[GodOfReader: This is the last chapter for today. I lost $2k on bet playing 3v3 basketball earlier.]
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Up to the weekend that had just passed, the new version of 007: GoldenEye had been in theaters for four and a half weeks, accumulating a box office of 71.86 million dollars.
Considering that the year-end period would soon come to a close, the film's box office had also slipped to a low of 5.06 million dollars last weekend. This classic spy series sequel's North American total was expected to land between 80 million and 90 million dollars.
A North American box office exceeding 80 million dollars was more than sufficient compared to the previous film, Licence to Kill.
However, against the film's 50 million dollar production budget and 20 million dollar marketing costs, GoldenEye's North American box office performance felt quite disappointing. Even counting overseas earnings and assuming a global total of 200 million dollars, the entire project had only just broken even.
For a classic IP with much greater potential, this result was definitely not what Simon wanted.
Resetting the 007 series was a plan Simon had confirmed even before GoldenEye.
It was just that at the time, Simon had not yet completely secured control of MGM, so he had not forcefully pushed the matter.
After Johnston became MGM's largest shareholder, it essentially meant Simon controlled the company. After all, the Australians had no energy to manage Hollywood business. The main reason they had agreed to purchase MGM shares was largely at Simon's request.
If not for antitrust considerations, Simon would have been very happy to take over that batch of equity himself.
After buying 30 percent of MGM's shares, the old man had also given his word that Simon could operate things here as he wished. Therefore, Simon now had sufficient authority to adjust the 007 series according to his own ideas.
On the other hand, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the 007 series, which had treated the Soviet Union as its imaginary enemy for thirty years, also needed changes in its plot.
During the Cold War years, U.S.-Soviet confrontation had always been a very popular theme in Hollywood.
Besides the 007 series, last year's hit The Hunt for Red October was exactly the same.
However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and America becoming the world's only superpower, continuing to feature confrontation with the Soviet Union on the big screen would make it difficult to resonate with audiences in America and other major overseas markets.
In Simon's memory, the famous supermodel Cindy Crawford's attempt to enter Hollywood with the big-screen film Fair Game told the story of a KGB agent. However, by then it was already 1995. The Soviet Union had long since disappeared, so that ill-timed film ultimately ended in box office disaster.
The currently playing new version of 007: GoldenEye, released four years earlier, had undergone major plot changes. Yet its core still had not escaped the framework of struggling against an evil Soviet Union.
In addition, as one of the earliest long-running blockbuster series, the 007 franchise had always attracted audiences precisely because every installment involved many fixed formulas and grand spectacles.
With more and more blockbuster films appearing in recent years, particularly the rise of CG effects, continuing to follow the traditional old-school production route for the 007 series would inevitably make it difficult to achieve commercial breakthroughs.
In the original timeline, the several 007 films starring Pierce Brosnan inherited the old-school 007 style, with sports cars, beautiful women, elegant demeanor, and coolness around the world. The result was that all four films Brosnan starred in only grossed between 300 million and 400 million dollars globally. Compared to total investments exceeding 100 million dollars, such box office results only barely covered costs for a slight profit.
It was only when Daniel Craig took over as 007 and the film style made bold innovations that this classic spy series once achieved global box office breakthroughs exceeding 1 billion dollars.
All in all, change was necessary.
Since they had already secured the SPECTRE rights before GoldenEye, Simon planned next to build a reboot series centered around SPECTRE with a coherent storyline, following the Daniel Craig version from his memory.
To achieve this, the first priority was to gain control over the 007 series.
After 007 was born, the copyright had changed hands several times. It was now jointly held by United Artists under MGM and the British Broccoli family. Unless both sides agreed, no one could start film production alone.
In the original timeline, due to MGM's decline, the 007 series had basically become a project to keep MGM alive. Even if each film couldn't make big money, the cash flow it generated was enough to barely sustain MGM. Because of this, MGM had to give up too much initiative on the projects, allowing the Broccoli family to completely run the series.
Now that he had control of MGM, Simon naturally would not let this situation continue.
At worst, they could just put it on hold.
Simon had sufficiently rich IP resources in hand. Even without 007, he could still support MGM's revival.
In comparison, the Broccoli family only had this one card. Without 007, Hollywood would have no place for them.
The C girl had rushed to Los Angeles to attend tonight's Westeros system New Year's Eve party to be held at Daenerys Studios.
Of course, because the various companies were scattered across the East and West Coasts, tonight mainly the executives from the West Coast companies would attend.
Unlike other professional managers in the system, Claire was able to come early to visit Simon thanks to her previous identity.
