Simon returned to Los Angeles and resumed his busy work. During this period, one of the most watched events in Hollywood is undoubtedly the re-release of the "Star Wars" series.
In order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of the Star Wars series and to warm up the upcoming Star Wars prequel series, "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" reopened on January 30 with 2,104 screens in North America. The status of the Star Wars series in the United States is like that of "Journey to the West" in China. This re-release can be described as "one response, one response".
From January 31st to February 6th, in the first seven days of its re-release, "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" easily earned US$45.49 million at the box office. During its unpopular schedule at the end of January, its box office momentum was no less than that of a popular movie. pound bomb, this shows the strong appeal of the Star Wars IP.
Affected by the re-release of the Star Wars series, a series of old films released at the end of last year, except for "Good Will Hunting", "The English Patient" and a few other awards season films that still have potential, have all entered the final stage.
In the same week's list, "Charlie's Angels", which ranked second at the box office after Star Wars, was released in its seventh week. Its single-week box office dropped from US$12.49 million last week to within the range of 10 million US dollars, with revenue of US$7.11 million, seven weeks. The cumulative box office at that time was 232.81 million.
The third place is "Good Will Hunting".
Counting from screenings, in its ninth week, "Good Will Hunting" continued to earn US$6.69 million with a 25% weekly decline, with a cumulative box office of US$133.78 million.
It seems that the single-week box office of "Charlie's Angels" is still higher than that of "Good Will Hunting", but if you pay attention to the decline, it is not difficult to find that "Charlie's Angels" fell by 43% in its seventh week of release due to the impact of "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" , while the decline of "Good Will Hunting" was only 25%. The trend is much more stable than that of "Charlie's Angels", and there is no problem in holding on to the Oscars.
The fourth and fifth place "Jumanji" and "The English Patient" were almost tied, earning US$5.03 million and US$5.01 million respectively. However, the status of the two films is similar to that of "Charlie's Angels" and "Good Will Hunting."
"Jumanji", which was released in its eighth week, recorded a weekly box office decline of 39%, reaching a cumulative box office of US$194.09 million.
"The English Patient" in the same eighth week earned US$5.01 million with a 19% decline over the same period, with a cumulative box office of US$36.37 million.
In addition to the top five, "Wonder Woman 2", which was released during the Thanksgiving holiday last year, completely ended.
In its 11th week of release, "Wonder Woman 2" gradually reduced its screening scale to 565 screens, earning another US$1.63 million, and its cumulative box office reached US$415.09 million. As Daenerys Entertainment further shrinks the canvas of "Wonder Woman 2" in order to launch a new film on February 7, the film's subsequent box office will shrink significantly again. It is expected to earn up to US$2 million in the follow-up. The total local box office will stay at around US$417 million. .
After the first week of the Star Wars re-release, Daenerys Entertainment also began to focus on the film business in 1996.
On February 7th, a new box office week? "Two Smoking Barrels" and "The Following", which were well received at the Sundance Film Festival in January, were released simultaneously.
It is still opening simultaneously in Britain and the United States.
Simon initially hoped that "Two Smoking Barrels", which had a box office performance far exceeding that of North America in the United Kingdom, and another more phenomenal "Six Pigs" would be opened in the United Kingdom first, and then transferred to North America after accumulating popularity. However, after seeing the package marketing plan for British movies in February proposed by the company's publicity team, Simon decisively approved the new strategy.
The main reason is that this strategy does not include the once phenomenal film "Six Pigs"? As for "Two Smoking Barrels", the UK box office in my memory was 28 million pounds? There is no doubt about its success, but it is far less than The 160 million pounds of "Six Pigs", which broke the British box office record, means that even if there are some deviations, it does not matter to the overall situation.
In addition, the packaged release strategy this time is not just about "Two Smoking Barrels" and "The Following", but "BJ's Diary", which will be released on Valentine's Day on February 14, is the top priority.
Although the new version of "BJ's Diary" was released a few years in advance, the heroine is Julia Roberts, a typical American girl. But the film's behind-the-scenes team and story content are all from the UK. It is not too inconsistent to say that it is a British movie.
Let's talk about "Two Smoking Barrels" and "Following".
Continuing the excellent reputation at the Sundance Film Festival, these two low-cost feature films were first launched and have also gained wide recognition in the mass media in the United Kingdom and the United States. Moreover, according to Simon's suggestion, not only Nolan's "The Following" but Guy Ritchie's "Two Smoking Barrels" was also labeled as "brain-burning". After all, this film's multi-threaded narrative The complexity of the technique far exceeds other similar projects in recent years, and it is indeed a brain-burning one.
