Because of their concerns about Wonder Woman and the overall development trend of the Hollywood film industry, the two neighboring Michaels stayed up almost all night after returning home, discussing countermeasures.
While all sides in Hollywood were closely watching Wonder Woman, Simon was in Australia.
Superman had officially begun filming recently, and the shooting locations for this superhero film were once again chosen in Australia.
The difference this time was that the main filming city was Sydney.
Moreover, Wonder Woman had also received a simultaneous release in Australia with North America, making the Australian film circle quite lively during this period.
After attending the premiere of Wonder Woman on Wednesday, June 3, Simon and Janet set off on June 5. By local time Saturday afternoon, they had arrived in Melbourne.
Since they were in Australia, of course they had to see the little one right away.
For the convenience of taking care of the child, Veronica, who had resigned from her job, no longer lived in her high-rise apartment in downtown Melbourne. Instead, she had bought a villa along the Yarra River as well, not far from the Johnston family mansion or the small nest Simon and Janet kept in the northern suburbs of the city.
Raymond Johnston doted on this grandson very much and had specifically prepared a room for the little one inside the mansion.
As soon as Simon and Janet arrived, they quickly found the little one in the nursery at the Johnston family mansion.
At six months old, Melbourne Westeros could now sit and crawl. Compared to the ugly little thing he had been at birth, the now fair and tender little fellow made anyone who saw him want to pick him up and kiss him.
The moment Janet saw the little troublemaker she often missed, she scooped the child into her arms and cooed at him affectionately. After more than a month since Easter, the little one showed no stranger anxiety at all. He cooperated perfectly, babbling back at his mother in perfect sync.
After the mother and son had interacted for a while, Janet finally handed the child over to Simon.
The little fellow studied the man in front of him. Perhaps sensing he had seen him somewhere before, he showed no resistance and even raised his soft little hand to grab at Simon's collar. When he heard Simon asking things like "Do you miss Daddy?", he naturally could not answer, but he still gave two skilled babbles in reply.
Veronica, whose temperament had become much gentler than before, stood beside the family of three. Watching Simon talk to the little one, she wanted to say something but ultimately remained silent, her eyes filled with satisfaction as she gazed at the scene before her.
After playing for a while, the child soon grew tired and fell asleep.
They placed the little one in the crib under the nanny's watch and the three of them left the room together.
There was still some time before dinner. Besides Raymond Johnston and his wife, Anthony Johnston had also brought his family over. Everyone gathered in the mansion's living room to discuss recent matters.
After Australia relaxed foreign investment regulations in the telecommunications sector last year, following more than a year of preparation, the Westeros system's mobile communications business, internet services, and Ygritte portal had all gained a solid initial foothold in the country.
In recent years, influenced by Japan's economic downturn, Australia's economy had also entered a recession period. It had even experienced something similar to North America's bond market crash. The Qintex Group, which had bought MGM back then, had collapsed under insurmountable debts, leading to founder Christopher Skase's flight with funds and many subsequent events.
Amid the overall economic downturn, the counter-trend rise of new technology industries had prompted the Australian government to pay increasing attention to this sector.
Of course, this was not without the behind-the-scenes efforts of the Westeros system and the Johnston family.
Just last month, the Australian Federal Parliament had officially passed a bill to promote the development of the information industry. The Australian government planned to invest 10 billion Australian dollars over the next five years in information industry-related infrastructure construction. At the same time, the bill included numerous supportive preferential measures in areas such as talent and taxation.
The United States' Information Superhighway Act had already been placed on the congressional agenda ahead of schedule thanks to lobbying by the Westeros system. However, it would take at least until next year to pass and implement.
Europe, still not fully out of its turmoil, had even less attention to spare for this emerging field.
Therefore, Australia's bill to promote information industry development had become the first national-level policy document in the related sector.
Limited by the size of its own market, Australia's information industry could never grow too large.
However, taking this step early and securing a head start in the new technology field would undoubtedly bring unexpected benefits to the country.
Beyond the information industry, there was naturally the film industry to discuss.