After Sherry Lansing took her leave, Claire took out the latest iCam prototype that Tinkobell Company was developing from her bag.
Handing the little one over to Deborah for care, Simon accepted the second-generation prototype, which was noticeably smaller than the first generation. Just looking at its appearance, this prototype could clearly only use smaller 2.5-inch floppy disks.
Claire watched from the side as Simon played with the prototype and said, "This is just one alternative plan for the second generation machine. Neil and I have not yet decided whether to replace the 3.5-inch floppy disk with a 2.5-inch one."
"I suggest you do so. Miniaturization is an inevitable trend. The smaller this card camera's body is and the more portable it becomes, the easier it will be to promote," Simon had Deborah hold the little one, casually raised the camera to take a photo, and continued, "Actually, if you can really turn the digital camera into a true 'card', that would count as reaching the pinnacle."
The current card camera did not mean the camera itself was like a card, but was simply a concept relative to more professional SLR cameras.
The first-generation iCam was actually the size of a small dictionary.
Even the second-generation prototype in Simon's hand was roughly 15cm by 10cm by 5cm, still appearing quite bulky and cumbersome compared to the card cameras in Simon's memory.
Claire had already accumulated enough professional knowledge. Hearing Simon say this, she thought for a moment and replied, "To make it into a real card, floppy disk storage definitely won't work. We may need to use the latest flash memory medium. In addition, the sensor and battery are major issues, as well as the controls. If it really becomes a card, the existing physical buttons will also need replacing."
Simon listened to the C girl's thoughts freely expanding and smiled, "According to Moore's Law, electronic components will become increasingly integrated in the future. Components will get smaller while their functions become more powerful. Therefore, taking electronic products to extreme miniaturization is feasible. Didn't I have you register many 'i' series trademarks? Those will definitely be useful in the future."
Claire recalled that besides iCam, Tinkobell Company also held trademarks such as iPlayer and iPhone. It seemed her boss had thought very far ahead from the beginning.
However, her current focus was still on perfecting iCam first. Since the product's launch a few months ago, iCam had already proven to have sufficient market capacity. The internet industry's continued explosive growth was still constantly improving iCam's commercial prospects. In the short term, as long as she did a good job with this product and gained a solid foothold in this increasingly competitive market with more old-line manufacturers joining, she would be satisfied.
Simon indeed had a very big plan, but he had no intention of rushing things.
They continued discussing some details with Claire. Before they knew it, it was already lunchtime.
Although invited by Simon to eat together, seeing her former sisters moving between the kitchen and dining room, Claire ultimately felt too embarrassed to sit together with Simon and his wife.
Doing so would be too hateful to others.
She diligently helped set up lunch, then found an excuse to go to the small dining room where the maids ate.
The evening New Year's Eve party began at seven o'clock, still held at the activity center on the second floor of Daenerys Studios.
In addition to the Westeros system's executives, many politicians and prominent figures in Los Angeles had been invited to attend. Just after six in the afternoon, traffic flowed continuously through the north and south entrances of Daenerys Studios.
Many people gradually realized that in current Hollywood, only Daenerys Entertainment possessed enough strength and appeal to host such a grand New Year's Eve event.
The 1991 year that was about to pass had seen Hollywood appearing prosperous, with annual box office reaching new highs and peripheral industries like video tapes developing vigorously.
However, upon careful review, most of that glory had been created by Daenerys Entertainment.
This point could be clearly seen just by looking at the 1991 North American box office rankings.
According to the latest box office data from last weekend, the top ten films on the 1991 North American box office list were currently as follows:
First place: Batman: The Dark Knight, 373 million dollars;
Second place: Terminator 2, 204 million dollars;
Third place: The Fugitive, 183 million dollars;
Fourth place: Toy Story, 154 million dollars (still in release, expected 200 million);
Fifth place: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, 151 million dollars;
Sixth place: The Silence of the Lambs, 131 million dollars;
Seventh place: City Slickers, 123 million dollars;
Eighth place: Wayne's World, 121 million;
Ninth place: A Few Good Men, 117 million dollars;
Tenth place: The Flash, 108 million dollars (still in release, expected 250 million dollars).
It was obvious that among the top ten, only Warner Bros.' Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Columbia Pictures' City Slickers had nothing to do with Daenerys Entertainment.
Of the other eight, four were films co-produced by Daenerys Entertainment with other studios, three were movies produced solely by Daenerys Entertainment, and the last one, The Flash, Simon also controlled the project's leadership and enjoyed 10 percent of the North American box office revenue as the first producer.
