In Simon's view, the 1987 summer box office season marked a significant 'watershed' moment in Hollywood's film production and distribution model.
Starting in mid-May, films such as Dustin Hoffman's 'Ishtar', Eddie Murphy's 'Beverly Hills Cop 2', Arnold Schwarzenegger's 'Predator', and Jack Nicholson's 'The Witches of Eastwick' were released sequentially.
Among these, 'Ishtar' and 'Beverly Hills Cop 2' were the most typical representatives of this watershed.
'Ishtar' had a budget of $55 million, and its opening weekend box office of $5.7 million doomed Columbia Pictures to a complete loss. However, this film also heralded the official arrival of Hollywood's big-budget era.
As a sequel to the 1984 North American box office champion, 'Beverly Hills Cop 2' also had a production cost of $28 million. However, a more representative aspect of this film was its opening screen count of 2,326.
2,326 opening screens might not seem like much compared to blockbusters later on that would open with three or four thousand screens, but in an era when most films could only secure around 1,000 opening screens, the scale of 'Beverly Hills Cop 2's opening was absolutely unprecedented.
Paramount Pictures did not choose the traditional Friday release date, but instead set it for Wednesday, May 20th.
Through an intensive pre-release publicity blitz, 'Beverly Hills Cop 2' garnered $7.61 million in box office revenue in just its opening Wednesday and Thursday, directly pushing 'Ishtar', which only earned $5.7 million for the entire week, to second place on the weekly box office chart.
The following week, 'Beverly Hills Cop 2' took in another $40.03 million, bringing its cumulative box office to $47.64 million in nine days.
Before 1987, such a fierce box office momentum was only achievable by national-level series like 'Star Wars'.
In comparison, 1986's box office champion 'Top Gun' only had an opening weekend box office of $12.21 million, and 1985's box office champion 'Back to the Future', despite a similar Wednesday release, only accumulated $22.02 million in nine days.
At the same time, after raking in $47.64 million, 'Beverly Hills Cop 2's box office figures for the following week dropped sharply by 40%, a decline far exceeding the typical 10% to 20% long-term trend for popular films.
Despite this, 'Beverly Hills Cop 2' was destined to be another super-hit.
While many film companies were studying Paramount Pictures' distribution strategy, Simon understood that, beyond the big-budget era, the era of widespread distribution in Hollywood had also arrived, where films built up popularity through large-scale pre-release promotion, then simultaneously opened on thousands of screens to quickly recoup box office revenue.
On Simon's end, the layout for stock index futures was completed, and 'Final Destination', produced by Daenerys Pictures, officially began filming on May 18th.
The main filming location for 'Final Destination' was in Queens, New York. After filming began, Simon personally flew to New York, stayed with the crew for three days, and then returned to Los Angeles.
In the following period, Simon was mostly busy with casting, location scouting, and actor rehearsals for 'Pulp Fiction'.
The filming period for 'Final Destination' was eight weeks; if all went smoothly, the film would wrap around July 10th. The start of filming for 'Pulp Fiction' was scheduled for July 13th, with a preliminary filming period of ten weeks.
At the same time.
Due to a series of new releases during the summer, the box office performance of both 'Run Lola Run' and 'The Butterfly Effect' were significantly impacted.
However, on June 15th, its 18th week of release, 'Run Lola Run' officially surpassed the $200 million mark in cumulative box office, reaching $201.07 million, thanks to a weekend gross of $1.36 million.
Immediately after.
From June 19th to June 25th, in its 12th week of release, 'The Butterfly Effect' took in another $1.82 million, with its cumulative box office also breaking the $100 million mark, reaching $100.87 million.
Although everyone knew the box office potential of 'Run Lola Run' and 'The Butterfly Effect', when both films truly surpassed the anticipated box office figures, the entire North American media once again erupted.
For a time, countless news stories about Simon once again filled various newspapers and media outlets.
Kathryn's 'Near Dark' coincidentally opened on June 19th.
Due to Simon's previous involvement, under the influence of this media frenzy, "Near Dark" became the most direct beneficiary.
The film opened on 513 screens in its first week, and amidst widespread media discussion, 'Near Dark' grossed $7.86 million in just its opening weekend, with an average of over $15,000 per screen, fully reaching the level of a hit blockbuster.
Simon and Janet had originally planned to host some parties in March and April to thank those who had helped Simon over the past year.
Seizing this current opportunity, the two brought up the matter again.
Saturday, June 27th.
A grand party was officially held at the Palisades mansion that day.
It was a terrible day, and I really didn't want to break the update streak, so I'm uploading a short chapter.