Los Angeles, a movie theater in the Beverly Hills area.
Around ten o'clock at night, Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz each left a VIP hall inside the theater with their families.
Cars were already waiting on the street behind the theater.
The two Hollywood heavyweights listened to their wives and children excitedly discussing the film as they got into one car together. Only after the vehicle started moving did they exchange slightly concerned glances.
What the two families had just watched together was naturally Wonder Woman, which had premiered that day.
Unlike their wives and children, who mostly felt the pleasure of watching an excellent movie, both Michaels were feeling somewhat worried at this moment.
Three years ago, Batman had opened the door for the DC Cinematic Universe with its explosive action design and cutting-edge CG effects. This time, Wonder Woman had clearly taken another step forward compared to the previous two Batman films and The Flash.
Ordinary audiences often struggled to appreciate the technical foundation contained in a film. The two Michaels, who held high positions in Hollywood, naturally saw things differently.
The action design in Wonder Woman, continuing the style from Batman , remained excellent. In addition, although the film appeared to be filled with a large number of practical shots, the proportion of CG effects used had clearly surpassed the previous DC superhero films.
For example, one of Wonder Woman's key weapons, the Lasso of Truth, was completely generated by CG in many shots.
Although it was just a rope, to the two Michaels who were familiar with Hollywood film production processes, this seemingly insignificant technical detail was something that other special effects companies outside of Daenerys Effects simply could not achieve.
In the film's climax, the all-CG battle scene between Wonder Woman and the God of War Ares was even more breathtaking.
Hollywood had experienced many waves of big-budget film trends in the past, but most of those previous waves had ultimately returned to rationality.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, head of Disney's film division, had publicly released a memo a couple of years ago calling for Hollywood to return to low-budget film production. Michael Eisner had originally agreed with this view.
Even the DC Cinematic Universe series that had risen in recent years was seen by many as more of an exception.
On the other hand, high-budget action blockbusters represented by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger had suffered repeated failures in recent years.
In contrast, even for Daenerys Entertainment, aside from the DC Cinematic Universe projects, their series of major hits in recent years like Ghost, The Sixth Sense, Pretty Woman, The Bodyguard, and Home Alone were basically all mid-to-low budget films. Very few of them had production budgets exceeding 30 million dollars.
However, after watching Wonder Woman tonight, Michael Eisner found his previously held beliefs shaken once again.
Blockbuster-level big-budget films might truly be Hollywood's future.
Considering Disney's weak foundation in producing blockbuster films, Michael Eisner couldn't help feeling deeply worried.
The technical details Daenerys Entertainment had demonstrated in the Wonder Woman project were something Disney could not match in the short term.
Through the production of several DC Cinematic Universe films, Daenerys Entertainment had built a very powerful behind-the-scenes technical team covering everything from action design to CG production.
Especially in CG technology, after just watching Wonder Woman, Michael Eisner felt that Daenerys Effects' accumulation in CG technology was clearly three to five years ahead of other film effects teams in the industry. Industrial Light & Magic, which had created the Star Wars series under Lucasfilm, had now obviously been left far behind by Daenerys Effects.
Although Daenerys Effects had always maintained an open attitude toward external cooperation, many of the special effects shots in Disney's sci-fi family comedy Honey, I Blew Up the Kid this summer had been handled by Daenerys Effects.
However, it was easy to imagine that small-scale cooperation would be fine, but if Disney wanted to compete with Daenerys Entertainment in large-scale effects films, relying on the other party's technical resources would be impossible.
Yet outside of Daenerys Effects, current Hollywood studios, whether Industrial Light & Magic or other lower-tier effects companies, would likely need at least three years to catch up due to the lack of professional software and insufficient technical foundation.
And during those three years of catching up, Daenerys Effects certainly wouldn't stand still.
The gap would still remain after three years.
Therefore, the most convenient way for Hollywood studios to create top-tier CG effects scenes was still to cooperate with Daenerys Entertainment.