Because Simon's involvement in The Flash was not particularly high, before the film was released, other factions within Time Warner had raised objections, feeling that Simon had done too little but taken too much. They hoped to change this unfair revenue-sharing contract in the upcoming The Flash sequels and Cyborg projects.
When The Flash opened with the second-highest opening of the year and was expected to break 250 million dollars domestically, meaning Simon could easily take home 25 million dollars, the result was that no one raised many objections anymore.
After all, no one in Hollywood could guarantee that a project would achieve 250 million dollars domestically.
Moreover, from the box office feedback in overseas markets that had already opened, The Flash's overseas box office was expected to reach 400 million dollars. This at least ensured a global box office of 600 million dollars for the film.
Even if it couldn't compare to the Batman series, and even though it had invested 120 million dollars, a global box office of 600 million dollars, together with simultaneous peripheral sales revenue and later income from various channels, was enough to fill Time Warner's coffers.
Who else in all of Hollywood had this kind of Midas touch ability?
Even though they sensed that Daenerys Entertainment's continued expansion would threaten the traditional power structure of Hollywood, facing such profit temptation, there really wasn't any company that could step forward to block Daenerys Entertainment's expansion.
Most people were hoping to be able to cooperate with Daenerys Entertainment.
On the other hand, Daenerys Entertainment had also shown sufficient willingness to cooperate and had not greedily swallowed all the benefits itself.
When Simon and his wife arrived at the studio's activity center, the hall was already bustling with crowds of people.
At seven o'clock, the party officially began.
Under the gaze of hundreds of pairs of eyes, when Simon stepped onto the stage to deliver his New Year's address, he couldn't help reflecting on the year that was about to pass in his heart.
1991, the beginning of the last decade of the twentieth century, had seen too many things happen, both to the Westeros system and to the world.
This year had begun with a crushing Gulf War and ended with a heart-stopping empire collapse. The world structure had undergone fundamental changes.
This year, the Westeros system had successively acquired MCA and Bell Atlantic, becoming one of Hollywood's largest media giants while successfully entering the traditional telecommunications industry.
This year, the first heir of the Westeros family had been born.
This year, under the influence and promotion of Simon, this big butterfly, the internet industry had begun to explode ahead of schedule.
This year, the other two projects in the DC movie universe, Batman: The Dark Knight and The Flash, had achieved success once again, completely establishing the formation of a new film business model.
This year, Simon Westeros's personal wealth had reached 35 billion dollars, far exceeding anyone else on the wealth rankings, standing alone at the top.
This year, Simon Westeros was 23 years old.
Inside the activity hall.
Watching the handsome, steady yet sharp young man delivering his New Year's address, all the guests in the hall were filled with various emotions.
Too many people never believed in miracles because they had never encountered one.
However, at this moment, everyone had to admit that a miracle was happening right beside them, happening to that enigmatic young man who had risen rapidly starting at 18 years old.
In this atmosphere filled with all kinds of emotions, Simon smoothly concluded his address, "Finally, I hope everyone has a wonderful evening. I also wish everyone smooth work and happiness and health in the coming year. Thank you all."
Amid warm applause, Simon stepped down from the stage.
Tonight's celebration officially began.
The revelry continued deep into the night. At twelve o'clock, everyone began the countdown.
When the New Year bells rang, 1992 had officially arrived.
After New Year's Day, while many people were still immersed in the holiday, Simon, who had rested for a full month because of Janet's delivery, began working again.
At the start of the new year, there were too many matters in the entire Westeros system that required Simon's personal attention.
Besides the large number of film projects under Daenerys Entertainment that needed Simon to personally sort through, on the New York side, the long-prepared Westeros Tower would begin construction after the new year. The first thing to do was to demolish the six buildings in the entire block. Before groundbreaking, many details still needed Simon to personally finalize.
This was the first matter.
During Simon's vacation in December, Daenerys Entertainment had successfully completed the acquisition of EA Company at a total transaction price of 1.25 billion dollars.
The video game industry would be a very important business branch for Daenerys Entertainment. Even though most of the work was handled by Nancy Brill, Simon could not completely ignore it.
This was the second matter.
After a year of sorting and adjustment, according to the original plan, Daenerys Entertainment would conduct a second round of layoffs to reduce some of the departmental bloat that had appeared after the MCA acquisition.
This was the third matter.
Finally, there was the Universal Studios Osaka project in Japan.
After long negotiations with the Japanese government, the site selection for Universal Studios Osaka had basically been confirmed. Simon also needed to personally fly to Japan in the near future.