Chapter 273: Nokia

After a long sixteen-hour flight, Simon returned to Los Angeles. It was still the evening of June 25th, Sunday, Eastern Time, but due to the time difference, the major Asian stock exchanges had already started the new week's trading.

The various measures taken over the past few days have evidently worked, as the Tokyo stock market opened with the Nikkei 225 index beginning to rise slowly.

A new week in North America.

Simon got up in the morning to find that the Nikkei 225 index had closed at 36,617 points the day before. Although this figure hadn't reached the previous week's high, the unexpected crisis in the Japanese financial market had been smoothly navigated.

Many newspapers in North America have been eagerly discussing the news of Simon's trip to Australia to visit his girlfriend, which triggered a significant drop in the Japanese stock market. They even coined a new term, the "Westeros Effect."

The Los Angeles Times still featured this story on the front page on Monday, with a picture of Simon and Jenny embracing at Melbourne Airport. The article revisited the recent events and teased that Simon is now the least welcome person in Japan, predicting a 100% chance of him being denied entry if he tries to visit Japan anytime soon.

In Australia, the agreement between Cersei Capital and the Japanese progressed smoothly. In less than a week, both parties completed the various aspects of the transaction in secret.

The final agreement transferred the ownership of Cersei Capital's Sub-Funds 1 to 5 entirely to the Japanese, with Jenny and Anthony still ostensibly in charge of management.

Jenny wanted to fly to Los Angeles immediately after the transaction was completed. However, to avoid speculation due to sudden personnel changes, the Japanese side requested she continue to operate Cersei Capital for at least two more months, of course, under the premise of full remote control by the Japanese, leaving Jenny without any real decision-making power.

For everyone's benefit, Jenny agreed.

Two months was just about right.

The post-production of "Batman" wouldn't finish until September, and Simon planned to take a long vacation after completing the film, with the first stop being Milan Fashion Week in September. By then, Jenny could also use this very reasonable excuse to leave.

Since she couldn't get away for now, Jenny didn't idle and began preparing the operation teams for Cersei Capital's Sub-Funds 6 to 10, aiming to short the North American junk bond market in the second half of the year. The funding naturally came from the $5 billion cash recently transferred into Cersei Capital's overseas account by the Japanese.

For confidentiality on their own operations, the Japanese also requested that this fund not be transferred back to the domestic market for at least a year, a condition everyone agreed to.

For tax avoidance reasons, Simon hadn't planned on transferring this money back home in the short term anyway, and the Australian investors also hoped to continue benefiting from Cersei Capital.

Although the settlement hadn't been processed yet, the profits Simon personally obtained from this transaction could be roughly predicted.

Out of the $5 billion, deducting the $1.57 billion principal, the profit was $3.43 billion.

Under the original agreement, Simon only requested profit-sharing from the gains generated by the external investment of $970 million, not including his own and the Johnston family's $600 million. The tiered profit-sharing plan was 20% for profits up to 30% of the investment scale, 30% for profits between 30% and 100%, and 50% for profits exceeding 100%.

After calculations, Simon's share of the principal revenue was $1.093 billion, and commission revenue was $836 million. Including the initial $500 million principal, Simon's share in the $5 billion fund had reached $2.429 billion.

Moreover, the Johnston family's $100 million principal earned a paper profit of $218 million. The other Australian capital's $970 million principal earned a paper profit of $1.283 billion.

Although Simon took more than half of the profit share, after the transaction, no Australian investor requested redemption or even partial redemption. Not just due to the original agreement, but also because turning $1.57 billion into $5 billion in less than six months, with all parties' profits exceeding 100%, any rational Australian investor would understand that Simon fully deserved such a high percentage of the profits.

Faced with such a massive fund held by Cersei Capital, Simon gradually developed some other ideas.

Of course, that's a story for another time.

Suddenly leaving Los Angeles for several days meant he naturally had to work overtime to catch up on some work progress.

On the other hand, the competition for the North American summer box office was becoming increasingly fierce.

Simon left Los Angeles on the previous Wednesday evening, and then, "The Bodyguard" entered its third week of release, with the box office dropping only a slight 11% from the second week, bringing in $17.86 million and a cumulative total of $61.55 million.

Following that, on Friday, three new films were released in the North American summer box office, including Disney's family comedy with a sci-fi twist, "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," Columbia Pictures' "Die Hard 3," and Orion Pictures' musical biopic "Great Balls of Fire."

Although the three new films didn't explode at the box office in their first week like "Indiana Jones 3" and "Ghostbusters 2," they significantly impacted the box office of several older films.

From June 23 to June 29, the week Simon returned from Australia, "The Bodyguard's" box office dropped 21% from the previous week, bringing in another $14.11 million.

Although "The Bodyguard" ranked fourth in the weekly box office, behind "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," "Die Hard 3," and "Ghostbusters 2," the film, which was not initially favored by everyone, had already accumulated a total box office of $75.66 million in four weeks of release.

Additionally, "Indiana Jones 3" saw its box office shrink to $12.07 million that week, ranking fifth, with a cumulative box office of $140.23 million.

Among the three new films, Orion Pictures' "Great Balls of Fire" did not meet expectations. This biographical film about the famous American rock and roll singer Jerry Lee Lewis, with a production budget of $12 million and opening on 1,417 screens, only brought in $6.28 million in its first week, with mediocre reviews.

In the new year, aside from the unexpected box office success of "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane" in February, which brought in $40 million, all other films distributed by Orion Pictures ended in failure. Due to continuing financial troubles, Orion was eager to release the VHS of "Pulp Fiction" just three months after its theatrical run ended in February.

