After the first week, because New Year's Day on January 1, 1990 fell on a Monday like Christmas Eve, which was a legal holiday, the second weekend of "Batman" was also a four-day weekend.
Among this week's new films, "The Rocketeer" starring Tom Cruise and Meg Ryan, the final production cost was US$45 million, which Paramount originally obtained from Daenerys through less than honorable means. This project can be said to be full of confidence, so US$20 million has been invested in publicity and distribution.
However, despite the obvious public relations component, the media evaluation of "The Rocketeer" still barely reached a passing grade. Some mainstream print media platforms such as "The New York Times", "Entertainment Weekly" and "Washington Post" also gave merciless There was a negative review.
According to Simon's understanding, in order to make room for "The Rocketeer", Paramount also moved "Born on the Fourth of July", also starring Tom Cruise and directed by Oliver Stone, to Easter 1990. .
However, the total investment of US$65 million, the most popular Christmas schedule, and the starring roles of Tom Cruise and Meg Ryan, all the positive factors failed to make "The Rocketeer" gain market recognition, and the audience did not like it. This is a slightly nondescript retro and sci-fi style movie.
Coupled with the strong impact of "Batman Begins", "The Rocketeer" only had a box office of US$11.98 million in its first seven days from December 29 to January 4. Although it ranked second on the weekly box office list, it Left far behind by "Batman Begins."
Another new film, Steven Spielberg's "Forever," tells the love story of a pilot who returns to his girlfriend as a ghost after a plane crash to start another life with her. Yes, this idea is very similar to "The Last Love", but of course, the plot is completely different.
In its first week, this fantasy romantic comedy only received 7.18 million US dollars in box office despite the same tepid reputation, ranking fourth in the weekly box office list. The third place on the list is still occupied by the Easter-scheduled "One Flew Over the Child". The film fell another 11% this week, taking in US$9.68 million, with a cumulative box office of US$135.77 million.
As for "Batman Begins" at the top of the list, due to the record-breaking box office of $82.39 million in its first week and the fact that the film itself has a much wider audience than Simon's previous two works, the film's box office in the second week not only did not After falling, there was an 8% increase, and another $88.79 million was made.
In two weeks, "Batman Begins" grossed $171.18 million at the box office at an unprecedented rate.
Such biweekly box office results mean that "Batman Begins" will easily break the $400 million domestic box office mark. Once-phenomenal movies such as "Star Wars" and "E.T." have not experienced repeated re-releases. Therefore, "Batman Begins" will also become the first movie in North American history to have a domestic box office of over 400 million US dollars. .
Along with the media's amazement and the cheers of movie fans, major Hollywood studios also reacted immediately and quickly turned their attention to potential movie adaptations of superhero comics.
Then, most people discovered at this time that the two major comic book manufacturers in the United States, Marvel and DC, had no room for them to intervene.
What’s even more disappointing is that these two major manufacturers are almost controlled by Daenerys Entertainment.
Marvel is completely in the hands of Simon Westeros. DC’s three core giants of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are also under Simon Westeros’ control. This is equivalent to blocking DC’s throat.
Not to mention the untapped gold mine of Marvel, based on the box office results of "Batman Begins" and the DC movie universe plan recently announced by Daenerys and Warner Bros., it is probably enough to entertain Daenerys. Eat for ten years.
You know, it's not just the box office. The sales of derivatives of "Batman Begins" also reached 150 million US dollars in the second week after the first week of 130 million US dollars. Industry statistics agencies predict that based on sales data in the past two weeks, sales of various types of derivatives of "Batman Begins" may reach US$2 billion in the next year.
Movie derivatives rely on the ultra-high premium brought by brand image. The terminal sales price can usually reach about 10 times the production cost, so the gross profit is very high.
Even through multiple profit transfers from manufacturers, distributors and retailers, the income earned by copyright owners can usually reach 10% to 20% of sales, depending on the type of derivatives.
