As the two were already living together, Janette was fully aware of the progress of the release of 'Run Lola Run'. So, the next day, the woman took over everything almost without any obstacles.
Simon had originally wanted to stay with her for a few days to help her transition, but he was directly refused.
Janette's reason was also very strong: with Simon by her side, she would easily become soft-hearted and unable to perform at her best.
Simon didn't know how Janette worked.
But then, on Thursday afternoon, after the first formal negotiation on the subsequent distribution rights, Mike Medavoy hurriedly called, his tone even carrying a hint of grievance as he complained that Janette was too ignorant, and hoped that Simon would continue to personally intervene and not let a woman mess around.
Although he had some doubts, Simon would not rashly believe Mike Medavoy's one-sided story.
However, after work that day, before Simon had a chance to ask Janette about the morning's negotiation, the woman had already brought back another contract: Mattel bought the doll distribution rights for the series of characters from 'Run Lola Run' for $2.3 million.
For all it's had an explosive box office results, the peripheral rights for 'Run Lola Run' were certainly far from comparable to super IPs like 'Star Wars'.
Moreover, as a toy company primarily producing Barbie dolls, Mattel would definitely only be interested in Lola's character image; characters like Manni would clearly not be popular with consumers.
Therefore, Janette essentially sold the distribution rights for a single Lola doll for $2.3 million, which far exceeded Simon's expectations.
Based on some industry data, Simon's highest previous expectation for this deal was only around $1.5 million.
Given this, Simon naturally no longer doubted Janette's ability and confidently handed over all relevant matters to her.
In addition, Simon subsequently made appropriate adjustments to the two companies he owned.
After some left-hand to right-hand operations, all income related to 'Run Lola Run', such as box office splits, buyout revenue, and peripheral revenue, would be transferred from Daenerys Pictures to Westeros Company.
This separation was to accommodate Amy's contract; both parties had agreed on this before signing, and Amy's 5% share of the company's net profit did not include the related earnings from 'Run Lola Run'.
Immediately after, also to avoid increasingly entangled financial situations with Janette, Simon drafted a formal supplementary contract in the name of Westeros Company: as an investor holding 61.5% of the shares, Janette's profit share from 'Run Lola Run' only needed to be settled before December 31st of this year.
This supplementary contract meant that before the settlement of funds, Westeros Company could freely operate and reinvest this capital, and the additional profits generated would not need to be shared with Janette.
Simon also planned to operate stock index futures in the name of Westeros Company in the second half of the year, and even more investment activities later on.
With these two aspects settled, some potential conflicts of interest hidden around Simon due to the sudden success of 'Run Lola Run' were also completely sorted out.
Deep down, Simon was still a person who lacked a sense of security.
If he didn't sort these out, he even worried that he would encounter a situation described by the male protagonist in 'When Harry Met Sally': two people fall out of love one day, become enemies, and then hysterically waste $1,000 in phone calls arguing over who should get an $8 dinner plate.
Janette obviously saw this aspect of Simon's personality, which is why she tirelessly wrote out IOUs for him to fingerprint.
The woman knew that by doing this, not only would Simon not resist, but he would feel very relaxed.
While Simon was adjusting the two companies he owned, with Janette taking on the distribution work for 'Run Lola Run', many other things also began to advance more efficiently and quickly.
Mattel was very eager to release the Lola doll as soon as possible, which is actually very understandable.
Therefore, after the signing was completed, the other party deposited $2.3 million into Westeros Company's account within three days.
Simon then injected $1 million into Daenerys Pictures in the name of a loan, and Amy Pascal finally no longer had to pay out of pocket to hire assistants, and the company also began to officially recruit more staff.
With money, Amy quickly negotiated the script rights for 'When Harry Met Sally'.
The final price was $150,000, which was not cheap, but certainly not expensive for Simon.
However, to secure this script, Daenerys Pictures also promised Nora Ephron that the company would start the project within a year, and the production budget would not be less than $10 million.
If the contract was breached, the script copyright would automatically revert to the other party.
As for 'Pulp Fiction', since he no longer had to juggle the distribution of 'Run Lola Run', Simon produced the first draft of the script the following week.
Although Orion Pictures was very unoptimistic about this project, Jonathan Friedman still helped Simon negotiate a revenue-sharing contract comparable to 'Final Destination'.