Any studio executive with a little sense could feel the potential threat in such cooperation of possibly being choked by Daenerys Entertainment at any time.
To escape this threat, one either had to avoid the effects film field altogether or start from scratch.
The luxury sedan wove through the late-night streets of Los Angeles. While Michael Eisner pondered how studios could break through in the effects film sector, Michael Ovitz's inner concerns ran even deeper.
This Wonder Woman had a production budget as high as 80 million dollars. However, the salaries of the film's core creative team, including the director, screenwriter, male and female leads, and several key supporting roles, that is, the film's above-the-line costs, added up to less than 10 million dollars.
Daenerys Entertainment had put about 90 percent of the production budget into the filming and post-production of Wonder Woman.
After CAA creatively introduced the package deal mechanism, throughout the 1980s, Hollywood films' above-the-line costs often reached 50 percent or more of a film's budget.
This was actually the most intuitive reflection of how important traditional big-name filmmakers considered themselves to a movie.
Now, projects like Wonder Woman in the DC Cinematic Universe might still benefit from the superhero IP itself and thus not need top stars. However, once this trend appeared in other blockbuster projects, it could cause a subversive impact on Hollywood's traditional star salary system.
If blockbuster films that sold on special effects didn't need big stars to succeed, probably no studio would be willing to invite stars anymore, endure the\
Once this trend formed, current A-list stars would have no choice but to voluntarily lower their asking prices if they didn't want to be gradually marginalized.
Michael Ovitz couldn't help thinking about the Forrest Gump project that Daenerys Entertainment had recently negotiated with two CAA talents, Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks.
Because it required a large amount of special effects, Forrest Gump's budget would reach around 50 million dollars, which was clearly blockbuster level. Due to the high budget demands of film production, neither Zemeckis nor Hanks could demand overly high salaries.
Daenerys Entertainment had also proactively offered a reduced salary plus profit share option. However, with a 50 million dollar production budget plus marketing costs that could reach half of production costs, Forrest Gump would probably need 150 million dollars in domestic box office to recoup costs through ticket sales.
A drama about a fool rampaging through modern American history, let alone 150 million, even 50 million in box office would make people worry whether it could achieve it.
Voluntarily give up?
That was also an option.
With Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks's current status, they indeed had enough confidence to walk away from the project. Neither lacked offers.
However, considering that Forrest Gump was a project for which Simon Westeros had personally written the script, both men had some reservations.
It wasn't that they feared angering Westeros by refusing, but rather that if they gave it up and the project later became a huge success, Hollywood would likely see two new competitors fighting them for resources.
Especially Hanks. This A-list superstar who had achieved success relatively late absolutely did not want another male star of the same type competing with him.
The situation with A-list female stars, which had clearly become oversupplied in Hollywood in recent years, was a perfect example.
Simon Westeros's sudden rise had indeed propelled a large number of Hollywood newcomers to fame.
On the female side, in just a few short years, different generations of stars like Sandra Bullock, Meg Ryan, Valeria Golino, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Demi Moore, and many others had rapidly risen to A-list status through a series of hit films.
The newly released Wonder Woman would clearly launch another Famke Janssen.
However, although Hollywood provided quite a few opportunities for these women, truly high-quality resources were ultimately limited.
With too many actress and too little opportunity, the relative value of A-list female stars naturally decreased.
After shooting to fame with Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts should theoretically be able to command 5 million dollars per film. However, in last year's Hook, playing Tinker Bell, Julia Roberts had actually only received 2 million dollars.
Two million wasn't much, but if Julia Roberts didn't take it, there might be Nicole Kidman, Valeria Golino, or even Meg Ryan who wanted to try.
And if those A-listers weren't willing, there were plenty more B-listers waiting to move up.
It was easy to imagine that if the female stars who had initially cooperated with Simon Westeros, like Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, could firmly monopolize Daenerys Entertainment's hit projects, there wouldn't have been so many latecomers.
Tom Hanks was now facing exactly this situation.
