"The fund that Jenny asked me to take charge of with Uliya is about nanomaterials and quantum computing projects. I don't understand these. There is also the matter of establishing Solvay Institute here in Boston. I have read the materials. This It’s a very special school for extraordinary children, and I’m not sure if I can do it well?”
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t do well.”
"ah?"
"The projects you are responsible for are all for the little ones in your belly. If they can't get anything in the future, they can only blame their mothers."
“…”
Boston the next morning.
In the manor house in the West District on the western outskirts of the city, Simon took a helicopter over after breakfast to visit Maria and the two daughters.
Today is Sunday, January 12th, which is the coldest time of the year on the East Coast. It snowed a few days ago, and the surroundings of the manor were completely covered with snow. Simon did not go out again after arriving, but just stayed in the villa with Maria. While chatting in a living room, the three boys greeted Simon and took the initiative to find an excuse to leave, obviously to leave space for Simon and his mother.
The topic was about a fund that Janet arranged for the two women to manage when she came over to see them at the end of last year. It mainly used the scientific research resources of several top universities in Boston to research a series of cutting-edge projects.
In addition, after the success of the Solvay Academy in Malibu, Los Angeles, Simon plans to gradually roll out similar academy programs around the world starting this year. The goal is to select children with high IQs and train them in a targeted manner, just like Einstein at the Solvay Conference in 1927. Stein, Marie Curie and other scientists who can influence the future of mankind.
The Solvay College project in Boston was naturally given to two women, Maria and Ulyana.
At this time, looking at the woman curled up on the sofa next to him with a hesitant look on his face, Simon couldn't help but reach over and stroke the woman's smooth face. His fingertips slowly touched her neck. He was held down by the woman in panic before he continued downwards. , said: "As long as you and Uliya work hard, it doesn't matter if you fail. These things cannot be successful at once or in a short period of time. Even if we can complete half of them before our short lives end, it will be fine." This life will not be in vain.”
Seeing the little man speaking, Maria slowly retracted the big hand that she had just stretched out. She felt a little reluctant for some reason, moved her body, and said: "Actually, I can see that these arrangements of yours are very important to the future of our world. , are all very beneficial.”
Simon shook his head slightly: "I'm not as good as you think."
Maria blinked her eyes and nodded with a slightly red face: "Of course I know this."
Good people don't rob her like robbers.
A woman who blushes will always look more attractive, especially a woman who has a dignified temperament and seems to be always meticulous when she suddenly blushes.
Simon reached out again, pulled the woman over directly, hugged her to his side, and kissed her on the lips.
Maria was forcibly kissed for a moment, and she managed to escape a little: "No, it can't be done, the baby... is still young."
"Don't worry, I know," Simon reassured. Seeing that the woman's eyes were still a little flustered, he just hugged her gently and took the initiative to return to the topic: "Actually, in recent years, more and more people have been asking me, Simon, you have so much wealth that you can never spend it all, what are you going to do in the future?”
Seeing that Simon did not continue, Maria felt relieved a little and asked, "Have you thought of the answer?"
As he said it, he understood a little bit.
Probably, the funds I am responsible for and the projects I finance are the answer.
Simon nodded: "Such a huge wealth, from a personal point of view, as a selfish person, if possible, I certainly hope to leave it to my children in the future, so that the Westeros family can be passed down forever. However, this Obviously it is impossible, not to mention, just because I can control this wealth now does not mean that the little ones will also have this ability in the future. Once they are unable to control it and inherit too much wealth, it will only lead to disaster."
Maria nodded in agreement: "Then what?"
"Then, let's create a possibility."
Maria began to wonder again: "Huh?"
Simon said: "It is unlikely that it will be completely passed on to the children. Donating it and establishing various foundations is probably the best way to belong. However, I do not intend to let these foundations do the usual things in the past, which are empty. Education, medical care, environmental protection and even interference in politics to promote peace, in my opinion, these will only bring about stagnation and reincarnation."
Maria clearly still didn't get it.
