Simon returned from Cannes, and the media discussions and controversies surrounding 'Pulp Fiction' winning the Palme d'Or grew increasingly heated as the film's release approached, even overshadowing Ronald Reagan's upcoming state visit to the Soviet Union at the end of the month.
The two weeks of absence had accumulated too much work, and Simon, unable to fully adjust to the time difference, quickly plunged into the busy affairs of the company.
Beyond 'Pulp Fiction', 'Basic Instinct', scheduled for release on July 15, has entered its final editing stage since filming began in February.
As an investor, screenwriter, and the person most familiar with the selling points of this project, Simon naturally had to be involved.
20th Century Fox, responsible for the distribution of 'Basic Instinct', had already released the first TV trailer for the film while Simon was at the Cannes Film Festival, and the film will be rated by the MPAA.
During this time, Dustin Hoffman had a sudden idea to make some more changes to the 'Rain Man' script, and the film's shooting schedule was inevitably extended again, now expected to be completed by the end of June.
Simon heard this news in Cannes and could only hope that this project would not exceed its production budget of $25.5 million; he also realized where Tom Cruise's bad habit of making all his starring films into 'Tom Cruise movies,' regardless of the outcome, came from, with his self-provided screenwriting team.
Aside from 'Rain Man', the progress of projects like 'Scream', 'Steel Magnolias', and 'Dead Poets Society' was much smoother.
The selection of the male lead for 'Batman' had entered its third round, and Simon also began to personally participate in it.
After a continuous string of attending numerous project screenings, production meetings, and casting auditions, Simon flew to New York again on May 30th to participate in the recording of NBC's 'The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson' for 'Pulp Fiction'.
Due to several reality show matters, Amy Pascal also travelled with Simon to the East Coast.
At the same time, the summer blockbuster season competition began to intensify.
Due to the weak critical and box office performance of Lucasfilm and MGM's co-produced special effects blockbuster 'Willow', Paramount and TriStar Pictures jointly decided to move up the release dates of 'Crocodile Dundee II' and 'Rambo III' to the Wednesday slot of May 25th.
As the sequel to the second-highest-grossing film of 1986, second only to 'Top Gun', 'Crocodile Dundee II' ultimately opened on 2,837 screens.
'Rambo III', starring Sylvester Stallone, also opened on 2,562 screens.
In the week from May 20th to May 26th, 'Willow' accumulated 11.05 million dollars in box office revenue over seven days, taking the top spot on the weekly box office chart.
'Crocodile Dundee II', ranking second, achieved 4.75 million dollars in box office revenue in just two days.
'Rambo III', in third place on the list, earned 4.46 million dollars in two days.
It is worth mentioning that the production budget for 'Rambo III' reached an out-of-control 63 million dollars.
In comparison, the production cost of 'Crocodile Dundee II', whose first instalment two years ago earned 174 million dollars in North America alone, was still well-controlled at 14 million dollars.
Moreover, there was another film with a severely out-of-control budget coming up this summer: 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'.
Disney initially prepared a 45 million dollar budget for 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit', which was already a rare large-scale production in the 1980s, but Robert Zemeckis ultimately pushed the production cost of this project to 70 million dollars.
Current Disney simply could not afford the failure of a project with a budget of 70 million dollars.
Although Simon knew that 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' ultimately had very good box office numbers, during this time, there was widespread anxiety within Disney because of this project, with several executives subtly trying to shift blame in advance.
The release date for 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' is June 24th, so we won't discuss it for now.
Under pressure from the three new films, the box office curve of 'When Harry Met Sally', which had been very impressive, saw a 33% drop this week, far exceeding its usual weekly decline of only 10-20% since its release.
In its 11th week, 'When Harry Met Sally' took in another 4.11 million dollars, bringing its cumulative box office to 94.23 million dollars, moving it closer to breaking the 100 million dollar mark.
Upon arriving in New York, while recording 'The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson', Simon also needed to attend to the business of Westeros Company.
