On June 19, the third week of Wonder Woman's release, North American theaters welcomed three major new releases: Indecent Proposal, a collaboration between Daenerys and Paramount, Fox's Alien 3, and Disney's 2D animated film Aladdin.
As the summer season headliners from each studio, all three films opened on more than 2,000 screens. Indecent Proposal opened on 2,219 screens, Alien 3 on 2,381, and Aladdin on 2,137.
The arrival of the three new films inevitably impacted Wonder Woman.
However, Wonder Woman had already fully unleashed its box office potential during the previous two weeks of relatively light competition. Facing the three new releases, its third week drop expanded to 37 percent, but it still earned 43.16 million dollars and held onto the top spot on the weekly chart.
At the same time, after three weeks of release, Wonder Woman's cumulative box office officially broke the 200 million dollar mark, reaching 202.67 million dollars.
Relying on the star power of Robert Redford and "Catwoman" Valeria Golino, along with the controversial topic of whether one would transfer their wife for one million dollars, Indecent Proposal opened with 32.27 million dollars in its first week, ranking second on the chart.
Disney's 2D animated film Aladdin ranked third, with a first week box office of 29.63 million dollars, also exceeding Disney's expectations.
It was worth noting that Aladdin's production budget was only 28 million dollars.
Moreover, animated films often enjoyed relatively strong long term box office runs.
Next, Fox's 50 million dollar Alien 3 opened with 26.84 million dollars, placing fourth on the weekly box office chart.
Alien 3's opening was not low, but the sequel's reviews had somewhat collapsed, with a composite media score of only 4.3 points. Its first week box office was basically carried by the Alien series' popularity and heavy pre release promotion.
After the first week, the industry generally predicted a sharp drop for the film in its second week.
Further down, Disney's Sister Act ranked fifth.
In its fifth week of release, this summer dark horse starring Whoopi Goldberg continued to earn 7.61 million dollars, bringing its cumulative box office to 71.31 million dollars.
Not only that, even while facing the still dominant Wonder Woman and the three new films, from June 19 to June 25, Sister Act's weekly drop was only 11 percent. Therefore, although its weekly box office had shrunk to just over 7 million dollars, this black comedy still had the potential to break 100 million thanks to its strong long term performance.
In Simon's memory, the original Sister Act had exceeded 130 million dollars in North America.
This time, due to the overwhelming impact of Wonder Woman, Sister Act's North American total would still likely break 100 million but would struggle to exceed 110 million, a shrinkage of more than 20 million dollars.
Lethal Weapon 3, in its sixth week, earned 6.85 million dollars this week, ranking sixth, with a cumulative box office of 124.06 million dollars.
Because it had opened earlier, Lethal Weapon 3 was not heavily affected by Wonder Woman. Its North American total still had the potential to hit the original timeline's 140 million dollar mark.
Tom Cruise's 60 million dollar Far and Away, in its fourth week, had already dropped to just 3.81 million dollars, with a cumulative total of 33.91 million dollars.
Due to low occupancy rates, in the new week Far and Away's already shrinking screen count was cut in half as most theater contracts expired, leaving only 612 screens. Its remaining North American box office would basically stall below 40 million dollars.
In addition, it was worth mentioning that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, which had opened during the Easter period, had now been in theaters for exactly ten weeks as of June 25.
Because of the popcorn nature of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, this sequel had begun gradually reducing its screen count from the fourth week onward.
When Wonder Woman opened on June 5, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 had already handed over most of its screens in major theaters to the superhero film, leaving only two to three hundred screens in some remote theaters continuing to play it.
From June 19 to June 25, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 earned another 290,000 dollars on 263 screens, bringing its cumulative box office to 113.17 million dollars.
It could be said that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, which would completely exit theaters in the coming weeks, had basically locked in a North American total of 113 million dollars. For a popcorn sequel adapted from an animated series, this was already a very successful result.
San Francisco Bay.
Inside a villa in the Woodside hills on the western outskirts of Palo Alto.
It was June 27, a Saturday.
