As of this past weekend, the new version of "007: GoldenEye" had a cumulative box office of US$71.86 million in four and a half weeks.
Considering that the schedule will end at the end of next week, and the film's box office last weekend has dropped to a low of US$5.06 million, the total North American box office of this sequel to the classic spy series is expected to be between US$80 million and US$90 million.
The North American box office of more than 80 million US dollars is more than enough compared to the previous "007: License to Kill".
However, comparing the film's production budget of US$50 million and the publicity cost of US$20 million, the North American box office performance of "007: GoldenEye" appears to be unsatisfactory. Even including overseas, based on the global box office of US$200 million, the entire project It has only just paid back.
For a classic IP with greater potential to be tapped, this result is definitely not what Simon wants.
The reset of the 007 series is Simon's plan that was determined before "007: GoldenEye".
However, Simon did not have complete control of MGM at the time, so he did not force the matter.
After Johnston became the largest shareholder of MGM, Simon actually controlled the company. After all, Australia does not have the energy to take care of Hollywood business. The reason why it agreed to buy the shares of MGM was mainly due to Simon's request.
If it were not for antitrust considerations, Simon would be very happy to take over this batch of shares.
After buying 30% of MGM's shares, the old man also said that things here are left to Simon, so Simon now has enough authority to adjust the 007 series according to his own ideas.
On the other hand, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the 007 series, which has used the Soviet Union as an imaginary enemy for thirty years, must also make changes in its plot.
During the Cold War years, the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union has always been a very popular theme in Hollywood.
In addition to the 007 series, this is the case with last year's blockbuster "The Hunt for Red October."
However, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the United States became the only superpower in the world. If it continues to confront the Soviet Union on the big screen, it will be difficult to resonate with audiences in the United States and other major overseas vote-rich countries.
In Simon's memory, the famous supermodel Cindy Crawford tried to enter Hollywood's big-screen film "Fair Game," which told a story about a KGB agent. However, it was 1995 and the Soviet Union had long since ceased to exist, so the ill-timed film ended up being a box office failure.
The new version of "007: GoldenEye", which is still in theaters, has a lot of changes in the plot because it is four years ahead of schedule, but the core still does not break away from the stereotype of fighting against the evil Soviet Union.
In addition, as the earliest long-running blockbuster series, the 007 series has always attracted audiences precisely because each film involves many fixed routines and big scenes.
With the emergence of more and more blockbuster films in recent years, especially the rise of CG special effects, the 007 series continues to follow the traditional old-school production route, which is destined to be difficult to achieve commercial breakthroughs.
The few 007 movies that Pierce Brosnan participated in in the original time and space inherited the style of the old-school 007. The beautiful women in cars and cars are elegant and cool all over the world. As a result, the global box office of the four movies that Brosnan participated in was only between 300 million and 300 million. Between 400 million U.S. dollars, compared to the huge total investment of over 100 million U.S. dollars, this box office result just exceeded the cost line, making a slight profit.
It wasn't until Daniel Craig took over as 007 and made bold innovations in the film style that this classic spy series once achieved a global box office of more than 1 billion US dollars.
All in all, change is necessary.
Now that the copyright for Spectre has been secured before "007: GoldenEye", Simon plans to create a reboot series with a coherent plot around Spectre based on the Daniel Craig version in his memory.
What you want to do is to first fight for control of the 007 series.
After the birth of 007, the copyright has changed several times. It is now shared by United Artists, a subsidiary of MGM, and the British Broccoli family. No one can start the production of the film alone unless both parties agree.
In the original time and space, due to the decline of MGM, the 007 series was basically a work that caused MGM to die. Even if each film could not make a lot of money, the cash flow it brought was enough to barely sustain MGM. For this reason, MGM had to give up the initiative on too many projects, allowing the Broccoli family to completely control this series.
Now that he had control of MGM, Simon certainly wasn't going to let this situation continue.
The worst case scenario is just to put it on hold.
Simon has enough IP resources in his hands to support the recovery of MGM even without 007.
In comparison, the Broccoli family only has the card of 007. Without 007, Hollywood will not have any position for the other party.
Girl C came to Los Angeles to attend the Westeros New Year's Eve party that will be held at Daenerys Studios tonight.
Of course, because companies are scattered on the east and west coasts, executives from companies on the west coast will mainly attend tonight.
Unlike other professional managers in the system, Claire was able to come to visit Simon in advance because of her past status.
After Shirley Lansing said goodbye and left, Claire took out the latest iCam prototype being developed by Tinker Bayer Company from her bag.
