January 3, 1992, a Friday.
In the new box office week, as people gradually returned to work after the holidays, the films from the just-ended year-end period all saw very obvious drops in ticket sales.
From January 3 to January 9, The Flash dropped 49 percent at the box office. Compared with the previous week's 53.18 million dollars, this week's earnings shrank to 27.12 million dollars.
Still, in three weeks The Flash had quickly accumulated 153.16 million dollars.
With a third-week base of 27.12 million dollars, it would be no problem at all for The Flash to take in another 100 million dollars afterward. Its North American total could easily break 250 million dollars and become the runner-up on the 1991 domestic box office chart.
Toy Story, whose box office trend had remained very steady, also dropped 43 percent this week after the New Year. Its single-week earnings slipped to 7.79 million dollars, bringing the cumulative to 166.83 million dollars.
Close behind, Hook, JFK, 007: GoldenEye and the other films all saw drops of around forty to fifty percent this week as well.
Of course, following normal box office patterns, after this week's sharp decline, the next week's drops would adjust back to levels similar to the hot year-end period, depending on each film's media reception and audience popularity.
Overall, this was simply a contraction in box office scale typical of the slow season.
After handling some accumulated work from the end of last year at Daenerys Entertainment, Simon flew to New York on January 6 and spent the following days busy with the final preparations before Westeros Tower broke ground.
The specific design work for Westeros Tower was handled by the renowned North American firm SOM. Leslie Whitaker's design firm, the girlfriend of David Johnston, had also shown interest. Simon, however, could not hand over the design of such an important building to a mid-tier company with limited experience in supertall structures just because of personal connections.
The design of a supertall building was far more than the outward appearance ordinary people saw. It also involved a whole series of complex professional issues such as structure, load-bearing capacity, earthquake resistance, ventilation and more.
By comparison, SOM, founded in 1936, possessed extremely deep credentials in high-rise design.
At the same time, the construction of Westeros Tower was contracted to the long-established Tishman Realty & Construction.
For ordinary people, Tishman's name was not particularly famous. Yet the series of projects this engineering firm had built were all well-known. The twin towers of the World Trade Center had been constructed by Tishman.
In addition, Tishman had also built Disney World in Florida and a large number of Hilton hotel projects around the world.
The selection of SOM was entirely Simon's personal decision. The choice of Tishman, however, involved other factors.
Simply put, Tishman was like a local powerhouse in the New York real estate industry.
Under the operation of the Speyer family, its behind-the-scenes controllers, this engineering firm founded at the end of the previous century had established a deeply intertwined network of complex relationships across New York's political and business circles. There were even traces of the Rockefeller family behind Tishman. Both the current and former heads of Tishman had also served as chairmen of the New York Real Estate Union.
The final design plan for Westeros Tower called for a height of 622 meters and 139 floors.
This included 135 floors above ground and four basement levels.
Simon and Janet's residence would occupy the entire top ten floors, covering the uppermost 50 meters of the building. The original Avengers Tower helipad platform was also retained in this structure, which was the most technically challenging part of the entire project.
At 622 meters, it stood 200 meters taller than the Empire State Building's 443 meters and the World Trade Center's 417 meters. Once completed, Westeros Tower would truly become the world's tallest building.
A skyscraper destined to become a landmark could bring instant fame to any architectural firm and catapult any construction company that took it on. As New York's old-guard local powerhouse in engineering, Tishman naturally would not allow such an important project to fall into the hands of another contractor.
When news of the Westeros Tower project first leaked, Tishman had proactively contacted Simon.
Simon had no intention of making an enemy of such a local force. Moreover, Tishman possessed sufficient qualifications to build the tower. After several rounds of negotiations, the contract had been formally signed last year.
In return, Tishman had provided considerable help with the building approvals for Westeros Tower.
However, although the main construction tasks had been given to Tishman, Simon would not place complete trust in the firm simply because of its long-standing reputation.
He wanted Westeros Tower to stand for a hundred years, just like the Empire State Building.
Therefore, every detail of the project had to be flawless.
