Amy said: "Yes, but it will definitely not work this year and next year. If everything goes well, the company will probably be able to IPO in 1992 at the earliest."
As his business horizons continue to broaden, Simon gradually no longer resists the company's IPO issue. He also understands that if Daenerys Entertainment wants to continue to grow and develop in the future, a public listing is necessary regardless of all considerations.
The reason why Simon discussed this topic with Amy was because of her salary contract.
The contract Amy signed with Simon when she joined the company included corresponding cash dividends and an equal number of equity awards. Although the outside world has various valuations of Daenerys Entertainment, the company has not been listed after all. Amy Equity awards are difficult to quantify.
Amy's contract will expire at the beginning of next year. Simon hopes to delay cashing out her equity award until the company goes public, and Amy agrees.
When Nancy heard what Amy said, she keenly grasped another meaning in her words, and tentatively repeated: "If everything goes well?"
"Don't make blind guesses," Amy interrupted with a smile and said, "Speaking of which, the main building of Malibu Daenerys Studios has been completed. Would you like to go take a look tomorrow and choose an office building? Design and decorate yourself?”
"Of course, I won't save money for our boss."
Nancy said, still couldn't help but think about what just happened.
Cersei Capital has accumulated a large amount of funds overseas. Anyone who is not too stupid should know that the value of this money can only be reflected by spending it as soon as possible. Hoarding it will only depreciate in the continued inflation.
Among the companies in the Westeros system, the one most suitable and most in need of using this capital for large-scale expansion is Daenerys Entertainment, and the expansion targets will obviously only be the Seven Big Seven in Hollywood.
Nancy even locked in on the merger target in the blink of an eye.
The current seven major Hollywood companies, Columbia and MGM, have just changed hands and are unlikely to be sold again in the short term. Simon should not like these two companies either.
Rupert Murdoch is ambitiously building his own global media empire and will not sell Fox.
Although Paramount has just experienced the failure of "The Rocketeer", the company's film business has been very good in the past two years, and its stock price is relatively high. Paramount Chairman Martin Davis has turned down several merger offers in recent years and is not a good acquisition target.
Time Warner is too big for Daenerys Entertainment to handle.
Disney has been in a state of rapid recovery in recent years, with its stock price growing rapidly. The Bass family and the Disney family, which hold a large number of shares in the company, will not sell it easily.
In the end, only MCA, the parent company of Universal Pictures, was left.
If it were Nancy herself, she would choose MCA without hesitation.
In addition to movies, MCA's businesses in television, music and theme parks can be highly complementary to Daenerys Entertainment. Moreover, the aging MCA Chairman Lou Vassalman is not as resistant to outside acquisitions as Martin Davis.
The next afternoon.
Because it was Saturday, there was a celebration party for "Batman Begins" in the evening. Daenerys Entertainment's executives, big and small, came to Malibu to check out the movie theater they would be staying in in the middle of this year. City Park.
This mountainside plot, five kilometers from California Highway 1 into the Malibu area, has changed from the original barren slope.
After a year-long construction, the main buildings in the three areas from top to bottom in the cinema have been completed.
There are a total of five three- to five-story office buildings of different sizes in the uppermost administrative area. Different from the old-school small buildings and bungalow buildings in traditional movie theaters, these five well-proportioned office buildings are designed with high-ceiling glass curtain walls. The styles are different, and the simplicity reveals a fashionable and modern design aesthetic.
In addition to offices, the five buildings also include restaurants, cafes, gyms and other employee activity and leisure areas.
The most conspicuous thing on the second floor are three two-story factory-style office LOFT buildings with a length of 150 meters and a width of 30 meters. The appearance of the LOFT is a construction style that combines red brick walls, tempered glass and black steel beams. The ceiling also adopts a loft-style roof design. , looks full of literary and artistic style.
The LOFT model office buildings of this era have not yet emerged.
Therefore, Simon surprised many people when he drew the rough drawings himself, and the effect after the completion of the building was also very outstanding.
The three office lofts will house creative departments such as Pixar Animation, Daenerys Special Effects, Blizzard Studios and Marvel Entertainment’s West Coast team.
The current Pixar teams are not large in size. However, even taking into account future expansion factors, the theoretical double-layer 9,000 square meters of internal space in each office loft is enough to accommodate an office size of 500 to 1,000 people.
In addition to the three office lofts, a large circular fiberglass-style activity center was built on the second floor, covering an area of 2,500 square meters. The interior includes a hall that can accommodate 1,200 people and several small halls with hundreds of people, which can be used for Multiple uses such as movie screenings, parties and meetings.
