After the first week, because New Year's Day on January 1, 1990 was the same Monday as Christmas Eve before it, and it was a legal holiday, the weekend of the second week of "Batman's release" was also four days.

In this week's new film, "Rocket Expert" starring Tom Cruise and Meg Ryan, the final production cost was $45 million, and Paramount was confident that he got the project from Daenerys by less glamorous means, so he also invested $20 million in publicity.

However, in the case of obvious public relations, the media evaluation of "Rocket Expert" is still barely passing, and some mainstream print media platforms such as "The New York Times", "Entertainment Weekly" and "Washington Post" have also given negative reviews without mercy.

According to Simon, in order to make room for "Rocket Expert", Paramount also moved "Born on the Fourth of July", which was also starring Tom Cruise and directed by Oliver Stone, to Easter in 1990.

However, the total investment of $65 million, the hottest Christmas schedule, starring Tom Cruise and Meg Ryan, all these positive factors did not make "Rocket Expert" recognized by the market, and the audience did not like this slightly nondescript retro and sci-fi style movie.

Coupled with the strong impact of "Batman: Time to War", from December 29 to January 4, "Rocket Expert" only landed $11.98 million at the box office in the first seven days of the week, although it ranked second on the weekly box office list, it was far behind "Batman: Time to War".

Another new film, Steven Spielberg's "Forever", tells the love story of a pilot who returns to his girlfriend in a ghostly state after a plane crash to start another life with him. That's right, this idea is very similar to "The Love of Ghosts", of course, the plot is very different.

In its first week, this fantasy romantic comedy only earned $7.18 million at the box office with the same tepid word-of-mouth, and could only rank fourth on the weekly box office list. The third place on the list is still occupied by the Easter schedule "Flying Over Innocence", the film fell another 11% this week, earning $9.68 million and a cumulative box office of $135.77 million.

As for "Batman: Time to War", which topped the list, due to the record-breaking box office of $82.39 million in the first week and the fact that the film itself was much wider than Simon's previous two works, the box office of the film not only did not fall the next week, but rose by 8%, earning $88.79 million again.

In two weeks, "Batman: Time to Go to War" grossed $171.18 million at an unprecedented rate.

Such a bi-weekly box office result means that "Batman: Time to War" will easily break the $400 million mark at the domestic box office. "Star Wars" and "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" have yet to be re-released, so "Batman: Time to War" will also become the first film in North American history to break $400 million at the domestic box office.

Along with the exclamation of the media and the cheers of fans, the major Hollywood studios also reacted immediately and quickly turned their attention to superhero comics that may be adapted into movies.

Then, at this time, most people found that the two major comic book manufacturers in the United States, Marvel and DC, had no room for them to interfere.

What's even more disappointing is that these two major manufacturers are almost all in the hands of Daenerys Entertainment.

Marvel is completely in Simon Westeros' bag, and DC's core Triumvirate, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, is also under Simon Westeros' control, which is equivalent to stucking DC's throat.

Not to mention Marvel's untapped gold mine, according to the box office results of "Batman: Time to War", but according to the DC Cinematic Universe plan recently announced by Daenerys and Warner Bros., it is probably enough for Daenerys Entertainment to eat for ten years.

You know, not only at the box office, but also the spin-off sales of "Batman: Time to War" reached $150 million the following week, following the $130 million in the first week. Industry statistics agencies predict that according to the sales data of the last two weeks, the sales of various types of derivatives of "Batman: Time to War" could reach $2 billion in the next year.

Film derivatives rely on the ultra-high premium brought by the brand image, and the terminal sales price can usually reach about 10 times the production cost, so the gross profit is very high.

Even after multiple concessions from manufacturers, distributors and retailers, the revenue obtained by the copyright owner can usually reach 10% to 20% of the sales, depending on the type of derivative.

"Batman: Time to War" is expected to generate $2 billion in derivatives sales in the next year, which will also bring about $300 million to Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner according to the compromise commission ratio. Moreover, because this part of the income does not require much upfront investment, it is basically a net income before tax.

Because of the huge revenue expected in all aspects of "Batman: Time to Go to War", Warner Bros. experienced a short period of excitement after the film's box office hit, and quickly turned into painful and tangled regrets.

Even if it is understood that it was Simon Westeros's personal control that created the box office miracle of "Batman: Time to War" today, Warner still had the opportunity to participate in the investment of this film.

Now, under the original contract, Warner Bros. Pictures can only take a 15 percent commission from the film's distribution channels. With huge derivative gains, Time Warner, which has completed the merger, can only receive a 10% net profit share in the name of its subsidiary DC Comics.

Although these two parts of income alone may bring no less than $200 million to Time Warner in the next few years, however, how much Daenerys Entertainment will earn from this project, Time Warner is a little afraid to calculate.

The more I get it, the sadder it gets!

Moreover, if it were other second- and third-tier studios in Hollywood, Warner Bros. Pictures, which had omnichannel distribution rights, could squeeze as much of its partners' share of profits as possible through the usual Hollywood financial means, but for Daenerys Entertainment, Warner Bros. Pictures could not do that.

From the very beginning of the release of Batman: Time to War, Daenerys Entertainment sent a dedicated accounting team to follow up on the entire project, which made it difficult for Warners to maneuver financially.

Of course, it may not be impossible, but Warner does not dare to do it.

Daenerys Entertainment's handling of the dispute over the sharing of the original record of "Bodyguard" has left a deep memory for the entire Hollywood.

Alista Records tried to engulf Daenerys Entertainment's share of record sales, and Simon Westeros completely stopped the sale of a phenomenal record despite the huge losses that could be caused by a phenomenal out-of-stock record, and in the end, Alista Records not only did not succeed, but instead lost a fine of double the amount of the engulfment, and the president of Alista Records lost his job as a result.

