Since the two were already living together, Janet was fully aware of the release of "Run Lola Run". So, the woman took over everything the next day with almost no obstacles.
Simon originally wanted to stay with her to help her transition for a few days, but was rejected outright.
Janet's reasons are also very strong. With Simon around, she tends to become soft-hearted and unable to show her strength.
Simon had no idea how Janet worked afterwards. But on the following Thursday afternoon, after completing the first formal contact on the issue of follow-up distribution rights, Mike Medowa hurriedly called and even accused Janet of being too ignorant with a bit of grievance in his tone. I hope Simon can continue to come forward in person and not let a woman run wild.
Although he had some doubts, Simon would not rashly listen to Mike Medowa's words.
However, after get off work that day, before Simon had time to ask Jenny about the negotiation process in the morning, the woman had already brought back another contract: Mattel bought out the dolls of a series of characters in "Lola Run" for US$2.3 million. Distribution rights.
Even if the box office is a hit, the peripheral copyrights of "Lola Run" are definitely far from being comparable to super IPs such as "Star Wars".
Moreover, as a toy company that mainly produces Barbie dolls, Mattel's only favorite character image is Lola. Characters such as Manny will obviously not be popular with consumers. Therefore, Janet sold the distribution rights of a simple Lola doll for US$2.3 million, which was far beyond Simon's expectations.
According to some information in the industry, Simon's previous highest expectation for this business was only about US$1.5 million.
In this case, Simon would naturally no longer doubt Janet's ability and left everything to her with confidence.
In addition, Simon subsequently made appropriate adjustments to the two companies in his hands.
After some left-hand and right-hand operations, the box office share, sales revenue, peripheral revenue and other income related to "Lola Run" will be transferred from Daenerys Pictures to the Westeros Company.
This divestment is to accommodate Amy's contract, which the two parties had already agreed upon before signing. Amy's 5% share of the company's net profit does not include the income related to "Lola Run".
Immediately afterwards, in order to avoid getting more entangled with Janet's financial situation, Simon drew up a formal supplementary contract in the name of Westeros Company: As an investor holding 61.5% of the shares, Janet The revenue share obtained from "Lola Run" only needs to be settled before December 31 this year.
This supplementary contract means that before the payment is settled, the Westeros Company is completely free to operate the funds for reinvestment, and the additional profits generated do not need to be shared with Janet.
Simon also plans to operate stock index futures in the name of Westeros Company in the second half of the year, and even make more subsequent investment actions.
After these two aspects were taken care of, some potential interest entanglements hidden around Simon after "Run Lola Run" suddenly became too successful were completely straightened out.
Deep down, Simon is still an insecure person after all.
If he doesn't handle this, he is even worried that he will encounter a certain situation described by the protagonist in "When Harry Met Sally": two people fall out of love one day, turn against each other, and then end up fighting for a dinner plate worth $8. Who should belong to it? The hysterical waste of $1,000 in phone bills was debated in the air.
Janet obviously saw this in Simon's character, so she took the trouble to write out IOUs one after another for him to fingerprint. When a woman knows that she is doing this, Simon will not resist, but will feel very relaxed.
While Simon adjusted his two companies, many other things began to move forward more efficiently as Janet shared the distribution work of "Lola Run".
Mattel seems to be very eager to release the Lola doll as soon as possible, which is actually understandable.
Therefore, after completing the signing, the other party transferred US$2.3 million into the Westeros company account within three days. Simon subsequently injected $1 million into Daenerys Films in the name of a loan. Amy Pascal finally no longer had to pay for assistants out of her own pocket, and the company began to officially recruit more people.
With the money, Amy quickly negotiated the script for "When Harry Met Sally". The final price was $150,000, not cheap, but certainly not expensive for Simon either.
However, in order to win the script, Daenerys Pictures also promised Nora Ephron that the company would launch the project within a year, and the production budget would not be less than $10 million.
In the event of a breach of contract, the script copyright will automatically return to the other party.
As for Pulp Fiction, since he no longer had to deal with the release of Run Lola Run, Simon wrote the first draft of the script the following week.
Although Orion Pictures was very unfavorable about this project, Jonathan Friedman helped Simon negotiate a contract comparable to that of "Dead Man".