Jennifer's father, James Raybould, had secured the loan during this period, and many related contractual documents, memorandums, etc., concerning Westeros Company's investments in Cisco and several other companies, as well as important matters of numerous tech companies in which the company held shares, all required Simon to discuss, review, and sign in person with James Raybould.
On the other side, Amy's negotiations with the TV networks were still ongoing.
All four major TV networks expressed interest in the four reality show proposals from Daenerys Entertainment, but because Daenerys Entertainment wanted to gain as much initiative as possible to share more profits later, progress was not very smooth.
TV networks generally categorized these reality shows as traditional variety show types, which are usually conceived by industry production companies or producers, with the TV network buying the idea, investing in it themselves, and owning the copyright.
Even if outsourced, the production company responsible for the show often only earns a simple service fee, and if the show has high ratings, they might receive an additional bonus, and that's all.
Simon would never accept such terms.
Phenomenal reality shows like 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' and 'Survivor', which in the original timeline were enough to sustain a TV network's ratings, in memory, generated hundreds of millions of dollars in net profit for TV networks from advertising revenue alone each year, and their boost to the entire network's ratings was immeasurable.
Moreover, once such a reality show succeeds, future overseas production licensing fees will also be a very considerable income.
Just like 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire', at its peak, this reality show had remade versions in dozens of countries worldwide, all of which had to pay copyright fees.
If the copyright were given to the TV network, Daenerys Entertainment's share of future profits would certainly shrink significantly, and the overseas licensing fees that could continuously generate income would also be irrelevant to the company.
Upper East Side, Raybould's apartment.
The time was June 1st, and last night, 'The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson' aired a special interview with the creators of 'Pulp Fiction', bringing the film one step closer to its release.
All pre-release promotional and marketing work had been completed; now it was up to the film's market performance.
Tonight was a dinner invitation from the Raybould family, and besides Simon and Amy, the Raybould family's friends, Robert Iger and his wife, also came along.
After a period of back-and-forth, Daenerys Entertainment finally reached its first agreement with ABC yesterday regarding 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'.
ABC Network will acquire the North American rights to 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire', while Daenerys Entertainment retains the rights outside North America and is solely responsible for the production of the show.
According to the contract terms, ABC Network cannot produce this show independently without Daenerys Entertainment, and at the same time, Daenerys Entertainment cannot transfer this show to other domestic US TV networks.
It can be said that this is a contract where neither party can kick the other out.
Furthermore, the project's production budget and prize money will be borne by Daenerys Entertainment, with ABC paying a per-season program order fee based on ratings.
Daenerys Entertainment will now pre-produce a week's worth of pilot episodes to test the show's effect and has scheduled them to air during the following week, starting June 20th.
If the show meets the ratings standard, both parties will then negotiate the purchase price for the first season.
This year's fall season has been severely affected by the writers' strike, and once 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' passes its pilot, ABC plans to order 69 episodes at once, airing 3 episodes per week, perfectly filling the traditional fall to spring 23-week slot for the network.
As an indoor quiz reality show, the production budget for each episode of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' is actually not high; basic venue recording and other costs only require around 200,000 dollars, and the 1 million dollar prize money is not that easy to win, with an average total prize payout of 100,000 dollars per episode being more than sufficient.
However, even calculating at 300,000 dollars per episode, the cumulative production cost for the entire season of 69 episodes would exceed 20 million dollars, which is clearly a significant expense.
ABC's break-even point is 10 million viewers for the fall season.
If the audience size is below 10 million, the program order price ABC can offer will also be below 20 million dollars.
Within the ratings range acceptable to the TV network, if Daenerys Entertainment wants to retain this program, it can only rely on self-raised in-program sponsorship fees to cover the production budget.
In an era when cable television had not yet become widespread, a 10 million viewer threshold, though not low, was certainly not high either.
This also shows that ABC did not have high expectations for 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'.
Additionally, because the pilot airing time is during the summer season, which is the least popular for TV networks, ABC set the pilot episode's viewership standard at 6.5 million.