Westeros Company had already assembled a dedicated financial oversight team that would monitor all expenditures on the Westeros Tower project in real time throughout the five-year construction period.
At the same time, Simon had used the Johnston family's connections to assemble a technical expert group in Australia covering everything from building materials to structural engineering. For the next five years, these people would be stationed permanently in New York, keeping a close eye on every detail of the tower's construction.
The two teams working in tandem would ensure the contractor had no opportunity to cut corners.
After a week of continuous work, reviewing every detail of the planned tower once more, and signing a series of contracts ranging from material procurement to accidental insurance, the project's early preparations were finally finalized. The six buildings on the block between East 59th and East 60th Streets, east of Madison Avenue in the Upper East Side, would officially begin demolition next week.
Simply demolishing the original six buildings and completing the subsequent cleanup was expected to take two months.
Counting the earlier land acquisition costs, SOM's design fees, Tishman's construction deposit, material procurement contracts and other expenses, Simon had already invested more than 400 million dollars to complete this tower.
Because Simon had demanded the highest standards for every detail of Westeros Tower, annual expenditures in the following five years would each be no less than 200 million dollars.
After completion, the interior plumbing, electrical work, decoration and more would also represent a significant outlay.
All told, the total budget for Westeros Tower was likely to exceed 1.6 billion dollars, making it unquestionably the single building with the highest budgeted cost in history.
In the original timeline, the new World Trade Center rebuilt to the highest specifications had cost only 3.1 billion dollars overall.
That building had broken ground in 2006, a full fourteen years from now.
Yet this was 1992. The dollar was extremely valuable, and most American tycoons' net worth remained under 5 billion dollars.
January 11, a Saturday.
After finishing a busy workweek, Simon traveled from Manhattan to East Hampton on Long Island in the morning to visit Steve Ross.
At the end of last year, Steve Ross's prostate cancer, which he had privately battled for five years, had relapsed again. He had recently begun chemotherapy.
Simon also knew that this media titan, the same age as Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone, would, barring accidents, pass away this year.
Ross was sixty-five years old.
For someone who had already reached the pinnacle of society's pyramid, sixty-five was actually not old at all.
Murdoch and Redstone, who were close in age, would still be controlling their media empires nearly thirty years later.
For an ambitious man, losing to time was undoubtedly a tremendous regret.
Steve Ross was very pleased by Simon's visit. He had instructed his family in advance to prepare a lavish lunch and had also invited some guests to accompany them.
After the lively lunch, once the others had been sent away, Steve Ross and Simon strolled together through the East Hampton estate.
As one of the best summer retreats for New York's wealthy class, East Hampton in the coldest season of the year was not particularly eye-catching. It had also just snowed recently. The withered grass and bare trees were covered, presenting a vast expanse of white decay everywhere.
With his hands casually tucked in his overcoat pockets, Simon chatted about some DC movie universe matters, then looked around again and said, "It's quiet enough here, but it seems a bit too cold. Steve, I still suggest you go to Los Angeles. The climate there is more suitable for recovery."
Steve Ross was also wearing a thick black overcoat and had a hat on as well.
Chemotherapy had already left him with very little hair.
"I still prefer the East Coast. Besides, Time Warner's headquarters is here. You know, Simon, I really can't leave right now."
Simon of course understood.
After the new year, news that Ross had earned a 79 million dollar salary for 1991 would once again become a hot topic of media controversy. Moreover, after last year's merger, Ross had also drawn up a ten-year compensation agreement for himself that would continue to be honored even after his death.
Simon could sense that the cumulative salary exceeding 100 million dollars over two consecutive years, along with the decade-long contract, clearly showed Ross was already arranging his affairs.
The various drawbacks caused by the Time Warner merger had not yet been fully resolved. Ross's enormous salary would undoubtedly once again provoke strong dissatisfaction from other factions inside Time Warner.
With so many memories in his mind, Simon naturally knew how terrifying cancer could be.
Enormous wealth could ensure that a person would not face financial burdens after contracting cancer. However, cancer was ultimately very difficult to cure, and the disease varied greatly from person to person. Some people could survive for decades after diagnosis and live completely normal lives, while others faced a fierce onslaught and reached the end of their lives in the blink of an eye.
