When Simon was accompanying Irene on Martha's Vineyard on the east coast, Los Angeles on the west coast was still in the mansion halfway up the Palisades on the border between Malibu and Santa Monica, where Daenerys was entertaining at night A rather large party was held.
Mainly to celebrate the box office of "Annabelle" exceeding 100 million and the complete formation of the Conjuring movie universe, the creators of the recent box office hit "Boogie Nights" and many other Hollywood filmmakers who are good friends with Daenerys Entertainment were also invited , it can be regarded as a large-scale gathering to connect feelings at the end of the year.
First of all, I have to talk about the recent overview of the film market.
Today is November 15th, Friday, and the 1996 Thanksgiving season officially begins.
In the box office week that just passed, from November 8th to November 14th, "Annabelle", which was in its third week of release, continued to earn US$27.29 million with a 21% single-week box office drop. In three weeks, this new Conjuring movie universe The cumulative box office of the opening series reached US$109.2 million, easily qualifying for the 100 million dollar club, and it is also expected to become the first film in the Conjuring movie universe to reach a local box office of US$150 million.
Another film, "Boogie Nights" produced by Daenerys Entertainment's High Gate Pictures, grossed another US$6.69 million with a steady 24% decline in its fourth week of release, with a cumulative box office of US$35.49 million, basically recovering a total of US$20 million. The total investment in production and promotion has entered the profit stage.
In sharp contrast to the two blockbuster films of Daenerys Entertainment, there is no doubt the pressure and anxiety of other Hollywood studios during this year-end period.
This pressure mainly comes from three movies, the new DC movie universe film "Wonder Woman 2" released on November 22, and the consecutive Christmas movies "Jumanji" and "Charlie's Angels".
Three super blockbusters.
Among them, "Wonder Woman 2" is the first DC movie universe blockbuster since "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice", which had a global box office of US$1.938 billion at the end of last year. The industry expects the film's domestic box office to easily reach a bottom of US$400 million.
As for "Jumanji" and "Charlie's Angels", one is a special effects blockbuster with Stallone joining in, and the other is a blockbuster project that is linked to the 007 series and is expected to develop into a spy movie universe. As long as the reputation does not collapse after the release, Basically, the domestic box office level is US$200 million.
Therefore, just three super blockbusters have basically locked in a box office of US$800 million in the two major periods at the end of the year, leaving little room for other studio projects to develop.
Speaking of which, since the schedules of the three movies have been announced one after another last year, Hollywood has been planning to actively reduce or delay development plans in an attempt to avoid them.
Sony Pictures, which couldn't bear the pressure, simply adjusted the schedule of its $80 million Ron Howard-Mel Gibson new film "Ransom" before the marketing launch at the end of September this year, withdrawing it from the scheduled Thanksgiving Day of 1996. , transferred to the 1997 summer season.
The reason given by Sony is that it hopes that the film will have more post-production time, but an old-school crime action movie is not a special effects blockbuster, so why does it need so much post-production time
It is inevitable that there will be a lot of discussion, which will inevitably have a negative impact on the film.
Sony had to do this.
Not only that, Sony also moved Barbra Streisand's new film "Two-Way Mirror", which was originally scheduled for Christmas, back to the Thanksgiving block. To be precise, it is the week before the Thanksgiving block on November 8. After all, it is also to gain more opportunities.
The first week from November 8th to November 14th has passed. Barbra Streisand has directed and starred in another psychological film "Two-Way Mirror" after the well-received "The Days of Our Lives". The production cost 42 million US dollars. The cost, 2,489 opening screens, the box office in the seven days of release was only 16.08 US dollars, the average theater average was just over 6,000 US dollars, and the total domestic box office is expected to be only about 40 million US dollars, and the defeat is certain.
However, according to industry reviews, Sony made a barely good move.
If "Two-Way Mirror" is not put on the schedule, but continues to compete with new and old blockbusters during the Christmas period, this drama film with a far less reputation than "The Waves of Time" will only end up being cannon fodder, even if the local audience has 40 million Don’t even think about it. Once local theater distribution fails to make a splash, subsequent channels will only become more difficult.
Let's talk about the beginning of the Thanksgiving season. The week before the release of "Wonder Woman 2", there is still a competition between two strong forces, namely "Space Jam" produced by Warner Bros. Pictures and Paramount's classic science fiction series "Star Trek 8" .
Needless to say, the "Star Trek" series is one of the few Hollywood science fiction evergreens, and this sequel cost $45 million.