With widespread praise from the media and audience curiosity piqued by brain-burning labels, the two films have successfully grabbed considerable public attention in the face of sentimental Star Wars re-releases.
In its first week from February 7th to February 13th, "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" still grossed US$26.35 million in the second week of its re-release, while "Two Smoking Barrels" and "The Following" respectively With comparable screen sizes of 763 and 712, it successfully earned US$5.41 million and US$4.65 million at the box office.
The two box office figures may not seem like much, but in just one week, the box office revenue of both openings directly exceeded their production costs.
Not only that, based on the per-theater average, "Two Smoking Barrels" reached US$7,092, and "The Following" also reached US$6,532. During the cool period in February, there were less than 1,000 screening screens. Such per-theater averages can basically be considered big hits. At the same time, the two films followed "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace", "Good Will Hunting" and "Charlie's Angels" and ranked among the top five in the weekly box office list, ranking fourth and fifth respectively.
Subsequently, during the premiere of "BJ's Diary" at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood on February 12, the creators of "Two Smoking Barrels" and "The Following" attended the premiere together, adding fuel to the fire with Daenerys Entertainment Next, the three films were officially fully bundled, causing the popularity of the two films to rise again after their good start.
With their popularity at this time and the recent lack of strong competitors in the market, it is expected that the two films can easily be screened until Easter at the end of March. The North American box office will easily reach the range of 20 million to 30 million US dollars expected by Daenerys Entertainment, and even exceed 3,000. It's not impossible.
Considering that both films are only low-cost investments of two to three million US dollars, and the box office returns are ten times higher in North America alone, coupled with overseas revenue, the profit level of the two projects is no less than that of some blockbusters with mediocre market performance. bomb.
February 14th, Valentine's Day.
As Daenerys Entertainment's first major hit in 1996, "BJ's Diary" opened on a large scale with 2,513 screens in North America.
Same acclaim.
After the word-of-mouth ban was lifted on the second day of the premiere, the film's comprehensive media score quickly reached an excellent score of 8.3 points.
"Variety" magazine commented that "BJ's Diary" is another smart, alternative and delicate love movie after "When Harry Met Sally" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral".
Julia Roberts' self-destructive performance of gaining 30 pounds was also recognized by the media.
The New York Times commented that Julia's weight gain not only did not obscure the actress's charm, but made her even more attractive. The famous film critic Roger Ebert also praised Julia's double breakthrough in image and acting skills in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Although the Valentine's Day schedule also includes Warner's "Vegas Vacation" starring veteran comedy star Chevy Chase and Paramount's "Friends" actor Matthew Perry and Mexican actress Salma Hayek The romance film "Silly Love Comes True" starring in the movie started production at the same time, but under the bombardment of the bundled release strategy of Daenerys Entertainment's three films, even the re-release of "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" was overshadowed. , the attention received by the other two new films is even different.
On the other hand, after the re-release of Star Wars and Daenerys Entertainment’s packaging marketing strategy have re-stimulated the market, the industry generally predicts that during the Valentine’s Day box office week, which happens to start on February 14, the total box office in North America in a single week will once again reach the At the 100 million yuan mark, most of the share will be divided up by the films with the highest attention.
Subsequent facts also proved this.
Even though she has been overtaken by the rapid rise of blockbuster movies in recent years, Julia Roberts's box office appeal has not faded too much. Coupled with an excellent story, this is not America's sweetheart, but it is better than America's sweetheart. The market potential of Hollywood actresses has been re-stimulated.
In just its first weekend, "BJ's Diary" successfully earned US$26.29 million at the box office, easily reaching the sales level of over 10,000 in three days.
Then, in the complete first week from February 14th to February 20th, the box office of "BJ's Diary" finally reached 37.62 million US dollars in the first week, and the seven-day box office was close to 15,000 US dollars. For this film, which also took the initiative to find a stable long-term run before the Easter schedule, this is a quite outstanding opening result.
"Star Wars: The Phantom Menace", which ranked second, was originally expected to even reverse decline this week. Due to the impact of several new films such as "BJ's Diary", the reverse decline not only failed to materialize, but the box office fell by 22% in a single week. , earning US$20.61 million.
