Chen Qing did not delay her boss's enjoyment of life. He also had too many things to do. After having lunch together and talking about the things that needed to be discussed, he set off again in the afternoon and flew back to China first.
Simon spent another night doing scientific research at the manor in San Lucas, and returned to Los Angeles the next day.
It was a very satisfying weekend, so I decided to follow Chen Qing's suggestion and pick some of the women who came here to raise as captive wives. Not short of money anyway. What's more, thinking about the state of the Korean entertainment industry, Simon doesn't want to think of a certain woman next time and call her over, only to have her changed hands.
Therefore, during breakfast time, I came to the list and randomly circled it. I picked about a third of the names. I didn’t stick to familiar names. The most important thing was that I was satisfied.
The time comes on March 2nd.
Entering March is also the beginning of a new week.
As soon as he boarded his private jet at the San Lucas Airport, Simon received the news that this past weekend, the global box office of "Titanic" officially exceeded US$1 billion.
Among them, North America has made a box office of US$15.99 million in the past three weekends, with the cumulative box office reaching US$496.94 million. It is expected that the complete box office week from February 27 to March 5 will definitely exceed US$500 million.
Overseas, as more and more ticket warehouses gradually begin to release, the overseas box office trend of "Titanic" is still quite fierce. In the past three days, the overall overseas revenue has been approximately US$49 million. Rough statistics overseas The total box office was approximately US$513 million.
According to the current trend, "Titanic" still has a box office potential of at least US$100 million locally, and even more overseas. Even if the total overseas box office has exceeded 500 million, considering that there are still some key box office locations such as France and China that have not yet Once the show opens, it will be more than enough for the box office volume to more than double.
Therefore, the total global box office of this super blockbuster can at least reach the previous global level of 1.8 billion, and it may even be higher.
Back in Los Angeles, Simon went directly to Daenerys Studios to start his day's work schedule.
There is a lot going on in March as usual.
In Hollywood, the most important thing is the Oscars ceremony on March 23, because when it comes to whether "Titanic" can further conquer the city on a global scale, this Oscar is also crucial.
In China, a certain conference related to China's political and economic trends in the coming years is also within the scope of Simon's attention.
The conference will open on March 5th.
In addition, there will be Tinco Bayer's 1998 spring new product launch conference on the 28th of the month.
In addition to routine updates, this time Tinker Bayer will also release a very important product, the iBerry-10 mobile phone, which Tinker Bayer made after acquiring the Canadian RIM company under the instructions of Simon last year. The product is actually the former BlackBerry phone. In order to comply with Tinker Bayer's product naming rules, it was changed from Blackberry to iBerry.
In addition to these major events, a slightly smaller one is the upcoming release of "StarCraft" by Daenerys Game on March 25.
Simon's expectations for this game are no less than that of "Counter-Strike OL", which became popular at the end of last year. Moreover, the new "StarCraft" will also attach great importance to the network attribute. Daenerys will provide the same features as "Counter-Strike OL". Online battle platform.
Daenerys Studios.
Arriving at the company at about nine o'clock in the morning, there was first the weekly high-level meeting of Daenerys Entertainment, and then a video conference with James Raybould in New York.
The latter is about the next reduction plan.
The early recovery of the new technology industry is very obvious. However, this was not what Simon expected, so something had to be done.
One of the simplest and most effective options is to reduce holdings.
Simon plans to reduce his holdings of a number of technology stocks again this year in order to cash out more funds and at the same time suppress the rebound of the Nasdaq index in order to buy more time for the Westeros system's bargain hunting layout in the new technology field.
If you want to suppress a stock market, the scale of reduction cannot be too small, at least starting from tens of billions of dollars.
Speaking of which, even if Simon continues to make global investments and invests a large amount of money in the 3G plan, the scale of cash held by the Westeros system is still very large. After this year's major reduction, coupled with the addition of various As companies continue to earn profits, it is expected that the total scale of cash and short-term convertible equivalents hoarded by the Westeros system will reach the level of hundreds of billions of dollars.
