In the week before Easter, the tragic stock market crash ultimately caused the Nasdaq to fall by 24% in five days. The Nasdaq index plummeted from a high of 7,045 points on March 24 to the closing price on Friday, March 28. 5346 points. As a result, the total market value of Nasdaq plummeted from a maximum of US$9.3 trillion to US$7.1 trillion, which is equivalent to US$2.2 trillion in wealth, equivalent to the combined GDP of the two major countries of the United Kingdom and China in 1996. It evaporated in just five days.
The capital market is in mourning.
The liquidation of Tiger Management in February gave another dose of adrenaline to all the bull capital that was still optimistic about the Internet industry at that time. This triggered hundreds of billions of dollars in various purchases and positions in technology stocks in just one month, including a large number of The use of financial leverage.
If the highest position takes over, tragedy is inevitable.
For five consecutive days, no fewer than 20 investor suicides were reported in newspapers around the world due to the collapse of the Nasdaq. More former millionaires and multi-millionaires, like the Tiger Fund that collapsed a month ago, returned overnight. before liberation.
In this stock market crash, the one who suffered the most serious losses was undoubtedly a young tycoon whose peak net worth reached US$2.3 trillion.
Compared with the Nasdaq's overall decline of 23% in a week, Simon's personal net worth has fallen by 31% cumulatively due to the series of new technology leaders controlled by his name. As of Friday's close, there was only US$1.6 trillion left. In just five days, The loss reached US$700 billion, which is equivalent to one person resisting nearly one-third of the market value loss of the Nasdaq.
Quite tragic.
Of course, this is only tragic on paper.
Even when many spectators who feel inexplicably gloating are celebrating the "collapse of the oligarchs", people with some sense can still see that even if personal wealth has evaporated by 700 billion US dollars, personal assets of 1.6 trillion US dollars are still higher than last year. The 1.5 trillion on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans is a full $100 billion higher.
Even if Simon Westeros's personal net worth falls back to less than 1 trillion US dollars, so what
The other party is still a super rich man in the world whose personal net worth far exceeds that of the second person on the list. Ordinary people cannot catch up to him even after ten lifetimes of hard work.
Unlike most investors who are in the middle of the game and are anxious and even going to extremes as they watch the new technology stocks they hold depreciate day by day, Simon is indeed the most calm and indifferent person in this storm.
While continuing to travel between a group of pregnant women to fulfill the responsibilities of an expectant father, the Westeros system has begun to form a financial audit team headed by Veronica Johnston in recent days, intending to start conducting audits of Westeros in April. Within the system, companies such as Igret, Cisco, and AOL conducted comprehensive investigations and sorting out.
Simon is confident that the various companies in the Westeros system that he has been keeping a close eye on will not have serious financial loopholes like Enron and WorldCom, but he is also very clear that there will definitely be many small-scale problems and loopholes.
Doing this is actually equivalent to repairing the house before winter.
Take precautions before things happen.
Then, when the Internet winter officially enters, Simon will launch large-scale layoffs to completely clean up the impetuous emotions within the company that have inevitably been caused by the surging new technology bubble for several consecutive years? Achieve nirvana, so that after the cold winter, Yigri Can special-level companies develop further? Hit higher peaks.
At the same time, as we enter the Easter weekend, a series of new products from Tinco Bayer are officially launched in major markets around the world.
In the previous week's pre-sales, a series of flagship products such as iPlayer, iCam, iRec, iMac, and other online and offline platforms in North America and abroad exceeded 12 million in total pre-sales, which became a very eye-catching benefit in the context of the Nasdaq collapse.
Throughout the weekend, a large number of media were tacitly promoting Tinco Beyer's hot pre-sales data, and predicted that Tinco Bayer's cumulative sales in 1997, excluding various peripheral electronic products, would exceed 150 million units. Directly catching up with the total global PC shipments? Create another miracle.
In fact, even without this momentum, Tinker Bayer's stock price decline in the past week was the lowest among all new technology companies, with a cumulative decline of only 8.3% in five days.
On the other hand, for most ordinary people, the stock market crash is somewhat far away from them.
What is closely related to life during this period is Easter.
Similarly, in Hollywood, everyone is most concerned about the Easter schedule.
Before and after the 69th Academy Awards on March 24, the box office of films such as "The English Patient" which won the award and "Good Will Hunting" which gained renewed exposure, rebounded. However, these films, which are basically in the final stages, have fallen out of contention for the Easter schedule.
Among them, the local box office of "The English Patient" has exceeded US$70 million. With the Oscar for Best Picture just won, it is expected to earn about US$10 million in the future. The total local box office is around US$80 million.
At the same time, "The English Patient" officially started overseas distribution after the Oscars, with Daenerys Entertainment as the main agent.
This is actually the big one.
Relying on the halo of the Oscar for Best Picture, the overseas box office of "The English Patient" once exceeded US$150 million, almost twice that of the domestic one? This time it will not be much different.
Another film, "Good Will Hunting," recently had a local box office close to US$160 million. With only the Best Original Screenplay win at the Oscars, this movie will soon be withdrawn from theaters. The total local box office is expected to be around US$165 million.
