Normally, Sunday is not a good time to throw a party since the next day is a working day.
However, today's situation is a bit special.
Warner Bros. Pictures' "Lethal Weapon 2" opened in its fifth week. After two days of release on Friday and Saturday, the total box office in North America officially exceeded 100 million US dollars, so the celebration party for this film was specially arranged for today.
Because "Lethal Weapon 2" is Warner Bros. Pictures' first local box office movie to exceed 100 million five years after the release of "Elf" directed by Joe Dante in 1984, this celebration party was held at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel The scale is very grand. Steve Ross, the head of Warner Bros., still took the time to come to Los Angeles at the most intense moment of the merger litigation game between Time Inc., Warner Bros. and Paramount Communications.
Not only that, it is said that during the banquet for the main creative team of "Lethal Weapon 2" at noon today, Steve Ross also rewarded each of the main creators with an expensive sports car and personally handed the keys to everyone.
Steve Ross's generous character is indeed the reason why Warner Bros. was able to win over a group of top filmmakers to work with him. 'Old Cowboy' Clint Eastwood has only made films for Warner Bros. in the past ten years, and famous Hollywood filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand, and Cher have also worked with Ross. Friendship is irreversible.
It was only after receiving two consecutive enthusiastic invitation calls from Steve Ross that Simon could no longer refuse and had to agree to attend tonight's party.
After the announcement of Daenerys Entertainment's 10 foreign cooperation film plans, Simon doesn't know if he has become the most powerful person in Hollywood, but he is definitely the one who has accepted the most various invitations in Hollywood recently. You only need to look at the grand celebrations Warner Bros. celebrated for the film after "Lethal Weapon 2" became a box office hit, and it's not difficult to understand why Hollywood is so enthusiastic about Simon.
The box office performance of "Lethal Weapon 2" has made Warner Bros. overjoyed. The total North American box office expectations may not reach half of "The Sixth Sense".
Because Simon's partners proactively requested to provide scripts, the seven major Hollywood studios, mainstream second- and third-tier film companies, top producers in the industry, and even major talent agencies all sent large quantities of scripts to Dani. Liz Entertainment is here.
These days, wherever he goes, Simon almost always has a stack of scripts ready to flip through.
Daenerys Entertainment has already confirmed the main creatives for next year's films such as "The Last Day", "Pretty Woman", "Dances with Wolves" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". However, with the release of 10 films When the news broke, talent agencies and Hollywood stars big and small were all excited.
10 movies naturally means a lot of opportunities.
Daenerys Entertainment's ability to make famous actors in a series of films is obvious to all. Second- and third-tier actors are crazy about these opportunities that may allow them to be promoted to the first-tier. Even top-tier stars cannot remain calm in the face of these 10 movie plans. .
After all, Hollywood's resources are limited. Newcomers who are promoted to the front line will not have much increased opportunities, and the original first-line stars will inevitably decline as a result.
In the banquet hall of the Hilton Hotel.
When Simon appeared, the eyes of all the guests were like countless compasses that had encountered a powerful magnet, all focused on the young man at the door.
Steve Ross immediately came up with some people. Although he knew that it would be inappropriate to invite Simon, a young man who was destined to be the focus of the audience, on today's occasion, Ross was helpless. He would fly to Special Administrative Region tomorrow. In the short term, there is simply no time for another appointment with Simon in the state of Delaware.
"Simon, it's so nice to see you again," Rose hugged Simon enthusiastically, and then teased: "Why are you the only one, but it doesn't matter, you can just find a female companion."
After Simon and Rose hugged each other, he said, "How about you, Steve?"
"You know, I'd love to fight Martin Davis if I could."
Simon smiled and said: "Then he will definitely not be able to beat you."
Rose also laughed, patted Simon on the shoulder, looked at the others and said, "You all know everyone. Well, this is Barbara. She just wanted me to help introduce her."
Simon nodded to the likes of Terry Semel, Mel Gibson, Joe Pesci and "Lethal Weapon 2" director Richard Donner, and shook hands with Barbra Streisand, whom Ross specifically mentioned. He started and said, "Hello, Ms. Streisand."
Barbra Streisand shook hands with Simon warmly and said, "Just call me Barbra, Simon."
"Of course, Barbara."
Everyone chatted for a while, and Mel Gibson and others dispersed the party crowd again.
Steve Ross took Simon to the dining table in the corner of the hall and sat down. He called the waiter to bring drinks to the two of them, and said: "I called George Cogo this afternoon, Simon. The WGA is targeting Daenerys." The entertainment investigative farce should end here. You can have someone contact the other side tomorrow and the matter will be settled soon."
Simon was no longer worried about the WGA investigation, but he still nodded appreciatively and said, "Thank you, Steve. Speaking of which, what's the outcome of this lawsuit?"
Simon was naturally talking about the disputes between the three companies regarding mergers and acquisitions.