"Space Jam" is a combination of live-action and animation, similar to Disney's box office hit "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". Moreover, Warner not only used its famous cartoon character Bugs Bunny this time, but also invited the legendary Basketball superstar Michael Jordan participated in the film, which cost $80 million and was full of ambitions.
It's a pity that there is more than one "Wonder Woman 2" in the way of ambition, and even the schedule from November 15th to November 21st is terrible. Because in the upcoming box office week, November 18th will be the much-anticipated TV broadcast of the fifth Victoria's Secret Show, and November 19th and November 21st will be the second fall season of "American Idol" that is still in full swing. The final episodes, even if they are both on weekdays and take up three nights of these two phenomenal TV shows, will still have a serious impact on the viewing data of the first Thanksgiving week.
If "Ransom" hadn't left early, "Space Jam" might have been forced to leave.
However, thinking about next summer and the end of the year, "Tornado", "Day Alone", "Titanic", etc., there is actually not much room for lag, and we can't wait until 1998.
In the final analysis, the root cause of all this is that the current Daenerys Entertainment is too strong. The Hollywood market is so big, Daenerys Entertainment has too much, and the living space of other studios is naturally getting smaller and smaller. In order to prevent the film projects they invest in from becoming cannon fodder, other Hollywood studios will only fall into a vicious cycle in which they are forced to reduce the scale of production, which will lead to a further decline in their own strength.
At a party at a Palisade mountainside mansion.
The heads of two talent agency giants, WMA and CAA, happened to be discussing this issue.
Michael Ovitz, who was also very popular in the 1980s, was full of emotion: "If the current situation continues to develop, in five years at most, the idea of the seven major Hollywood companies will become a thing of the past. I think by then, Daenerys Entertainment will be the only one in the entertainment industry." At the same time, the big ones are accompanied by at most two or three second-tier brands whose combined strength cannot compete with them. Other brands are probably the only ones left.”
Now they are both younger brothers, so Jonathan Friedman, who was quite calm when meeting his former rival, nodded slightly and asked: "Who do you think can be left?"
"Backed by GE and owning the DC movie universe, Warner is definitely one of them. Even if MGM can build the Agent movie universe, it can only count for half. The remaining one and a half spots will depend on Fox, Disney, and Paramount Who can hold on better with Sony and their reserve capital, and also with Simon’s attitude.”
"Taking into account News Corp., I think Fox should be one."
"Not necessarily," Ovitz said: "News Corporation is News Corporation, and Fox is Fox. Simon will definitely be on good terms with News Corporation. On Fox's side, even Murdoch himself doesn't really care. He prefers to do TV, rather than movies that are too uncertain. In fact, Eisner and I have talked about this recently. He is even more pity that Disney is in the hands of the French and is most likely to decline."
Friedman agrees with this point: "Simon doesn't seem to like France. However, Simon should be interested in Disney's theme park business."
"This is certain, so the Disney brand will definitely be retained, just like Universal Studios. Moreover, even if it already owns Universal Studios, the current Daenerys Entertainment is enough to eat Disney," Ovitz said I couldn't help but sigh: "It's incredible to achieve this level in ten years."
Jonathan Friedman showed some nostalgia on his expression and said with a smile: "Every time I think of the ambitious young man when I first met Simon, I feel that everything is normal now."
"It's a pity that you got an advantage back then, otherwise I would have completely defeated the WMA."
"To be honest, with the bad situation of WMA at that time, I once thought about switching jobs to work with you, but luckily I met Simon."
When the two said this, they looked at each other and smiled. They raised glasses to each other under the lights of the cliffside lawn and took a sip of champagne. Jonathan asked again: "Speaking of which, what about the collar you and Eisner made?" Ying, how's it going?"
"The IPO has been launched, and if everything goes well, it will be listed in January next year," Ovitz said, inevitably worried: "I hope I can catch up."
Jonathan certainly knows what Ovitz is worried about and shares the same sentiment: "The Nasdaq is so crazy right now. I sold out all the technology stocks I held before voting in the general election. Frankly speaking, I made a lot of money. However, I plan to buy back some stocks of the Big Three in the future, treating them as long-term investments. I have absolute trust in Simon."
"Oh, I cleared my inventory earlier than you. I sold out all the items in early October. Recently, my wife even complained to me that they were sold out too early and she hoped to buy more."
"Never listen to a woman about this kind of thing."
"Of course," Ovitz laughed: "I was a little worried that I couldn't control it, so I just invested it all in a two-year closed fund."
"Haha, I suddenly realized that I also need this. Can you help me introduce it?"
"Then I'll ask my assistant to send you the information tomorrow."
