France, Euro Disneyland in the eastern suburbs of Paris.
After riding the Indiana Jones roller coaster, the couple wearing Mickey and Minnie T-shirts left the attraction, wandered around and found a lawn, and walked there together.
Placing Simon down on the lawn, Janet took off the sunglasses on her face and lay comfortably on the man's chest.
Wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, they looked like an ordinary couple that could be seen everywhere. After playing wildly in Disneyland for a whole day, some hesitant glances were inevitable, but they were never recognized by anyone.
It was already evening.
The soft and warm sunshine in early summer shines on the body, which makes people inevitably feel a little lazy.
Rubbing against Simon like a kitten, Janet suddenly said: "We won't go to Cannes tonight, okay?"
Simon put his arms around the woman's waist and nodded without thinking: "Okay."
Today is Monday, May 18th.
The 45th French Cannes Film Festival opened on May 7, and the closing ceremony was officially held tonight.
I haven’t been to Europe for a long time, so it’s inevitable that I have accumulated a lot of things to deal with here.
Taking advantage of the opportunity of this film festival, Simon flew here with Janet last Friday.
After spending a day in Florence, Italy on Saturday, I flew to Helsinki, Finland yesterday. I had a free day today and it was a Monday with relatively few tourists. Simon took Janet with him to visit the recently opened Euro Disneyland.
In fact, it can be considered as a first-hand experience of the operation of Disneyland.
It took six years, cost 5 billion US dollars, and covers an area of nearly 20 square kilometers. After its official opening on April 12, the official passenger flow in the past month or so has been less than half of the Disney Company's original projections, and it is conceivable that it has suffered huge losses. The heavy debt burden of the company and the theme parks put the initially smug Disney executives in an embarrassing situation.
The failure of Euro Disney has had a very obvious impact on the Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan, which is currently under preparation.
The most direct point is that the Osaka City Government has finally slowed down its tone during this period and no longer insists on exchanging all the land for shares, but instead exchanges it for cash and stocks. According to the plan that has been basically negotiated in Japan, the Osaka City Government’s shareholding in Osaka Universal Studios can eventually be reduced to about 5%.
For Simon, the failure of Euro Disney also brought many warnings to him.
This Disneyland outside Paris was largely inspired by the success of Tokyo Disney. At the beginning, everyone at Disney was full of confidence in this project, and European countries were also racking their brains to compete for this theme park project that could have many positive impacts on the economy and employment.
The original blindness also brought very serious consequences.
In my memory, Euro Disney, later renamed Disneyland Paris, basically never made a profit in the decades it was open. For such a huge project, considering that the consequences of bankruptcy and liquidation are too serious, Disney is unable to even get rid of it, so it has to subsidize funds for a long time to maintain its operations.
The lack of detailed market research in the early stage, over-optimism that caused the project budget to get out of control, and the failure to carry out localized operations that fit the market... These huge mistakes of Euro Disneyland are all things that Universal Studios Osaka needs to pay great attention to in the future.
Simon thought about it, and suddenly thought of another thing.
Disney in the original timeline, even in the relatively sluggish years at the beginning of the new century, has always been a Hollywood behemoth-style media group.
However, in Hollywood now, due to the rise of Daenerys Entertainment, Disney has been significantly suppressed.
For example, Pixar, the animation studio that has maintained Disney's long-term dominance in animated films, has been owned by Daenerys Entertainment.
Some of Disney's blockbuster projects in the 1990s, such as "Pretty Woman" and "The Lion King," have also been cut off by Simon.
Miramax, originally an important sub-label of Disney, is now dying.
Even Disney’s crucial 2D animated film business, because Simon’s early acquisition of Pixar resulted in animation production technology not switching from manual to digital, the production scale of Disney’s 2D animated films was therefore limited.
The wave of consolidation in the U.S. media industry has begun.
Due to a series of cuts in Daenerys Entertainment, although Disney is now doing well among major Hollywood studios, it is no longer possible to have enough strength to annex the Metropolis-ABC Group.
It is unable to transform from a simple studio to a comprehensive media group. In the US media industry, which tends to concentrate resources, this old film company, which has been operating alone for many years, will probably end up being overtaken by other large media companies in the future. Group annexation.
Twenty or thirty years later, the most powerful major studios in Hollywood, whether Disney, Warner Brothers or Universal Pictures, are actually dependent on a huge media group. Rising stars such as Lionsgate have been unable to truly compete with traditional major studios because they remain independent. They were briefly popular for a few years with one or two blockbuster series, and then quickly fell silent.
Disney is now showing signs of internal instability.
Simon couldn't help but start to think that maybe one day, this old studio could be included in the acquisition. Or, let it go completely silent like United Artists, RKO, and later MGM.
Such a heavy burden on Euro Disney will undoubtedly be a good 'helper' in promoting the decline of Disney.
Suddenly, a pair of small hands reached out, held Simon's face and rubbed it, interrupting his thoughts.
Pretending to bite one of the hands, the two little paws pounced over together without fear, and quickly shut up.
After pinching the man's face again in dissatisfaction, Janet let Simon go. She put her arms on his chest and said with her beautiful eyes still staring: "Stop thinking about things. Think about where we will go tomorrow."
Simon put his arms around the woman's waist and said, "Go to Chateau Latour tomorrow."
Janet nodded and remembered another thing, and said, "Dad asked me last time to help prepare some red wine for David's wedding at the end of the year."
Although the old man was not satisfied with David Johnston's fiancée, his face-saving temperament remained the same as before.
Smiling and scratching the woman's waist with his fingers, Simon pretended to be in pain and said, "Just pick something similar. It's so good that I feel bad."
Janet snorted with a 'threatening' look in her eyes, looking like a young daughter-in-law who was clearly planning to turn her elbows outward.