Simon couldn't help but feel a little emotional when he talked about this with James during the video conference.
Too tired to spend money.
Physical work.
At noon, we had dinner with Celia Miller, who came from New York, and the topic was still related to money.
Inside the Executive Dining Room at Daenerys Studios.
After the waiter who served lunch left, Celia picked up the tableware and started talking about the business: "Russia's economy has begun to deteriorate since the Asian financial crisis broke out in the second half of last year. Now let alone the general public, even some government departments The salary has been unable to be paid, and the relationship between Yeltsin and the current Prime Minister Chernomyrdin has become increasingly tense recently. Yeltsin wants Gazprom to take out a sum of money, but Chernomyrdin and his consortium behind him do not agree. , so Yeltsin has planned to fire Chernomyrdin, reorganize the cabinet, and select a new prime minister."
The affairs of a certain short middle-aged man were quite confidential. Simon didn't even tell Celia. Hearing this, he just asked: "What does this have to do with me?"
"This is also the purpose of my coming to Los Angeles," Celia said: "I just came back from Eastern Europe. Before returning home, I was approached by Yeltsin's daughter Tatyana. The other party conveyed Yeltsin's invitation and hoped that you, boss, could go to Moscow as a guest."
Simon shook his head directly: "No interest, Moscow is too cold."
Celia was not surprised, but continued: "In addition, Tatyana also talked to me about something about the candidate for the new Russian Prime Minister."
Simon remained calm.
Celia picked up the red wine next to her and took a sip, then continued: "Yeltsin plans to nominate the current Minister of Energy Sergey Kiriyenko. I have investigated in advance. This is a very young Moscow executive, born in 1962. This year He is only 36 years old. However, Kiriyenko is very capable. After moving into the energy department, he has solved several crises involving the energy field in Russia. In addition, Kiriyenko is also very low-key and pragmatic, and he is a nonpartisan person. There is no obvious political leaning. It is obvious that Yeltsin is choosing his successor."
"Then what?"
Celia stopped what she was doing and looked at Simon: "That's the problem. I don't understand why Tatiana told me about this. This should be Russia's core secret. Boss, you know, everything Once it is leaked in advance, the opposition in Russia, as well as the current Prime Minister Chernomyrdin, will find ways to obstruct it."
Celia's eyes were confused, but Simon understood that this was another signal sent to him by the Yeltsin family.
The 36-year-old candidate for the new prime minister is low-key, pragmatic, and nonpartisan. These characteristics are very similar to another middle-aged man who is also 45 years old and has almost the same label.
Simon didn't know what the Russian political scene was going to be in the past. At this time, Yeltsin asked his daughter to convey such a message to him. It was actually a statement that he valued a certain candidate given by Simon. However, he was still full of doubts. A similar newcomer will be selected and promoted to try.
In addition, it is obvious that Russia's finances are currently in real difficulty. In addition to this invitation, Yeltsin also hopes that Simon can show that even if there is no investment, as long as Simon goes to Russia and expresses his position, just like when he visited China, the outside world This will give you a little more confidence in Russia's economy.
Faith seems to be a very elusive thing, but for Simon, it is absolutely real.
The reason why the Russian economy continues to deteriorate is not only the chain effect brought about by the Asian financial crisis, but also the fact that overseas investors generally have little confidence in Russia’s economic recovery. In this regard, Soros actually played a big role. Quantum Fund Last year's massive withdrawal from Russia under Simon's lobbying will inevitably lead to a flight of capital following the trend.
All in all, it was all a matter of having no money.
Celia, who was across the dining table, waited for a moment and whispered, "Boss?"
Simon shook his head: "Tell the other party that I don't have time recently. We'll see what happens next."
Celia was still full of doubts and nodded when she heard this, her eyes still full of inquiry.
Simon felt her gaze and explained with a smile: "Maybe you have thought of it, but just pretend you don't know anything."
Her boss said so, so Celia could only agree.
In fact, it's still a mess.