He had spent Thursday and Friday here handling matters for several tech companies. Yesterday he had worked until seven in the evening and then attended a dinner with several Ygritte senior executives, so he had not returned to Los Angeles.
Jennifer Rebould woke up first in the early morning. Feeling the man's breath on the back of her neck and his strong arm wrapped tightly around her waist, she subconsciously pressed back against him.
The light filtering through the gaps in the curtains showed that it was already bright outside. She reached for the watch on the bedside table and glanced at it. Six fifty five.
She was a little reluctant, but she knew it was time to get up.
After moving around a bit, Simon also woke up. He pulled the female assistant closer into his arms, kissed her neck, and said softly, "Morning, honey."
"Morning."
She really liked the tone he used every time he casually called her honey. It sounded so sweet.
But she had always been too shy to respond the same way.
She was also curious how he addressed Janet in private. Was it honey too, or baby? It probably was not darling. That sounded too formal.
She wanted to ask, but she worried he would think she was competing for something.
Lost in these random thoughts, the arm that had been holding her began to wander over her body. Her body grew hotter and hotter, and she almost gave in. In the end, she held back and said, "It's time to get up."
"Mm."
The man pretended to be weak and listless. She could not help but curve her lips into a smile. She pulled his arm over and kissed the back of his hand. "You can sleep for another fifteen minutes. I'll get up first and prepare breakfast for you."
"Last night was exhausting. I think another half hour would be more appropriate."
"You're the man here. You can't be lazier than a woman."
After some back and forth bargaining like this, the man finally let go. The female assistant got out of bed, got dressed, and washed up.
When she went downstairs, Zoe Parks and Isabelle Dunn, who had come along, were already up.
Knowing the female assistant's habits, the two women simply mentioned that the breakfast ingredients and today's newspapers were ready before discreetly disappearing.
Simon did not stay in bed for the extra half hour. He got up soon after the female assistant left the bed.
Following his usual routine, he went for a few kilometers of morning run in the quiet, fresh mountain air of Woodside. As usual, he ran into Larry Ellison. Ever since they had bumped into each other on this mountain trail last year, Simon had encountered the man on many of his morning runs in San Francisco. This late blooming founder of Oracle was indeed very skilled at cultivating connections through such small details.
After undergoing a thorough restructuring, Oracle had long since overcome its previous crisis. The early boom in the internet industry had made this database software company even more thriving.
Most professional internet sites required databases.
Moreover, because Westeros Corporation had continuously bought up 25 percent of Oracle's shares, Ygritte naturally leaned toward compatibility with Oracle's database software in its development of World Wide Web technology.
They did not touch on any substantive topics. The two men chatted casually while jogging and soon went their separate ways.
When Simon returned to the villa, showered, and changed clothes, the female assistant had already prepared breakfast. She had also placed the newspapers he liked to read over breakfast and yesterday's North American theater box office report on the dining table.
Two new films had opened in the new box office week that began yesterday: A Time to Kill, a collaboration between Daenerys and MGM, and Columbia Pictures' Basic Instinct.
The female assistant watched Simon flip through yesterday's box office report while ladling sweet soup for him. "The opening day was only 4.79 million. It seems a bit low."
She was naturally referring to A Time to Kill.
Compared to the original, the new version of A Time to Kill starred Nicolas Cage, Sandra Bullock, and Samuel L. Jackson. The story was similar to the one in Simon's memory, adapted from a John Grisham novel involving racial discrimination and judicial fairness in a crime drama.
With an opening day of 4.79 million dollars, the first week box office should fall between 20 and 25 million dollars.
Such an opening could not compare to Wonder Woman or Lethal Weapon 3, and it was even lower than last week's Indecent Proposal.
However, Simon showed no concern. "The key is still the subsequent box office trend. A Time to Kill should follow a curve similar to Harrison Ford's Presumed Innocent."
Two years earlier, Presumed Innocent had opened with just over 10 million dollars in its first week. But thanks to its strong holdover performance, the film's North American total had continuously exceeded the studio's expectations, ultimately surpassing 80 million dollars.