However, after looking at Simon for a moment, Janet was a little confused: "You really don't seem to care at all?"
Simon pretended to be displeased: "Am I a very stingy person in your heart?"
"of course not."
Janet said, tilting her head slightly, as if she was thinking seriously.
Simon wanted to imitate the way the woman just rubbed his face, but Janet suddenly attacked him and bit him directly on the hand.
After a moment of fun, Janet became quiet again and suddenly said: "I understand."
"Um?"
"You seem to really regard the Johnston family as your own relatives."
Simon's heart skipped a beat, but there was nothing unusual on the surface. He said matter-of-factly: "You are my relatives."
"No! No!"
Janet shook her head, as if she was entangled in some key question.
Simon stood up, pulled her up, kissed the woman's face, and said in her ear: "Let's go back. If your chest is swollen today, I'll help you deal with it."
Janet's face immediately turned red.
The baby was born in December last year, and it has only been half a year since she was born. After sending Melbourne to Australia, she did not have to breastfeed in person, but she often faced a certain little troublesome problem.
She held her arm with the man and walked out, not forgetting to give him a sideways glance.
Such an obvious change of topic is really clumsy.
However, the question just now is really puzzling.
After spending six years together, she knew him very well.
In his bones, he is like a person from another world, full of a sense of alienation that is almost indifferent to the society in which he lives.
Over the years, there are only a few people who can really break into his heart.
However, she felt more than once that he treated all her family members as his own in many things.
Most people would definitely not be able to detect the subtle differences, but she felt it keenly.
For example, when she was getting along with Patrick Johnston, she could feel on several occasions that his attitude towards Pat was exactly the same as towards his incompetent youngest child. He would dislike him when he needed to, and teach him when he needed to be taught a lesson. He was impatient. Just send it aside.
She didn't have the politeness of her elder brother-in-law who was just a floor away. Instead, she was almost the same as her older sister.
besides.
Um.
Little annoyance.
In addition to the experience and knowledge of more than ten people in two lifetimes, Janet is definitely smarter than Simon, but she rarely shows this.
Sorting through the many details accumulated in my mind, I vaguely always feel that I am close to catching something, but I am always a little short of something.
What's the difference
Before they knew it, they were in the car, and the couple returned to their manor in the western suburbs of Paris together.
Back home, Simon seemed to have forgotten the evil thoughts he had at Disneyland not long ago, and Janet once again put aside a problem that had been troubling her for a long time.
The couple entered the villa together, and Girl A greeted Simon and handed Simon an invitation. However, it was sent by the Broccoli family, hoping that Simon would attend a party hosted by the Broccoli family in London tomorrow night.
Obviously, the Broccoli family wants to talk to Simon about 007.
After the last falling out, Simon has decided to shelve the 007 series for a few years. Now that the Broccoli family has chosen to give in, it is a bit late. Simon has no intention of changing his decision.
Throwing the invitation aside, Janet began to instruct people to prepare dinner. Simon went to the study and emailed some of the ideas he came up with at Disneyland today to the teams in Los Angeles and Japan who were preparing for Osaka Universal Studios. .
Disney’s layout may take five to ten years, but Universal Studios Osaka is an important layout for Daenerys Entertainment in theme parks.
The successful experience of Tokyo Disney and the failure of Euro Disney are enough to provide enough reference for this theme park in preparation.
After sending the email, Simon clicked on the North American box office data report for the past weekend in his mailbox.
Mel Gibson's "Lethal Weapon 3" was released last Friday. It grossed US$33.24 million from 2,510 screens in the first three days of its opening weekend. The box office is expected to reach about US$45 million in its first week.
Just a few years ago, a first-weekend of around $45 million would have been enough to break some box office records, but with the rise of full-on saturation releases, that number seems downright ordinary for an A-list blockbuster.
Even if "Wonder Woman", released on June 5, can only get $45 million at the box office in its first week, the movie will be considered a failure.
Originally planned to fly to Cannes tonight to participate in some activities after the closing ceremony of the film festival, but Janet didn't want to go at the moment, so Simon canceled the trip.
However, Simon still got the award result information of the film festival as soon as possible.
The winner of the Palme d'Or at the 45th Cannes Film Festival was "Betrayal of Good Will," written by film master Ingmar Bergman based on his parents' experiences.
Ingmar Bergman's filmmaking talent is unquestionable.
However, in Simon's view, such a Palme d'Or result is more of an affirmation of the film master's contribution to the film industry.
Daenerys Entertainment's entry this year is "Howards End," an adaptation of British novelist E.M. Forster's novel, starring Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins and Helena Bonham Carter starred three Hollywood stars and won unanimous praise from the media during its screening in Cannes.
However, despite entering the main competition, the film ended up with nothing.
Ingmar Bergman's screenwriting work won the award, which was something that had been expected in advance. Daenerys Entertainment's performance at major film festivals in the past few years has been quite eye-catching, but at this time it is still in the same stage of hiding its capabilities and biding its time at the Oscars in March.
Although his own films failed to win awards, Ira Deutschman, the head of Gomen Pictures, who came to Cannes in person as usual, has also begun to contact several award-winning works this year, such as "Betrayal" and "Springtime of the Little Thieves". Copyright of the film.
After Miramax went silent, Simon had already planned to replace Miramax's position in Hollywood with Gomen Pictures in the past few years, and even use greater efforts to promote overseas films in North America.
The rise of Hollywood in recent years has threatened the film industries in overseas countries in all aspects.
Daenerys Entertainment's vigorous efforts to copy overseas films into North America is not only in its own interests, but also can alleviate the overseas film market's resistance to Hollywood to a large extent, at least to the films produced by Daenerys Entertainment.