After "Charlie's Angels" was released, Simon continued to be busy in Los Angeles for a weekend and returned to the East Coast the day before Christmas Eve, December 23. On the same day, Daenerys Entertainment Group quietly and quickly completed the issuance of the last US$5 billion long-term bond in the Westeros system in 1996.
Since this time it was still mainly aimed at overseas capital, and it was deliberately kept low-key, it did not cause too much trouble.
Two long-term bonds of US$5 billion, 10-year and 20-year, were subscribed by investors from all over the world on the day they were launched. After all, Daenerys Entertainment’s current corporate credit rating is completely comparable to that of U.S. Treasury bonds, and the interest rates of corporate bonds It is also higher than U.S. Treasury bonds, which naturally attracts all types of investors pursuing stable returns.
Of course, as the leading company with the largest market value on the New York Stock Exchange, media attention is inevitable.
The annual net profit of Daenerys Entertainment in the past fiscal year has exceeded 5 billion US dollars. There is no shortage of money. Therefore, in the eyes of many people, there is no need for this Hollywood giant to issue bonds again. Simon Vey Stroh naturally had other purposes in doing this.
As for why, it has actually been discussed repeatedly by countless media since the beginning of this year.
The Westeros system is hoarding funds for the economic downturn after the stock market bubble burst in order to survive the economic winter and even further expand by bargain hunting.
However, from the beginning of the year to now, I have been talking about it for a whole year. The Nasdaq index with the highest bubble content has not only not burst, but has risen higher and higher. This will inevitably make many people feel numb, so the relevant discussions are more limited to professional finance. Much of the attention of the media and the general public is focused on the upcoming Christmas.
on the other hand.
A box office week spanning Christmas passed quickly in a lively and warm holiday atmosphere.
In the box office week from December 20 to December 26, even with Christmas Eve, the total North American box office this week still exceeded the $200 million mark, stimulated by a number of popular movies.
First up is "Charlie's Angels" which started last week.
In its first week of release, with a higher popularity and reputation than "Jumanji", "Charlie's Angels" successfully took over the top spot, earning as much as US$72.01 million in its first seven days, which is close to the film's production cost of US$75 million. , the first-week opening average reached US$22,900, which was a full US$5,000 higher than the first-week opening average of "Game of the Brave" of $17,900 during the same period.
It is conceivable that if the number of screens of "Charlie's Angels" is similar to that of "Jumanji", it is not impossible to hit US$80 million in the first week.
Impacted by the huge sales of "Charlie's Angels", "Jumanji" fell 34% the next week, with revenue slipping to US$41.79 million, and a total of US$105.14 million in two weeks.
Frankly speaking, a biweekly box office of over 100 million is considered a success for most movies of this era, and "Jumanji" is no exception. It's a pity that this is supposed to be the most popular week of the year, and it is also the most popular CG special effects blockbuster type. The drop of more than 30% is obviously unsatisfactory.
However, "Jumanji" is actually lucky, because this week, "Wonder Woman 2", which is an absolutely phenomenal blockbuster at the end of the year, was unexpectedly overtaken by a literary drama film.
This movie is, of course, Good Will Hunting.
In the third week of its release, which is also the second week of its large-scale opening, the number of screening screens for "Good Will Hunting" increased from 1,746 last week to 2,125. Compared with other large-scale released movies during the same period, this film only had an investment of 10 million US dollars. The literary drama film became the only film to reverse the decline this week, with a 6% reversal of decline, and collected another US$25.31 million. The cumulative box office reached US$54.66 million in three weeks, fully recovering the total investment of US$20 million in production and promotion. , began to realize profits.
The former "Good Will Hunting" still earned more than 130 million U.S. dollars at the local box office despite being crushed by "Titanic" in the same period. This time, "Wonder Woman 2", "Jumanji" and "Charlie's Angels" The combination of blockbusters also failed to suppress the edge of this movie, which is rare.
Affected by "Charlie's Angels", "Wonder Woman 2", which ranked fourth in the weekly box office list, fell as much as 46% last week, collecting another US$20.95 million, with a cumulative box office of US$374.06 million.
