When the 10-movie plan excited the whole of Hollywood, Daenerys Entertainment’s mid-year financial audit also quietly concluded.
Simon spent three days studying the dozens of pages of financial reports compiled by the company's financial department while taking care of other tasks.
Overall, the revenue focus of Daenerys Entertainment in the first half of the year is still the four movies "Scream", "Steel Magnolias", "Dead Poets Society" and "Rain Man" at the end of last year.
In the six months from January 1 to June 30, the domestic box office of the four movies continued to earn US$263 million, and Daenerys Entertainment’s share of this box office was US$121 million. The reason why the box office share ratio is lower than the average 55% is mainly due to the tiered share plan for theater screenings. After a movie is released, the box office share ratio gradually decreases.
Overseas, the total revenue of the four movies was US$356 million, including US$95.15 million for "Scream", US$12.37 million for "Steel Magnolias", US$86.32 million for "Dead Poets Society", and US$86.32 million for "Rain Man". 》for US$163.65 million.
This box office data will increase in the second half of the year, but the potential is already very small.
Compared with the original time and space data, the overseas box office of the four movies has significantly shrunk. Except for "Steel Magnolias", which has a huge gap between overseas and local box office, because the subject matter overseas audience is too small, the box office of several other films has shrunk significantly. The shrinkage is mainly due to Daenerys Entertainment’s lack of overseas distribution capabilities and the fact that many overseas ticket-rich countries have not yet opened their film markets.
Moreover, in this era, even though most overseas box office countries have opened up their film markets, they still implement various restrictive measures on Hollywood movies in order to protect the domestic film industry, such as low revenue sharing, high taxes, delayed schedules, etc. Daenerys Entertainment’s average revenue share from overseas box office The proportion is only 33%,
In addition, for some overseas ticket warehouses that are too small or have stricter policy restrictions, Daenerys Entertainment can only conduct one-time sales. Although the box office will still be included in the total overseas box office data, it will not participate in the sharing.
In Simon's memory, the situation would improve rapidly after the 1990s.
Calculated, the total overseas box office revenue contributed by these four films to Daenerys Entertainment is US$116 million.
As for the new films released this year, as of June 30, six films including "Blue Angel" and "Metropolitan" in the first half of the year have grossed a total of 123 million US dollars. "The Sixth Sense", which was released on June 30, has been excluded from the list. In addition to this statistics, the cumulative share revenue of the six new films was US$73 million.
In terms of home entertainment business, "When Harry Met Sally", released at the end of last year, sold 2.93 million video tapes in the first half of the year. Based on the video tape unit price of US$29.9, sales reached US$87.6 million.
Although the film company's basic agreement with various unions counts 80% of the video tape revenue as costs, and only the remaining 20% is divided into At 40% to 50% of the unit price, the gross profit ratio of a hot-selling new movie like "When Harry Met Sally" will be even higher.
Therefore, just the video release of the movie "When Harry Met Sally" brought Daenerys Entertainment more than $46 million in gross profit.
Counting some other fragmentary project income, comprehensive statistics show that in the first half of the year, Daenerys Entertainment’s film business generated a total industry output value of nearly 900 million U.S. dollars in box office, video tapes, etc., the operating income attributable to Daenerys Entertainment itself was 3.95% One hundred million U.S. dollars.
Behind the huge revenue, it also means huge expenses.
In the first half of the year, Daenerys Entertainment has more than ten films in various stages of formal production. Among them, "Batman" alone has a budget of US$50 million. In addition, "The Bodyguard", "The Sixth Sense", "Buck" "Uncle", "Scream 2" and other projects also require large expenditures.
At the same time, Daenerys Entertainment has also invested heavily in the theatrical distribution of local and overseas films.
Finally, taking into account a series of large expenditures such as the construction of Malibu Daenerys Studios, the establishment of many overseas branches, and the repayment of some due loans that need to be borne by the company as a whole, as well as the equally important tax factors, Dany The net profit of Liz Entertainment’s film business in the first half of the year was only US$51.19 million, with a net profit rate of less than 13%.
TV business.
Compared with movies, the TV business in the first half of the year was somewhat lackluster. The revenue focus of Daenerys TV Company is still the four reality shows. Since the beginning of this year, the TV department has successively signed production contracts with the network for three new dramas. However, last year's two dramas were also canceled after the spring season ended due to low ratings.
According to this statistics, Daenerys Television currently operates a total of 10 TV projects, six of which are TV series and four are reality shows.