While the two were chatting, they saw Amy Pascal, who was six months pregnant, walking with her husband Bernard Weinraub on her arm, and hurriedly took a few steps forward.
"Good evening, Amy, and Bernard."
"Good evening, Joe."
After Jonathan greeted, Ovitz also stepped forward and hugged Amy gently, looked at her belly and asked, "Do you know it's a boy or a girl?"
"It's a boy, we're going to name him Daniel."
"Oh, congratulations."
"Thanks."
After some pleasantries, Jonathan asked about something that has attracted much attention in Hollywood recently: "Amy, I heard that "Titanic" in Australia is in trouble right now?"
"Yes, Tom has flown to Brisbane himself to keep an eye on it. Fortunately, if nothing else happens, it will finally be completed next month."
Michael Ovitz was also curious: "What does Simon mean? I remember he went to Australia for vacation last month?"
Amy didn't know what to say to her boss. Looking back on the entire project, she always felt that her boss was deliberately letting Cameron lose control. Anyway, the current 'big ship' couldn't be completed without 200 million US dollars, but this kind of Of course, you can't talk to other people about the matter casually. He just said: "Simon has been watching too, and everyone has a headache."
Jonathan comforted: "It's okay to do this occasionally. It's always like this in Hollywood. You should rest more and pay attention to your children now."
"Thank you, Joe, that's so sweet of you."
The two did not ignore Amy's husband Bernard, and chatted with each other about some recent current events after Clinton's re-election.
Now that she was in her current position, it was impossible for Amy to have much rest time. When she saw the three men having a heated conversation, she greeted them and left alone, and went to the main creators of "Annabelle" to express her due congratulations.
As the most powerful woman in Hollywood at this time, she happened to be pregnant. All the guests along the way took the initiative to greet her politely and cautiously. Some people were envious when they saw Amy chatting with the director of "Annabelle".
The director of "Annabelle" is named William Malone. He is 43 years old and is another typical late bloomer.
Or it’s not a late bloomer. William Malone raised US$70,000 as early as 1980 to shoot his first sci-fi horror film. It sold well after its release. His second film was also nominated for a Saturn Award. And was invited to be the director of the drama version of "A Nightmare on Elm Street".
Unfortunately, I got stuck in the TV industry afterwards.
This time "Annabelle" can be regarded as a turnaround. Although he signed a demanding long-term contract with Daenerys Entertainment and has little autonomy as a director, with the success of "Annabelle", William Marten Takaya became famous in one fell swoop, and tonight he felt like he was surrounded by stars. The 43-year-old middle-aged man even had the urge to cry when faced with the close attention of various big names and small celebrities around him.
That's the way it is in Hollywood.
There is never a shortage of talents, only opportunities.
When Bernard Weinraub found his wife, Amy had just finished socializing with the crew of "Boogie Nights" and was talking to Linda Vargas. Only when she walked in did she hear that it was about "Saving Private Ryan" matter.
"This is what Simon means. There is no doubt about Steven's strength. Apart from sending an accounting team to follow up on the finances, we will not participate in anything else this time. By the way, the male protagonist of "Contact" has been delayed for so long. How many times have you Do you have any clues about the list God gave Simon?"
"Well, Simon finally chose one this time, from Australia, named Hugh Jackman."
Amy thought about it for a moment, but was not impressed, but said: "That's good. If the movie starts shooting early next year and we still can't find the male lead, Bob will go crazy. I really don't understand why Simon is struggling with such a small role."
Linda laughed and said: "Simon said he is very religious. If an actor who doesn't look like a priest at all is chosen to play the role of a priest, he will be shadowed."
Amy just wanted to roll her eyes.
After chatting for a few more words, Amy waited for her husband to greet Linda, then held his arm and walked towards the other guests.
Separating from Amy, Linda Vargas looked for a moment among the crowd of guests, locked her target, and walked directly over.
Several men and women who were chatting stopped their conversation to say hello when they saw Linda approaching.
Simon Westeros's royal casting director is more popular than any big director or producer in Hollywood now, because a big director or a big producer may not necessarily make an actor famous, and this Simon Westeros The opportunity given by spokesperson Luo is much more valuable.
Linda just nodded slightly to the others and motioned for a little girl and the short-haired man in his thirties who accompanied her to come to the railing near the cliff.
The man's name is Scott Lambert. He is an agent under WMA. He is very ordinary. The only famous client he has is Kiefer Sutherland, the son of veteran actor Donald Sutherland. , there are also some child actors, like the girl next to me at this time, who is 12 years old and has just played a role in "Annabelle" named Scarlett Johansson.