This result is in line with industry analysis after the first week of the release of "Wonder Woman 2".
"Wonder Woman 2", which was released during the Thanksgiving holiday, grossed more than 150 million U.S. dollars at the box office in its first week, ranking second in Hollywood film history after "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," which created a box office miracle last year. However, industry media initially judged that "Wonder Woman 2"'s domestic box office of 400 million was not a big problem. Whether it could hit 500 million or even higher would depend on the market response to the two Christmas blockbusters.
Now, both "Jumanji" and "Charlie's Angels" have been hugely successful, even exceeding the studio's expectations. This will inevitably have an impact on the box office of "Wonder Woman 2", which was expected to hit the box office. Judging from the current situation, 400 million for local super blockbusters is still stable, but it will obviously stop at just over 400 million, and it will be difficult to go higher.
In the final analysis, the film market is still so big, and one thing goes down and the other goes up.
Of course, in the eyes of other Hollywood studios, this 'regret' makes people want to scratch their heads. The top four movies are "Charlie's Angels", "Jumanji", "Good Will Hunting" and "Wonder Woman 2", even though "Charlie's Angels" and "Jumanji" were ranked by MGM and "Jumanji" respectively. Warner Bros. label, but who doesn’t know that these are all projects led by Daenerys Entertainment.
In the most popular week, the total box office of these four movies is close to 160 million US dollars, and the total box office this week is only 220 million US dollars, which is equivalent to four movies occupying 72% of the market share. In addition, this week's box office statistics for theaters Among the total of 17 movies, 13 other movies such as "Jingle Bell All the Way" and "Bodyguard" received less than 30% of the remaining US$40 million in box office.
Crazy.
If we look at the whole year, Daenerys Entertainment is even more dominant. It is no longer like in previous years when there are still a few top ten shares in the annual list that belong to other studios.
A layman is just watching the excitement.
In the Hollywood circle, the more people understand the strong gambling nature of movies, the more they can understand how terrible it is for Daenerys Entertainment to do this.
Because of the strong uncertainty in the film industry, even if one studio can produce a blockbuster film, it will be difficult to prevent other film companies from launching equally blockbuster hits to share the market share. This is the reason why oligarchs will appear in other industrial fields for nearly a century. Monopoly, Hollywood has always been the main reason why six, seven, and eight major companies coexist.
Now, Daenerys Entertainment has miraculously reversed this accepted industry law.
"So, how on earth did you do it?"
In the manor in the northern suburbs of Greenwich, it was already the afternoon of December 31st. In the villa, preparations were being made for the New Year's Eve party in the evening. Katherine Bigelow, whom she hadn't seen for a while, and Simon were leaning on the couch in a living room together, drinking red wine in their hands and asking with a smile.
What the two discussed happened to be the current situation in which Daenerys Entertainment almost dominates Hollywood.
In fact, the reason is not complicated.
First of all, of course, Simon II played the most direct guiding role as a golden finger, preventing Daenerys Entertainment from stepping into many minefields. This is the most critical point, and it is also a unique advantage of Simon.
Secondly, Simon has completed the upgrade of the Hollywood film industry model ahead of schedule.
People who don't know what's going on always talk about Hollywood's powerful film industry. In fact, if you look carefully, Hollywood before the 1990s was undoubtedly powerful, but the industry was actually not perfect. This change actually began with the rise of blockbusters in the 1990s, truly forming the film industry that allowed Hollywood to dominate the world.
Simon not only pushed Hollywood into the blockbuster era ahead of schedule, but also mastered the most important core technology of CG special effects in this new era. In addition, through series of movie models such as the DC Movie Universe and The Conjuring Movie Universe, Simon has changed the highly uncertain gambling nature of the movie industry to the greatest extent, allowing Daenerys Entertainment to continuously produce blockbusters.
All in all, at its peak, Disney could easily account for six or seven of the top ten films every year. With Simon's advantages in all aspects, it is even more natural for Daenerys Entertainment to do this.
Simon leaned on the sofa and sat across from Catherine, also holding a glass of red wine in his hand, but did not answer the woman's question.
