Simon left London the next day, and his next stop was Helsinki.
The official schedule for this trip to the UK is basically settled, but there are two other small things, none of which have been settled. They were the Spice Girls and Harry Potter that came to mind on the plane.
Let’s not talk about the Spice Girls for now.
Regarding "Harry Potter", Simon privately searched Facebook social networks and other online platforms in the UK, but could not find a woman named J.K. Rowling. Then he remembered that Western women often follow their husbands after marriage. Last name, J.K. Rowling used to be a single mother, but not this time.
Then they changed their methods and mainly searched with the J·K prefix, and even some online literature communities, still found nothing.
Can only give up.
Finally, he decided to give it a try himself. During the following trip to Finland and Italy, Simon took the time to outline the outline of the first part of the "Harry Potter" series based on his memory. He also wrote a synopsis of the story and sent it to Los Angeles. Let them find a ghostwriter.
As for story inspiration.
Simon also took what he had said before and accidentally caught a glimpse of a wizard wearing black-rimmed glasses dressed as a little boy on the roadside, and also took a sketch of Harry Potter.
Of course, when the story is published in the future, Simon does not intend to sign it. Considering the layout of this IP, he does not intend to give the gunman the right to sign. Instead, he casually gives a pen name, J.K.
Forget about the 'Rowling' in the back.
As for what the future holds, Simon can only do this and let nature take its course.
Los Angeles.
While Simon was traveling around Europe, April 18th had arrived here unknowingly, another Friday.
The Easter schedule has come to an end, and several previous films are still going on.
In the past box office week, the new version of "Taken" starring Jet Lee once again won the single-week box office championship. Starting from March 28, it is already in its third week of release. This Chinese kung fu action movie combines Hollywood templates. After a good start of $31.37 million in the first week, the film fell slightly by 43% in the second week, earning $17.88 million. In the third week, the decline narrowed to 26%, with a revenue of $13.21 million.
In three weeks, the cumulative box office of this mid- to low-budget film with an investment of US$25 million has reached US$62.46 million. Even including the US$10 million investment in publicity and distribution, the cost has basically been recovered.
Judging from the current trend, "Taken" still has a box office potential of 15 million to 20 million U.S. dollars, and the total local box office is expected to reach 80 million U.S. dollars.
Although there is no hope of breaking 100 million, even Simon did not have high expectations for this new version of "Taken". The box office expectation of 80 million US dollars has exceeded everyone's expectations.
The continuous success of Jack Cheng and Jet Lee in Hollywood has not only triggered a Chinese kung fu movie craze among the audience, but also various Hollywood studios have turned their attention to the other side of the ocean. Recently, many studios They all started to contact there.
Then I discovered that it was still a step too late.
This is another time to talk about a Chinese Kung Fu movie released by Daenerys Entertainment last Friday, "Once Upon a Time: The Iron Monkey".
Although the English title of this film was unceremoniously translated as "Iron Monkey", the wonderful display of Chinese kung fu in it still caused quite a stir due to the craze caused by "The Rescue". focus on.
On April 11, "Once Upon a Time: The Iron Monkey" opened in North America on 1,514 screens. It was only the first week of release and once again unexpectedly earned US$10.36 million at the box office, unexpectedly exceeding the 10 million mark.
In April, a single movie like this, a Chinese-language movie with a screen size of 1,514, which is not a lot, and US$10.36 million in the first week, can be called a small miracle.
With this small miracle, "Once Upon a Time: The Iron Monkey" even managed to reach second place in the single-week box office list.
In the same box office week, the top two movies in the North American film market had Chinese protagonists. This is a spectacle that has not happened in many years.
With such a small start, the North American box office of "Once Upon a Time: The Iron Monkey" is expected to reach around US$25 million, which may not seem like much. However, this old film produced in Hong Kong in 1993 is actually Dani Bought as a package from Liz Entertainment.
Even though last year's "Rush Hour" made Chinese Kung Fu attract a lot of people's attention again, most people are accustomed to looking forward after all, rather than looking for old movies from the past.
Daenerys Entertainment did the opposite.
On the other hand, the collapse of Hong Kong films since last year has left many film companies in urgent need of funds, and it is impossible to sell them even if they want to wait for a price. Therefore, Daenerys Entertainment spent less than 10 million US dollars on the North American full-channel copyright of more than 20 films including "Once Upon a Time: The Iron Monkey" in the name of releasing videotapes, with an average of Less than $500,000 each.
