After Simon and Semel's lunch, Daenerys Entertainment and Warner Bros. quickly began negotiations on the specific cooperation matters for 'Batman'.
While money cannot guarantee a film's success, a large budget clearly makes it easier to produce an excellent film.
Since Simon, with the ignorant and fearless demeanour of a nouveau riche, had thrown in $50 million, Warner decided to let Daenerys Entertainment test the waters first.
Having settled 'Batman', Simon inwardly accepted the gazes of some who saw him as a fat sheep, and continued to accelerate other planned matters in his capacity as a fat sheep.
On the other hand, the Saturday after Simon and Semel finalized 'Batman', the 45th Golden Globe Awards ceremony for American film and television was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Bernardo Bertolucci's 'The Last Emperor' unsurprisingly became the biggest winner of this year's Golden Globes, while 'Run Lola Run' missed out on all five of its nominations.
Regarding 'Run Lola Run's fate at the Golden Globes, media reactions ranged from questioning and mockery to regret and schadenfreude, but Simon quickly moved past the event.
With its Writers Guild of America Award nominations ignored, he hadn't held much expectation for the Golden Globes, and therefore felt little regret facing this outcome.
Although 'Run Lola Run' had the combined efforts of Warner and Orion, in terms of network resources and public relations strength, 'Run Lola Run' certainly couldn't compare to Steven Spielberg's 'Empire of the Sun', which also went home empty-handed this time.
However, the nominations for the 60th Academy Awards, announced shortly after the Golden Globe Awards ceremony, once again showed Simon the conservative side of Hollywood.
Many people had originally thought that even if 'Run Lola Run' didn't win any awards, it would surely snag a few significant nominations.
However, the result was that 'Run Lola Run' only received a minor nomination for Best Editing, and nothing else.
After analysis, everyone believed this was mainly due to Simon's current complex identity.
If Simon were merely a young director who had just risen in Hollywood, and 'Run Lola Run' had achieved such dazzling success, the Academy would certainly not have minded supporting a newcomer.
But now, in addition to being a director, Simon was also a super-rich man with a net worth of over a billion dollars.
The judges might have felt that since Simon Westeros had earned a huge amount of money in just over a year, it was not appropriate to immediately bestow honours upon him as well.
Regardless, no matter what the underlying mindset, 'Run Lola Run' ultimately only received a technical nomination for Best Editing.
Of course, the nominee for this award was still Simon.
In early February, while negotiations for 'Batman' were still ongoing, Westeros Company quietly signed another contract worth $20 million with the Tolkien Estate.
Although the price paid was double that of 'The Lord of the Rings' copyright, Simon actually gained more.
In addition to successfully acquiring 'The Silmarillion', Westeros Company also re-signed licensing agreements for several of Tolkien's works with the Tolkien Estate for 20 million.
In the 1969 contract, the production company holding the copyright had to pay the Tolkien Estate a 7.5% share of net profits.
Now, Westeros Company paid $20 million upfront, and the original profit-sharing clauses for 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit' were cancelled.
The 'Silmarillion' contract also did not include a profit-sharing clause, and Simon would hold the copyrights to these three works until the end of the statutory copyright protection period.
Furthermore, the new contract expanded the range of products Westeros Company could develop, avoiding potential disputes in the future.
In Simon's memory, due to the 1969 contract not explicitly covering digital game development rights, the Tolkien Estate sued Time Warner for $80 million for illegally producing 'The Lord of the Rings' online games.
Although the lawsuit was settled privately, the amount of compensation involved was certainly not something that $20 million could resolve.
The administrators of the Tolkien Estate might not have lacked long-term vision, but when Simon increased the copyright transaction price from around $1 million to dozens of times that amount, money exerted its powerful and deserved influence.
Perhaps both sides felt they had gained a significant advantage, and with the deal concluded, neither the Tolkien Estate nor Westeros Company publicly disclosed the matter.
As for future events, regardless of the outcome, both parties had already committed.
To be fair, Simon himself couldn't guarantee 100% that Tolkien's Middle-earth series would achieve the same success as in the original timeline, but his chances of winning were certainly much higher.
