Santa Monica Airport.
The time is September 18th, Monday afternoon.
Nancy Brill stood by the airport runway with two other bodyguards who drove over to pick her up.
The Gulfstream IV landed and stopped, and the cabin door opened. Nancy saw Simon and two other beautiful women who were too tall for her to catch up with as they walked off the plane talking and laughing. One of the women wearing a navel-baring T-shirt and denim hot pants was even intimate. He held Simon's arm tightly, and his two exposed long legs were dazzling.
The three of them approached. Simon was a little surprised by Nancy's appearance, but he introduced the woman next to him with a smile: "Nancy, this is Ella, and this is Jerry."
Ella Macpherson was a little curious about the petite woman who was still tall and tall. She didn't quite understand who Nancy was. She let go of Simon's arm and politely shook hands with her to introduce her. Jerry Hall also stepped forward. call. After the three girls had chatted for a while, Simon said to Ella MacPherson and Jerry Hall: "We still have work to do, so how about someone take you back first?"
"Okay," Ella Macpherson responded with a smile, then came over and hugged Simon, kissed her, and said, "It was a great weekend, Simon. I hope I have another chance next time."
"Definitely."
Simon patted the woman's admirable slender waist, hugged Jerry Hall again, and ordered Neil Bennett to drive the two women away.
After seeing the two women off, Simon and Nancy got into another car.
As the black luxury Mercedes-Benz drove out of the airport, Simon asked Nancy, who was still looking at him strangely, "What's going on with Alistar Records in such a hurry to get me back?"
Nancy did not answer hastily, but asked: "You, with those two women?"
Simon smiled and raised his hand to move Nancy's head to his chest, and said with a smile: "Are you envious?"
Seeing that Simon was joking about his height, Nancy obviously changed the subject and criticized him unceremoniously: "A man with a love heart."
As he spoke, he gave the man a threatening look.
Simon immediately retreated and lowered his voice: "Keep it a secret for me and I'll give you a salary increase."
Nancy said disdainfully: "This is your private matter, I won't gossip. Well, but Ella Macpherson is fine, that, that Jerry Hall, it seems... who seems to be it?"
Simon interrupted Nancy's thinking, smiled and added more chips: "Twice the salary."
Nancy rolled her eyes and stopped dwelling on the matter, but did not forget to add: "Absurd man."
Simon put away his expression and said, "Okay, let's get down to business. I originally planned to come back tomorrow morning."
After attending a party at Jonathan's house the night before, Simon left with two women.
Simon had never intended to treat him badly in this kind of thing, and he didn't care what others would think. If you have a chance to eat a woman you like, you won't miss it.
Recently, the paparazzi around me were chasing too closely, and I didn’t want to be bothered by any messy things being revealed, so I asked Steve Ross to borrow a vacation villa with a private beach on Lanai Island, Hawaii, and then took the two A woman flew over and played happily all day and night.
I have to say, the entanglement of four long legs is really unforgettable.
I was a little happy and wanted to come back tomorrow, but I got several calls from Los Angeles and had to return early.
Simon felt that if it was just a company matter, no matter how urgent it was, it wouldn't be so urgent.
There is probably a 'mastermind' behind the incident.
Um.
For example, a female assistant who likes to be jealous.
Of course Simon would not tell Jennifer about this, but women probably have instinctive intuition about this kind of thing.
Nancy no longer paid attention to Simon's personal affairs, took out a stack of documents from her bag and handed it over, saying: "According to the contract we signed with Alistar Records, the income from the soundtrack of "Bodyguard" will be settled every three months. It was released on June 5th, and the first revenue settlement should be as of September 3rd, which is a Sunday. The record has been sold for exactly 14 weeks. It has not been released overseas yet, and the total domestic sales are 12.16 million copies."
Simon looked through the information handed over by Nancy and asked, "Then what?"
"When our person in charge asked for settlement, Alistar Records president Clive Davis kept trying to push the envelope, hoping to change the terms of the contract to be settled quarterly in the calendar year, saying that this would be more convenient for Alistar. The record was undergoing a financial audit. Although it was only three months, Alistar Records was obviously just delaying payment by doing this. I personally communicated with Clive Davis and struggled for two weeks until I was about to get off work last Friday. Alistar Records just sent over the accounting report and said that the funds will have to wait for another week before they can be transferred."
Nancy said, reached over and flipped through the document in front of Simon a few times, and said: "This is it. 12.16 million records sold, according to the original agreement, the share we should get should be more than 30 million US dollars, Alistar Records only gave us $23.19 million. This was simply too much. Clive Davis probably included all the expenses his company had spent in the past few months as part of the cost of the soundtrack for The Bodyguard."
