Chapter 238: Financial Report Released Los Angeles.

The 46th Golden Globe Awards ceremony held on January 28th became a joke in many people's eyes.

Although there are no explicit rules, the customary practice in film award nominations over the years has usually been five nominations per category.

However, this year's Golden Globes completely let loose.

For Best Drama Picture, there were seven nominations; Best Director had six; Best Supporting Actor had six; even the technical category of Best Original Song still had six nominations.

The film categories at the Golden Globes have never been as comprehensive as the Oscars, and the appearance of four unconventional nominations this year made the already scandal-ridden Golden Globes organization seem even more unprofessional.

If the string of unconventional nominations was just a matter of ridicule, the haphazard results of the awards turned the Golden Globes into the target of massive media criticism.

The occurrence of ties in film awards is not uncommon. When two equally strong films compete fiercely, the judges might split the award, sometimes even creating a lovely story.

But three winners for one award? Have you ever seen that?

Five nominees, three winners – what about the feelings of the other two?

This happened at this year's Golden Globes.

And not just once.

Including the television categories, there were two 'triple ties' and three 'double ties' at the 46th Golden Globe Awards. When Sigourney Weaver, Jodie Foster, and Shirley MacLaine, who jointly won Best Actress in a Drama, stood together on the stage, the entire venue was filled with awkward laughter as captured by the camera's live broadcast.

Then came a series of triple and double ties, leaving everyone numb with embarrassment.

Moreover, the award results were completely unsatisfactory.

The Best Drama Picture was awarded to the biopic "Mist-Locked Crisis," starring Sigourney Weaver. "Dead Poets Society" unfortunately missed out, and the Golden Globe organizers had already clarified that "Rain Man" had not been entered for this year's awards, which seemed acceptable.

"Mist-Locked Crisis" is indeed an outstanding film.

However, the Best Musical or Comedy Picture was awarded to "Working Girl," which was a shock to everyone.

During the nomination stage, Mike Nichols' new work "Working Girl," following last year's "Wall Street" trend in business films, caused controversy just by being nominated. "The Graduate" and "Carnal Knowledge" were classics, but "Working Girl," a rather mediocre film, was undeserving of its nomination.

Compared to the professionally intense yet accessible "Wall Street," "Working Girl" just narrates a very clichéd workplace story.

The protagonist, Tess (played by Melanie Griffith), provides a business plan to her female boss, Katherine (played by Sigourney Weaver), who claims the plan is ineffective while actually intending to steal the idea. Tess accidentally discovers the truth and, posing as her boss, directly contacts the target company, encountering its executive Jack (played by Harrison Ford). Tess and Jack spark a romance, and with Jack's help, Tess gets promoted while Katherine gets fired.

That's it.

"Wall Street" features professional business confrontations, intense deception, and Gordon Gekko's starkly revealing line about capitalism's greed: "Greed is Good." As for "Working Girl," it probably only has Mike Nichols' old reputation from winning an Oscar for "The Graduate" twenty years ago.

Of the other four films nominated during the same period, excluding Universal's unremarkable "Midnight Run," the rest – "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "A Fish Called Wanda," and "Future Flyover" – were clearly superior to "Working Girl." Moreover, there were also Daenerys Entertainment's productions "When Harry Met Sally" and "Steel Magnolias," both of which deserved the Best Musical or Comedy Picture but didn't even receive a nomination.

Faced with strong controversy, the Golden Globes organizers could only explain publicly that "When Harry Met Sally" also did not submit a nomination request. As for "Steel Magnolias," the jury considered it more of a drama, hence not qualifying for a musical or comedy nomination.

Blah, blah, blah.

Daenerys Entertainment did not return empty-handed from this obviously over-PR'd Golden Globes, with "Dead Poets Society" winning Best Director and "Steel Magnolias" Best Supporting Actress, meeting Simon Westeros' expectations. He had no dissatisfaction.

In Simon's view, a film award that can be influenced is a good award. If it's too fair, it becomes a problem.

Of course, this indifferent attitude definitely could not be shown.

Furthermore, to exert pressure on the upcoming Oscars, Daenerys Entertainment also timely launched a public opinion campaign, voicing injustice for the company's films that were unfairly treated at the Golden Globes.