On the bottom floor of the studio are six studios of different specifications and a large post-production center.
Of course, these are just the main buildings in the studio.
In addition to the five office buildings on the top floor, there are other restaurants, shops, warehouses and dormitories on the second and third floors.
However, the total area of the movie theater park is 50 hectares, and the area occupied by all these buildings is actually not very large.
Due to the popularity of automobiles in the United States and the lack of public transportation in Los Angeles, not counting the land used for greening and backup, the largest area of the studio is actually the parking lot. The three-story park from top to bottom has six parking lots, large and small, which are enough to accommodate 3,000 cars when fully loaded.
After walking around the movie theater, while others were still visiting various places, Amy, Nancy and Jennifer came to the parking lot guardrail near the cliff on the second floor.
Leaning on the railing, with a cliff of more than ten meters at her feet, and the blue scene of the sea and sky in the distance, Nancy took a deep breath with enjoyment, and pointed curiously at the shell that had gradually taken shape in the Dume Point Manor in the distance. The architect asked Jennifer: "When will it be built there? It looks so beautiful?"
When Simon is not in Los Angeles, the female assistant has to take on the multiple roles of assistant and housekeeper.
Following Nancy's gaze, Jennifer said, "It won't be until next year at the earliest. The interior decoration is very troublesome, and many things need to be customized."
Nancy leaned forward enviously and said bitterly: "If you build such a conspicuous villa, someone will definitely say that BOSS is extravagant. Hearst has been criticized for many years."
William Randolph Hearst, the founder of the Hearst Corporation, spent most of his life building the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. Even now, many years later, it has been criticized by many as extravagant.
Jennifer argued: "Simon just built a house that he liked. It is not as luxurious as Hearst."
Nancy nodded seriously, but with a hint of ridicule in her tone, she said, "Yes, yes, everything Simon does is right."
Jennifer blushed slightly and planned to ignore Nancy.
Nancy withdrew her gaze, turned around and looked at several office lofts in the second-floor park, and said to Amy: "I would rather work in these loft-like buildings, which are much better than those office buildings above. I I think this can stimulate employees’ creativity more.”
"So these three buildings are used by Pixar," Amy said: "However, if you really want to bring your own department to work here, you can. There is a lot of free space in these LOFT buildings. You can use 3 The second floor of LOFT."
"Then it's settled. I will take the time to discuss the decoration plan with the designer."
Nancy nodded immediately. She didn't care about the potential status difference between the administrative area on the first floor and the office area on the second floor. Her own comfort was the most important thing, not to mention that no one dared to despise the move of the consumer goods department to the second floor.
With that said, Nancy looked around at the empty surroundings, then remembered what happened yesterday, and asked Amy tentatively: "Our office buildings in Santa Monica and Burbank are all rented, and we will return them after we move here." That’s fine. But, Amy, this place is already empty enough, what if we have a second movie theater park?”
The three people beside the railing were all extremely smart. After hearing what Nancy said, Jennifer immediately looked over suspiciously.
Nancy noticed Jennifer's eyes and couldn't help but joked: "Really, even Jenny knows about it, and I still have to be kept in the dark."
As the person closest to Simon in the company and having a relationship with James, Jennifer naturally knew about Daenerys Entertainment's plan to acquire MCA. Although Simon is in Australia recently, he has been discussing this matter with James and Amy, and sometimes needs a female assistant to help convey the message.
Amy smiled and said: "Then just pretend you don't know. You are just the president of the consumer products department, and you really want to take my position."
"Maybe," Nancy bared her white teeth in a threatening gesture and asked, "So, what should we do about the two major parks?"
Amy said: "We have a lot of high-quality copyrights now. Employees from another park have moved here, and this area is full. The space freed up there can be expanded to some superhero attractions, and a horror film community can be added. Ah, things like that, which can enhance the attraction of theme parks to tourists."
Speaking of which, Simon and Amy discussed this matter after they proposed the plan to acquire MCA.
Universal Studios in Burbank covers an area of 212 hectares, and Daenerys Studios in Malibu also covers 50 hectares. If MCA is purchased, Daenerys Entertainment will own a studio that is much larger than the combined area of the existing studios of other Hollywood studios.
However, this problem did not trouble Simon.
A large part of the reason why Simon bought MCA was for the company's theme park business.
Movie theme parks will have great potential in the next 20 to 30 years.