For cultural reasons, Australia had provided very strong support for the film industry throughout the 1980s. George Miller's Mad Max series had emerged against this backdrop, and the rise of the Hollywood Australian crew had also benefited from Australia's vigorous domestic support for the film sector.
However, such policy support ultimately could not compare to the benefits brought by a series of blockbuster films shooting in Australia.
In the original timeline, it was only because of the Lord of the Rings series that New Zealand had become the Middle-earth that film fans around the world dreamed of visiting, and that small South Pacific country had become one of the world's most famous film production bases.
Australia's situation was almost identical to what New Zealand's had once been.
Aside from Wonder Woman, which could not be filmed in Australia due to location requirements, the entire DC Cinematic Universe series including Batman , Batman: The Dark Knight, The Flash, and the newly started Superman had all been shot in Australia. Even large amounts of post-production work were completed locally.
Driven by the DC Cinematic Universe series, Australia had rapidly formed a film industry base centered on Melbourne. Combined with Australia's generous tax rebates and relatively low labor and material costs, other Hollywood studios were increasingly inclined to produce films in this country.
With Australia's internet industry, mobile communications industry, and film industry all flourishing, the Westeros system's various companies had already occupied very important positions in these fields within Australia.
This was actually a form of infiltration.
Simon's next goal was to use the Johnston family as a shell to enter Australia's core mining resources sector.
Once that layout was complete, Simon would exert decisive influence over the country.
June was winter in the Southern Hemisphere, but coastal cities like Melbourne, influenced by the temperate oceanic climate, did not get too cold even in winter.
Simon and Janet spent a weekend in Melbourne. On Sunday they even went skiing in the nearby mountains. The following Monday, Simon headed to the Superman set in Sydney to oversee filming.
The straight-line distance between Sydney and Melbourne was about seven hundred kilometers. For a private jet, it was just a quick hop. Therefore, while he worked in Sydney during the day, unless something particularly important came up, Simon would basically fly back to Melbourne in the evening.
At the same time, box office data for Wonder Woman kept coming in from North America.
With its extremely high popularity and excellent reviews, Wonder Woman earned 19.21 million dollars on its opening day alone. In a single day, it surpassed the entire first-week box office of Far and Away, which had opened the previous week, once again cementing the phenomenal status of DC Cinematic Universe films in Hollywood.
Then, after three days of its opening weekend, this superhero film reached 61.39 million dollars, easily surpassing all the summer films that had opened in May.
By the time Simon finished his week of work in Australia and returned to North America, Wonder Woman's first seven-day box office had also been officially released.
91.12 million dollars!
Stimulated by Wonder Woman's explosive box office, the total weekly box office for North American theaters from June 5 to June 11 reached 162.86 million dollars.
However, because Wonder Woman alone claimed more than half of the weekly box office share, films from the previous few weeks such as Lethal Weapon 3, Sister Act, and Far and Away all saw drops exceeding 30 percent.
Because its reviews were far inferior to those of Lethal Weapon 3 and Sister Act, and the subject matter was not audience-friendly, Far and Away starring Tom Cruise had already opened far below expectations. This week its drop was even worse at 46 percent. Compared to its first week's 15.62 million dollars, the second-week box office fell to just 8.39 million dollars.
After two weeks, total earnings stood at 24.01 million dollars, with weekly box office already shrinking to just over 8 million. With such low occupancy rates, theaters would definitely pull Far and Away as soon as their two-week or four-week contracts expired. Therefore, even if the downward trend eased somewhat in the coming weeks, Far and Away's North American total box office was estimated to struggle to break 40 million dollars.
Yet the total production and marketing budget Columbia Pictures had invested in the project reached 90 million dollars.
Even without considering time costs, Far and Away would need roughly 60 million dollars in North America before it could recoup production costs through subsequent overseas releases, videotape channels, and television platforms.
Now, with North American box office under 40 million dollars, it meant Columbia Pictures would have no chance of recovering its massive 90 million dollar investment across the film's entire five-to-seven-year effective release cycle.
Tom Cruise's already declining popularity took a severe hit because of Far and Away's failure.
Next, this Hollywood male star could only return to the low-budget field.
