The audition phase of the first season of "American Idol" was completed on November 16, with a total of 16 episodes, which is exactly half of the planned total episodes of the first season. All 32 finalists were finalized and the winter break began. For the 16 episodes of the program, the average number of viewers reached 31.7 million, and the average ratings among the core audience group aged 18 to 49 were 17.5%, all of which were far ahead of other TV programs in the same period.
According to the schedule, the second half of the first season will return on February 6 next year.
In order to ensure that the popularity of "American Idol" will not dissipate during the more than two-month winter break, Daenerys' TV department has formulated a very detailed winter break marketing plan.
In addition to ABC's official continuous publicity, all 32 finalists regularly interacted with the audience on social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram in accordance with the requirements of the production team, and shared behind-the-scenes developments such as receiving official singing training during the winter break.
The theme song "Dream It Possible", which Simon personally provided for this project, is also a major part of the "American Idol" marketing plan during the winter break.
Many times, 'proposal composition' often does not produce very good works.
Therefore, "American Idol" producer Shane Derek wanted Simon to compose a theme song for the show, mainly to capitalize on his boss's fame. When the production team received the song lyrics that Simon sent to New York, they were overwhelmed.
A large part of the production team comes from Daenerys Records and has been in this circle for a long time, so they can have a deeper understanding of the quality of a song than ordinary people. "Dream It Possible" not only completely fits the theme of "American Idol" from the name to the lyrics, but the tune has also reached the level of a staple of the top pop singers' records.
Stunning.
Or can only be described as stunning.
It’s still hard to feel like you can’t show your pearls to others. After enduring for a while, the preliminary recorded single demo was sent to Simon in San Francisco. At the same time, "American Idol" producer Shane Derrick personally announced the news on his Facebook page at 8 o'clock that night.
The theme song for "American Idol" composed by Simon Westeros himself will be officially released on January 5, 1996.
As Facebook officially promoted the news as a hot topic, less than an hour after the news was announced at 8 o'clock East Coast time, the number of likes on Shane Derek's Facebook post exceeded 2.1 million, and hundreds of thousands of users also commented on the news. Forward.
Among the hundreds of thousands of comments and messages, most people are looking forward to Simon Westeros' latest work, but there are still a few people who are looking forward to it so much that they can't help but curse.
It’s not even December yet.
Releasing a single on January 5th, well, this is a normal promotion rhythm for other singers.
only.
Can't it be released earlier
Can't? !
Because this kind of expectation was too high, the sales volume of all Simon-related singles on Tinker Bayer's Broadcast website increased significantly in the next 24 hours.
Immediately afterwards, someone simply set up a petition website to solicit support from netizens and asked the "American Idol" production team to release the single created by Simon Westeros in advance. As for whether it is to promote "American Idol", who cares? Just want to hear Simon's new song.
Also fueled by Yigrit, the petition website quickly became hot news, and countless netizens rushed to vote.
In just three days, the number of supporters on the website exceeded 5 million.
Even if most of them are just following the trend, the "American Idol" production team still has to pay attention. Public opinion is something that can often achieve unexpected results when manipulated and utilized. At the same time, it is a force that absolutely needs to be taken seriously.
After emergency consultations and greetings with the big boss, the production team finally announced on November 30 that it would advance the release date of the "American Idol" theme song to December 15.
There can be no compromise this time.
After all, the demo of the song has just been completed, and there is still a lot of work to be done such as making the MV, so it is impossible to release a half-finished song.
In addition, Tinker Bayer Company also announced that this theme song will be simultaneously logged on the Broadcast platform, which once again promoted the sales of iPlayer players.
In the North American film market, the second week of the Thanksgiving season from November 24th to November 30th also ended quickly.
The fourth 3D animated film "Beauty and the Beast" produced by Daenerys undoubtedly topped the weekly box office list. Due to the weak performance of new films last week, the film's box office dropped only 23% the next week, continuing to earn 5,291 Ten thousand US dollars, the cumulative box office easily exceeded 100 million US dollars in two weeks, reaching 121.63 million US dollars.
Martin Scorsese's new film "Casino" took second place on the list.
In the first seven days of its opening week, "Casino" grossed $16.91 million at the box office. This result is considered the best among all new films last week, but the gap with the first-place "Beauty and the Beast" is too obvious.
It earned US$16.91 million in the first week. Taking into account factors such as word-of-mouth and box office trends, the film's final local box office is likely to be between US$40 million and US$50 million.