Of course, converted into Hong Kong dollars, the average price of each unit is nearly 4 million Hong Kong dollars, which is still quite considerable.
Now, "Once Upon a Time: The Iron Horse" has earned more than 10 million US dollars in one week. The film's producers, such as Golden Harvest and Media Asia, are suddenly no longer so 'impressive'. The feeling of being cheated is much worse than last year's "Black Man" A certain producer is even worse.
If only half of the more than 20 films sold have such market potential, not to mention all, it will be a huge loss.
I thought that being strict on new projects like "Police Story 4" would not allow Hollywood to make too much money. Unexpectedly, an old film that has been released for so many years can still be a big hit in Hollywood.
In addition to being worried, Hong Kong filmmakers, who originally had a worrying future due to the collapse of the Hong Kong film market, couldn't help but see a way out after successive Hong Kong films were successful in Hollywood. Coupled with the many trials from Hollywood, they hit it off immediately.
After all, it is the unpopular period between Easter and summer. After "Taken" and "Once Upon a Time", the third place "Scary" dropped back to the tens of millions of dollars in box office this week.
Also in its third week of release, "Spooky" saw a 51% cut of US$14.51 million in the following week. The three-week box office narrowed the decline by 32%, earning another US$9.86 million, with a total box office of US$53.91 million.
Taking into account the film's box office curve, the film's local box office is expected to be between US$60 million and US$70 million, which is not as good as the possible US$80 million expected for "Taken", but relative to the production cost of US$30 million, it was once It's quite satisfying.
The fourth place on the list is "Alien 2".
In its fourth week of release, this alien-themed sci-fi movie once again grossed US$8.16 million, bringing its cumulative box office to US$71.55 million, easily surpassing the first predecessor. Not only that, with the film's box office surplus at this time, it won't be a big problem for it to exceed 80 million domestically. "Taken" is only expected to close to 80 million, and "Alien 2" can easily break through the 80 million mark and reach higher, so it will also become the highest-grossing film in the Easter schedule, of course, with Daenerys Entertainment The highest-grossing of the four related films.
Number five on the list is "The Cable TV Repairman."
However, in its fourth week of release, the box office of Jim Carrey's comedy has dropped to US$4.51 million in a single week, barely surpassing the US$4.19 million of the second-place "BJ's Diary" in its ninth week of release, with a cumulative box office of 52.5 million. US dollars, it is expected that it will be difficult to exceed US$60 million locally.
Considering the production investment of US$35 million and the publicity investment of US$15 million, Daenerys Entertainment obviously cannot recover the cost from local distribution and can only look forward to overseas.
In addition to the top five, it is worth mentioning that "BJ's Single Diary" ranked sixth.
In its ninth week of release, with a box office revenue of US$4.19 million, the cumulative box office of this love movie has reached US$138.26 million. Although the box office in a single week is much less than that of "The Cable TV Repairman", the box office curve of "BJ's Diary" is very stable, and it may not be impossible to hit 150 million.
Daenerys Entertainment executives look back on the entire Easter schedule with regrets.
Except for "BJ's Diary," which is included in the Valentine's Day schedule, none of the four major movies in the Easter schedule has exceeded 100 million in local production.
However, with four movies released at the same time, this result is not surprising at all.
Let’s just say that “Alien 2”, which performed beyond expectations, would have easily exceeded 100 million in China if it hadn’t been hit by the joint impact of “The Rescue” and “Ghosts” during Easter week. However, the pie in the film market is only so big. If you take more, others will definitely get less.
Therefore, in this Easter period, the internal friction between the four films is obvious.
Of course, considering the simultaneous release of the four films and the increased box office that attracted many viewers to the cinema, this is completely worth it. Without Daenerys Entertainment's four films, not to mention that the extra share would definitely be eaten up by films from other studios. Moreover, even if the Easter schedule lasts for two consecutive weeks, the box office may not exceed 100 million in a single week every week. , even reaching a high of $130 million in the Easter week, which is comparable to that of the summer and the end of the year.
All in all, the pros outweigh the cons.
Daenerys Studios.