By comparison, A Time to Kill, with a similar genre and subject matter, had already opened very strongly at 20 to 25 million dollars.
After Wonder Woman in early June, there were no more blockbuster level films left in the summer season. A Time to Kill had also received critical acclaim, so its long term performance was certainly not in doubt.
Having followed Simon for so long, the female assistant of course understood this. She just habitually felt that projects he personally oversaw should perform even better.
Chatting casually like this over breakfast, the two of them flew to Chicago together in the morning.
It was for matters related to Home Alone 2.
This phenomenon level children's comedy sequel had basically completed post production.
Simon had handed full control of the Home Alone series to John Hughes. Hughes's production company was in Chicago, and most of this filmmaker's films were shot and post produced there.
Although he could have had Hughes send the finished cut to Los Angeles, Simon had not done so and had come in person instead.
This way, after watching the finished film, he could take the female assistant for a quick shopping trip in nearby Toronto, Canada.
Unlike Los Angeles and San Francisco, where there were always too many watchful eyes to worry about, in these cities, as long as they kept a low profile, there was no fear of being spotted by anyone.
This continued until Sunday evening, when they returned to Los Angeles, followed by another week of work.
The LTD acquisition had recently been finalized, and the Victoria's Secret fashion show plans were advancing rapidly.
According to the confirmed schedule, the Victoria's Secret show would be held in early November and broadcast on television networks in mid November, before the year end shopping peak.
Because it was a project personally led by Simon, all four major North American television networks had shown strong interest in the fashion show.
After several rounds of bidding negotiations, ABC had secured the television broadcast rights for a high price of 5 million dollars.
Although the 5 million dollar price included the premiere and rerun rights for the next five years, this deal still left LTD founder Leslie Wexner amazed at Simon's influence.
The entire show's budget was only 10 million dollars. ABC's offer of 5 million dollars for the broadcast rights essentially covered half of it.
If they had known this earlier, LTD would not have needed to transfer half the show's copyright to Daenerys Entertainment. However, Leslie Wexner also understood that without Daenerys Entertainment's involvement and without Simon Westeros at the helm, ABC would never have offered such a high price.
Simply put, ABC's offer was largely driven by Simon Westeros's influence.
In addition, the planned forty models walking in the show, along with the five Victoria's Secret Angel spokespersons, had become the focus of fierce competition in the modeling world recently.
A forty person runway team might seem large, but within the entire industry, it was insignificant.
The modeling industry had almost no barriers to entry. As long as one had a decent appearance, one could basically get started.
Although beautiful women were always scarce resources around ordinary people, across the entire world, the pool of people with the most outstanding looks could easily number in the millions if gathered together. [TL/N: One of them is my girlfriend.]
Of course, in this industry, very few truly reached the absolute top.
The several supermodels who had risen to fame in recent years, such as Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, and others, had all climbed to the top with a heavy dose of luck in their journeys.
The Victoria's Secret show had attracted intense media attention as soon as it was announced. Modeling agencies across North America and Europe had all realized that compared to top luxury brands with world renowned names but ultimately limited runway exposure, this lingerie fashion show led by Simon Westeros and scheduled for television broadcast would be a very rare platform for advancement.
For models seeking to rise, whether through beauty pageants, rumored romances with celebrity singers, appearing on fashion magazine covers, or walking for top brands, it all ultimately came down to one thing: exposure.
Many luxury brands always gave the general public an impression of being very aloof. In reality, however, these brands tended to choose models who already had relatively high name recognition for both runways and endorsements.
This could be seen from how, many years later, numerous luxury brands competed to hire IT girls or internet celebrities for their shows.
Internet celebrities in particular had no high status at all, but this group possessed tens of millions of fans and an exposure rate that ordinary supermodels could hardly match.
In recent years, anything connected to Westeros usually came with no shortage of exposure.
Therefore, major modeling agencies had recently been using every connection and network they had, hoping to get their models into the forty Victoria's Secret Angel spots. As for the five highly coveted Angel spokespersons among those forty, whether they were already established supermodels or promising new talents just emerging, everyone was watching them closely.