Ross's current situation would not actually improve even if he moved to a more comfortable environment.
Simon and Ross did not actually share a particularly deep relationship. Yet this self-made media mogul who moved freely between legitimate and underworld circles did possess very strong personal charisma and was exceptionally skilled at winning people over and making them feel favorably toward him.
Clint Eastwood had only released films through Warner Bros. for the past decade because of Ross's influence. Spielberg even regarded Ross as a father figure. In the original timeline, Schindler's List had specifically been dedicated to Ross.
Although they had not interacted often, Ross still gave Simon the feeling of someone very much worth befriending.
The two continued walking for a while until Ross's wife came to call them back to the villa. Ross's current condition made it unsuitable for him to stay outdoors in the cold for too long.
Back in the warm living room, the two sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace. Ross then said, "There's one more thing, Simon. I hope you can help me."
Simon nodded, indicating for Ross to speak.
"It's like this. I hope that next, um, Terry and Bob can jointly succeed me in the CEO position. I've already spoken with Steven and the others. Of course, if they can also receive your support, it will definitely be much easier for the two of them to take over Time Warner."
The Terry and Bob Ross mentioned were Terry Semel and Robert Daly, two trusted aides Ross had personally cultivated over the years.
Terry Semel had served as CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures in recent years, while Robert Daly was responsible for Warner Bros.' communications business.
In Simon's memory, after Ross's death, Time Warner's CEO position had indeed been jointly held by Terry Semel and Robert Daly.
Daenerys Entertainment now maintained very close cooperation with Time Warner. In last year's stock offering, Simon had also purchased one million shares of Time Warner stock. Although the proportion was very low and carried no voting rights, the fact that Simon Westeros held shares in Time Warner itself meant a great deal.
Therefore, Simon indeed possessed the strength to support the successors Ross wanted to promote.
Moreover, helping Terry Semel and Robert Daly rise to power would certainly benefit Daenerys Entertainment's future cooperation with Time Warner.
At the very least, the DC movie universe would not encounter any unexpected changes.
Since Terry Semel and Robert Daly had jointly served as co-CEOs of Time Warner in his memory, Simon naturally had no objection to extending this favor. He nodded seriously and said, "No problem, Steve. I will support them when the time comes. Then what about the chairman position?"
Hearing the question, Ross gave a helpless smile.
At present, Ross personally held the positions of chairman and CEO at Time Warner.
Pushing Terry Semel and Robert Daly into the joint CEO roles was probably the limit of Ross's arrangements.
"The chairman position will probably go to Levin."
Gerald Levin, a core executive from the original Time Inc. side and also a major shareholder of Time Warner.
During the original merger, Gerald Levin had been one of the key promoters on the Time side.
However, because Paramount Communications had interfered, Time Inc.'s acquisition of Warner Bros. had essentially reversed. Many executives from the Time system had received little power or benefit after the merger. The once good personal relationship between Ross and Levin had also deteriorated as a result.
Because of Ross's suppression, Levin currently held only a deputy chairman position with limited real authority.
Yet once Ross passed away, Gerald Levin uniting the forces of the original Time system, perhaps along with long-dissatisfied senior executives inside Warner, would indeed have a stronger advantage in securing the chairman position than Terry Semel and Robert Daly.
Simon had actually entertained some bolder ideas, such as acquiring all of Time Warner.
But those thoughts were merely thoughts.
Holding a borderline stake to control MGM was already the limit that current American antitrust laws and media industry regulations could tolerate.
Even if media industry regulations opened up further, acquiring Time Warner with Daenerys Entertainment's current size would still face numerous difficulties.
Moreover, Daenerys Entertainment itself needed competitors.
Time Warner happened to be suitable as such a competitor in the future.
Of course, that competition would likely remain mostly on the surface.
An internally divided Time Warner would have very little chance of truly contending with Daenerys Entertainment.
Steve Ross's active compromise this time, planning to hand the chairman position to Gerald Levin, would conveniently create some excuses for the "rivalry" between Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner.