The North American video tape of "Run Lola Run" has been released, and the overseas distribution of the film is also continuing.
In order to stimulate video tape sales and overseas market revenue, with the help of Orion and Warner, Simon unexpectedly won the Oscar for Best Editing. In the following days, the media heat even surpassed that of "The Last Emperor" which won multiple awards. 》.
Most of the media tend to complain about Simon, believing that Oscar's conservatism and aging prevent "Run Lola Run" from receiving the nominations and honors it deserves.
Then, on April 13, the 41st Cannes Film Festival, which will open next month, announced the shortlist, and "Pulp Fiction" successfully became one of the 21 films entering the main competition.
At the Cannes local film festival shortlist press conference, a reporter specifically mentioned the failure of "Run Lola Run" at the Oscars and asked the chairman of the jury of this year's Cannes Film Festival whether the famous Italian director Ito Scola would Although the answer given to "Pulp Fiction" for discriminating against Simon Westeros because of his age was just an official cliché, the news spread back to the United States and once again triggered a heated discussion.
"Pulp Fiction" is scheduled to be released on June 3. The news that the film was shortlisted for the main competition in Cannes spread back to China, and Orion Pictures also released its first TV trailer.
Due to the seamless plot structure of "Pulp Fiction", it is not easy to cut a wonderful trailer for this movie.
Several trailers provided by Orion failed to satisfy Simon, so he had to do it himself. After careful consideration, the length of the first trailer is 1 minute and 30 seconds, with Robert De Niro, John Travolta, Robert Redford and other big names all appearing, through a series of carefully captured suspenseful scenes. The conversation finally settled on the box emitting golden light.
The plot of "Pulp Fiction" is still under wraps. Therefore, after the trailer was released, the media quickly judged that this was a "treasure hunt" type of movie.
The facts are naturally very different from the media's judgment. However, this is exactly the result Simon wants to see. Raising topics to trigger media discussion has always been the simplest and most effective way to market a movie. "When Harry Met Sally" became a hit at the box office The curve has proven this.
In the third week of its large-scale release, "When Harry Met Sally" collected another US$12.11 million, with a cumulative box office of US$49.16 million. The decline for the whole week was finally locked at 21%. The box office decline curve is compared to other films in the Easter period. All are excellent.
Although the screening scale for the next week was expanded by 50% at once, Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice" still saw a box office drop of nearly 25% in its second week.
Orion Pictures' "Good Guy Johnny," which was released at the same time as "When Harry Met Sally," saw a box office drop of even 51%. It only took in $1.97 million at the box office this week. This film, which had a budget of $22 million, was released in three weeks. The cumulative box office gross was only US$13.3 million. After next week, the one-month screening contract with theaters expires, and the film will basically exit the big screen.
In Simon's view, the failure of "Johnny Goodman" indicates that Orion Pictures' performance is destined to decline sharply this year.
After producing several box-office hits in the past two years, the blindly expanding Orion Pictures' production and distribution scale this year is completely equivalent to that of the Big Seven, and even exceeds that of several major film companies with relatively sluggish performance, such as MGM.
However, apart from Pulp Fiction, Simon didn't see a second film in Orion's long slate that had the potential to be a hit.
After last year's stock market crash, life in Hollywood as a whole will not be easy in the next few years. Orion's decline is as inevitable as Canon, New World, De Laurentiis Entertainment and other companies, and Simon can only watch with cold eyes.
At the beginning of the month, it negotiated with Disney and signed an overseas distribution rights contract for "When Harry Met Sally." Daenerys Pictures received a US$30 million sale payment in late April.
Compared with the US$15 million production cost of "When Harry Met Sally", the company directly obtained a double return. Of course, the proceeds from this film will also need to be shared with British Craft Films, which also participated in the investment.
According to the original contract, Daenerys Pictures will receive 60% of the film's net profit, excluding production costs. Calculated in this way, Daenerys Pictures can receive US$16.5 million out of the US$30 million sale price. After offsetting the production cost of US$15 million, Daenerys Pictures will be able to receive 60% of all subsequent income.
