because other studios also noticed the project in Clayton's hands, and the final negotiated price was $2.5 million, $2 million for the buyout, $500,000 for the script adaptation, and the latter point was insisted on by Mr. Friedman." ”

Simon nodded, understanding why Jonathan was asking for this.

Participating in the script adaptation, Michael Clayton can also receive an additional revenue share under the Writers Guild's "Foundation Agreement" after the film is released.

For an unpublished book, the $2.5 million offer is a bit high.

Although Michael Clayton has made a lot of fame in the industry over the years, before "Jurassic Park", the film and television projects he participated in were not successful, and last year Clayton personally directed a crime thriller "The Edge of the Trap", which cost $17 million, but only received a pitiful $3.3 million box office, and the investor Columbia Pictures simply lost a nosebleed.

That's why Jonathan was able to easily poach the other party from CAA to MA.

Speaking of which, if it weren't for Simon's intentions, Jonathan probably wouldn't have much interest in Clayton.

Thinking about this, Simon asked the female assistant, "When will it be published?"

"Clayton has just finished the story outline, at least until the end of the year. ”

"Transfer the project materials to the special effects studio, and let them come up with a CG dinosaur development plan for me in the near future, and put the rest on hold for the time being. ”

Jennifer nodded, jotted it down in her memo, and continued, "Also, Joe Rose from Fox called yesterday about Terminator, and he asked if you were free to talk about it tomorrow night?"

Simon wondered, "Tomorrow night?"

"Ross has organized a drinking party at his home in Coldwater Canyon tomorrow night," the female assistant tore off a page from her pocket memo and handed it over, "Here's the address." ”

"You can keep it for me," Simon pushed the page over again, looked at the female assistant and smiled, "Why don't you go together tomorrow night?"

Jennifer shook her head and said, "I've been tired lately, I'm going home to sleep." ”

"Well, why don't I go to your place after attending the drinking party, Bel-Air is still very close to Coldwater Canyon, remember to leave me a window." ”

The female assistant curled the corners of her mouth and said, "Uncle has a good shotgun at home, and he will shoot you like a wild boar." ”

Jennifer has always lived in her uncle, George Norman's house, and in this regard, probably because she is close enough, the female assistant does not have the psychological barrier of sending people under the fence like Simon.

Simon had a scared expression on his face, but he was curious, "Why a wild boar?"

The female assistant tilted her delicate head with a ponytail and said, "It could also be a rabbit." ”

It's not as good as a wild boar!

Simon pretended to be angry and waved his hand: "Get out, the boss is going to work." ”

Jennifer smiled and helped Simon tidy up the table and asked, "Do you want coffee?"

"Mineral water is fine, recently abstained from caffeine. ”

The female assistant nodded and turned to leave.

Simon glanced down at today's work schedule again, and the production meeting of "Pink Alliance" began at nine o'clock, which is expected to last all morning.

The preliminary preparations for "Red Pink Alliance" are ready, and filming will start next week. Speaking of which, because it's a women's film, Amy is basically in charge of this project. However, as one of the projects in the 10-film project, Simon still has to attend the final production meeting in person.

The rough cuts of the two films "Ghost Love" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" have been completed, and in the afternoon, I will discuss with the main creative team the plans for the later fine editing and soundtrack.

Just these three things, it will be busy until six o'clock in the afternoon.

Putting his work schedule aside, Simon took the information that the female assistant had just left behind, and removed the top financial briefing, intending to wait until the audit was thoroughly completed to see the final financial report, which would save time.

The information on "Jurassic Park", which has already been introduced by the female assistant, is also put aside.

Then there's a stack of copyright materials and the script.

Like other Hollywood studios, Daenerys Entertainment began to acquire the rights to various scripts as soon as it got on track, and of course, most of them may eventually go undone.

That's how Hollywood's annual script budget is spent.

However, these expenses are actually calculated into various other film projects according to the rules of the Hollywood ledger.

In addition to "Jurassic Park", a total of seven copies of the script materials were sent, and Simon roughly flipped through them, in addition to the basic information of the project, there were also various annotations attached to it, or the director was interested in the project, or the star was interested in starring, or the corresponding producer's opinion on the script.

Whether the Hollywood circle is very small, or Simon has too much information in his mind, among the seven materials, Simon easily found a familiar work: "The Flower of the End".

In my memory, this is a project directed by Ridley Scott, starring Susan Sarandon and Gina Davis, and the word-of-mouth and box office seem to be very good.

The project annotation was written by Amy herself, saying that women such as Goldie Han, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer, who had read the script, were interested in starring, so the project could be promoted, and the project budget was about $15 million.