As long as the acquisition of MCA can be successfully completed, Simon will increase investment in theme parks and build more attractions in Universal Studios to attract tourists. The film and television production business there can just be transferred to Malibu.
What's more, at its peak, MGM had as many as six filming bases in Los Angeles. Even if it did not reach the heights of MGM in the blockbuster era, Simon was confident that the future development of Daenerys Entertainment would be enough to absorb these two. Located in the cinema park.
When Nancy heard what Amy said, she immediately understood, thought for a moment and said, "It is indeed a very good idea."
Amy warned: "Remember to keep it a secret. If the news gets out, don't talk about taking my position. Simon will have to fire you."
"Of course I understand."
While the three women were chatting, Robert Rem, Ella Deutschman, and Robert Egger, who had flown in from the East Coast in the morning, walked over together.
It was already evening.
The celebration party for "Batman Begins" was held at seven o'clock in the evening at Simon's mansion halfway up the Palisade. Everyone said hello, and Amy and Jennifer rushed to the Palisade to check on the party preparations. Others People leave for the time being.
The parties where Daenerys entertains are undoubtedly the most popular gatherings in Hollywood in the last two years, and especially so in recent months.
The 10-movie plan in the second half of last year is still ongoing. With the box office explosion of "Batman Begins", the upcoming DC movie universe plan undoubtedly represents more opportunities for Hollywood filmmakers to become famous in one fell swoop.
With the birth of the first North American movie with a local box office expected to exceed US$400 million, Adam Baldwin, the leading actor of "Batman Begins" who was not even a third-tier actor, has been promoted to the ranks of first-tier stars, and Valerie, who plays Catwoman ·Golino has also firmly established himself in Hollywood.
The fame of the film's supporting actors, including Willem Dafoe, Tommy Lee Jones and Anthony Hopkins, has also increased significantly.
It is conceivable that even if other films in the DC Cinematic Universe in the next few years can only reach half the commercial heights of "Batman Begins," this plan will be enough to become a powerful star-making machine for countless Hollywood filmmakers eager to get ahead. For me, this is the dream opportunity.
Therefore, in order to get invitations to tonight's celebration party, many people tried their best.
The originally planned party size of 200 people was eventually expanded to more than 500 people due to the overwhelming favors from all parties.
The party started at seven o'clock in the evening, but just after six o'clock, celebrities gathered in the mansion in Palisades. After hearing the news, a large number of paparazzi almost blocked the mountain road, and Amy had to send security Officers maintained traffic outside the mansion.
As soon as the sky darkened, the mansion became a bustling scene of feasting and feasting. Men and women in gorgeous clothes and fine decorations shuttled around the mansion, looking for every opportunity that might allow them to ascend to the sky.
The most dazzling young man that many people expected did not show up. Therefore, Daenerys Entertainment, Time Warner executives and other Hollywood bigwigs who attended the party became the targets of close conversations at the party.
However, the reason why a circle is a circle is that some people clearly feel that they are within reach, but they cannot break in no matter what.
The main villa in the mansion is not fully open this time.
At the entrance to the stairs leading to the second floor of the villa, two bodyguards stood with their hands crossed, constantly blocking guests who wanted to go upstairs under various excuses to get close to those big shots.
In the study on the second floor, there were only two people, Amy and Jonathan Friedman.
Amy leaned on the edge of the desk, folded her arms, looked at Jonathan Friedman next to the bookshelf with a serious expression, and said: "Qiao, we must explain this matter very thoroughly today, Adam and Valais Leigh's contract, as well as everyone else's contract, is absolutely impossible to modify. The DC Cinematic Universe is a very huge project. If every movie is a hit, the actors feel that they are not getting enough and ask to modify the contract. Then, this plan will no longer be able to proceed.”
Probably what kind of boss brings out what kind of employees. Jonathan Friedman felt that Amy clearly had Simon's breath when she said these words: "Amy, even if the salary cannot be changed, other aspects, such as this This is a character figurine from "Batman Begins", which involves the actor's image rights. I think Adam and Valerie should have the right to obtain an appropriate share of the toys using their own images. Also, the rights to the actors in the contract The restrictions on them participating in other films during the contract period are also too harsh."
"Qiao, I remember clearly that the contract stipulated the corresponding derivative licensing terms. Moreover, what we produced were not the figures of the actors themselves, but the figures of the movie characters they represented. In the end, they are just a carrier .As for the restrictions on their participation in other films, this is to ensure that they can smoothly fulfill their contracts."
