The North American videotape of 'Run Lola Run' has been released, and the film's overseas distribution is still ongoing.
To stimulate video sales and overseas market revenue, with the help of Orion and Warner, Simon unexpectedly won the Oscar for Best Editing, which garnered more media attention in the following days than 'The Last Emperor', which won multiple major awards.
Most media outlets tended to side with Simon, believing that the Academy's conservatism and aging prevented 'Run Lola Run' from receiving the nominations and honours it deserved.
Immediately after, on April 13th, the 41st Cannes Film Festival, which was set to open next month, announced its official selection, and 'Pulp Fiction' successfully became one of the 21 films entering the main competition unit.
At the Cannes Film Festival's official selection announcement press conference, a reporter specifically brought up 'Run Lola Run's experience at the Oscars and asked whether this year's Cannes Film Festival jury president, the famous Italian director Ettore Scola, would discriminate against 'Pulp Fiction' due to Simon Westeros' age. Although the answer was just official rhetoric, the news, when it reached the United States, once again sparked a heated debate.
'Pulp Fiction' was scheduled for release on June 3rd. As news of the film's entry into the main competition unit at Cannes reached home, Orion Pictures took the opportunity to release the first TV trailer.
Due to 'Pulp Fiction's seamless plot structure, it was not easy to cut an exciting trailer for this film.
Several trailers provided by Orion did not satisfy Simon, so he had to take charge himself. After careful consideration, the first trailer was 1 minute and 30 seconds long, featuring big stars such as Robert De Niro, John Travolta, and Robert Redford. Through a carefully selected series of suspenseful dialogues, the screen ultimately froze on the golden glowing box.
The plot of 'Pulp Fiction' was still under wraps, so after the trailer was released, the media quickly concluded that it was a 'treasure hunt' type of film.
The reality was, of course, very different from the media's judgment, but this was exactly the result Simon wanted to see. Throwing out topics to spark media discussion has always been the simplest and most effective way to market a film, and 'When Harry Met Sally's skyrocketing box office curve had already proven this point.
In its third week of wide release, 'When Harry Met Sally' took in another $12.11 million, bringing its cumulative box office to $49.16 million. The weekly drop ultimately settled at 21%, a better box office decline curve compared to other films released during the Easter holiday.
Although the screening scale expanded by 50% in the second week, Tim Burton's 'Beetlejuice' still saw a box office drop of nearly 25% in its second week.
'Johnny Be Good', released by Orion Pictures at the same time as 'When Harry Met Sally', even experienced a box office drop of 51%. This week, it only grossed $1.97 million. This film, with a budget of $22 million, had only accumulated $13.30 million in three weeks. After next week, its one-month screening contract with theatres will expire, and the film will essentially exit the big screen.
In Simon's view, the failure of 'Johnny Be Good' foreshadowed Orion Pictures' inevitable significant decline in performance this year.
In the past two years, after producing several box office hits, the blindly expanding Orion Pictures' production and distribution scale this year was completely comparable to the Big Seven, even surpassing several major film companies with weaker performance, such as MGM.
However, apart from 'Pulp Fiction', Simon did not see a second film with blockbuster potential in Orion's long list of projects.
After last year's stock market crash, the entire Hollywood industry would not have an easy time for the next few years. Orion's decline, like that of companies such as Cannon, New World, and De Laurentiis Entertainment, was inevitable, and Simon could only watch coldly.
After finalizing and signing the overseas distribution rights contract for 'When Harry Met Sally' with Disney at the beginning of the month, Daenerys Entertainment received a $30 million buyout payment in late April.
Compared to 'When Harry Met Sally's production cost of $15 million, the company essentially received a double return. Of course, the film's revenue still needed to be shared with British Handmade Films, which also participated in the investment.
According to the original contract, after deducting production costs, Daenerys Entertainment would receive 60% of the film's net profit. Thus, from the $30 million buyout payment, Daenerys Entertainment would receive $16.5 million. After the $15 million production cost was offset, Daenerys Entertainment would receive 60% of all subsequent revenue.