Paramount suddenly made an acquisition bid for Time Inc. in June, disrupting the pending merger between Time Inc. and Warner Bros. After Time Inc. firmly resisted, Paramount filed a lawsuit to push the matter forward. The federal court in Delaware asked the court to stop the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Bros.
As we all know, many large companies in North America are registered in Delaware for tax avoidance and other reasons.
Simon has noticed that in order to resist Paramount's offer, Time Inc. has recently adjusted its stock-for-stock merger plan with Warner Bros. to a combination of stock and cash.
When Steve Ross heard Simon's question, he showed a confident expression on his face and said: "The verdict will be released next month. It's not a big problem."
"So, I would like to first congratulate you on becoming the head of the largest media company in Hollywood."
Steve Ross smiled and raised his glass to Simon, feeling very proud of himself.
As far as the current situation is concerned, Paramount is almost destined to fail in the ongoing lawsuit because Time Inc.'s resistance is too strong.
Moreover, although the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Bros. has had twists and turns due to this lawsuit, Warner Bros., headed by Steve Ross, has unexpectedly gained more benefits.
Not only has Time's bid for Warner been increased, but in order to avoid the fate of being acquired, Time's senior executives, who were originally the acquirers, tried their best to win Warner's cooperation and recently made major concessions in terms of the future distribution of power in the new company.
Now, although Warner Bros. is still the nominal acquiree, it has actually occupied a dominant position in the merger between Time Inc. and Warner Bros.
Steve Ross is a person who likes to discuss company management and business negotiation skills with people around him, and he continued to reveal some inside information about the progress of the current acquisition to Simon without concealment.
The two chatted enthusiastically for more than ten minutes before the veteran Hollywood tycoon got down to business and asked: "Simon, how do you plan to arrange the 10 movies of Daenerys Entertainment?"
Simon is recalling some of the details of the merger and acquisition case that Ross just mentioned, and he has some insights. He has been paying attention to this merger and acquisition case, hoping to gain some experience related to his future layout. Ross's personal explanation gave him a deeper understanding of this merger and acquisition case.
Time Inc., Warner Bros. and Paramount Communications are all listed companies. However, it is not the shareholders of the three companies that are driving this matter. Instead, it is the management who have their own interests.
Therefore, the lawsuit launched by Paramount Communications to protect the interests of Time Inc. shareholders was misdirected from the beginning.
The management of Times Company, which has the power to make decisions, does not care whether shareholders can get an additional one billion or two billion US dollars. What they care about is whether their millions and tens of millions of US dollars of income can be maintained and their control over the company. .
When Ross asked about 10 movies, Simon temporarily retracted his thoughts and said with a wry smile: "I have received too many scripts recently, Steve, to be honest, I was still reading the scripts in the car here just now. .As for the specific arrangements, the most important thing is the quality of the script."
"Simon, I saw the demo of "Batman" this afternoon, and it was really amazing. Although "One Flew Over the Child" and "Batman" have not been released yet, I believe that we will definitely have a very pleasant cooperation. So, 10 Warner doesn’t ask for too much from the movie, so how about giving us two more?”
"I'm also looking forward to continuing to work with Warner Bros., Steve, but, you know, it takes the right projects."
"I understand, Simon. Warner's copyright library is still very rich, you can choose at will. In addition, if you like any other scripts, tell Terry, and he will do everything possible to get it. And, I know Dan Nelis Entertainment has also reserved a lot of copyrights. If you are willing to use them to cooperate with Warner, even if the conditions are more compressed, we can accept it."
Simon had actually read the first batch of scripts sent to him by Warner and had roughly confirmed the goals.
However, the dispute with the WGA has not yet been settled. Out of caution, Simon is not in a hurry to announce several projects that he has already taken a fancy to.
It felt like Ross was still staring at him with piercing eyes, as if he would not give up until he got the right words. He pretended to hesitate for a moment, and Simon finally said: "I can only say, Steve, among these 10 movies, there will definitely be one from Warner Bros. I can't confirm the number of quotas. In addition, even if we can't cooperate on these 10 projects, you know that Daenerys and Warner will definitely continue to develop the sequel to "Batman". Now that you have seen After seeing the samples, I think I must have the same confidence.”
All Steve Ross wanted tonight was Simon's words.
Warner and Daenerys are already cooperating on two movies, and Ross also sees Simon's intention in making this decision a few days ago, so he is a little worried that the young man in front of him will give up all the opportunities to other film companies. Ross actually also thought of "Batman", and even "Superman" and "Wonder Woman".
However, the more cooperation projects with Daenerys Entertainment, the better.
"In that case, let's enjoy the party tonight." After getting the promise he wanted, Steve Ross raised his glass to Simon with the champagne, and joked to himself: "I already feel a lot of eyes. The crusade against me, an old man, takes up too much of your time."
Simon stood up and watched Steve Ross leave, and was about to eat something when Jonathan Friedman came over before everyone else could do it and asked straight to the point: "Simon, have you picked out a project? "