From mid-January to mid-February, negotiations between Daenerys Entertainment and Warner Bros. lasted for a month, and the detailed cooperation plan for 'Batman' was finally finalized.
The five-year licensing plan remained unchanged, with Daenerys Entertainment paying $2 million for the 'Batman' copyright, once again acting as a fat sheep compared to the $200,000 for 'Spider-Man'.
The two parties agreed that Daenerys Entertainment would invest in the first film, and Warner Bros. Pictures would obtain the global distribution rights for that film.
If the first film was successful, Warner would have the right to invest up to 50% in sequels.
However, once a sequel was greenlit, Warner had to decide whether to participate in the investment within one month, and exceeding the deadline would be considered an automatic forfeiture.
Regarding film distribution, Warner's stance was very firm.
Daenerys Entertainment ultimately only secured the opportunity to renegotiate distribution commissions for sequels and did not obtain independent distribution rights.
In terms of merchandise, due to the success of the 'Star Wars' merchandise series years ago, this portion of the revenue became the focus of intense negotiation between the two parties.
The final contract spent more than ten pages detailing various specifics to confirm that merchandise originated from live-action and comics, as well as the first and subsequent films.
The terms agreed upon by both parties were that Warner Bros.'s DC Comics would receive a one-time 10% net profit share from merchandise related to the live-action 'Batman' films, with the remaining profits determined by the investment shares of both parties.
All in all, this was another cooperation plan that was very unfavourable to Daenerys Entertainment, similar to 'Rain Man' a while ago.
However, for Simon, acquiring the 'Batman' copyright was an absolute victory.
Since he had the copyright in his hands, he had no intention of letting it go.
As long as he held the 'Batman' copyright, the initiative for many future matters would inevitably be on his side.
To be more 'proactive,' one week after Daenerys Entertainment and Warner Bros. officially signed the contract, Simon once again used a money-dropping method to buy the 'Superman' copyright from British producer Alexander Salkind.
Having acquired 'Superman' and 'Batman', and gathered Tolkien's Middle-earth series, Simon's copyright acquisition operations had initially come to an end.
Amidst the unconscious busyness, time came to the end of February, and a very special day arrived with it.
February 22nd.
Simon's 20th birthday.
Inside a luxury mansion halfway up Beverly Hills, this was Sandra Bullock's new home.
After impulsively kissing that guy one night, and facing the subsequent relentless pursuit of paparazzi, she had no choice but to change residences.
So much had happened in the past six months; after Simon and Janette reconciled, and coupled with a guilty conscience, Sandra found herself inevitably growing much more distant from Simon.
However, today was his 20th birthday party, such a legitimate reason, she definitely had to go.
It just felt a little strange.
Thinking about her own 20th birthday, she was still in college then, with no idea what her future would hold.
His 20th birthday.
Sigh.
Standing so tall, out of reach, not afraid of falling down.
Hmph.
It was already five o'clock in the afternoon.
Having changed into a carefully prepared aquamarine evening gown, she had just stepped out of the walk-in closet when the doorbell rang.
She had scheduled a makeup artist to come to her home, and they had arrived right on time.
Her assistant Gina went to open the door, and Sandra carefully sat down on the living room sofa, holding up her skirt.
The living room TV had been on, and she now noticed that the CNN host and two other guests were discussing Simon.
Behind them, the screen even showed a live broadcast of that guy's Palisades mansion.
This was too exaggerated, wasn't it?
It was just a birthday party, and it had even attracted CNN, with a live broadcast.
However, considering all the things he had done from the summer two years ago until now, CNN's current reaction didn't seem too excessive.
Picking up the remote control, she turned up the TV volume a bit.
Gina entered with the makeup artist, and Sandra gestured for the artist to do her makeup in the living room, her gaze fixed on the TV screen, listening with keen interest to the discussion between the host and the two guests.
"That's right, Jim, Simon Westeros also reminds me of Howard Hughes, but he's even more legendary. Westeros's first film became the North American box office champion, with a global box office of 400 million US dollars. Relative to his age, this is absolutely a miracle.
Even more impressive was his operation in the stock index futures market last year. In five months, Westeros was buying and selling almost perfectly in sync with the rises and falls of the S&P 500 index, as if he could completely predict the index's movements".