If Warner Bros. Pictures had done the same, Terry Semel felt that Simon Westeros might not hesitate to halt the development of the entire DC Cinematic Universe until Warner spits out everything he swallowed. Perhaps, in the end, someone will be held responsible, and he, the CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures, is obviously the most suitable scapegoat.

Therefore, now that it has become an established fact, the goal of Time Warner is only to push forward the follow-up development of the DC Cinematic Universe as soon as possible.

Santa Monica.

In the conference room of Daenerys Entertainment Headquarters, it was Friday, January 5, 1990.

For a full day of meetings, the teams of both companies, led by Amy Pascal and Terry Semele, were discussing the follow-up cooperation between the two parties and plans for the DC Cinematic Universe.

The original terms of the contract established a number of details that could be renegotiated after the first "Batman" series, such as the percentage of the distribution commission for the follow-on film, Warner.

The 15% commission for omnichannel is actually very high.

Because the entire DC Cinematic Universe project involves too many interests, for a whole day, in addition to a list of ten movies in the next five to seven years, the two sides have only preliminarily determined the proportion of subsequent distribution commissions.

Terry Semel didn't make much concessions in this regard, but made some reasonable concessions after breaking down the local, overseas, videotape and TV broadcast platforms.

As a result of the negotiations, the commission rate for the follow-on films jointly cooperated by the two parties and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures will be reduced to 12.5% for domestic distribution, 10% for overseas distribution, and 12.5% for the total revenue extracted by videotape and TV broadcast platforms.

Of course, the publicity and distribution expenses of each channel should still be included in the cost and deducted separately. However, because of Daenerys Entertainment's strict financial supervision in this regard, it is difficult for Warner to do anything about it.

At the same time, some projects that will be distributed by Daenerys Entertainment in the future will also be divided according to this distribution ratio.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, the meeting ended.

Terry Semel walked out of the office with Amy Pascal and asked, "When will Simon be back, and I'm looking forward to seeing him back in Los Angeles as soon as possible." ”

Amy handed the folder in her hand to her assistant Vanessa and said, "I don't know, I called him after the box office came out in the first week of the film, and he said that he was going to take Jenny to Antarctica." ”

Terry Semel raised an eyebrow: "Antarctica?"

Amy laughed, "yes, Antarctica." Melbourne, it's relatively close to Antarctica, I don't know. However, it's summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and Antarctica is the warmest time of the year, oh, it seems to be in the polar daylight phase. ”

"And then?"

Amy shrugged: "Then, he hasn't been able to reach him in person for the last few days. He didn't say when he would be back, probably until the end of the month. ”

Terry Semel smiled wryly: "Well, he won't be attending the weekend's celebration party." ”

"Well," Amy nodded, and said, "There is another thing, the box office of "Time to War" is very good, Simon asked me to draw up a reward plan, probably, the two protagonists are $3 million each, several supporting roles are $1 million, and the rest of the crew also has their own rewards, and the total expenditure is about $20 million, which I still have to tell you." Warner does not need to share this part of the expenditure this time, but subsequent projects, and then awards, will be counted in the general ledger. ”

Terry Semel nodded and said, "20 million, compared to Daenerys's income this time, is not much at all." ”

Amy smiled, knowing that Terry Semel must be entangled in his heart these days, so he didn't mention it anymore.

Seeing off Warner and the others, Amy did not leave work immediately, but came to her office.

Nancy Brill had arrived early and was sitting on the couch in Amy's office lounge looking through the document.

Seeing Amy come in, Nancy got up and hugged her, asking, "How's the meeting with Warner going?"

"It's going to be a while off, there's so much to discuss," Amy said, and then asked, "What about you, what's going on over there in Rhode Island?"

Nancy had just returned from Rhode Island in the afternoon to attend to Daenerys Entertainment's toy factory over there.

In the development of the "Batman: Time to War" spin-off, the toy factory there undertook the production of the most important batch of prop models such as the main character figure and the batmotor. However, because of the lack of experience in this area, in the first week of release, all the toys produced by the Rhode Island factory were sold out.

Nancy went this time to re-coordinate the factory's toy production, and on the other hand, she had to contact her old relationship at Hasbro and entrust some toy orders that her own factory could not fulfill.

Hasbro's headquarters are also in Rhode Island.

"It's done," Nancy said, "Actually, I think the last time it was sold out was a good result, and the sales of those toys have been even more hot after the restock." Simon has told us a few times before that hunger marketing really works. By the way, I've come back with some limited-edition toys, do you want to give them to someone?"

"Of course, leave me a few, my nephew and I asked for Christmas, but I couldn't take it out, and my parents counted it out. ”

The two laughed, Amy motioned for Nancy to continue to sit down, she turned back to her desk, opened the safe, took out an envelope, walked over again, handed it to Nancy, and said, "This is Simon asked me to pass it on to you." ”

Nancy opened the envelope, which contained a check for $5 million: "What is this?"

"Bonus, for you," Amy sat down next to Nancy, Vanessa came in with coffee at this time, she took the coffee in her hand, and continued to say to Nancy: "You know Simon's temperament, your contract can't be changed in the short term, this is an extra compensation." ”

Nancy unceremoniously put the check in her satchel and asked Amy with a smile, "Did he take the initiative to give it, or did you help me give it?"

"I mentioned it, and he took the initiative to give it," Amy said, "He actually cares about you." ”

Nancy was dissatisfied: "Well, this sentence is really ambiguous. ”

"Okay, I forgot you're single," Amy said, "Actually, it's better if you don't change your contract now, and when it expires, the company will probably go public." Simon will definitely give you a more lucrative salary contract when the time comes. ”

Nancy was interested and asked, "Did he talk to you about going public?"