15 million was a big production a few years ago, but now it can only be considered to be in the middle of the range.

Simon read the synopsis of the story in general and suddenly remembered that this story might give Catherine a try.

Catherine is definitely a feminist at heart, and she happened to have completed a similar road-style film, "Night of the Bloody Corpse", which was a good fit to take charge of this project.

Thinking of this, Simon took a pencil and wrote his own annotations on it, asking Amy to forward the script to Catherine.

Catherine is about to start filming "Shocking Point", but as long as the woman is interested in the project, Daenerys Entertainment can certainly wait for her to finish the project at hand before starting the film.

With the exception of "Flowers of the End", several other projects failed to arouse Simon's interest.

Next year, Daenerys Entertainment's key projects are basically foreign cooperation films such as "Batman: The Dark Knight" and "The Outlaw", and there are many project vacancies, so Simon gave the heads of the three labels enough project authority, and he is not like the increasingly large Daenerys Entertainment completely dependent on him alone.

After reading the information sent by the female assistant, the time was almost nine o'clock.

The production meeting of "Pink Alliance" was held at Daenerys Entertainment headquarters, and Jennifer pushed the door in to remind the film's director Penny Marshall and others that they had arrived, and Simon got up and rushed to the conference room.

The next day is Friday, February 2.

Another week from January 26 to February 1 passed.

Although "Batman: Time to War" still locked in the single-week box office champion with $23.4 million at the box office, the cumulative box office also reached $326.76 million. However, Hollywood's attention was drawn to another stage drama that was not too conspicuous.

"Driving for Miss Daisy".

Obviously, this is another film produced by Daenerys Entertainment.

Prior to this, at the 47th American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards on January 20, "Driving for Miss Daisy" won three awards for Best Picture in a Musical Comedy, Best Actor in a Musical Comedy and Best Actress in a Musical Comedy.

Subsequently, among the nominations for the 62nd Academy Awards announced on January 22, "Driving for Miss Daisy" won 9 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and other awards in one fell swoop, becoming the film with the largest number of Oscar nominations this year.

Including the nominations for films such as "My Left Foot", "The Bodyguard", "The Sixth Sense" and "Metropolitan", Daenerys Entertainment has received a total of 21 nominations at the upcoming Oscars, also ranking first among studios.

The distribution rights to "Batman: Time to War" belonged to Warner, and Terry Semel had hoped to publicize a Best Picture nomination for the film in order to boost the box office later.

However, the Oscar judges were obviously not interested in this commercial comic film, and the film only won 3 technical awards in the end, and the relevant nominations were not counted in Daenerys Entertainment

Of course, this is off topic.

Back to "Driving for Miss Daisy," the film remained a small screening until January 25, and the Golden Globes only increased the number of screens to more than 200 in the two weeks before and after.

In summary, in the seven weeks from December 8 to January 25 last year, although the reputation and popularity of "Drive for Miss Daisy" have continued to rise, due to the limitation of the scale of screening, the cumulative box office of the film has only exceeded 10 million US dollars.

On January 26, taking advantage of the high attention brought by the Golden Globe Awards and Oscar nominations, Gaomen Pictures increased the number of screens of "Drive for Miss Daisy" from 278 to 895 at one time, and the box office potential of the film was finally released.

In its first week of large-scale opening, "Drive for Miss Daisy" grossed $8.03 million on 895 screens, and the weekly box office ranking jumped from seventh place last week to second place behind "Batman: Time to War."

Eight weeks after its release, the cumulative box office only reached $18.37 million, which seems to be unable to compare with the week of "Batman: Time to War" in the sixth week of release.

However, in the first week of large-scale opening box office figures, the box office numbers rushed to the second place on the weekly list, and in this awards season with many awards between the Golden Globe Awards and the Oscars, the box office popularity of "Drive for Miss Daisy" is easy to continue, and the film is destined to come out of a very bright long-term box office curve.

Based on the $8.03 million box office in the first week of the large-scale opening, the industry predicts that the film's total North American box office is likely to rush to more than $60 million.

"Drive for Miss Daisy" has a production budget of only $7 million, and the scale of publicity and "Batman: Time to War" is not at all comparable. The cumulative box office in eight weeks is $18.37 million, which is enough for Daenerys Entertainment to recover all production and publicity costs. The total box office is expected to be 60 million US dollars, which is already a big hit.

Simon certainly knows that the box office potential of "Drive for Miss Daisy" is much more than 60 million.

However, in any case, it is an obvious fact that Daenerys Entertainment has unwittingly created another box office dark horse.