Before the release of "When Harry Met Sally", Daenerys Pictures had been spending money like water, but now it is finally starting to make money, and Amy Pascal's tense mind has obviously relaxed a lot.
Simon could tell that she had been worried that Daenerys Pictures would rise and collapse just as quickly as companies like Canon.
Although Simon now has a huge net worth, if Daenerys Pictures really follows the footsteps of companies such as Canon, he will definitely not continue to spend money on this company. Amy obviously knows this very well.
However, the expansion of Daenerys Pictures seems to be equally blind, but Simon knows how successful the series of projects proposed by this company are.
Whether it is a second-tier film company like Big Seven or Orion, they usually cast a wide net by investing in a large number of projects in the hope that a few box office hits will emerge. As long as this can be achieved, the film company can basically achieve good profits.
Due to Simon's prophetic advantage, Daenerys Pictures directly raised a few big fish in the fishing net.
April 21st.
In the new week, Simon woke up early in the morning and read the news from the Los Angeles Times that negotiations between the Producers Alliance and the Writers Guild of America had broken down again.
Santa Monica.
At Daenerys Film Headquarters, Simon arrived at the company at eight o'clock. After watching the samples of "Rain Man" in recent days, it was just time to go to work. Amy also arrived at the company early. When Simon came out of the screening room, she talked about it: "Simon, did you hear the news?"
Because it was Monday, the heads of various departments under Daenerys Pictures and the heads of a series of projects were going to hold regular weekly meetings.
Simon and Amy came to the conference room together, nodded with several other executives who had arrived, and said: "Of course, so our reality TV show project can enter the substantive production stage."
The negotiations between the Producers Alliance and the Writers Guild have broken down. Naturally, it is impossible to just restart. Both parties need to make a decision. It will not be until next month at least to get on the negotiating table again.
According to the operating process of the American television industry, in March and April every year, television program producers large and small will begin to identify projects and produce pilot episodes, and then submit them to several major television networks and cable TV stations during the annual television program promotion season in May. Make a sales pitch.
Due to the writers' strike, many film producers now don't even have a few scripts, let alone pilots.
Originally, if a settlement could be reached this month and the construction deadline was urgently met, no one would delay the promotion season next month. Negotiations broke down again, and this matter was naturally out of the question. If this most important time point is missed, the TV business of several major TV networks will be affected throughout this year.
Amy nodded when she heard what Simon said, but then said: "But, Simon, I heard that the WGA is trying to reach an agreement with second- and third-tier production companies recently. What should we do?"
Simon thought for a moment, and remembered that during the 1988 general strike, a large number of second- and third-tier production companies did sign agreements with the WGA before the major studios and television networks. However, the Hollywood giants also responded decisively. The four major TV networks directly announced that they would no longer purchase programs from production companies that signed contracts with the WGA in advance. The WGA subsequently took the four major TV networks to court with an antitrust lawsuit. .
With this information flashing through his mind, Simon shook his head decisively and said: "No matter what others do, we will not participate."
Even if the WGA can win the antitrust lawsuit, it will be extremely easy for TV networks to step in the shoes of second- and third-tier production companies that rebel in advance. What's more, switching to WGA in advance will not bring any benefits to Daenerys Pictures, and Simon does not intend to get involved in this muddy water.
While Simon and Amy chatted, executives from various departments and heads of related projects arrived one after another, and the meeting began soon.
The large number of projects being rolled out require a lot of manpower. After several months of continuous recruitment and expansion, Daenerys Films now has various departments such as film, television, distribution, human resources, and finance, even if the temporary staff for a single project are not counted. , the number of fixed employees of the company has also exceeded 50.
The two-story office building that was originally leased is now very crowded, and Simon has recently been looking for new office space for the company.
However, this is not an easy task.
If all goes well, Simon plans to upgrade Daenerys Pictures to Daenerys Entertainment next year, and all major departments such as film, television and distribution will be subsidiaries, which will definitely lead to another large-scale expansion of the company.