Because the revenue and profit figures of reality shows, which account for the bulk of the revenue, are basically determined, in the first half of the year, Daenerys Entertainment’s total revenue from the TV business was US$232 million. After allocating large expenditures, the TV department's net profit was US$36.82 million, and the net profit rate was also only a not too high 16%.
Comics business.
Although the launch of the "Batman" project attracted the attention of the industry to Marvel Entertainment, in the first half of the year, the comic company still maintained a low-key operation. Revenue of 39.71 million US dollars and profit of 2.26 million US dollars were of great importance to Daenerys Entertainment. The overall impact is small.
However, in the financial report for the first half of the year, there are not no bright spots, and that is the consumer products department led by Nancy Brill.
After several adjustments, the Daenerys Entertainment Consumer Products Department is currently mainly responsible for the development of peripheral products for the company's series of film and television projects, the distribution of original soundtracks and part of the advertising business.
Of course, sponsorship advertising operations for several reality shows such as "Who Will Be a Millionaire" are still solely responsible for Daenerys TV Company, which belongs to the advertising department of Daenerys TV Company. The consumer products department is only responsible for a few reality shows. Peripheral product development, the so-called advertising business is mainly product placement advertising cooperation in movies and TV series produced by Daenerys Entertainment.
In the first half of the year, the energetic little woman took the lead in investing in Blockbuster, establishing Daenerys Analysis Company, and launching Blizzard Studio. She seemed a little distracted from her job, but the operation of the consumer products department did not fall behind at all.
Through the operation of peripheral products for two key projects, "Scream" and "The House of Beverly Hills", the peripheral products business of the consumer goods department has opened up in one fell swoop. The two projects targeting different consumer groups have successfully established a strong foundation for the consumer goods department. There are two targeted retail channels, one for teenagers and one for housewives. These two groups happen to be the two groups with the greatest consumption potential.
After the success of the peripheral operations of "Scream" and "The House of Beverly Hills," the development of peripheral products for the company's other films has also been implemented more smoothly.
In terms of original albums, although the original albums released by the record department such as "Dead Poets Society" and "Rain Man" are far from reaching the height of the "Bodyguard" original album, they have also achieved relatively good sales. The original soundtrack album of "Rain Man" has sold more than 5 million copies as of June 30, which is very rare for a pure music album.
In the final advertising business, in order to avoid the company's blind advertising placement in the company's film and television dramas from causing disgust among the audience, Simon was very cautious in this regard.
Nancy Brill did not blindly pursue inappropriate advertising placement. However, due to the success of Daenerys Entertainment's series of films last year, there are countless companies that want to cooperate with the company in branding, and their offers are also very generous. , Nancy Brill, while implementing Simon's premise of avoiding the proliferation of advertising, still provided brand cooperation for projects such as "Batman", "Angel", "Pretty Woman", and "The Last Days". The company brought in huge profits.
As a result, the consumer goods department, which did not have much revenue last year, saw revenue exceed US$200 million in the first six months of the year, reaching US$207 million.
However, because Nancy Brill pursues long-term business development rather than short-term profits, a large amount of money has been invested in product production, channel construction, publicity and marketing, etc., and the company has even unknowingly Zhong owns a toy factory in Rhode Island on the east coast, and the consumer products department also needs to share the company's other expenses, so the profit margin is even lower, only 9.5%, with a net profit of US$19.71 million.
Finally, overall, Daenerys Entertainment's total revenue in the first two quarters of this year was US$873 million, with net profit revenue of US$110.78 million.
Compared to the huge gains that Cersei Capital has just made from the Japanese financial market, Daenerys Entertainment's net profit of US$110 million seems a bit insignificant. However, Simon has always been clear that this company is his foundation. Opportunities in the financial market cannot come every year. As he becomes more and more eye-catching, it becomes more and more difficult to make profits in the financial market. big. Investments in the field of science and technology generally do not see final results until ten or twenty years later.
The lower profit scale of Daenerys Entertainment is mainly due to the need for rapid expansion of Daenerys Entertainment.
Moreover, the net profit of US$110 million in half a year is definitely not low. This kind of profit level can easily make it into the top 100 of the Forbes 500 North American companies in this era.
More than fifty kilometers away from the Los Angeles city coastline, a luxury yacht over 60 meters long is moored quietly on the sea level.
The time is Sunday, August 6th.
This weekend, Simon did not work continuously, but chose to rest again.
However, this time it is not just a simple rest.
James Raybould came from New York in recent days. While discussing company matters, he also helped Simon introduce some people, to be precise, some politicians.