Simon explained patiently: "In my opinion, human civilization can be divided into three stages: prehistoric era, agricultural era, and industrial era. The prehistoric era is too long, so let's not talk about it. The most typical agricultural era lasted for thousands of years. Whether in Asia, Europe or the Americas, dynasty changes were basically accompanied by intensive wars, civilizations stagnated and reincarnated. Until the industrial age, which is now, whether it is the subdivided steam age, the electrical age or the information that has now unfolded In my opinion, eras are still just different stages of the industrial era. If no one changes, the result is likely to be like the agricultural era that lasted for thousands of years, stagnating and reincarnating. What I want , is a fundamental change that will push mankind into the next era of civilization and create a new possibility for the lucky races in this universe. I can only say it is a possibility, because I cannot judge how good this era will be in the future. and bad.”
Maria, who is the top intellectual in this society even though she specializes in language subjects, completely understood the little man's explanation.
An inexplicable feeling of admiration arose in my heart.
Compared with those wealthy politicians who keep talking about making the world a better place, this little man of mine is truly thinking about the future of mankind.
Simon keenly noticed the change in the woman's expression and asked with a smile: "Did you suddenly fall in love with me?"
Maria dodged her eyes for a moment, then plucked up the courage to look over and said, "I'm just sure that the little guy in my belly has a very good father."
Simon caressed the slightly bulging belly under the woman's bottom shirt. Maria did not dodge this time. She felt it for a moment. Of course, there was no reaction now. She just said: "The little guy may not necessarily think so in the future. Moreover, many of the things I plan to do, It may also cause strong controversy.”
Maria gently held Simon's big hand and said: "Great people will always be questioned and slandered as they move forward, but history will give a fair evaluation."
"Oh, it's not as noble as you think. I just happen to be in this position and have enough resources."
Maria shook her head: "Many people who can use more abundant resources than you have never thought of doing this."
As she said this, the empire that collapsed a few years ago came to Maria's mind. Those who once stood at the pinnacle of power, in the end, left behind only countless ambitions that dissipated in the long river of history.
Simon felt the woman's sudden melancholy and probably guessed what she was thinking, but he didn't say much.
Maria didn't indulge for too long. She came back to her senses and chatted with Simon for a few more words. After a little hesitation, she said: "You should go and see Uliya more. I can see that when she was pregnant, it was really just An accident, nothing... I didn't mean to rely on you."
"I'll be there after lunch."
"So, will you stay tonight?"
Simon's eyes swept over the woman's gentle body, and he nodded: "Okay."
Maria shook her head: "I mean, you stay with Uliya."
Simon joked: "Are all women today so generous, pushing their men to other women?"
"I am your woman, but you are not my man."
"Oh..." Simon looked around: "Do you have other men? Just a reminder, don't let me find out, it will kill someone."
Maria gave him a very harmless look: "I mean, you just stole me."
"Sounds like I'm a robber."
Maria made a 'you are it' look, paused, and said: "Or, I call Uliya and ask her to come over and have lunch together."
"You don't mind, of course I have no problem."
Simon said, when he saw Maria taking out her mobile phone, she stopped with a smile, called the housekeeper, and directly ordered her to send a driver to pick up the person.
Seeing the man, Maria made a decision directly, and for a moment she thought she should call Ulyana to explain. However, after thinking about it again, I realized that the man did this just because he did not want to cause any misunderstanding between her and Uliya. After all, she meant well, but Uliyana may not necessarily think so. If she thought she was demonstrating, Then you have good intentions and do bad things.
And if it was some robber-like little man who made a random decision, it would have nothing to do with her, and maybe it would bring the two of them closer.
We are connected by fate.
However, in order to avoid Ulyana's embarrassment, Maria still called her eldest son Victor and asked the three brothers to settle their lunch outside and come back in the evening.
Simon stayed in Boston for a day and started back to the West Coast early the next morning, with his destination being San Francisco.
The main purpose is to discuss with the top management of Yigrit the 1996 annual financial report of Yigrit that will be released at the end of the month. The Weijia intelligence team obtained the article from Richard Mellon Scaife that criticized the Internet industry. It is an article about a Ponzi scheme, and the target of the attack is Ygritte.
Therefore, this financial report will be related to the crucial long-short game in the technology stock market.