Simon had some early exposure to the record industry.
For those singers who want to get ahead, the cost of producing and distributing records is indeed a huge expense. Some unknown singers will do almost anything to get record companies to help them release records.
However, once the record becomes a hit, the profits can be huge.
For hot-selling records, the gross profit that the record company can get from each record will not be less than 50% of the selling price. For a phenomenal hit record like the "Bodyguard" soundtrack, the huge sales volume dilutes the cost. The profit margin is higher.
The original contract signed by Daenerys Entertainment and Alistar Records was that each party would receive 50% of the gross profit of the "Bodyguard" soundtrack. To be precise, it was the revenue from record shipments minus production, marketing, distribution, and singer sharing. After the expenditure, the two parties will divide the remaining pre-tax profit 50-50.
In just three months after being put on the shelves, the local sales of the "Bodyguard" soundtrack reached 12.16 million copies, with sales exceeding US$120 million. According to industry practice, Daenerys Entertainment’s expected revenue sharing should indeed not be less than $30 million.
Simon is not surprised that Alistar Records did this.
It is common for a low-cost Hollywood movie with a production cost of 5 million to sell 300 million globally but still be arbitrarily counted as a loss by the film company and refuse to pay the main creator's share. Alistar Records included a large number of other expenses into the cost in the report. The way profits are diluted is entirely leftover from Hollywood.
After just turning a few pages, Simon closed the report and asked Nancy, "Have you talked to Clive Davis?"
"I went to Burbank in the morning and Clive Davis insisted there was nothing wrong with the statement. I asked for a financial review and he said if we had to do it, it might affect the follow-up to the 'Bodyguard' soundtrack. Release. Simon, he’s threatening us.”
The expected global sales of the "Bodyguard" soundtrack are between 40 million and 50 million copies. According to current sales data, there is still a sales potential of at least 10 million copies in North America alone. In order to cooperate with the release of the "Bodyguard" movie overseas, basically None are on the shelves yet.
Everyone knows that the success of the "Bodyguard" movie was largely spurred by the success of the soundtrack. When Clive Davis spoke these words, it was indeed a clear threat. Daenerys Entertainment doesn't yet have the ability to release a blockbuster record on its own, let alone distribute it worldwide. In comparison, Alistar Records is backed by Germany's Bertelsmann Music Group and has a complete global distribution network.
If there is a stalemate between the two parties, as long as Alistar Records "passively slows down" on the subsequent release of this record, not only the record sales, but also the overseas box office of the "Bodyguard" movie will be severely affected.
Clive Davis dared to blatantly devour Daenerys Entertainment's due share of the profits by relying on the global distribution channels of Alistar Records and the entire Bertelsmann Music Group for the release of the "Bodyguard" soundtrack.
However, Clive Davis may think that Daenerys Entertainment can only swallow this dumb loss in order to ensure the overseas distribution of the "Bodyguard" movie and the subsequent sales of the film's soundtrack album, but he overlooked one thing, Daenerys Silk Entertainment is indeed very optimistic about the various benefits of "Bodyguard". However, for Alistar Records, this soundtrack album is also crucial.
After all, the only singer under Alistar Records that can be sold now is Whitney Houston. Although Alistar Records only accounts for half of the revenue from the "Bodyguard" original soundtrack, which is a phenomenal hit, it is enough to support it. This will account for most of the record company’s performance in the next one or two years.
However, for Daenerys Entertainment, even without the revenue from "Bodyguard", a large number of other blockbuster projects can still bring huge profits to the company.
The most important thing is that Daenerys Entertainment now has a lot of projects with other Hollywood studios. If Simon chooses to be patient on this matter, other studios will just follow suit in the future.
Santa Monica Airport is not far from Daenerys Entertainment headquarters, and the two arrived quickly.
Outside Simon's office, the female assistant was sitting busy behind the desk in the outer room. When she saw Simon and Nancy appear, she greeted them nonchalantly, but there was still a little guilt in her eyes.
Simon also pretended to be nonchalant and asked Jennifer to prepare two cups of coffee, then he and Nancy went into the office to sit down and asked, "What are you going to do?"
Nancy sat across from Simon's desk and said: "We share the copyright of the soundtrack of "Bodyguard" with Alistar Records. If I were to decide, I would immediately suspend all publicity and sales of this record until both parties agree. Until the dispute is resolved. However, doing so will have a great impact on the subsequent release of this record, including the overseas release of the film. The past two months have happened to be the time when "The Bodyguard" has been intensively released overseas, and major major cities such as the UK, Spain, and Italy have Filming has already started in overseas box office countries, and France, East Germany and Japan will also be released next month. These all need to be coordinated by the sales of original sound records. So, Simon, you still need to decide what to do."