The location is arranged on this yacht.
Simon did not intend to use illegal means in the process of expanding his political connections, and everything was done in accordance with public rules such as the Federal Campaign Act. However, he also hopes that this matter can be carried out as low-key as possible. At least, he has no intention of appearing publicly with a certain politician in the newspaper media.
In two days, Simon met with a total of six politicians, including David Dinkins, who was making final preparations for the New York mayoral campaign at the end of the year. These were all people the Westeros company had confirmed to provide financial support. In addition to David Dinkins, the other five people are one California Senator, two California House Representatives, one Congressman from New York State, and one Congressman from California.
These people are also Democrats. Now that they have decided to take sides, Simon does not plan to bet on both sides in the short term.
Moreover, Simon did not select those celebrity politicians who attracted much attention. The few people he selected were basically potential stocks with good abilities but no definite background after careful investigation. Congressional elections in the United States are held every two years, which seems to be very frequent, but in fact, the probability of members being re-elected is very high, and some 'evergreen' politicians can even be re-elected for more than ten terms.
Nor does Simon seek immediate rewards from these people.
The first batch of 'investments' in the initial stage were mainly to establish contacts and avoid being looked down upon by Daenerys Entertainment among the top leaders of the Federation if something happened.
In the long-term vision, as long as these people can provide support for the expansion of Westeros Company in three to five years, it will be good. After ten or eight years, if someone can enter the core of federal power and still side with Westeros Company, , that’s considered a big profit.
In the evening, Simon finally concluded his last meeting of the weekend.
After personally sending the New York senator away in a helicopter, Simon and James walked to the tables and chairs on the rooftop terrace of the yacht next to the helipad and sat down.
As the sun sets in the west, the fiery clouds cover the horizon, rendering a magnificent sea and sky scenery.
Jennifer personally brought a pot of coffee to the two of them, then walked to another set of tables and chairs nearby and sat down, quietly reading a magazine with her head down.
James glanced at his daughter, sighed slightly in his heart, and continued to say to Simon: "I will send you the information on some other candidate lists when I have time. There is also a consulting company that provides election surveys and campaign plans for parties. Just now It was founded not long ago and is called Schlapp Consulting, with its headquarters in Greenwich, Connecticut, near New York. Although it has just been established, the founder of this company, Joseph Schlapp and his family, have very deep qualifications and connections in the political world. I think This is a good opportunity, Simon, and we can set up a dedicated fund to support this company in the long term.”
It is impossible to ask for direct monetary returns in political investment. The establishment of a non-profit fund can also convert capital investment into tax avoidance capital to the greatest extent.
"I'll take the time to look at the information first," Simon said without nodding immediately, "In addition, this time we can probably transfer another 50 million US dollars from Daenerys Entertainment to you. We will definitely get the overseas funds within a year. It’s useless.”
"US$50 million is already very good. I have also recently sorted out the company's finances. In the first half of the year, the technology companies we invested in contributed approximately US$37 million in dividends, which is a bit lower than last year. It is mainly due to our heavy holdings of Microsoft." Several companies have not implemented dividends, but including the original accumulation, the money is enough to maintain the company's operations." James said, remembering another thing, and said: "In addition, the remaining three companies can reduce their holdings at any time. Among companies, AMD’s stock price has been falling recently, and its market value is now 50% lower than when we bought it two years ago. I think there is no need to stay.”
AMD is naturally Intel's 'little enemy'.
After all, I still can’t help him up.
I remember that when I bought AMD two years ago, the company's market value was about US$900 million, and the total investment was about US$45 million. Simon has not been paying attention to this matter recently. According to James, AMD's market value may have dropped to US$600 million, compared to Intel's market value of US$6 billion...
Well, there's just no comparison.
However, considering that AMD can continue to survive for more than 20 years, there is no need to cut off the meat and leave the market now. Maybe when it comes back to its glory, the losses will be recouped.
Simon smiled and shook his head and said: "Our current funds are not tight, so let's continue to hold it."
James nodded in agreement.
After getting down to business, they casually chatted about the recent big news in Daenerys Entertainment.
The two sat on the terrace for half an hour before the helicopter flew back. Simon, James and Jennifer boarded the helicopter and returned to Malibu.
Back ashore, the Rayboulds declined Simon's invitation to attend a Warner Bros. party that night and instead went to dinner with the family of Jennifer's uncle, George Norman.
Simon rested for a while at his home on the west side of Point Dume, and then set off for downtown Los Angeles.