As for films such as "Wonder Woman 2", "Jumanji", and "Charlie's Angels" that were scheduled for the end of last year, with the advent of Easter, in order to free up screen resources for new films, they have been canceled during this period.
During the Easter period, which opened on March 21, a total of three new films were released in North American theaters, namely the Jim Carrey comedy "The Cable Fixer" produced by Daenerys Entertainment, "Alien 2" released by MGM and Fox The TV series spin-off movie "Power Rangers" of the same name.
Among them, "Cable TV Repairman" and "Alien 2" that received the most attention obviously did not start well.
After all, a US$35 million budget and US$15 million were spent on publicity. Even if there were private discord, the work that needed to be done still had to be done. Daenerys Entertainment's publicity team created a gimmick for "Cable TV Fixer" that featured Jim Carrey's transformation. However, the film's rating from the media was only a passable 6.2, which obviously included public relations. Element.
"Alien 2", which fans have been waiting for for a long time, suffered basically a similar experience.
The plot of the story ranges from the hunt for alien species in the first part to the duel between two generations of alien species in the second part. Although the budget has increased to 40 million US dollars, the production team has become more attentive, and Simon personally advises, the overall score is 4.3 points compared to the first part. , the comprehensive media score of this sequel only rose slightly to 5.5 points, still failing.
The "Hollywood Reporter" review very directly pointed out the key reasons why this sequel was not recognized by critics: assembly line popcorn without any connotation, and too much meat.
The reality is that it cannot stop the audience from watching it!
Who can bear it when two beauties are naked and tearing each other apart on the big screen
Therefore, in the first week of the Easter schedule from March 21st to March 27th, amid rumors that MGM was able to downgrade the film from NC-17 to R because of multiple revisions due to the exposed scene, "Alien" 2" opened with 2,619 screens and earned a box office of US$33.14 million in the first seven days, easily reaching the top spot.
As the first film in a multi-party package project led by Simon, "Alien 2" is a good start.
The production budget of the film is 40 million US dollars, and the publicity and distribution expenditure is 15 million US dollars, with a total expenditure of 55 million US dollars. It started with 33.14 million US dollars in North America. Although it will definitely be difficult to recover the cost locally, it is very hopeful to recover the entire budget through global distribution.
The bulk of this project is actually the videotape.
Not to mention the booming video market for the "Alien" series in Simon's memory, the first "Alien" series three years ago has also proved this.
The first "Alien" had a local box office of just over 60 million, and a global total of 110 million US dollars, which has already made a profit. However, subsequent video tape sales have so far sold 4.6 million boxes, with sales approaching US$140 million, which is higher than the global box office.
In addition, the film's TV broadcast revenue is equally lucrative.
Simon was originally worried that the sequel of the project would be coldly received in theaters like "Alien 2", so it was delayed in launching. Now, the reimagined "Alien 2" has earned US$33.14 million in the first week, which means that "Alien 3" can be directly launched.
Because the two parts are combined, it can be regarded as a mini alien movie universe.
In recent years, Hollywood's concept of movie universe may have been a bit rampant, but for "Alien", it is a very appropriate description.
Let’s talk about the box office list.
Following "Alien 2", "Cable TV Repairman" ranked second on the weekly list with a box office of US$27.07 million.
Although the reputation is also mediocre, the box office appeal accumulated by Jim Carrey's three consecutive blockbuster movies is still there. Even if many movie fans express their dislike of Jim Carrey's transformation after watching the movie, the box office is still impressive, and only the local box office. It also depends on the subsequent trend.
The third place on the list is "BJ's Single Diary".
This love movie, which triggered a strong response in both the UK and the United States, was impacted by two new films in its 6th week of release, with a decline of 32%. The single-week box office fell within the range of 10 million US dollars, with a revenue of 8.37 million US dollars, and the cumulative box office was It has reached 122.53 million U.S. dollars, temporarily ranking first in 1997.
The fourth place is "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi", which was re-released last week. After the film took in 16.29 million U.S. dollars in its first week, it was also impacted by two new films the next week. The box office dropped by 54%, and it took in another 7.51 million U.S. dollars. Dollar.
Unlike the box office hit when the first Star Wars movie was re-released two months ago, Star Wars Episode 3 has grossed a total of US$23.8 million in two weeks. The total local box office is expected to be only a little over 30 million. Obviously, the sentiment is getting less and less.
The fifth place is not Fox's new film "Power Rangers", but Disney's urban comedy "Savage City" starring Hollywood comedy star Tim Allen. The creativity is similar to the hit "Crocodile Dungeon" in the 1980s. "Di", tells the story of 'primitive man' breaking into the modern city.
The film opened on March 7, and in its third week of release, it earned US$6.01 million, with a cumulative box office of US$28.17 million. Although the production budget reached US$30 million, the local box office is expected to be US$40 million, which is not bad in such an unpopular period. .
As for Fox's "Power Rangers", it ranked 8th on the list after several other old films.
This sci-fi movie, which is similar to the later "Power Rangers" and is oriented toward children, cost 45 million U.S. dollars. It was considered modestly ambitious, but it failed to make any splash. The revenue in the first seven days was only a measly 3.01 million U.S. dollars. It was completely It reached such a bleak level that Murdoch would cover his heart.
After that, it’s Easter week, which gets even more competitive.