This strategy is usually very effective.

For instance, in the original timeline, because no African Americans were nominated at a certain Oscars ceremony, someone raised their voice, and the next year an all-black production team's film won Best Picture, with black nominees in all director and actor categories, and several Oscars were won, the proportion so high it was astonishing.

Then, on February 1st, Wednesday.

The 61st Academy Awards nominations were officially announced.

Daenerys Entertainment's "Rain Man" received eight nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor.

Moreover, Simon Westeros himself was named among these nominations, for Best Original Score. Unable to find the not-yet-famous Hans Zimmer, Simon, after taking over the post-production of "Rain Man," personally completed the film's score based on his memory of the original version.

"Dead Poets Society" also smoothly received Best Director and Best Actor nominations.

To avoid competing with "Rain Man," Daenerys Entertainment voluntarily gave up the Best Picture nomination for "Dead Poets Society," but its other nomination for Best Original Screenplay was not shortlisted.

Additionally, the company applied for Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress nominations for "Steel Magnolias," but only Julia Roberts received the Best Supporting Actress nomination, with the other two falling short.

In total, Daenerys Entertainment received 11 nominations for the upcoming Oscars.

These achievements were not particularly outstanding. Warner Bros., through films like "Dangerous Liaisons," "The Accidental Tourist," "Mist-Locked Crisis," "Rookie Parker," "Beetlejuice," and "Accomplish Nothing," amassed a total of 19 nominations.

However, aside from Sandra Bullock-starring "Dangerous Liaisons" leading with seven nominations, the rest were mostly non-core nominations.

On the other hand, since Orion still focused its PR on "Mississippi Burning," the rights of which they held, "Pulp Fiction," under Daenerys Entertainment, only received a Best Actor nomination for John Travolta at the Oscars, one less than at the Golden Globes.

As the winner of the previous year's Cannes Palme d'Or, "Pulp Fiction's" acclaim and box office were indisputable.

After being snubbed at the Golden Globes and then ignored by the Oscars, many media outlets voiced their injustice for this film. In this Oscars nomination, Mike Nichols' "Working Girl" still garnered plenty, receiving six nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.

"Variety" magazine's critic sharply criticized the Golden Globes and the Oscars organizers for downgrading a super 'big year' with outstanding films like "Rain Man," "Pulp Fiction," "Dead Poets Society," "A Fish Called Wanda," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "When Harry Met Sally," and so on, through their insider-influenced award selections into a mediocre 'small year.'

The critic also pointedly targeted the Writers Guild of America.

It's not hard to see, aside from the widely expected "Rain Man," other films from Daenerys Entertainment like "Dead Poets Society," "Steel Magnolias," "When Harry Met Sally," especially Simon Westeros' own "Pulp Fiction," were all snubbed in the script categories.

Simon Westeros, as one of the best young screenwriters of the eighties, missing out on even a single nomination for two consecutive years, was a joke.

The Oscar's script award judges are mostly members of the Writers Guild of America.

Daenerys Entertainment's popular reality show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" nearly thwarted the Writers Guild's strike last year. Although the strike was eventually resolved, the agreement reached was significantly watered down.

Under such deep conflicts, it's already a concession for the Writers Guild not to ignore "Rain Man." Other films from Daenerys Entertainment, like "Pulp Fiction," naturally shouldn't expect any nominations.

Of course, as Daenerys Entertainment's strength further increases, the conflicts between both parties will gradually resolve.

In the end, the relationship between screenwriters and film companies is always that of employees and bosses. Concerning their own livelihoods, most people must choose to forget or pretend to forget and then compromise.

The turmoil in Japan's financial market did not affect Daenerys Entertainment's operations.

After the Oscar nominations, Ella Deutschman began the final stage of public relations campaigning.

Meanwhile, on February 3rd, Daenerys Entertainment released its first film of the new year, Katherine's second feature film "Thunderbolt Blue Angels."

Compared to still steadily raking in box office hits like "Rain Man," "Thunderbolt Blue Angels" received decent film reviews, averaging 7 points, but its box office performance was lackluster. In its first week, "Thunderbolt Blue Angels" earned only $3.81 million from 1121 screens across North America, with an estimated domestic total box office of around $8 million.