Simon Westeros quite liked using different female stars across various projects. However, when it came to male stars, Daenerys Entertainment was relatively more focused.
Not to mention the male leads in DC Cinematic Universe projects, in recent years Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks, Keanu Reeves, and others had basically become regular male stars under Daenerys Entertainment. Additionally, Ovitz had heard that Westeros was deliberately cultivating Coppola's nephew Nicolas Cage, who would clearly become a core member of Daenerys Entertainment in the future.
But with Michael Ovitz's understanding of that young man, he knew very well that if De Niro, Hanks, and others demanded too much on certain projects, Westeros would replace them without hesitation.
Daenerys Entertainment had done this more than once.
Three years ago, Regarding Henry had a 15 million dollar budget and sold over 160 million dollars in North America alone.
A film like that should theoretically have had a sequel developed. However, apparently because the male lead Mel Gibson's salary demands were too high, Daenerys Entertainment had directly canceled the sequel plans.
Because of these precedents, after several rounds of negotiations, the relatively conservative Robert Zemeckis ultimately decided to accept Daenerys Entertainment's 6 million dollar flat director fee. Having directed major box office hits like the Back to the Future series and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, 6 million dollars was by no means high for Robert Zemeckis.
Tom Hanks chose a base salary plus percentage contract: 3 million dollars base pay plus 5 percent of North American box office.
In last year's Hook, Sony had given Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman, and Robin Williams a combined 40 percent of all-channel net profits, with Spielberg getting 20 percent and Hoffman and Williams 10 percent each.
Because of Hook's enormous costs and lukewarm box office, the 40 percent net profit share for Spielberg and the others had essentially become worthless paper.
Although the public often heard about certain stars earning tens of millions through profit-sharing contracts on certain films, in reality, Hollywood stars were not as fond of percentage deals as outsiders imagined.
Within the industry, people more often referred to backend deals as deferred salary shares because this model was usually used by studios when they wanted to lower project budgets and reduce risk. Every year, Hollywood had four or five hundred films that made it to theaters, but only a dozen or so actually became box office hits.
Therefore, Daenerys Entertainment's direct box office percentage model was actually quite generous.
Even if Forrest Gump flopped at the box office and only earned 10 to 20 million in North America, Hanks could still collect his share.
Thanks to previous hits like Regarding Henry and A Few Good Men, Hanks's current asking price had reached 8 to 10 million dollars.
For Sleepless in Seattle, the film scheduled to start shooting in the second half of the year before Forrest Gump, which relied heavily on the actors to carry it, Hanks had received 8 million dollars.
Now, 3 million plus 5 percent of North American box office also counted as Hanks voluntarily lowering his fee.
By calculation, Forrest Gump would need to reach 100 million dollars in domestic box office for Hanks's earnings to match his current value.
However, even for a project personally overseen by Westeros, given the subject matter, achieving 100 million dollars at the box office for Forrest Gump was no easy task.
It was probably for the same reason, considering the risks, that Daenerys Entertainment wanted to keep Forrest Gump's production budget controlled at around 50 million dollars.
A few years ago, CAA still had enough clout to forcefully demand that Daenerys Entertainment raise the production budget, bear the risk themselves, and provide sufficient benefits to the creators.
Now, with Daenerys Entertainment growing increasingly dominant, CAA no longer had that confidence.
Thinking back to Wonder Woman, which they had just watched, if special effects-driven blockbusters became the norm, the influence of big-name filmmakers in Hollywood would only further decline.
Moreover, even though he clearly saw this trend coming, Michael Eisner found himself somewhat powerless to do anything about it.
Unless Daenerys Entertainment suffered several major setbacks in a row and never recovered.
Only then could Hollywood stars regain the initiative and reclaim the power and status they had held in Hollywood for many years.
But was that possible?
Looking at Daenerys Entertainment's development over the past few years, this Hollywood behemoth that had evolved into a comprehensive media group after acquiring MCA had no possibility of declining in the short term, even if it stumbled a few times in film.