After Amy said this, she paused and continued: "Qiao, if you need, I can find the list of the last few finalists for the role of Batman. You can see what their status is now and what kind of person Adam is. position. Without this role, Adam is still just a small person who is not even a third-line actor, and maybe he can only be such a small person for the rest of his life. Batman gave him everything. Simon mentioned to me that he never expected to be The actors he makes famous will be grateful to him. He is a person who does not believe in people's hearts. He only hopes that those people can fulfill the agreements he has signed. Moreover, if Adam's five-movie contract is completed, he will be able to take away the amount of salary The total amount is 30.3 million U.S. dollars, with an average of more than 6 million per film. This is already the level of a first-line star. Daenerys Entertainment has not treated him badly. With the popularity brought by Batman, Adam can also participate in other movies and take on various filming projects. Advertising, that's enough to bring him a very good income, and so does everyone else's. So, Joe, I hope we have this conversation just once."
After a brief silence, Jonathan Friedman nodded quickly, showed a gentle smile and said: "Okay, Amy, you know, we agents always have to comply with the wishes of our clients."
Amy still had dissatisfaction on her face and said: "You can let them know how much remuneration Christopher Reeve received when he played "Superman". The first "Superman" sold 300 million US dollars worldwide. The salary for the second "Superman" movie was only US$500,000, and the salary for the third movie barely rose to US$1 million. Joe, if we had not signed a contract in advance, with the current box office performance of "Batman Begins", they would have They can offer as high a salary as they want for the sequel, 20 million, 30 million, or directly participate in the box office share. Whether we accept it or not, this is their right. But since we have signed a contract, we must abide by it. .”
Since Amy had such an attitude, Jonathan knew that this matter was unlikely to have any outcome. It might be worse to talk to Simon directly, so he said: "Amy, I will tell them."
Seeing that Jonathan was about to leave, Amy stopped him again and asked, "Qiao, I need a name. Who proposed to modify the contract?"
Jonathan smiled bitterly and said: "Amy, can this end here? I owe you a favor."
Amy and Jonathan looked at each other for a moment, nodded slightly, and said, "Qiao, I hope you remind them to abide by the contract and we will have more opportunities to cooperate in the future. Otherwise, you know Simon's temper. If someone hinders the DC movie universe plan, Moving forward, they will no longer have any place in Hollywood.”
In the living room downstairs of the villa, Adam Baldwin, who was being admired by the stars and chatting and laughing with some guests, saw Jonathan appear and immediately walked up with questioning eyes.
Adam Baldwin's agent Matthew Stilt also joined in.
Jonathan glanced up the stairs subconsciously, but did not find Amy. Then he took Baldwin and the two to a corner of the backyard and communicated with them in a low voice.
Among the several creative actors of "Batman", the one who is most confident in trying to renegotiate the contract with Daenerys Entertainment is undoubtedly Adam Baldwin, who plays Bruce Wayne. Amy had clearly guessed this in her words just now. One thing, one last name, just to get confirmation from Jonathan.
The favor that Jonathan owed could be regarded as blocking a lot of things for Adam Baldwin.
However, upstairs in the villa, Amy had no intention of forgetting this matter.
Leaving the study, Amy went to another living room on the second floor. Nancy, Jennifer, Valerie Golino, Sandra Bullock and other ladies gathered here. There were several sofas in the room and on the terrace. It is fully occupied by women.
After greeting everyone, Amy called out her assistant Vanessa Lind, stood in the outer corridor and ordered: "Go and check tomorrow to see which scripts Meg Ryan has read recently and which ones she is working with. I’ve contacted the crew and decided to work with someone, and I’ll see the results next Monday.”
Vanessa didn't ask any more questions and nodded: "Okay."
"Also," Amy added: "You tell the Finance Department tomorrow that the incentive plan for the creative team of "Batman Begins" that is being drafted is cancelled, so there is no need to count it."
Vanessa was a little surprised this time and asked uncertainly: "Cancel?"
"Yes," Amy said, "Also, you have been trying to get the news out in the past few days, because someone wants to break the contract and re-sign the agreement, and all the planned extra rewards have been cancelled."
Vanessa understood, nodded, and asked tentatively: "Amy, you don't really want to cancel, do you?"
20 million US dollars, if all of it is canceled because of some people's petty actions, the creative team of "Batman Begins" will probably hate some people to death.
I just don’t know who is going to renegotiate the agreement.
Amy glared at her assistant: "Why are you asking so many questions? Just do your own thing."
Vanessa shrank her neck and said, "Okay, I understand."