Before 'When Harry Met Sally' was released, Daenerys Entertainment had been spending money like water, but now it was finally starting to see some income, and Amy Pascal's constantly tense mind visibly relaxed a lot.
Simon could tell that she had always worried that Daenerys Entertainment would rise quickly and then collapse just like companies such as Cannon.
Although Simon now had a substantial fortune, if Daenerys Entertainment truly followed in the footsteps of companies like Cannon, he certainly would not continue to pour money into the company, and Amy was clearly very aware of this.
However, Daenerys Entertainment's expansion also seemed blind, but Simon knew the true winning potential of the series of projects the company was developing.
Whether it was the Big Seven or second-tier film companies like Orion, they usually cast a wide net by investing in a large number of projects, hoping that a few box office hits would emerge. As long as this could be achieved, the film company could basically achieve good profitability.
Due to Simon's foresight, Daenerys Entertainment, however, was equivalent to directly raising several big fish in its net.
April 21st.
On the new week, Simon woke up early and read in the Los Angeles Times that negotiations between the Producers Guild and the Writers Guild of America had once again broken down.
Santa Monica.
At Daenerys Entertainment headquarters, Simon arrived at the company at eight o'clock. After watching the rough cuts of 'Rain Man' from the past few days, it was just the start of working hours. Amy also arrived at the company early. When Simon came out of the screening room, she brought up the matter: "Simon, have you heard the news?"
Because it was Monday, the heads of various departments at Daenerys Entertainment and the managers of a series of projects were scheduled to hold their weekly routine meeting.
Simon and Amy walked into the conference room together, nodded to the other executives who had already arrived, and said, "Of course. So, our TV reality show project can enter the substantive production phase".
The breakdown of negotiations between the Producers Guild and the Writers Guild naturally couldn't be restarted just like that. Both sides needed to play hard to get, and getting back to the negotiating table would at least be next month.
According to the operating procedures of the American television industry, every year in March and April, television program producers of all sizes would begin to scout for projects and produce pilot episodes, and then promote them to the major television networks and cable television stations during the annual television program upfronts in May.
Due to the writers' strike, let alone pilot episodes, many production companies now didn't even have a few scripts on hand.
Originally, if a settlement could be reached this month and the schedule could be rushed, everyone would not miss next month's upfronts. With the negotiations breaking down again, this matter was naturally out of the question. Missing this most important time node would affect the television business of the major television networks for the entire year.
Amy nodded when she heard Simon say this, but then said, "However, Simon, I heard that the WGA is currently trying to reach agreements with second and third-tier production companies first. What should we do?"
Simon thought for a moment. He remembered that in the 1988 major strike, indeed a large number of second and third-tier production companies signed agreements with the WGA before the major studios and networks. But Hollywood giants' countermeasures were also very decisive. The four major television networks directly announced that they would no longer purchase programs from those production companies that had signed agreements with the WGA early. The WGA then sued the four major television networks with an antitrust lawsuit.
With this information flashing through his mind, Simon decisively shook his head and said, "No matter what others do, we will not participate".
Even if the WGA won the antitrust lawsuit, it would still be incredibly easy for the television networks to make things difficult for those second and third-tier production companies that had defected early. Moreover, siding with the WGA early would not bring any benefits to Daenerys Entertainment, and Simon had no intention of getting involved in this mess.
As Simon and Amy chatted, department executives and project managers arrived one after another, and the meeting soon began.
A large number of projects required a lot of manpower. After several months of continuous recruitment and expansion, Daenerys Entertainment now had various departments including film, television, distribution, human resources, and finance. Even without counting temporary staff for individual projects, the company's permanent employee count had already exceeded 50 people.
The two floors of office buildings originally leased now seemed very crowded, and Simon had recently been looking for new office premises for the company.
However, this was not an easy task.
If all went well, Simon planned to upgrade Daenerys Entertainment to Daenerys Entertainment next year, and all major departments such as film, television, and distribution would also be made into subsidiaries, which would undoubtedly lead to another large-scale expansion of the company.
Daenerys Entertainment had already moved once, and Simon didn't want to go through such a hassle every year or two.