For the full-year financial report planned to be released on January 22, Yigrit will hold a special press conference. The eye-catching revenue and profit data will come next. The focus will be on promoting Yigrit’s changes in public life. Helping local employment, promoting social efficiency, etc.
In short, it is to weaken in advance the impact that a certain article and related public opinion operations may have on the new technology industry.
By the time Simon returned from San Francisco, another box office week in January 1997 came to an end.
In the week from January 10th to January 16th, the first thing that attracted attention was that the domestic box office of "Wonder Woman 2" officially exceeded the US$400 million mark, becoming the only film released in 1996 to exceed the US$400 million domestic box office mark. super bombshell.
specific aspects.
Last year's Christmas release "Charlie's Angels", after overtaking "Jumanji" last week, in its fourth week of release, it still ranked first in the single-week box office with a good 29% weekly decline, collecting another 27.16 million. U.S. dollars, the cumulative box office in four weeks is 197.19 million U.S. dollars, and it is about to exceed 200 million U.S. dollars.
From its strong opening of over US$70 million in its first week on December 20 last year, to last week’s total domestic box office overtaking “Jumanji” in its three weeks of release, “Charlie’s Angels” has surpassed the two major producers Dani in a series of data Liz and MGM's expectations.
At present, the blockbuster here is only the local box office, which is expected to exceed 250 million US dollars, which is enough to recoup the total production and promotion investment of only 105 million US dollars and achieve profitability. Not only that, but most importantly, the continuous success of "Spectre" and "Charlie's Angels" in the past year has given the planned "Agent Cinematic Universe" an amazing start.
After "Charlie's Angels", "Jumanji" barely held on to its runner-up position on the list.
However, compared to the US$27.16 million of "Charlie's Angels", the single-week box office of "Jumanji" has dropped to US$13.72 million. This is because this week's decline has narrowed again compared with last week's sharp drop.
In the five weeks since its release, "Jumanji" has accumulated a box office of US$169.71 million, which is still about US$30 million away from the 200 million threshold. Although it is not a big problem to collect another 30 million US dollars in the future, the local box office of the film will probably stop at just over 200 million, and it will most likely not even exceed 210 million.
Fortunately, based on the film’s production cost of US$82 million and promotion of US$35 million, the local box office is US$200 million. If the movie can obtain more than 60% of the revenue share from theaters, it is still enough to recover the cost and achieve a small amount. profit. However, compared to predictions before the release that the industry was generally more optimistic about this CG blockbuster than the relatively traditional "Charlie's Angels", the reversal of reality makes it difficult for Warner, who is responsible for the distribution, to be too happy.
Then came "Good Will Hunting", which ranked third on the list, almost on par with "Jumanji".
In its sixth week of release, "Good Will Hunting" recorded the largest single-week box office drop of 27% since its launch, counting from screenings, and collected another US$12.65 million, just over US$1 million behind the previous winner "Jumanji". difference.
Compared with other super blockbusters that succeeded but failed unexpectedly, directed by Gus Van Sant, starring Matt Damon, Robert De Niro, Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale This dark horse literary drama starring others has a production cost of only 10 million U.S. dollars, and its cumulative box office this week also successfully exceeded 100 million, reaching 1071.7 billion U.S. dollars.
This year's Golden Globe Awards is coming this Sunday, January 19th.
As a hit during the awards season, "Good Will Hunting" has been stimulated by a series of subsequent awards and Oscars. The box office curve must be very good. It is conservatively estimated that the domestic box office can reach more than 150 million US dollars.
Fourth place went to "Mrs. Peron" starring Madonna.
This biographical film, which opened for screenings on December 20 last year, made the producer Paramount regret it so much that it wanted to hit the wall.
In order to avoid competition in the year-end schedule, Paramount arranged a two-week screening for this film starting from December 20, spanning Christmas and New Year's Day, completely avoiding the fierce competition at the end of the year, and only started screening on January 3 The film opened on a large scale, and as a result, the film's box office performance proved a serious mistake in Paramount's distribution strategy.
Let’s start from the beginning.