"Batman Begins" is expected to generate US$2 billion in derivative sales in the next year. Calculated based on a compromise commission ratio, it will also bring about US$300 million to Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner. Moreover, because this part of the income does not require much upfront investment, it is basically pre-tax net income.
Because of the expected huge profits from all aspects of "Batman Begins," Warner Bros. experienced a brief period of excitement that quickly turned into painful regret after the film became a box office hit.
Even though it is understood that it was Simon Westeros' personal control that created the current box office miracle of "Batman Begins", Warner still had the opportunity to participate in the investment of this film.
Now, according to the original contract, Warner Bros. Pictures can only take a 15% commission from the distribution of the film through various channels. Due to the huge derivative income, Time Warner, which has completed the merger, can only obtain 10% of the net profit share in the name of its subsidiary DC Comics.
Although these two parts of revenue alone may bring in at least US$200 million to Time Warner in the next few years, no one at Time Warner dares to calculate how much Daenerys Entertainment will earn from this project. .
The more I calculate, the sadder it becomes!
Moreover, if it is other second- and third-tier film companies in Hollywood, Warner Bros. Pictures, which holds the omni-channel distribution rights, can also use usual Hollywood financial means to squeeze out its partners' due share of profits as much as possible, but for Daenerys Entertainment , it is impossible for everyone at Warner Bros. Pictures to do this.
From the beginning of the release of "Batman Begins," Daenerys Entertainment deployed a dedicated accounting team to follow up on the entire project, which made it difficult for Warner to manipulate the finances.
Of course, it may not be impossible, but Warner does not dare to do this.
Daenerys Entertainment’s handling of the original recording split dispute in “The Bodyguard” is deeply remembered by the entire Hollywood.
Alistar Records tried to devour Daenerys Entertainment's share of the record sales. Simon Westeros completely ignored the huge losses that might be caused by a phenomenon-level record being out of stock, and directly stopped the sale of this record. In the end, Not only did Alistar Records fail to succeed, but they were fined double the amount that was swallowed up. The president of Alistar Records also lost his job.
If Warner Bros. Pictures did the same, Terry Semel feels that Simon Westeros may not hesitate to stop development of the entire DC Cinematic Universe until Warner spits out everything it swallowed. Perhaps, in the end, someone will have to take responsibility, and he, the CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures, is obviously the most suitable scapegoat.
Therefore, now that it has become an established fact, the current goal of Time Warner is just to promote the subsequent development of the DC movie universe as soon as possible.
Santa Monica.
In the conference room of Daenerys Entertainment Headquarters, it was already Friday, January 5, 1990.
Throughout the day-long meeting, the teams of the two companies, headed by Amy Pascal and Terry Semel, were discussing the follow-up cooperation between the two parties and the DC movie universe plans.
The original terms of the contract determined that the two parties could renegotiate many details after the first "Batman" film, such as Warner's distribution commission ratio for subsequent films.
The 15% commission for all channels is actually very high.
Because the entire DC movie universe plan involves so many interests, throughout the whole day, in addition to a list of ten movies in the next five to seven years, the two parties only preliminarily determined the subsequent distribution commission ratio.
Terry Semel did not make too many concessions in this regard. He only made certain reasonable concessions after breaking down the domestic, overseas, video tape and TV broadcast platforms.
After negotiations, the local distribution commission rate for subsequent films that the two parties cooperate with and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures is reduced to 12.5%, and the overseas distribution commission rate is reduced to 10%. The total revenue commission rate drawn by video tapes and TV broadcast platforms is also 12.5%.
Of course, the publicity and distribution expenses of each channel must be included in the cost and deducted separately. However, due to Daenerys Entertainment’s strict financial supervision in this regard, it is difficult for Warner to manipulate it.
At the same time, some projects that will be distributed by Daenerys Entertainment in the future will also receive commissions based on this distribution ratio.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, the meeting ended.