Leaving the little guy in the care of Deborah, Simon took over the second-generation prototype, which was significantly smaller than the first generation. Just looking at the appearance, it was obvious that this prototype could only use smaller 2.5-inch floppy disks.
Claire watched Simon playing with the prototype and said: "This is just an alternative for the second-generation machine. Neil and I have not decided whether to replace the 3.5-inch floppy disk with a 2.5-inch one."
"I suggest you do this. Miniaturization is an inevitable trend. The smaller this card camera is, the easier it is to carry and the easier it is to promote." Simon asked Deborah to pick up the little guy and raise the camera to take pictures. Taking a photo, he continued: "Actually, if you can really make a digital camera into a 'card', it will be considered the ultimate achievement."
The current card camera does not mean that the camera itself is like a card, but is just a concept compared to the more professional SLR camera.
The actual size of the first generation iCam is like a small dictionary.
Even the second-generation prototype in Simon's hands is about 15CM*10CM*5CM in size, which is still larger and bulkier than the card camera in Simon's memory.
Claire has accumulated enough professional knowledge. After hearing what Simon said, she thought about it and said: "If you want to make a real card, floppy disk storage will definitely not work. You may need to use the latest flash memory media. In addition, sensors, The battery is a big problem, as is the operation. If it really becomes a card, the existing physical buttons will also need to be replaced."
Simon listened to Girl C's random thoughts and said with a smile: "According to Moore's Law, electronic components will become more and more integrated in the future. The components will become smaller and smaller, but their functions will become more powerful. Therefore, electronic products must be extremely miniaturized. It's feasible. Didn't I ask you to apply for many 'i' series trademarks? These will definitely be used in the future."
Claire thought of the iPlayer, iPhone and other trademarks held by Tinker Bayer in addition to iCam. It seemed that her boss had thought far beyond the beginning.
However, her current focus is on getting iCam ready first. In the past few months since the official launch of the product, iCam has determined that it has sufficient market capacity. The continued explosive growth of the Internet industry is still improving iCam's business prospects. In the short term, she will be satisfied as long as she can make this product good and gain a foothold in this fiercely competitive market where more and more established manufacturers are joining.
Simon does have a big plan, but he doesn't mean to encourage it.
We continued chatting with Claire about some details, and before we knew it, it was already lunch time.
Although she was invited by Simon to dine together and watched the sisters going back and forth in the kitchen and dining room in the past, Claire still didn't have the nerve to sit with Simon and his wife.
It would be too hateful to do this.
After diligently helping to set up lunch, Claire made an excuse and ran to the small dining room where the maids ate.
The evening New Year's Eve party starts at seven o'clock, and the location is still at the activity center on the second floor of Daenerys Cinema.
In addition to many executives from the Westeros system, many politicians and celebrities from Los Angeles were invited to attend. Just after six o'clock in the afternoon, there was a constant flow of traffic at the north and south entrances of Daenerys Studios.
Many people have unknowingly discovered that in Hollywood today, only Daenerys Entertainment has enough strength and appeal to host such a grand New Year's Eve event.
In 1991, which is about to pass, Hollywood seems to be prosperous. The box office hit a new high throughout the year, and peripheral industries such as video tapes are booming.
However, if you sort it out carefully, most of the glory was created by Daenerys Entertainment.
This can be seen by just referring to the 1991 North American movie box office list.
According to the latest box office data from last weekend, the top ten movies on the North American box office list in 1991 are temporarily in order:
First place: "The Dark Knight", $373 million;
Second place: "Terminator 2", $204 million;
Third place: "The Fugitive", $183 million;
Fourth place: "Toy Story", $154 million (in theaters, expected to be $200 million);
Fifth place: "Robin Hood", $151 million;
Sixth place: "Silence of the Lambs", $131 million;
Seventh place: "City Hillbilly" $123 million;
Eighth place: "Anti-Wits", 1.21;
No. 9: "A Few Good Men" $117 million;
No. 10: "The Flash", $108 million (in theaters, expected to be $250 million).
Obviously, among the top ten list, only Warner Bros. Pictures' "Robin Hood" and Columbia Pictures' "City of Hillbillies" have nothing to do with Daenerys Entertainment.
Of the other eight films, four are films produced by Daenerys Entertainment in cooperation with other studios, three are films produced by Daenerys Entertainment alone, and the last one, "The Flash," Simon also controls the project. rights, and as the first producer enjoys 10% of the project's North American box office income.