Low-budget films could achieve big returns with small investments. That was true. However, out of the hundreds of low-budget films Hollywood produced every year, fewer than one in ten truly succeeded in that way.
Moreover, according to convention, Tom Cruise could afford at most two more failures.
If the next two consecutive films did not become major hits, this male star's status would drop.
Watching Cruise's experiences in recent years up close, many people in Hollywood felt a complex mix of emotions and could not help but feel even greater awe toward a certain young man.
However, this matter was no longer within Simon's concern.
Among the three DC Cinematic Universe films already released, Batman had opened with 82.39 million dollars, Batman: The Dark Knight with 102.07 million dollars, and The Flash with 72.86 million dollars.
With an opening of 91.12 million dollars, Wonder Woman's first-week performance ranked second among these four films, behind only Batman: The Dark Knight.
Moreover, Batman: The Dark Knight had clearly benefited from sequel momentum.
If that factor was disregarded and only the opening weekends of the first entries in each series were considered, Wonder Woman was undoubtedly the highest among Batman Begins, The Flash, and itself.
Because it was a female-led film, Wonder Woman had not lacked skeptical voices before its release. Now, the 91.12 million dollar first-week box office had left many people stunned.
According to the licensing agreement they had reached back then, Wonder Woman was co-invested by Daenerys and Warner Bros., with Daenerys handling distribution.
Even though it held only half the investment share in the film, Terry Semel still half-jokingly complained to Simon during a phone call that he was playing favorites.
With Wonder Woman opening above 90 million dollars in its first week, a North American total exceeding 300 million dollars was almost a foregone conclusion.
Among the three series openers, although The Flash had reached 250 million dollars in North America, both its opening weekend and total domestic box office were clearly the lowest.
Compared to Superman, which Simon had rushed to Australia to oversee personally as soon as filming began, he had basically paid no attention to The Flash.
Moreover, the comparison between The Flash and Wonder Woman went beyond box office. The sales of peripheral products for the two projects also showed a huge difference.
With Wonder Woman playing to packed theaters, the simultaneously released soundtrack album had become a massive hit because of Diana Prince's signature background music. It sold 870,000 copies in its first week on shelves and was projected to easily surpass 10 million copies in total sales.
Sales of character dolls and Wonder Woman's weapon props and other merchandise also far exceeded those of The Flash back then.
In particular, the limited edition 10,000-set full Amazon warrior character doll collection, priced at 1,000 dollars each, had sold out within a week, bringing in 10 million dollars from that single item alone.
Was Simon playing favorites?
Of course he was.
Back then, Simon had hoped to trade half the investment rights to Superman for half the investment rights to The Flash and Cyborg. It had actually been a very fair deal, but Warner had ultimately rejected Simon's proposal.
To maintain the unity of the DC Cinematic Universe, Simon had still accepted these two superheroes. As a producer with very strong say, he had actually devoted sufficient energy to both projects.
However, expecting him to treat The Flash and Cyborg with the same level of care as Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman was ultimately unrealistic.
After the first week, on June 12, two new films entered North American theaters: Warner Bros.' White Men Can't Jump and TriStar Pictures under Columbia's Universal Soldier.
White Men Can't Jump was a typical buddy comedy, while Universal Soldier was an action film starring Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
However, judging purely from opening screen counts, both films were essentially cannon fodder placed after Wonder Woman. White Men Can't Jump opened on 1,140 screens, and Universal Soldier on 1,281. Combined, the two films' opening screen counts were still less than Wonder Woman's.
Warner Bros. and Columbia's thinking was probably that they did not want to completely abandon the summer season yet had no confidence in these two films, so they had chosen this distribution strategy.
However, under the crushing popularity of Wonder Woman, the two films that had already been treated as cannon fodder failed to make even the slightest splash after release.
With weak new releases, the market remained dominated by Wonder Woman.
Therefore, in its second week, Wonder Woman dropped only 25 percent and earned another 68.39 million dollars.
In two weeks, this superhero blockbuster had already accumulated 159.51 million dollars at the box office, directly surpassing every film released in North America in 1992 so far and claiming the top spot on the yearly box office chart.