Since his boss did not agree, obviously it was not Kiriyenko who was about to be promoted to the position by Yeltsin. Then, who was it
After Simon finished speaking, he took the initiative to talk about other things and changed the topic, but he was also thinking about it in his heart.
Simon still hopes that history will go on the same track as before to a certain extent, but on Yeltsin's side, this incident has obviously put a lot of pressure on him and he is obviously worried.
This is not surprising.
If Simon were in that position, whether it was out of concern for his family's future or, as a Russian, hesitation about the future of his country, he would not be able to make a decision easily. Therefore, if Simon does not give sufficient statement on this matter, it will be difficult to achieve results. And if the stance is too positive, it will make Yeltsin even more hesitant.
In any case, the next trip to Russia will definitely not be missed.
After lunch, Celia still left with obvious question marks, but she left behind a personal file of Kiriyenko.
Simon flipped through the afternoon schedule before starting and found that although Yeltsin had made Russia a mess, he did not lack the ability to recognize and employ people.
Although he is only 36 years old, Kiriyenko is definitely a capable person similar to a certain great emperor.
Looking back carefully at the memory, I roughly remember that this person happened to be one of the several prime ministers that Yeltsin successively replaced and accepted his fate. The reason why he failed to become the successor in the end was also due to bad luck. At 36 years old, he is a bit young after all, and his foundation is too shallow. This is what Yeltsin needs. However, because his foundation is too shallow, he cannot withstand any storms.
Coincidentally, 1998 was also a stormy year for Russia. In this year, the Russian economy once again slid into the abyss after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Of course someone has to take the blame.
Kiriyenko will inevitably become the scapegoat for another collapse of the Russian economy.
Going forward, in the past, when someone came to power at the last moment as Yeltsin's successor, not only was he stronger than Kiriyenko, but he also had some luck. Because the Russian economy was already at its lowest point at that time, there was not much room for decline, and it would naturally rebound afterwards.
Times create heroes, and heroes need times.
Both are indispensable.
After reading Kiriyenko's information, Simon put the matter aside for the time being and was able to roughly confirm that the time for him to go to Russia should be in the second half of this year. The Russian economy collapsed again and Kiriyenko was forced to step down. In addition, Simon can also guess that since Yeltsin gave him such a signal, with the subsequent cabinet reorganization, someone will probably take a step further.
Anyway, with Simon's current vision, he just hopes that this vision will not become too bad, at least not to be destroyed until the 3G plan is implemented to the point where Mars can truly be immigrated.
For the rest, let it happen.
The afternoon is filled with a series of production or distribution meetings.
Involving several films such as "Resident Evil", "Godzilla", and "Public Enemy".
What Simon values more is "Resident Evil".
In the first meeting in the afternoon, the game development team and film production team of "Resident Evil" participated together, and Simon personally chaired it.
As the project continued to advance, Simon also discovered that "Resident Evil" could completely create a mini movie universe. To be precise, it should be a story universe of movies and games.
You know, in the past "Resident Evil" series, the world view and timeline were very large. This time, by launching the game and the movie at the same time, it is also possible to build a complete world view background in advance. If both game and movie series can achieve the same results as they once did, the comprehensive revenue will far exceed the two separate blockbuster projects "Godzilla" and "Public Enemy" discussed at the same time in the afternoon.
On the other hand, the production meeting for "Resident Evil" also finalized the heroine.
Simon ultimately chose the original Milla Jovovich.
Initially, Natasha Henstridge was considered, but after careful consideration, Simon still felt that Alice should have a more wild and powerful aura. Natasha is powerful enough in the "Alien" series, but not very strong. Her temperament has always been weak. After the transformation, she can give people a contrast, but it is a bit inappropriate to use it directly in "Resident Evil".
As for Milla Jovovich, this girl has been active in Hollywood and fashion circles in recent years. Although she has not been able to hook up with Luc Besson like she once did, with the rise of the Internet, it is very easy for Simon to find her. , I just found a reason and pulled him over.