Staying in private with a woman and discussing too many work-related matters is actually very unpleasant.
With his free hand, he groped around and grabbed a strand of the woman's hair in front of him to play with. Simon's expression looked very hurt: "If others ask, it's okay. Catherine, I thought it was the first time we met. You have already seen my talent.”
Catherine rolled her eyes at someone, but there was some memory in her expression.
Suddenly I remembered that one evening many years ago, a young boy with a harmless smile on his face said seriously that he came from Watsonville Mental Hospital.
after that.
It became a blockbuster and soared into the sky. It only took 10 years to reach a level that everyone can only look up to forever.
"Do you admire me more and more the more you think about me?"
A voice came from her ears, interrupting Catherine's thoughts. After reacting, the woman rolled her eyes again, and then she was inevitably curious: "Now that I have reached this point, do you feel that you have lost your goal?"
Simon thought for a while and said: "My original goal was to win an Oscar, such as Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Soundtrack, etc. You know, except for the heroine, which is a bit difficult, I won the other major Oscars. You can try them all. However, when I have a trillion dollars, similar goals become irrelevant. Just like a person who has a PhD, how can he care about a little red flower in the kindergarten. Standing alone Of course, depending on where you are, you have different visions and different goals in life. At least, I know what I am doing and what I want to do.”
Catherine allowed the little man in front of her to play with her hair. After listening carefully, she saw that he actually did not reveal some of her real goals, but she did not go into details. She just couldn't help but said: "Jenny said that she can feel that you occasionally very confused."
"This is inevitable. This situation will happen to anyone." Simon said and curled his lips again: "So you should take more care of me."
Catherine resisted the urge to roll her eyes: "Jenny also said that when you are confused, you often like to act randomly."
"This is slander," Simon said with an upright face: "You know, Jenny snatched me away from you back then. In order to prevent you from having the idea of taking me back, of course you have to slander me in private. "
Catherine finally couldn't help but rolled her eyes again.
Simon pretended not to notice, let go of Catherine's hair, and continued to reach forward, trying to reach for the woman's white neck, which was still well maintained over the years.
This time he was beaten back.
After knocking the little man's clutches open, Catherine moved her hair to cover a section of her neck outside the black turtleneck sweater, and said in a non-lethal manner: "People will see it."
Simon didn't force it, he just moved closer without leaving any trace, enjoying the different and delicious fragrance of each woman, and asked: "Speaking of which, do you have any plans for your next movie?"
Catherine shook her head: "I have read many scripts and always feel dissatisfied."
"Then just shoot whatever you want, and try all kinds of genres."
Catherine was noncommittal.
In fact, it was still because of the failure of "Detroit" last time.
If other investors had proposed this matter, she would definitely not have too many scruples. She would just work hard, and even if she failed, she would at least feel guilty.
Which director in Hollywood has never experienced failure
Now, I can take pictures of whatever I want, but I don’t dare to do it easily.
Seeing that Catherine didn't respond, Simon didn't force it. Catherine is definitely not the kind of person who can't live without movies. On the contrary, although she is always alone, a woman's life is very exciting, and he doesn't need to worry about anything at all.
The two of them chatted without saying a word until dusk fell before they knew it.
The New Year's Eve party in the evening was very lively, with hundreds of guests gathering together. Not only were there various performances, but a grand fireworks show was also arranged at midnight, which was very lively.
1996 was also officially spent in this bustling atmosphere.
For Simon, this year seems longer than the tumultuous 1994. Overall, it can be described as a big turning point for the Westeros system.
Simon's personal net worth exceeded $1 trillion this year.
unprecedented.
During this year, Daenerys Entertainment’s tendency to dominate Hollywood has become more and more obvious. The market value of Ygritte, Daenerys Entertainment Group, and Cisco has entered the $500 billion club, and continues to rise, leading the two major U.S. stock markets, dazzlingly.
The power of the Westeros system in North America has become more and more entrenched, and it has begun a comprehensive layout around the world, with unparalleled popularity.
Ultimately, these changes mean one thing.
Compared with the turmoil of 1994, in 1996, Simon was truly promoted from a participant in this world to a chess player.