Daenerys Pictures has already relocated once, and Simon doesn't want to have to do this again in a year or two.
The meeting lasted for more than two hours, and everyone dispersed near noon.
Overall, all projects under Daenerys Pictures are making steady progress.
"Basic Instinct" and "Rain Man" have already started filming.
"Scream" will also begin filming in a small town in northern California at the end of the month.
The negotiations between the Producers Alliance and the Writers Guild have broken down, and Simon has also strengthened his determination to squeeze "Dead Poets Society" and "Steel Magnolias" into the two popular schedules at the end of the year. Therefore, preparations for these two projects will also be accelerated. Filming is expected to begin within the next one to two months.
After selecting the two low-budget films "Sisters" and "Metropolitan" from Sundance, Simon completely let them go to the following producers.
As for the movie "Blue Angel", Simon just held the mentality of "men make money and women spend money", and he let go even more thoroughly. Catherine could do whatever she wanted, and if she lost it, she would lose it, and whoever let it go would be herself. As for women.
In the end, in addition to the four live-action shows that are still in the pipeline, only "Batman" is left, which Simon personally controls.
After the regular meeting in the morning, Daenerys Films started the first round of casting for the male lead of "Batman" that afternoon.
Simon had already released the stringent conditions for playing Bruce Wayne in advance.
With a five-film contract and a fifteen-year contract period, Daenerys Pictures has full control over the terms of the contract.
Not surprisingly, these three terms alone caused all the first-tier stars in Hollywood who tried to get the role of Batman to back off, and most of the second-tier stars also made the same choice.
However, the biggest advantage of Hollywood is that there is never a shortage of actors.
Even though Daenerys Pictures put forward many other restrictions under several strict signing conditions, the company still received more than 1,200 resumes before the first round of casting, which was almost a large-scale audition, Simon Naturally, there is not enough time to participate in person. The afternoon casting was entirely handled by several casting directors.
There will be no face-to-face auditions in the first round. Most people will be screened out by reviewing resumes and performance tapes. In the end, only about 200 people will enter the second round.
Simon also knows that such an operation will definitely cause many actors with good qualifications to be rejected, and even some casting directors will get some private goods. But this is the world. If you meet the conditions and are eliminated, it can only be said that they are unlucky. If you do not meet the conditions but can enter the second round of auditions through connections, that is also strength.
It's enough to think about fairness when you're dreaming.
At the same time, Simon came to Culver City with Amy in the afternoon.
Culver City is located east of Beverly and north of Santa Monica. Compared with cities such as Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Burbank, Culver City is not too conspicuous in the greater Los Angeles area. Simon came here mainly because the former MGM studio was located in Culver City. Downtown Virginia.
In the process of converting MGM into a hotel company by casino tycoon Kirk Kerkorian, the owner of MGM, the MGM studios with more than half a century of history were sold to a company called Lorimar-Telepictures TV program production company.
In the past few years, Lorimar was also expanding aggressively with the support of hot money capital pouring into the entertainment industry.
With the outbreak of the stock market crash and the current general strike in Hollywood, Lorimar, whose business field is more single compared to New World Entertainment, is inevitably in trouble. If it were not for some information from other people in his memory, Simon had never even heard of Lorimar in his previous life. This company.
Now, Lorimar is already looking to sell its assets to avoid bankruptcy.
The MGM studio, with its long history, is undoubtedly Lorimar's most valuable property. After spending half a day walking around the twenty-hectare MGM studio, Simon and Amy left together. Facing Amy's questioning eyes, Simon just shook his head regretfully.
Lorimar's asking price for the MGM studio was not expensive, $100 million.
However, Simon discovered that most of the studios and buildings on the set were dilapidated. If Daenerys Pictures bought it, it would have to spend at least another $100 million to repair it. Moreover, despite its long history, the location of the MGM studio was really not satisfactory to Simon.
The MGM studio is relatively close to Beverly Hills, but it is quite far from Malibu, thirty or forty kilometers away. Simon plans to live in Malibu. If he buys the MGM studio, he will spend at least two or three hours every day just commuting to work.