The same guarantee is $20 million.
With a box office of more than US$20 million, Simon received 10% of the North American box office and 5% of the North American video sales.
Although there are too many accidents in the box office success of "Run Lola Run", after all, it is almost confirmed to be the top of the North American box office chart this year. Therefore, Simon's first-line director's salary is more than enough.
Orion signed Simon's next film contract with a basic salary of US$500,000, but since the sharing terms were not finalized at the beginning, it could only offer a sharing agreement equivalent to Simon's worth at this time.
Of course, this contract is also very obviously different from "Death Is Coming". Simon's video sales share is limited to North America. Because Orion does not have global distribution capabilities like Fox Studios.
In addition, Orion also requires that the project budget must be controlled within 8 million US dollars.
If the budget exceeds US$1 million, Simon's share will be reduced by 1% and 0.5% respectively, and the calculation model will be rounded up. However, Orion also promised to provide certain share terms for big-name stars who are willing to reduce their pay to participate in the film.
In the last "Death Is Coming", the project progressed most smoothly.
The company quickly selected the director, Wes Craven, who had helped New Line Cinema produce "A Nightmare on Elm Street" a few years ago. His personal style was also very suitable for "Dead Man".
Moreover, Wes Craven is also a client of WMA. Despite the success of "A Nightmare on Elm Street", "The Girl Next Door" directed by Wes Craven for Warner Bros. last year was tepid, with a box office of only Just reached the cost line.
After being introduced by the agents of both parties, Simon and Wes Craven had a meal together and talked about the entire project in detail, and the matter was confirmed.
Speaking of which, Simon naturally remembers clearly that Wes Craven was also the famous director of the "Scream" series in the 1990s.
Simon didn't immediately come up with "Scream" for the same reason as choosing "Pulp Fiction" as his second film. Projects with higher box office potential should naturally be kept to themselves as much as possible.
But in recent years, due to lack of funds and channels, Simon can only cooperate with other film companies for the time being, and the majority of profits will definitely belong to these companies.
On Janet's side, the first peripheral sales contract was finalized. The woman then successively negotiated the licensing of peripheral products such as the soundtrack of "Run Lola Run", video games, etc., once again bringing more than 8 million to the Westeros company. Dollars coming in.
On April 6, Orion Pictures finally compromised and purchased the North American video tape and television distribution rights of "Run Lola Run" for a high price of US$35 million. On April 9, the overseas rights of the film were also purchased by Warner Bros. for the same US$35 million.
Although it would take a month for both sales to arrive, the total revenue of US$70 million was a full US$10 million higher than Simon's original expectations.
Coupled with the US$20 million that Wells Fargo has already deposited into Simon's personal account, and the expected US$30 million in box office share of "Run Lola Run" when it is released in North American theaters in a few months, even if some necessary expenses are removed, Simon can also provide Stock index futures operations in October raised more than $120 million.
While Simon and Janet were busy dividing their time, the 59th Academy Awards ceremony also ended successfully.
"Platoon" produced by Orion Pictures undoubtedly won various awards such as Best Picture and Best Director. The box office of this film also happened to have successfully exceeded the US$100 million mark recently.
At the same time, after the seven-day box office of US$23.36 million in the sixth week, "Lola Run" collected another US$21.22 million and US$16.34 million in the seventh and eighth weeks respectively. As of April 9, the North American box office of "Lola Run" has reached a cumulative US$146.79 million.
Although the single-week decline has begun to expand, there is almost no suspense when the total box office of "Lola Run" exceeds 200 million. What everyone is curious about is just how far the film's final cumulative box office will be.
This continues until April 10th.
In the first week of the Easter season, Simon's second film since returning to this era, "The Butterfly Effect," was finally released.
Although the previous internal test screenings have been poorly received by film critics, considering the popularity brought by "Lola Run", Fox Pictures still arranged 1,263 opening screens for "The Butterfly Effect".
As a fairly popular schedule, "The Butterfly Effect" naturally cannot be exclusive.
Also released at the same time was "Back to the Future" starring Michael J. Fox. This comedy film produced by Universal Pictures has a screen count of 1,336 and a production cost of US$12 million. In every aspect, it is slightly better than "The Butterfly Effect".