"Then let's pause," Simon said without hesitation: "Moreover, this matter can't just be about recovering the share of Alistar Records' swallowed up shares. They will spit out double the amount they swallowed as punishment. The price of making a mistake is too high. If you don’t get a lesson, some people will easily forget it and do it again next time.”
Nancy looked at her boss uncertainly. She originally just wanted Alistar to spit out the profits she had swallowed as soon as possible. The method of suspending record sales was already very tough, but she didn't expect Simon to go even further.
Alistar swallowed at least 7 million U.S. dollars this time, and now not only must it be returned in full, but he must also pay another 7 million U.S. dollars in compensation, which will definitely make Clive Davis heartbroken. You know, if it hadn't been for the explosion of "Bodyguard", the small-scale Alistar Records would have only had a net profit of 20 to 30 million US dollars in the past year. 7 million is definitely a lot of money for Alistar Records.
After a pause, Nancy asked: "Simon, are you sure you want to do this?"
"Of course, we are now cooperating with the Big Seven on so many projects. If we are not tough enough this time, you can imagine how many similar troubles we will face in the future. This is also a warning to other collaborators, if they think they have something The chips just want to threaten Daenerys Entertainment, I don’t mind just flipping the table.”
Nancy was also a strong woman at heart. Now that the boss was determined to pay attention, she stopped persuading and left in a hurry.
As soon as Nancy left, Jennifer sent over several documents: "This is the promotion plan for "Batman", which Mr. Rem sent over this morning. The initial budget is US$25 million; also, this is the "Batman" promotion plan. The candidate list of several important supporting roles in "Sleeping Together"; Mr. Deutschman returned from Venice yesterday afternoon. He selected three films at this year's Venice Film Festival. This is the information... "
Simon watched the female assistant introduce a stack of documents to him one by one. He smiled and picked up the promotion plan for "Batman" and opened it. He said: "I am really a lucky guy. Without Jenny, life in Westeros would be ruined." It’s a mess.”
Hearing this, Jennifer relaxed her business-like expression, looked at the man opposite her with bright eyes, and said with a hint of entanglement in her tone: "Which Jenny are you talking about?"
Simon said decisively: "Of course it's Jenny standing opposite me."
The female assistant snorted, stopped pushing Simon, put away the coffee cups that he and Nancy had just drank, turned around and left the office with her ponytail swaying.
Burbank.
After sending away Nancy Brill in the morning, Alistar Records president Clive Davis was still thinking about how to capture more profits from the "Bodyguard" soundtrack album from overseas distribution. Unexpectedly, a few hours later, that The little woman came to the door again.
Now that it is confirmed that he will devour the share of the "Bodyguard" soundtrack, Clive Davis is no longer looking forward to the next opportunity to cooperate with Daenerys Entertainment.
Although Daenerys Entertainment has repeatedly achieved miracles in the film industry, in the field of records, a phenomenal hit that is enough to enter the top ten best-selling albums in history is definitely not something that can happen casually. .
The record industry is like a movie, with huge variables. Even for a top-tier singer, the global sales of the last album exceeded 20 million, and the sales of the next album may only be 4 to 5 million. Clive Davis There is no lack of long-term vision, but he is certain that a blockbuster album like the "Bodyguard" soundtrack may not appear for ten or eight years. The expected global sales of more than 40 million copies represent too great a benefit. , even if he gave up potential future cooperation with Daenerys Entertainment, he still decided to get the benefits this time first.
Having made up his mind, Clive Davis remained polite on the surface and welcomed Nancy Brill into the office with a big smile.
However, Nancy Brill did not sit down this time, and her words almost made Clive Davis jump out of his office chair.
"Mr. Davis, due to the breach of contract by Alistar Records, Daenerys Entertainment has decided to suspend the global promotion and sales of the "Bodyguard" soundtrack. We have notified the record recording factory to temporarily stop shipments. , the overseas promotion and sales of this record will also be fully suspended until the differences between us are resolved. As the copyright sharer of the "Bodyguard" soundtrack, Daenerys Entertainment has the above rights. If Alistar Records continues to force To advance any work on this record, Daenerys Entertainment will apply to the Recording Industry Association of America and the Los Angeles Federal Court for enforcement. In addition, Daenerys Entertainment will also file a claim against Alistar Records for this breach of contract. .”