The meeting lasted for more than two hours, and as noon approached, everyone dispersed.
Overall, all projects under Daenerys Entertainment were progressing steadily.
'Basic Instinct' and 'Rain Man' had already started filming.
'Scream' would also begin filming in a small town in Northern California at the end of the month.
The breakdown of negotiations between the Producers Guild and the Writers Guild strengthened Simon's resolve to squeeze 'Dead Poets Society' and 'Steel Magnolias' into the two major popular release windows at the end of the year. Therefore, the preparations for these two projects would also be accelerated, and they were expected to begin filming within the next one to two months.
Simon completely handed over the two low-budget films, "Some Girls" and "Metropolitan," selected from Sundance, to the producers below him.
As for 'Blue Steel', Simon simply held the mindset of 'men earn money, women spend money,' and let go even more completely. Kathryn could do whatever she wanted; if it lost money, it lost money. After all, she was his woman.
Finally, besides the four reality shows still in the works, only 'Batman', which Simon personally controlled, remained.
After the morning meeting, Daenerys Entertainment began the first round of casting for the male lead of 'Batman' that afternoon.
Simon had already released the strict conditions for playing Bruce Wayne.
A five-picture deal, a fifteen-year contract term, and contract clauses where Daenerys Entertainment had complete control over the actor's compensation.
Unsurprisingly, these three clauses alone made all the A-list stars in Hollywood who were trying to get the role of Batman back down, and most of the B-list stars made the same choice.
However, Hollywood's biggest advantage is that it never lacks actors.
Even though Daenerys Entertainment imposed many other restrictions in addition to the strict signing prerequisites, the company still received over 1,200 resumes before the first round of casting. Simon naturally didn't have enough time to personally participate in such a large-scale open audition. The casting work in the afternoon was entirely handled by several casting directors.
The first round would not involve in-person auditions.
It would only involve reviewing resumes and performance videotapes to weed out most people, with ultimately only about 200 people moving on to the second round.
Simon also knew that such an operation would certainly result in many otherwise qualified actors being eliminated, and even some personal favourites being slipped in by the casting directors. But that's how this world works: if you're qualified but eliminated, you can only say you're unlucky; if you're not qualified but can get into the second round of auditions through connections, that's also a form of strength.
As for fairness, thinking about it in dreams is enough.
At the same time, Simon, however, went to Culver City with Amy that afternoon.
Culver City is located east of Beverly Hills and north of Santa Monica. Compared to cities like Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Burbank, Culver City is not very prominent in the greater Los Angeles area. The main reason Simon came here was because the former MGM Studios was located in downtown Culver City.
During the process of transforming MGM into a hotel company, Kirk Kerkorian, the casino magnate and owner of MGM, sold the MGM Studios, which had a history of over half a century, to a television production company called Lorimar-Telepictures.
In the previous few years, supported by hot money flowing into the entertainment industry, Lorimar was also expanding aggressively.
With the stock market crash and the current Hollywood strike, Lorimar, with its more singular business scope compared to New World Entertainment, inevitably also fell into difficulties. If it weren't for some information from others in his memory, Simon would have never even heard of Lorimar, he certainly hadn't in his previous life.
Now, Lorimar was seeking to sell its assets to avoid bankruptcy.
The historic MGM Studios was undoubtedly Lorimar's most valuable property. After spending half a day touring the twenty-hectare MGM Studios, Simon and Amy left together. Facing Amy's questioning gaze, Simon merely shook his head regretfully.
Lorimar's asking price for MGM Studios was not expensive, $100 million.
However, Simon found that most of the sound stages and buildings within the studio were already dilapidated. If Daenerys Entertainment bought it, they would have to spend at least another $100 million on renovations. Moreover, although it had a long history, the geographical location of MGM Studios really did not satisfy Simon.
MGM Studios was relatively close to Beverly Hills, but it was very far from Malibu, a distance of thirty to forty kilometres. Simon planned to live in Malibu, and if he bought MGM Studios, the time he spent commuting to work every day would be at least two or three hours.