Another female guest wearing glasses said, "However, Daniel, I think Simon Westeros has completely lost control since the stock market crash last year. Especially recently, his various capital operations have been almost haphazard. He had a spat with Motorola and sold all of their shares.
He tried to acquire New World Entertainment, but after encountering setbacks, he quickly gave up voluntarily. And then there's Daenerys Entertainment; Westeros is completely spending money recklessly. Our young millionaire is reportedly already greenlit eight films, and if you include the recent 'Batman' and 'Superman,' that makes ten.
I specifically compiled a list of films; based on publicly available information, most of these films don't seem to have much commercial appeal, but their budgets are generally higher than Hollywood's average. Just like that film 'Rain Man,' have you heard about it?"
The male guest named Daniel nodded and said, "I heard a little about it. A film starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, which was reportedly rejected by all major Hollywood film companies before. Moreover, Daenerys Entertainment seems to have signed a very unequal contract with MGM/United Artists.
However, I always feel that Westeros must have other considerations. If anyone thinks that a young man who can earn over a billion dollars in wealth by the age of 20 is a fool, then don't doubt it, he himself is the fool".
"Hey, Daniel, are you talking about me?" the female guest retorted with a laugh, then said, "But I do believe that Simon Westeros's behaviour during this period has been completely reckless. If this continues, perhaps in just a few years, his net worth will shrink significantly".
"That's just your speculation, Katie. When Howard Hughes made 'Hell's Angels,' everyone also thought he might go bankrupt, but the result was that 'Hell's Angels' grossed $8 million. $8 million in 1930 was definitely higher than the box office of 'Star Wars' or 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'.
Moreover, I believe Simon Westeros's personal assets should primarily be concentrated in those tech stocks. After reducing his Motorola stock holdings, based on recent stock prices, Simon Westeros's assets from this portion alone are worth over $1.3 billion".
"It should be more", the host sitting next to them interjected, "According to the information we've received, after the failed acquisition of New World Entertainment, Westeros Company has recently been acquiring shares in some other tech companies. For example, Silicon Graphics; Simon Westeros reportedly paid a special visit to this San Francisco graphics workstation manufacturing company last month.
According to the latest filings, Westeros Company's stake in Silicon Graphics has already reached 11%. And Oracle, with a 9% stake. Next, for several companies like Microsoft and Intel, the shareholding ratio has increased from the original 5% to over 7%. Calculated, Simon Westeros has already invested at least half of the funds obtained from cashing out Motorola stock into the shares of these companies.
Many investment institutions on Wall Street have also recently started to follow suit, once again significantly boosting the tech stock sector. Now, the value of Simon Westeros's stock assets in this batch should already be close to $1.6 billion".
The male guest waited for the host to finish speaking, then spread his hands towards the female guest and said, "See? Westeros's profit from the stock market crash last year was probably around 1.6 billion US dollars. Now, Katie, according to your statement, Westeros has been reckless for a while, but his net worth has not only not decreased, but has increased once again".
The female guest said, "But I still don't believe that as long as Simon Westeros is a normal person, he won't always create miracles".
The host suddenly said, "Katie, do you think Simon Westeros is normal?"
The male guest immediately burst into laughter.
The female guest also smiled and said, "Well, Westeros is indeed not normal. But my point is, as long as he's not an alien, which I don't think is possible, then he will definitely face failure. Just like those films from Daenerys Entertainment, Westeros might be able to guarantee the box office success of one, two, or three films, but he absolutely cannot guarantee all of them.
Major Hollywood film companies have no shortage of box office hits every year, but their financial reports often show losses. I also know about Hollywood accounting, but I'm not referring to that, but to genuine losses. Why? It's because in addition to those highly-anticipated blockbusters, they also have a long list of failed films".
The host waited for the female guest to finish speaking, then gently clapped his hands and said, "Regardless of what the future holds, today is Simon Westeros's 20th birthday. This young man, who suddenly rose to prominence just over a year ago, has already created too many miracles. I believe everyone must be very curious about him. So, let's hand the camera back to our reporter on the scene".