It also had a guaranteed minimum of $20 million.
If the box office exceeded $20 million, Simon would receive 10% of the North American box office share and 5% of the North American video sales share.
Although the box office success of 'Run Lola Run' had many coincidences, it was ultimately a film almost certainly destined to be this year's North American box office champion.
Therefore, Simon easily qualified for a first-tier director's salary.
Orion signed Simon for his next film with a base salary of $500,000, but since the revenue-sharing terms were not finalized at the time, they could only offer a revenue-sharing agreement commensurate with Simon's worth.
Of course, this contract also had a very clear difference from 'Final Destination': the video sales share Simon could receive was limited to North America, because Orion did not have global distribution capabilities like 20th Century Fox.
In addition, Orion also required that the project budget must be controlled within $8 million.
If it exceeded, for every $1 million over budget, Simon's two shares would decrease by 1% and 0.5% respectively, calculated by rounding up.
However, Orion also promised to offer certain revenue-sharing terms to big-name stars willing to take a pay cut to participate.
Finally, 'Final Destination' had the smoothest project progression.
The company quickly selected a director, Wes Craven, who had helped New Line Cinema make 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' a few years ago, and his personal style was also very suitable for "Final Destination'.
Moreover, Wes Craven was also a client of WMA.
Although he had the success of 'A Nightmare on Elm Street', Wes Craven's 'The Girl Next Door', which he directed for Warner last year, was lukewarm, with its box office barely reaching the break-even point.
Through the introduction of both agents, Simon and Wes Craven had dinner together and discussed the entire project in detail, and the matter was settled.
Speaking of which, Simon naturally remembered clearly that Wes Craven was also the director of the famous 'Scream' series in the 1990s.
Simon didn't immediately bring out 'Scream', for reasons similar to choosing 'Pulp Fiction' as his second film.
Projects with higher box office potential should naturally be kept for himself as much as possible.
For now, lacking funds and channels, Simon could only temporarily cooperate with other film companies, and the bulk of the profits would certainly go to these companies.
On Janette's side, after finalizing the first peripheral buyout contract, the woman subsequently negotiated the licensing of peripheral products such as the 'Run Lola Run' soundtrack album and video game, once again bringing in over $8 million for Westeros Company.
On April 6th, Orion Pictures finally compromised and bought the North American video and television broadcast distribution rights for 'Run Lola Run' for a high price of $35 million.
On April 9th, the film's overseas rights were also bought by Warner Bros. for the same $35 million.
Although these two buyout payments would take a month to arrive, the total revenue of $70 million was exactly $10 million higher than Simon's initial expectation.
Coupled with the $20 million loan already deposited into Simon's personal account by Wells Fargo, and the anticipated $30 million box office share when 'Run Lola Run' leaves North American theatres a few months later, even after deducting some necessary expenses, Simon could raise over $120 million for the stock index futures operations in October.
During this period when Simon and Janette were busy dividing tasks, the 59th Academy Awards ceremony successfully concluded.
Orion Pictures' 'Platoon' unsurprisingly won major awards such as Best Picture and Best Director, and the film's box office also recently successfully broke the $100 million mark.
At the same time, after $23.36 million in box office for the sixth week, 'Run Lola Run' earned another $21.22 million and $16.34 million in the seventh and eighth weeks, respectively.
As of April 9th, the cumulative North American box office for 'Run Lola Run' had reached $146.79 million.
Although the weekly decline began to grow, there was almost no doubt that 'Run Lola Run' would break the $200 million total box office mark.
Everyone was only curious about how high the film's final cumulative box office would reach.
This continued until April 10th.
In the first week of the Easter holiday, Simon's second film after returning to this era, 'The Butterfly Effect', officially premiered.
Although the internal test screenings had consistently received poor reviews from critics, considering the popularity brought by 'Run Lola Run', 20th Century Fox still arranged 1,263 opening screens for 'The Butterfly Effect'.
As a relatively popular release time, 'The Butterfly Effect' naturally could not have the box office all to itself.
Also released at the same time was 'The Secret of My Success', starring Michael J. Fox, the male lead of 'Back to the Future'.
This comedy film produced by Universal Pictures opened on 1,336 screens and had a production cost of $12 million, seemingly outdoing 'The Butterfly Effect' in all aspects.