Chapter 337: Scramble for Exposure

Fox couldn't wait to hold a press conference the next day, announcing the launch of "Terminator 2" as one of the ten film projects in the Daenerys Entertainment plan.

With "Terminator 2," six of the ten films in Daenerys Entertainment's collaboration plan have been confirmed.

The original "Terminator" had a global box office of just over $78 million, but it catapulted Schwarzenegger to the status of a top action star in Hollywood, highlighting the impact of the film. Therefore, the project announcement for "Terminator 2" immediately garnered intense media and fan attention.

James Cameron had already completed the script for "Terminator 2." With the green light from both Daenerys Entertainment and Fox Studios, the film was expected to start shooting by mid-year and premiere in the summer of the next year.

Following that weekend, preparations for "Outlaws of the Marsh" also made significant progress.

Harrison Ford officially joined the film, with a confirmed salary of $10 million.

The consecutive ten-million-dollar base salaries for stars like Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Harrison Ford signified the entrance of Hollywood's top stars into the era of multimillion-dollar paychecks.

The salary of a filmmaker actually represents their status in Hollywood.

Without the emergence of Simon Westeros, due to the rapid expansion of the film market and the influx of hot money into Hollywood thanks to an improving economic situation, the 90s would have been the decade where top filmmakers had the most influence in Hollywood. This dominance would continue into the new millennium with the rise of special effects-driven films.

Now, with the success of "Batman: The Battle Begins," Simon had essentially pioneered a new model of filmmaking driven by IP and technology rather than relying on stars.

Of course, most people hadn't yet realized this.

Entering the new week, although Schwarzenegger agreed to star in "Terminator 2," Simon was still exploring the project "Kindergarten Cop."

The original "Kindergarten Cop" wasn't entirely considered a dark horse project. Besides Schwarzenegger, the film's director Ivan Reitman was also well-known in Hollywood as the director of the "Ghostbusters" series and had collaborated with Schwarzenegger two years earlier on the somewhat unconventional "Twins."

At a party hosted by Joe Roth, Schwarzenegger's agent mentioned that Arnold was considering starring in Reitman's new film "Kindergarten Cop."

However, because most people considered the success of "Twins" a fluke, Schwarzenegger wasn't entirely confident about starring in another family comedy, which led him to ultimately choose "Terminator 2."

Simon had looked into "Kindergarten Cop" and decided not to pursue the project. This was not only because Schwarzenegger's departure left Reitman with other casting choices, but primarily because the project had already been signed by Universal.

If this year went smoothly with the merger with MCA, Simon would effectively acquire the project, so there was no need to make an extra effort.

As another busy week passed quickly.

From February 2 to February 8, "Batman: The Battle Begins" experienced a 13% drop, grossing another $20.35 million, bringing its total box office to $347.11 million.

However, that week, the film that garnered the most media attention was still "Driving Miss Daisy."

In its ninth week of release and second week of wide release, due to continued good word of mouth and popularity, the box office for "Driving Miss Daisy" not only didn't decline but unexpectedly rose by a slight 0.5%, surprising many.

The film's weekly take of $8.18 million brought its total box office to $27.55 million.

$27.55 million in box office might not seem comparable to any of the top-ranking films. Yet, among all 502 films released in theaters last year, "Driving Miss Daisy" now ranked 43rd in annual box office, outperforming 90% of last year's films.

And this was just the beginning.

Following the latest box office results for "Driving Miss Daisy," box office tracking agencies generally predicted that the film's total North American box office could surpass $60 million.

Now, with the film's box office performance nearly unchanged in its second week of wide release and Daenerys Entertainment's decision to increase the number of screens to 1,302, the North American box office potential for "Driving Miss Daisy" seemed likely to exceed even the boldest forecasts.

This could well be another film to join the hundred-million-dollar box office club.

And it would undoubtedly be last year's lowest-budget film to do so.

While the media was generally captivated by "Driving Miss Daisy," Daenerys Entertainment's Valentine's Day scheduled release of "Pretty Woman" premiered on February 9. Due to it being the off-season for movies, the distribution

 team easily secured 1,563 screens.

Compared to the original film's Richard Gere, the new male lead Pierce Brosnan was much less well-known, and Julia Roberts had only just reached a recognizable face status with audiences in recent years. The advantage of casting these two actors as leads was that it further reduced the film's budget to just $10 million.

Due to positive audience feedback from several internal previews, Daenerys Entertainment decided to compensate for the lack of star power with an aggressive marketing strategy, initially investing $7 million in marketing, with $5 million dedicated to ad placements across various platforms.

If the film's first-week box office met expectations, further marketing funds were set to be immediately allocated.

However, on its opening day, "Pretty Woman" did not receive widespread acclaim from the media, barely passing muster even when considering Daenerys Entertainment's public relations efforts.

"Time" magazine bluntly criticized the film as 'a cliched Hollywood assembly line product'.

"Chicago Reader" sarcastically noted, 'The male lead pays $3,000, and then, they fall in love, which is very Hollywood indeed'. "Entertainment Weekly" similarly used a sarcastic tone to criticize "Pretty Woman," saying: "The story tells us that Roberts' character suddenly improves because she meets a rich man, and even learns to cry in an opera house."

However, these elitist critiques did not affect the film's reception among general audiences.

Most people have simple expectations: a story that resonates.

Moreover, the target audience for "Pretty Woman" was significantly broader than that for "Driving Miss Daisy."

Plus, with Daenerys Entertainment's relentless promotion to capitalize on the Valentine's Day atmosphere, "Pretty Woman" garnered $12.47 million at the box office over its opening weekend.