Inside the restaurant, everyone enjoyed their food, naturally discussing the reality shows during their conversation.
Robert Iger happened to be seated across from Simon, and after discussing 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' for a bit, the ABC executive turned the conversation to 'Survivor'.
"Simon, I actually find 'Survivor' more interesting than 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'. However, this show carries too much risk. Due to the continuity of the plot, an entire season must be produced at once, making it impossible to arrange a pilot episode, and it cannot be immediately cancelled if ratings are poor. Therefore, I believe it would be best to air it during the summer schedule. If it succeeds, it can then be moved to the fall schedule; if it fails, it won't have too much impact on the network".
Simon nodded in agreement, then shook his head, saying, "It's a shame, Bob, even though we've done a lot of preliminary preparation, we definitely won't have enough time".
Many popular reality shows in his memory were actually first piloted in the summer slot, and only after their success were they re-adjusted to prime time.
At present, reality shows had not yet taken off, and Robert Iger could easily see this point, which undoubtedly demonstrated the keen professional acumen of this network executive.
"Actually, now is precisely an opportunity. This year, everyone has no shows to broadcast, so they can only take some risks", Robert Iger continued with a smile. "So, Simon, if you can make some concessions on the terms of cooperation, I can call Daniel right now to finalize this matter".
Since 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' had already been signed, Simon was no longer so eager about the other three reality shows.
As long as next month's pilot episode was successful, these projects would naturally not lack buyers, and Daenerys Entertainment would also gain more initiative.
Of course, if it failed, there was nothing that could be done.
"Bob, the terms of cooperation I can accept for 'Survivor' are similar to 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.' This is a win-win cooperation plan, and I don't feel I have any room to concede," Simon shook his head, refusing, then added, "Speaking of which, Bob, if Daenerys Entertainment's TV business develops well in the future, would you be willing to jump ship and help me?"
Simon had only previously made some inquiries through James Raybould, and now that he brought it up in front of everyone, everyone in the restaurant looked at Robert Iger.
Robert Iger was also a bit surprised but quickly said, "Simon, if there's a better platform for career development, I'd be very happy to change jobs. But I don't see that kind of potential in Daenerys Entertainment right now".
Simon smiled and said, "Can I take that as a promise?"
"You're a very magical young man, and I'm also very curious what would happen working for you. So, why not?" Robert Iger shrugged, and under everyone's surprised gaze, he asked Simon, "I remember you tried to acquire New World Entertainment at the beginning of the year?"
Unexpectedly receiving Robert Iger's reply, Simon did not hide the matter, saying, "That's right, I'm still not giving up on that effort".
"New World Entertainment is still very strong in the field of TV program production", Robert Iger commented.
"It's a pity that their expansion was too rapid, and they successively encountered the stock market crash and the strike; they are destined not to escape this calamity".
Simon nodded, looked at James Raybould, and asked, "Jim, what's New World Entertainment's recent stock price?"
James Raybould thought for a moment and said, "I'm not sure about the last few days, but it closed at $8.5 last Friday, with a total market value of around $210 million".
When Simon attempted to acquire New World Entertainment at the beginning of the year, the company's stock price had surged to nearly $17.
Subsequently, Simon adopted a stance of complete abandonment, coupled with deteriorating finances and the strike's impact, causing New World Entertainment's stock price to fall back to a low point in recent months.
After James Raybould finished speaking, he gave Simon a meaningful glance.
During this time, according to Simon's instructions, Westeros Company secretly bought another 1.23 million shares of New World Entertainment stock, still keeping it below the 5% public disclosure threshold.
If needed, Westeros Company could continue to aggressively acquire shares from the open market at any time.
There was no need to be so frank with Robert Iger about this point.
Robert Iger didn't seem to think much of it and said, "Simon, if you want to get New World Entertainment, perhaps you could contact General Electric".
Simon hadn't reacted yet, but James Raybould suddenly seemed to realize something and subconsciously said, "Good idea, I should have thought of that sooner".
Everyone looked at James Raybould, puzzled.