"Vegas Vacation" produced by Warner Bros. ranked third, but the box office in its first week was another level, with only 11.76 million US dollars. With 2,054 opening screens, the average theater average barely exceeded US$5,000. It is conceivable that this movie will be quickly eliminated after the Valentine's Day box office week.
The fourth place Paramount's "Love Comes True" is almost in the same situation. It opened on 1,674 screens and earned only US$9.13 million in its first week.
Under the impact of three new films, Guy Ritchie's "Two Smoking Barrels" successfully held on to fifth place.
In the second week of release, due to the success of the first week, Daenerys Entertainment increased the number of screening screens of "Two Smoking Barrels" and "The Following" to more than 1,000. Coupled with the popular Valentine's Day, "Two Smoking Barrels" "Smoking Gun" with 1,076 screens in the next week, revenue fell to US$7.53 million, and the box office fell by as much as 39%.
Although Nolan's "The Following" was squeezed out of the top five, it still managed to hold on to sixth place on the list with its increased screen size of 1,029, earning US$6.21 million, also achieving a 33% decline.
Although this week is quite special, due to this performance, Daenerys Entertainment has raised the local box office expectations of "Two Smoking Barrels" and "The Following" to more than 30 million US dollars at the same time.
As for the total box office of "Two Smoking Barrels" must be higher than that of "The Following", no one is surprised. After all, "The Following" is really brain-burning. If you don't watch the movie carefully, you may not understand it. After all, it lacks some fun. And "Two Smoking Barrels" has a stronger story and fun, even if the audience can't understand it. Clear all the clues, just the wonderful performances of a group of weirdos, and you can still get a quite rich movie-watching experience.
After returning from China, it was Valentine's Day on February 14th and Simon's 29th birthday on February 22nd. Simon stayed in Los Angeles for two consecutive weeks.
Until February 24th.
The end of the month.
At the same time, it was the beginning of a new week, and Simon finally left Los Angeles again and set off for the East Coast.
On the previous Friday, which was also the day before Simon's birthday, he continued to hold on for more than half a month. In the face of the Nasdaq index, which had increased by more than 5% in three weeks and reached a high of 6,700 points, the Tiger Fund suffered an overall loss of nearly 80%. , officially declared liquidation. Tiger Management, which reached US$12 billion more than three months ago, has only US$2.8 billion left after clearing all short positions.
After Tiger Fund founder Julian Robertson issued a public apology letter to investors, he stated that after completing the redemption of the last remaining funds, he would close Tiger Fund, disband the team, and would not be involved in the hedging field in the short term.
It can be described as disheartening.
As a leader in the hedge fund field that has grown rapidly in recent years, the liquidation of Tiger Management shocked the entire industry.
However, in addition to the large number of investors who suffered direct losses, the field of capital hedging has attracted more and more attention from all parties. After all, this is a zero-sum game. The other side of Tiger Fund's losses of nearly 10 billion is that in recent months, Someone made nearly ten billion dollars from it.
Although it is not easy to find out who made the money, as long as this is confirmed, it is enough to make too many people follow suit.
Simon has been reducing the size of the hedging department directly under Cersei Capital, betting on Soros' funds, and targeting Southeast Asia. Therefore, Cersei Capital did not gain much from carving up Tiger Fund’s feast. The team of Cersei Fund Management Company, which has also been standing on the opposite side of Tiger Fund and continued to do long positions since last year’s election, due to its conservative position holding strategy, the three Over many months, the cumulative profit was only US$1.2 billion.
Therefore, most of Tiger Fund's losses fell into the hands of other hedging capital.
Simon has no regrets about this.
Even Simon himself initially believed that the Nasdaq's turn was likely to occur around December last year or even January this year. The long profits that should be earned were already made last year. Simon also kept in mind the business principle of not making every last penny. After all, if it continues, perhaps just one day of sharp decline in the Nasdaq can swallow up most of the profits accumulated over several months.
It is safe to fall into the bag.
No matter what field of investment, the biggest mistake that too many people make is that they are unable to let go when it is time to stop, and they find it difficult to let go when it is time to let go, and occasionally they laugh at other people who choose enough and end up seemingly missing out on more benefits.
In the end, these people often draw water from a bamboo basket.
In addition to the disastrous failure of Tiger Fund, Richard Mellon Scaife of the Mellon family even left the market when his principal of US$300 million was less than 40 million. During this trip to the West Coast, in addition to visiting pregnant women as usual, what Simon also has to do is make some follow-up arrangements for the Mellon family.