Terry Semel and Amy Pascal walked out of the office together and asked: "When will Simon come back? I still look forward to him returning to Los Angeles as soon as possible to take charge of the overall situation."
Amy handed the folder in her hand to her assistant Vanessa and said, "I don't know either. I called him after the film's first weekend box office was released, and he said at that time that he would take Jenny to Antarctica."
Terry Semel raised his eyebrows: "Antarctica?"
Amy smiled and said: "Yes, Antarctica. Melbourne is relatively close to Antarctica, I don't know. However, it is summer in the southern hemisphere, and Antarctica is the warmest time of the year. Oh, it seems to be still It’s in the extreme daylight stage.”
"Then what?"
Amy shrugged: "Then, I couldn't contact him in person in the past few days. He didn't say when he would come back, probably until the end of the month."
Terry Semel smiled bitterly: "Then, he will definitely not attend the weekend celebration party."
"Well," Amy nodded and said, "There's another thing. The box office of "Time to Fight" was very good. Simon asked me to draw up a reward plan. About 3 million US dollars each for the two protagonists, and several supporting actors. The total expenditure is about US$20 million. I still want to tell you about this. Warner does not need to share this part of the expenditure this time, but for subsequent projects, rewards will be It’s going to be included in the general ledger.”
Terry Semel nodded and said: "20 million is not much at all compared to Daenerys' income this time."
Amy smiled, knowing that Terry Semel must be troubled these days, so she didn't mention it anymore.
After seeing off Warner and others, Amy did not get off work immediately, but came to her office.
Nancy Brill had arrived early and was sitting on the sofa in the lounge area of Amy's office, looking through this document.
Seeing Amy come in, Nancy stood up, hugged her, and asked, "How did the meeting with Warner go?"
"It will definitely take a while, there are too many things that need to be discussed," Amy said, and then asked: "What about you, how are things going in Rhode Island?"
Nancy just came back from Rhode Island in the afternoon to work on Daenerys Entertainment's toy factory there.
For the development of "Batman Begins" derivatives this time, the toy factory there is responsible for the production of the most important batch of protagonist figures and prop models such as Bat-Motorcycles. However, due to lack of experience in this area, all the toys produced by the factory in Rhode Island were sold out in the first week of release.
Nancy went there this time not only to re-coordinate the toy production of the factory, but also to contact her old connections at Hasbro to entrust some toy orders that her own factory could not complete.
Hasbro is also headquartered in Rhode Island.
"It's done," Nancy said, "Actually, I think the last time they were sold out was a good result. After the restocking, the sales of those toys became even more popular. Simon has told us several times before, Hunger marketing is really useful. By the way, I brought back some limited edition toys, do you want to give them to anyone?"
"Of course, leave a few for me. My nephew asked me for Christmas, but he couldn't come up with any. He was scolded by his parents."
The two were chatting and laughing, and Amy motioned for Nancy to continue sitting down. She turned back to her desk, opened the safe, took out an envelope, walked over again, handed it to Nancy, and said: "This is what Simon asked me to give to you. "
Nancy opened the envelope, and inside was a check for $5 million: "This is it?"
"The bonus is for you," Amy sat down next to Nancy. Vanessa came in with coffee at this time. She took the coffee and held it in her hand, and continued to say to Nancy: "You know Simon's temperament, you The contract cannot be changed in the short term, so this is considered additional compensation."
Nancy put the check in her bag unceremoniously, and asked Amy with a smile: "Did he give it to me on his own initiative, or did you ask for it for me?"
"I mentioned it, so it's considered to be his initiative," Amy said, "He actually cares about you."
Nancy said dissatisfied: "Well, this sentence is really ambiguous."
"Okay, I forgot you were single," Amy said, "Actually, it doesn't matter if you don't change your contract now. When it expires, the company will probably go public. Simon will definitely give you a contract by then. A more generous salary contract.”
Nancy became interested and asked, "Has he discussed the listing plan with you?"