Because Simon's involvement in "The Flash" was not very high, before the film was released, other factions within Time Warner raised objections, believing that Simon did too little and took too much, and hoped that in the next "The Flash" Change this unfair share-sharing contract in projects like sequels and Cyborg.
When "The Flash" opened with the second highest performance of the year and was expected to exceed the US$250 million box office in North America, this meant that Simon could easily take away US$25 million. However, the result was that no one raised too many objections.
After all, no one in Hollywood can guarantee a project will make $250 million at the domestic box office.
Moreover, judging from the box office feedback from overseas markets that have already opened, the overseas box office of "The Flash" is expected to reach US$400 million, which will at least ensure the film's global box office of US$600 million.
Even if it cannot be compared with the "Batman" series, even if it invests a huge investment of US$1.2, the global box office of US$600 million, including the associated peripheral sales revenue during the same period and the revenue from various channels in the later period, is enough for Time Warner to make a lot of money. The bowl is full.
Who in the whole of Hollywood can have this kind of ability to turn stone into gold
Even if it is expected that the continued expansion of Daenerys Entertainment will threaten the entire traditional power ecology of Hollywood, however, in the face of such temptation of interests, there is really no one that can really come forward to block the expansion of Daenerys Entertainment.
What most people are looking forward to is being able to cooperate with Daenerys Entertainment.
On the other hand, Daenerys Entertainment also showed enough cooperation and did not greedily take all the benefits into its own belly.
When Simon and his wife rushed to the activity center of the movie theater, the hall was already crowded with people and very lively.
At seven o'clock the party begins.
Under the gaze of hundreds of pairs of eyes, when Simon took the stage to deliver his New Year's speech, he couldn't help but look back on the year that was about to pass.
In 1991, the beginning of the last decade of the twentieth century, too many things happened in both the Westeros system and the world.
This year began with a devastating Gulf War and ended with a thrilling collapse of an empire. The world structure has undergone fundamental changes.
This year, the Westeros System successively merged MCA and Bell Atlantic, becoming one of the largest media giants in Hollywood, while successfully entering the traditional telecommunications industry.
This year, the first heir to the Westeros family was born.
This year, due to the influence and promotion of Simon, the big butterfly, the Internet industry began to explode ahead of schedule.
This year, the other two projects of the DC movie universe, "The Dark Knight" and "The Flash", were once again successful, completely confirming the formation of a new movie business model.
This year, Simon Westeros' personal wealth reached 35 billion US dollars, far exceeding anyone on the wealth list, and unparalleled.
This year, Simon Westeros is 23 years old.
In the event hall.
Looking at the handsome, steady but sharp-edged young man delivering the New Year's speech, all the guests in the hall felt various emotions.
Too many people always don’t believe in miracles because they have never experienced them.
However, at this moment, everyone had to admit that a miracle happened around them, to that strange young man who began to rise rapidly at the age of 18.
In this atmosphere full of various emotions, Simon ended his speech smoothly: "Finally, I hope everyone has a wonderful night, and I also wish everyone success in work, happiness and health in the next year, thank you all. "
Amid warm applause, Simon walked off the stage.
Tonight's celebrations officially begin.
The carnival lasted until late at night, and at twelve o'clock, everyone started counting down.
When the New Year's bell rings, 1992 officially arrives.
After New Year's Day, when many people were still immersed in the holidays, Simon, who had been off for a whole month because of Janet's delivery, began to work again.
At the beginning of the new year, there are too many things in the entire Westeros system that Simon needs to deal with personally.
In addition to the large number of film projects under Daenerys Entertainment that require Simon to sort out personally, in New York, the long-prepared Westeros Tower will be launched after the year. The first thing that needs to be done is to demolish the six blocks of the entire block. building. Before starting construction, many details still need to be finalized by Simon himself.
This is one of them.
While Simon was on vacation in December, Daenerys Entertainment successfully completed the acquisition of EA for a total transaction price of US$1.25 billion.
The video game industry will be a very important business branch of Daenerys Entertainment. Even if Nancy Brill is responsible for most of the work, Simon cannot completely ignore it.
This is the second one.
After a year of sorting out and running in, according to the original plan, Daenerys Entertainment will conduct a second round of layoffs in order to reduce some departmental bloat that occurred after the merger of MCA.
This is the third one.
Finally, there are plans for Universal Studios Osaka in Japan.
After lengthy negotiations with the Japanese government, the location of Universal Studios Osaka has been basically determined, and Simon will need to fly to Japan in person in the near future.