In its first week of screening, "Mrs. Peron" earned a box office of US$1.02 million with only 22 opening screens, and the theater average reached US$46,000. This is already an outstanding result. But then, in the second week of the movie, that is, the New Year's Day week from December 27th to January 2nd, the movie theaters on the same 22 screens not only did not decrease, but instead jumped to 77,000 US dollars, and the revenue in a single week to $1.69 million.
What this means is self-evident.
Even though the film's reputation in the media is only barely acceptable, the audiences in New York and Los Angeles who opened the screening obviously liked the film. Otherwise, there would not be such a super-high-end theater that was packed with screenings the next week. all.
Unfortunately, Paramount didn't even seize the last chance.
According to the operating concept of a film competing for awards, on January 3, "Mrs. Peron" still only received 704 screens. In the end, from January 3 to January 9, the first week of large-scale opening, the film's box office revenue was only 11.3 million U.S. dollars, in sharp contrast to the average museum average of 16,000 U.S. dollars.
Then in the past week, Paramount finally reacted and quickly increased the screening size to 1,319 blocks.
Unfortunately, all the best opportunities were missed.
The reason why popular schedules are popular is that enough viewers have the time and motivation to go to theaters to watch movies. Unpopular schedules are just the opposite. This is not only because the holidays have passed and people have returned to work, but also because people psychologically believe that they are no longer in the theater. A great time to watch a movie.
In short, it lacks a sufficient audience base and has to compete with other films that still have momentum. After all, "Mrs. Peron" only has more than 1,300 screens. In the box office week from January 10th to January 16th, "Mrs. Peron" It just managed to achieve a slight reverse decline, less than one percentage point, and earned US$11.46 million.
In the four weeks since the screening, the cumulative box office of "Mrs. Peron" finally reached US$25.47 million.
It is conceivable that if Paramount can be bolder, open on a large scale after only showing for one week, and grab a popular New Year's Day week, the box office and trend of "Mrs. Peron" will change significantly.
Even if Paramount abandons screenings at the end of the year and directly launches large-scale movies, or adopts a release strategy similar to "Good Will Hunting", even if it will still be squeezed by a number of blockbusters, after all, it is a movie that is not the same as "Good Will Hunting". Biographical musicals with conflicting themes in other films can still gain considerable space for survival, and perhaps the box office has exceeded US$50 million now.
It's a pity that there are too many 'ifs' in this world, and there is always only one 'result'.
Faced with the media's discussion, the upright Queen McQueen couldn't help but directly complained. She said that when she showed the movie to Simon, her good friends were optimistic about it, but the conservative Paramount messed up the matter. The Queen moved all her 'good friends' out, and Paramount, who had indeed made a mistake, could only endure it and could not refute.
And then there's "Wonder Woman 2."
Although it grabbed the fifth place on the list, after all, it was impacted by "Jumanji", "Charlie's Angels" and even "Good Will Hunting". The single-week box office of "Wonder Woman 2" has only 6.98 million US dollars. , although the cumulative box office has officially exceeded the 400 million mark, reaching 405.71 million US dollars, the follow-up box office potential is probably only 10 million US dollars, and the initial local expectations of 500 million are completely gone.
In addition to the top five, it is worth mentioning that "The English Patient" ranked sixth.
Unlike "Mrs. Peron", which is actually more suitable for commercial film operation, with the same awards season focus, this artistic film with a niche subject matter is not suitable for large-scale screening. It still only has 636 screening screens in its fifth week. It has just passed It earned US$4.65 million in one week, with a cumulative box office of US$18.17 million.
With the arrival of the Golden Globe Awards, MGM has only increased the number of screening screens for the film to 1,103 this week, and will maintain it until the Oscars in March. During this period, it will continue to stimulate audiences through various media awards and union awards. The ultimate goal is more than $50 million, which is enough to recoup the film's production cost of $27 million.
If it succeeds in becoming an Oscar winner, the overseas distribution prospects will be even brighter.
In the past, "The English Patient" relied on this stable long-term distribution strategy. The local box office was close to 80 million US dollars, and it was even better overseas. Because the Oscars in the 1990s were very valuable and popular, audiences in other countries also bought it. In the end, the overseas box office exceeded 150 million, and the global box office accumulated 230 million US dollars. All parties involved in production and distribution made a lot of money.