Warner Bros. Pictures provided $52 million in production costs for "Casino." Now, the domestic box office is equivalent to the production cost. Even if the overseas performance is better, it is lucky to be able to recover the cost at the box office in the end. Overall, even if there is no loss, considering the time cost, it is basically a busy schedule.
The third place is also a new movie that opened on November 24, "Silver Thread" starring black movie star Wesley Snipes. This action movie about a cash truck robbery took in 1,318 at the box office in its first week. Ten thousand U.S. dollars. The production cost of the film was only US$30 million, and the harvest was not bad.
The fourth place is "The West Wing", another film produced by Sony Pictures like "Silver Linings". The box office dropped only 21% in the second week of its opening, with a revenue of 10.66 million US dollars, in line with the box office generally predicted by the industry. Trend, in two weeks, the film has a cumulative box office of 24.15 million US dollars.
However, considering the production cost of "White House" of US$62 million, Sony is not happy at all with such box office figures.
The fifth place is "The Conjuring 2", a The Conjuring cinematic universe project produced by Daenerys' New World Pictures.
In its fifth week of release, "The Conjuring 2" dropped 25%, earning $7.79 million, and the film's cumulative box office reached $112.91 million.
Even though it is far inferior to "Beauty and the Beast", "The Conjuring 2" is the most envied project by Hollywood studios during this period. With a low-to-medium production cost of 25 million U.S. dollars and a steady market trend, "The Conjuring 2" has exceeded 100 million domestically and overseas. At the box office, it is simply a low-investment, high-output movie that any film company dreams of.
In addition to the top five, it is worth mentioning that MGM's "Good Things Come in Twos", which opened with a box office of US$7.43 million in its first week, ranked sixth on the list, is a family comedy starring the Olsen twins. It only had 10 million U.S. dollars. Therefore, the box office of 7.43 million U.S. dollars in the first week fully met the producer's expectations.
"Cutthroat Island", a collaboration between Paramount and Carlock, was largely canceled the following week. The already low box office also plummeted by 56% again, with only US$2.17 million remaining in the second week of release. In two weeks, the cumulative box office of this US$100 million super blockbuster reached US$7.13 million. With the expiration of the two-week guaranteed screening contract, "Cutthroat Island" was basically canceled on December 1, and the box office figures also increased. So it’s fixed.
With the project flopping at the box office, the buzz surrounding the film is literally flying these days.
Basically, Paramount, Carlock and a bunch of movie creators are passing the blame to each other, and all kinds of revelations are coming out one after another, which is dizzying.
Simon finally had to take action to suppress some public opinion trends.
The main reason is that Martin Campbell is also the director of the "Wonder Woman" series in addition to "Cutthroat Island", and "Wonder Woman 2" has been launched. Neither Daenerys nor Time Warner will allow "Cutthroat Island" to be released. "The negative reputation of "Wonder Woman 2" affected "Wonder Woman 2". The two giants exerted their efforts, and the quarrel in the media quickly changed the target.
The results are basically certain.
Martin Campbell wandered around and returned to Daenerys to make "Wonder Woman 2" with peace of mind. He did not dare to ask for this or anything beyond the original contract. This was Simon's intention from the beginning. Hope to see the results.
Paramount is a mess.
Even after taking over Paramount, the Seagram Group has still not lost confidence in the entertainment industry. After all the hard work, several parties have probably realized that Hollywood is not that easy to play around with.
Carlock Films went bankrupt and began liquidation.
The original couple, Renny Harlin and Geena Davis, escaped disaster because they did not participate in the project. However, the careers of the new version's leading actors, William Baldwin and Daryl Hannah, both suffered a heavy blow.
William Baldwin is considered the most handsome of the Baldwin brothers, and he is very hopeful to develop into an action star. Unfortunately, after "Cutthroat Island", it will probably be difficult to receive projects of the same size in the next few years.
Daryl Hannah, who became famous for her role in "Blade Runner" in the early 1980s, has been trying to hit the front line in recent years, and her resources are pretty good. In addition to "Blade Runner", she also worked with Robert Redford, Tom Hanks, Michael Douglas and other big names have all worked together, but unfortunately it has always been in a state where the audience is very familiar but not popular.
Because "Cutthroat Island" is a female-oriented movie, this time it can be said to be a breakthrough for Daryl Hannah.
It's a pity that the carp jumped over the dragon's gate failed, and the result was even more bleak than William Baldwin's.