The final production cost of "Thunderbolt Blue Angels" was $10 million, with approximately $3.5 million in promotional costs. An $8 million box office in North America, including other distribution revenues, inevitably meant a loss of several million dollars.

Simon's special relationship with Katherine was no secret in the industry.

Thus, Daenerys Entertainment's upper echelons were not too concerned about this film's underperformance. Even selling well throughout the year, occasionally losing on one or two films, seemed okay.

The world can't always go abnormally.

On February 17th, after over a month of financial auditing, Daenerys Entertainment's 1988 financial report was finally released.

As of December 31, 1988, Daenerys Entertainment Group's total annual revenue reached $708 million.

Since Daenerys Entertainment was still in its early development stage, the revenue of various departments was not too finely segmented, temporarily divided into three main business sectors: movies, television, and comics. Smaller revenue sources like film and TV merchandise were directly merged for calculation, as were expenditures for office space purchase, private jet leasing, etc.

Among the three business sectors.

Movie business total revenue was $276 million, including various types of revenue sharing from Daenerys Pictures' series of films and New World Entertainment's theatrical and VHS channel revenue.

Daenerys Entertainment invested heavily last year in film production, promotion, and rights acquisition. Films like "Rain Man" and "Dead Poets Society" did not bring returns to the company before December 31, 1988, and the revenue from New World Entertainment's various films was also minimal.

After deducting various costs and taxes, the net profit of Daenerys Entertainment's movie business was only $67.72 million.

In comparison, the television business, managed by Robert Ager, had a high revenue of $361 million, of which "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" alone contributed $196 million. Other reality shows like "Survivor" and leftover TV projects from New World Entertainment like "The Wonder Years" also brought in considerable revenue.

Thanks to the high profitability of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," out of the $361 million revenue, the net profit of the television business department was still an impressive $165.75 million.

Lastly, the Marvel Entertainment comics business, which Simon specifically requested to be separately accounted for, had an annual revenue of $71.32 million, with a net profit of $5.26 million.

Actually, since 1975, Marvel had been maintaining a stable profitability under the management of Stan Lee and James Gold.

Although the North American comic industry has been shrinking in recent years, Marvel's less than 10% net profit margin seems low, but if not for its parent company, Candice Industrial Holding Group's bankruptcy and liquidation in 1986, the comic company wouldn't have been sold off so easily.

Therefore, in total, Daenerys Entertainment Group's net profit for the year 1988 reached $238.73 million.

$238.73 million in net profit, not mentioning second and third-tier Hollywood film companies, even among the Big Seven studios, only Warner Bros., Paramount, and Disney had a higher profit margin. Warner's figure included the performance of the entire Warner Bros. Company, not just the film studio.

As for the others, Columbia and MGM were losing money last year, Universal had its recent film performance propped up by "Twins," the entire MCA Group's 1988 profit was less than $200 million, Barry Diller's focus was on TV network expansion, and Fox was just barely maintaining.

Actually, the current situation is not so much a lack of strength in Hollywood studios, but rather Daenerys Entertainment's exceptionally outstanding performance.

Even expanding to other business sectors in North America, according to Forbes Company's revenue and profit data for the top 500 U.S. companies, 1988 data is not yet completed, but referring to 1987, Daenerys Entertainment's $238 million profit would already qualify for the top 70 in the North American domestic top 500.

In this era, apart from a handful of companies like Ford Motor Company and General Electric with profits reaching the billion-dollar level, over 95% of companies on the North American top 500 list had annual profits under one billion dollars, with only about 150 companies exceeding $100 million in profits.

Therefore, when this financial data, which would make many envious, was released, Daenerys Entertainment's senior executives unanimously decided to keep it as confidential as possible.

The outside world already had various speculations about Daenerys Entertainment's 1988 profit scale, and most media analysis was very accurate.

However, just like many well-known secrets in Hollywood, as long as a celebrity does not come out publicly, even if there are many traces proving they are homosexual, the fans who are often unwilling to face reality are happy to believe that is not the case.

Similarly, as long as Daenerys Entertainment does not publicly disclose detailed financial data, other Hollywood film companies will subconsciously ignore it.

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