Towards the end of the work week, Amy Pascal held a summary meeting with the heads of several of her studios, returned to her office again, and began to ask her assistant Vanessa Lind some work matters.
Mainly because of a few things that my boss recently told me.
Such as the concept of a romance film called "My Best Friend's Wedding", the negotiation between Sony and Japan's Toho about the copyright of "Godzilla", and the film called "Harry Potter" that was just obtained yesterday and the Philosopher's Stone" fantasy novel ideas.
"Ronald Bass has accepted the screenwriting job. In addition, I have passed on the story idea to Julia. ICM has not responded yet. As for "Godzilla", Toho's attitude is a bit vague. .”
"I don't want to hear that ambiguity."
"Sorry, Amy, but obviously, according to the news we got, Sony had already reached an agreement with Toho. Now, we have stepped in. With Daenerys Entertainment's appeal in Hollywood, as long as the Japanese don't Silly, you know who is more beneficial to cooperate with. But, they should be waiting for our quotation now."
Amy thought about it for a while and finally understood: "Dongbao wants to participate in investment?"
"Yes," Vanessa Linde, who has been with Amy all these years, said: "According to the information we received, Toho did not plan to invest in the cooperation with Sony and only enjoyed a certain profit share. Now Danielle If Silk Entertainment wants to take over, in the eyes of the Japanese, the box office will be quite guaranteed, so they will naturally not miss the investment opportunity."
"In this case..." Amy thought again for a moment and said: "Let our copyright team continue to keep in contact with Toho, but we still have to wait for the other side to take the initiative to put forward conditions."
Vanessa nodded. She also had the same idea. Since the Japanese's mind has been determined, there is no need to lose more initiative and let them set their own conditions. Daenerys Entertainment can bargain better. After saying this Vanessa handed over a folder and said, "Also, here are some information about writers who specialize in children's fantasy novels."
Amy took the information, opened it, and said, "You can get off work first. I'll leave after reading this."
Vanessa nodded in agreement and added: "Actually, Amy, you don't have to be so tired now, not to mention you have a baby, so it doesn't matter if you get off work early."
Amy knew Vanessa was concerned about her and smiled, but didn't explain anything.
To put it simply, there are two types of executives in major Hollywood studios: those who are good at creativity and those who are good at management.
Michael Eisner was a very creative person at the time. He even gave himself an additional title of Chief Creative Officer when he was in charge of Disney, and he also served as the host of a Disney Channel show.
As for those who are good at management, they are often lawyers or accountants. Taking Disney as an example, Eisner's deputy Frank Wells was a lawyer. While Eisner controlled the general direction of Disney, Wells helped to manage it. On various administrative matters, the two worked together tacitly in the 1980s, quickly bringing Disney to life.
If it hadn't been for the emergence of Simon the Big Butterfly, Disney would still have been successful in the 1990s.
Although she started out as an assistant, as she later transitioned to being a producer, Amy believed that she should have been a creative executive. It's a pity... Well, it's certainly not a pity here, but, with the rapid development and growth of Daenerys Entertainment, coupled with the fact that she has an inspiring boss above her head, Amy can only focus on management work now.
Frankly speaking, with the current scale of Daenerys Entertainment, she is actually a little overwhelmed. Therefore, she is dissatisfied with her boss for dispersing her power and transferring it to Nancy Brill, Robert Iger, and even the heads of the three studios. Amy has no complaints about the flat architecture design.
But he also dared not slack off.
After all, along the way with her boss, Amy knew very well that she was still able to stay in this position mainly because of the friendship accumulated over the years, not because of her ability, so she also adjusted her position very well. Position, do what you can.
The most important one is to do the things that Simon personally told him as well as possible.
Just like the script of "My Best Friend's Wedding", the copyright of "Godzilla", and the novel idea about "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", based on Amy's experience accumulated over the years, these things may seem strange. No matter how unobtrusive it is, it often becomes the core of Daenerys' entertainment later on.
The most typical one is the DC movie universe.
She was also responsible for negotiating the copyrights for DC superheroes one by one.
Therefore, if you do these things well, even if the biggest credit will still be attributed to your boss, she is still indispensable.
In fact, with the wealth she has accumulated now, she can retire immediately and live a lifetime of wealth. However, in this world, few people who have reached the top of the pyramid can really let go.