In the full week surrounding Valentine's Day, when movie-going numbers typically surge, "Pretty Woman" ended its first seven days with a box office total of $19.16 million, dethroning "Batman: The Battle Begins" from its seven-week reign as weekly box office champion.

In its eighth week, "Batman: The Battle Begins" saw a 19% drop, taking in another $16.51 million, ranking second, and pushing its cumulative box office to $363.62 million, steadily advancing towards the $400 million mark.

This week's third place was not "Driving Miss Daisy" but a Warner Brothers action film starring Steven Seagal, "Under Siege," which took in $12.14 million in its opening week.

Despite two new films impacting it, "Driving Miss Daisy" still managed an 11% increase in its box office, taking in an additional $8.95 million and bringing its cumulative total to $35.5 million.

In such a typically slow box office period as February, "Pretty Woman's" performance was surprising to most, garnering more media attention—or controversy.

At the same time, among audiences, although some did not fully endorse the film's message, most loved it and began recommending it to others.

Thus, in the second week post-Valentine's Day, "Pretty Woman" saw only a very slight 5.5% drop in box office, taking in $18.11 million, almost unchanged from its opening week. In just two weeks, "Pretty Woman" had quickly accumulated $37.27 million in box office receipts.

Without a doubt, the first box office dark horse of 1990 had emerged.

And again, it came from Daenerys Entertainment, under Simon Westeros's leadership.

Simon, after the release of "Batman: The Battle Begins" at the end of last year, had done his best to stay out of the media spotlight. To this end, he spent his 22nd birthday on February 22 with Janet in a very low-key manner.

Now, with the renewed success of "Pretty Woman," the media's focus shifted back to him.

The first thing that caught the media's attention was the news that the recently turned 22-year-old federal billionaire was getting married next month to his girlfriend, Janet Johnston.

This event had actually been closely followed by the media stationed in Melbourne, tracking the wedding preparations in real time.

Naturally, the media began discussing various topics around Simon and Janet's wedding, with much debate focusing on Simon's personal wealth and the various scenarios following their marriage. Given the age difference between the two, many media outlets were skeptical about the marriage. An article in "The New York Times" even specifically reminded Simon to sign a prenuptial agreement.

Then, the conversation naturally shifted to how much money Simon now had.

$6 billion, this was a well-known authoritative figure published by the "Forbes" billionaire list.

But that was data from last August.

Now?

Following such discussions, "The Wall Street Journal" on the day after Simon's birthday, February 23, suddenly disclosed Daenerys Entertainment's annual financial report from the previous year.

Despite many expenses for corporate expansion, thanks to numerous successful projects over

 the past two years, Daenerys Entertainment's after-tax net profit for the last year reached an astonishing $531 million.

This was indeed a very shocking number.

Last year, although many American companies had yet to release their financial reports, based on data from previous years, a profit scale exceeding $500 million was enough to place Daenerys Entertainment within the top 50 companies in the United States in terms of profits.

And compared to the history of other companies with similar profit levels, none had been established without decades of presence, like corporate giants such as Motorola.

For the fiscal year ending last September, Motorola, a giant in the electronics industry, also had an annual net profit of only $490 million, which was among its best financial results in recent years.

At the same time, thanks to several projects from last year, especially the post-launch operations of "Batman: The Battle Begins," many media outlets predicted that Daenerys Entertainment's profit scale could potentially double this year. If so, it would be even more astounding.

It's worth noting that Daenerys Entertainment is a company wholly owned by Simon Westeros.

Not counting this year, just based on last year's profit scale of $531 million, and a conservative 10 times price-to-earnings ratio compared to last year's "Forbes" valuation of $3 billion for Daenerys Entertainment, this rapidly rising Hollywood film company's market value this year could easily exceed $50 billion.

Excluding all other assets owned by Simon Westeros, just this one item is nearly enough to maintain his status as the federal billionaire.

People began to ask, is Daenerys Entertainment really worth $50 billion?

The film industry has always been a high-risk business; recent years may have been very successful, but the next few years could see a downturn.

However, this skepticism was immediately met with the most solid rebuttal.

Marvel!

Yes, Marvel Entertainment is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daenerys Entertainment.

Just the success of "Batman: The Battle Begins" alone is expected to bring in $1 billion in profit for all parties involved, and that's just the opening project of the DC movie universe.

Since the first chapter was successful, with more than ten films announced in a massive plan recently, under Simon Westeros's direct control, even if they don't achieve the same opening results as "Batman: The Battle Begins," they would easily surpass most Hollywood projects.

Moreover, the greatest advantage of the DC movie universe plan is its sustainability.

This means that Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner no longer have to face the intense uncertainty of box office prospects with each traditional film project as they had in the past.

Thus, anyone with a bit of foresight could see, outside of the DC movie universe plan, how much potential Marvel, which is entirely owned by Daenerys Entertainment, has.

A few years ago, Warner Brothers even planned to sell DC for tens of millions of dollars; now, with just the success of "Batman: The Battle Begins," not even a $1 billion offer would persuade Steve Ross to sell. Moreover, any one of DC's popular superheroes might be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

So, Marvel, which also owns a large number of superhero copyrights, is undoubtedly a super gold mine.

Just this point alone is enough to support the value of Daenerys Entertainment.

In a society where media commercial operations are prevalent, where there is attention, there are people digging for news.

"The Wall Street Journal's" disclosure of Daenerys Entertainment's annual financial report sparked interest, and another financial magazine, "Fortune," suddenly disclosed another piece of information, igniting public debate even further: Simon Westeros's registration of overseas assets with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

Cash.

$4.5 billion!

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