Realizing his gaffe, James Raybould gave an awkward laugh and said to Simon, "General Electric is New World Entertainment's main creditor, Simon. This company is now insolvent. If we acquire it publicly, we will certainly have to bear a huge debt almost equivalent to New World Entertainment's market value in the future.
However, if we can buy the debt from General Electric and then pressure New World Entertainment into a debt-to-equity swap, according to the scale of General Electric's debt, we could acquire at least 90% of New World Entertainment's shares, and also save half the cost".
Simon quickly understood after hearing James Raybould's explanation.
Of course, doing so would undoubtedly make the retail investors in the circulating market, and even Westeros Company itself with its secretly held shares, the biggest victims.
A 90% debt-to-equity conversion ratio meant that the shares held by the original shareholders would be directly devalued to one-tenth of their original price.
However, if New World Entertainment eventually went into bankruptcy liquidation, the shares held by shareholders would also become worthless.
Investment always carries risks, and Simon did not possess the spirit of self-sacrifice to benefit countless others, so he quickly made up his mind.
After dinner, it was already ten o'clock when they left Raybould's house.
Simon and Raybould agreed to discuss the New World Entertainment matter in detail at the company tomorrow morning, and Simon proactively opened the car door to let Amy Pascal in.
Simon was returning to his apartment on Lexington Avenue in Midtown, and it was on the way to drop Amy off at her hotel.
Neil Bennett started the car in the front seat, and as Simon and Amy chatted casually, he suddenly remembered something and said, "Amy, starting tomorrow, stop all negotiations with NBC regarding our reality shows".
Amy Pascal was a bit confused: "Hmm?"
Simon thought for a moment and said, "Stop all of them. Not just NBC, don't contact the others either. You can return to Los Angeles tomorrow".
Amy Pascal felt she understood something but couldn't quite grasp all the intricacies.
However, she had gradually gotten used to not questioning Simon's decisions and simply said, "What about the preparatory work?"
Simon said, "That, of course, must continue".
Given New World Entertainment's current precarious state, Westeros Company buying General Electric's debt would definitely help the latter avoid a significant loss.
However, compared to a behemoth like General Electric, Simon's strength was still too weak, and who knew if General Electric might have other intentions.
'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' was set to pilot next month, and if this reality show succeeded as it did in the original timeline, Daenerys Entertainment's other three reality show projects would also become Simon's leverage.
General Electric was the parent company of the NBC television network, and this aircraft-carrier-level corporate giant's initial intention in investing in New World Entertainment was to provide more content resources for NBC.
At that time, Simon could completely rely on the reality show projects with great potential in his hands to exchange for General Electric's cooperation with Westeros Company's debt-to-equity swap plan.
After dropping Amy off at the hotel, Simon hurried back to the penthouse apartment on Lexington Avenue.
Opening the door, the living room was quiet but lit.
Simon took off his shoes and walked through the foyer.
Kathryn was sitting on the sofa, facing away from the door, wearing a fitted light blue plaid shirt and crisp white casual pants, engrossed in flipping through a magazine.
Quietly moving behind the woman, it wasn't until Simon leaned down that Kathryn noticed he was back.
She shyly turned her head slightly, allowing the man to kiss her cheek, then rub her neck, before softly asking, "Did you drink?"
Simon inhaled the woman's pleasant scent and said, "Just some red wine".
Kathryn felt Simon's hands reach around from behind.
She dropped the magazine she was holding, reached back to hold his hands, and her voice trembled slightly, "I, I just made coffee".
Simon simply responded, "Hmm".
His hands continued to misbehave, seemingly very interested in the buttons of her shirt, even pulling one off.
How annoying, it was a new outfit.
She had known all along that she couldn't stop this strong little rascal, and indeed she couldn't, but she still kept holding his hands to show her stance.
She was unwilling.
Powerlessly, she let him caress and toy with her for a moment, then felt herself being embraced... no, carried up, like a bandit.
She then hit him a few times on his body, very displeased.
Little rascal.
How could he be like this!