Generally speaking, after last year's IPO, some aspects of Hollywood's landscape have been divided. Daenerys Entertainment will no longer retain its strength this year. The result is that other Hollywood studios are having a hard time for a consecutive year.
Currently, of the seven major Hollywood companies, only Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner Group are truly controlled by American capital.
Of the five remaining companies, Sony controlled Columbia and gradually phased out the label. Although the boss of Twentieth Century Fox immigrated to the United States, the core of the parent company News Corporation is still in Australia. Paramount was bought by Canada's Seagram Group, and MGM was controlled by an Australian consortium headed by the Johnston family. Disney, once a representative of American culture, was acquired by France's Vivendi.
In this case, even if Daenerys Entertainment's overpowering force makes the other five companies want to rebound, it is destined to have no results.
Not to mention the gradually deepening political layout of the Westeros system in the federal authorities. Even without these, if overseas capital wants to attack local capital, in any country in the world, the result will basically be to help relatives but not help.
As for Time Warner, under Simon's continued operations, the relationship between the two companies has been very close, and even after it was subsequently acquired by General Electric, the two parties were able to live in harmony.
It is impossible to compete with Daenerys Entertainment commercially, and it is even more unfeasible to use other means to suppress it. After a whole year of sluggishness, at the end of this year, especially Sony Pictures, Paramount and Paramount, which Daenerys Entertainment focuses on suppressing. All three Disney companies had to quietly reduce their production scale in 1996.
Although it is a last resort, it is obvious that doing so will only form a vicious circle.
Daenerys Entertainment and its allies are fully capable of taking up all the market space vacated by these studios. Then, the survival space of several Sony companies will become smaller and smaller, and when they finally wake up, they may have completely become a second-tier studio in Hollywood.
Malibu, Daenerys Studios.
Simon's last task on the afternoon of December 1 was to discuss the package financing plan with MGM head Shirley Lansing.
During this time, Shirley Lansing hired two financing executives from Carlock Pictures, which had filed for bankruptcy, to MGM, which was regarded as an initial inheritance of Carlock Pictures' previous financing channels.
Even though they had just suffered a big setback on the "Cutthroat Island" project, after the two people in charge of switching to MGM revealed MGM's financing plan to their previous sponsors, even if they did not agree directly, they all gave A fairly positive response. After all, everyone knows that MGM is the younger brother of Daenerys Entertainment, and it relies on the towering tree of the Westeros system.
Moreover, considering that the projects Daenerys Entertainment has put forward in the past few years have basically brought huge gains to other Hollywood studios, even if MGM takes the lead this time, as long as Simon Westeros is leading the behind-the-scenes, It has considerable investment potential.
Simon also discovered this problem.
In addition to the speculative capital behind the scenes, the more important reason for the rise of many second- and third-tier film companies is that the film companies accidentally produced several very successful films in the early stages of their establishment, which eventually formed a virtuous cycle for a long period of time.
This time's plan to guide overseas capital, if a series of packaged projects end up being tepid, it is very likely that there will be no chance of a second time.
After all, no one is stupid.
Therefore, it is best to give a big sweetness at the beginning. The greater the sweetness, the greater the subsequent attraction.
As long as it becomes a routine, even if there is only one blockbuster movie in each issue in the future, it will bring slightly higher returns to speculative capital than other investment channels. The locomotive effect plus positive returns will continue to attract capital. come over.
I can't bear to let the child catch the wolf.
So, after some deliberation between "Tornado" and "A Day Alone", Simon settled on the latter.
It's the next dose of strong medicine.
Moreover, Roland Emmerich, the director of "Days Alone" is from Germany, and the financing channels for Carlock taken over by MGM are basically German tax avoidance capital. In addition, Roland Emmerich has a lot of experience in the DC movie universe. The reputation accumulated in the series will get twice the result with half the effort by channeling German capital.
Of course, this plan Simon will not only target Germany.
Whether you are from Europe, Asia, Australia, or even Latin America, if you want to participate, you can.
The only thing is to be responsible for your own profits and losses.
With a cost of US$75 million, "Days of Independence" in the original time and space has earned US$800 million in box office worldwide, with a return on investment of more than 10 times. Of course, Simon will not let it go completely. Therefore, Daenerys Entertainment will provide 15% of the investment for the entire packaging project, which is considered a shared risk. In addition to assuming distribution and locking in 12.5% of the distribution fee, MGM will also bear 15% of the investment.
Taken together, about 40% of the profits from this packaging agreement will be pocketed by the Westeros system.