After Simon personally demanded payment from Mike Medavoy at a party, Orion Pictures still delayed settling the box office share due to Daenerys Entertainment. Tolerating Orion's delay of half a year, Daenerys Entertainment had already done all it could. To avoid Orion suddenly going bankrupt and making it impossible to recover the share, Amy recently considered taking legal action.

On June 30, the new week, "The Sixth Sense," which Simon had high hopes for, was finally released.

Compared to "The Bodyguard's"

 opening on over 2,000 screens, "The Sixth Sense" debuted on only 1,673 screens. This relatively conservative release strategy was intentional by Simon, who hoped to reserve enough space for the film's word-of-mouth to ferment through a smaller screening scale.

Up until its release, the plot of "The Sixth Sense" remained under strict secrecy. Daenerys Entertainment's marketing strategy focused solely on Simon and De Niro, traditionally aiming to increase the film's visibility.

Simon always believed that "The Sixth Sense's" huge success in the original timeline, with over $600 million in box office worldwide, was not solely due to the plot twist. The emotional content and many other factors were crucial.

However, the plot twist between the human and ghost characters undoubtedly acted as an important catalyst for the film's success.

Therefore, during the film's promotion, whether it was press releases or interviews with the creators, there was no mention or hint of the final twist. Simon's fundamental strategy was to let the audience discover this twist on their own, rather than hinting at it through early promotions.

If people knew in advance about the 'surprise,' it might even backfire, making some feel it was 'nothing special.'

After all, similar plots have existed in the long history of cinema.

As for the genre of "The Sixth Sense," most moviegoers interested in the film could only get a general impression of a 'horror film' before its release. Even the final phase of TV trailers provided basic information that it was a story between a psychologist and a boy who can communicate with spirits, with some misleading horror-specific shots.

"The Sixth Sense" fundamentally should be considered a pseudo-horror film with a core of family warmth. In terms of target audience, Daenerys Entertainment did not precisely target teenagers like "Scream" but aimed at all age groups, leading to a significant increase in marketing costs.

As some fans hesitated to choose to watch "The Sixth Sense" on its opening day due to Daenerys Entertainment's conservative promotional strategy and strict secrecy around the plot, media with a keen sense of smell became increasingly curious due to the unusual aspects of the promotion.

Of course, many experienced media and audiences believed that both the film's lower opening scale and low-key marketing showed Daenerys Entertainment's lack of confidence in "The Sixth Sense." In fact, executives within Daenerys Entertainment who had seen the final cut of "The Sixth Sense" generally lacked confidence in this slow-paced film.

In Los Angeles, at the Daenerys Entertainment headquarters in Santa Monica.

It was the afternoon of June 30th.

In the large conference room of the office building, a meeting about arranging the company's mid-year financial audit had been going on since 2 p.m.

All core executives of Daenerys Entertainment were present.

Next month's mid-year financial audit, although not as detailed as the one at the beginning of the year, would involve the accounting team of Westeros Corporation to act as a supervisor. As the head of Westeros Corporation, James Leboult had specially come from Los Angeles with Robert Egger in the morning.

In the past two quarters, although Daenerys Entertainment's series of films only had "The Bodyguard" as an unexpected box office hit, the company's revenue from its core businesses of film and television remained very robust.

In film, aside from this year's new releases, last year's hits like "Scream," "Mulan," and others had gradually ended their domestic releases, with international distributions nearly complete. The VHS release of "When Harry Met Sally," distributed at the end of last year, also achieved impressive sales in the first half of the year, with funds continuously flowing back.

In the television domain, reality shows and TV series like "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Survivor" had also concluded their spring seasons, with TV networks' revenue settlements and advance payments also bringing significant profits to Daenerys Entertainment.

With a total debt of $900 million across all Westeros entities, meaning Simon needed to repay $200 million in principal and interest this year alone, he felt no pressure.

Not to mention the huge funds Cersei Capital had just received from the Japanese, the ongoing profits from just one program, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," under Daenerys Entertainment were enough to support Simon's personal debt repayment.

However, although Daenerys Entertainment's profitability had reached enviable levels in Hollywood, Simon had no intention of being a negligent boss. His memories from two lifetimes deeply impressed upon him that a strict financial system is essential for any company's continuous growth and expansion.

The meeting ended at 5 p.m.

As everyone else dispersed, Simon and James Leboult remained in the conference room to discuss matters related to Cersei Capital.

James was already aware of the transaction between Cersei Capital and the Japanese. The upcoming operations in the domestic junk bond market would require more cooperation from the Westeros Corporation side.

After half an hour of private discussion, the two left the conference room together.

Amy hadn't left yet. Hearing that Simon had finished his conversation with James, she came over from her office.

"The Burbank side has compiled the daytime occupancy data for 'The Sixth Sense,' and some mainstream evening newspapers have also published reviews. Overall, the feedback is very positive."

Recently, "The Bodyguard's" unexpected box office success led Amy to casually express satisfaction that having one blockbuster film a year was enough for a major movie company. With the distribution rights for two key commercial films, "Beyond Innocence" and "Batman," belonging to Warner at the end of the year, Amy's words undoubtedly showed her lack of confidence in "The Sixth Sense."

Seeing Amy's relaxed demeanor, it seems that "The Sixth Sense's" performance today exceeded her expectations.

Simon didn't comment much, just smiled and said, "If there are no other arrangements, let's all have dinner together later, and we can talk more then."

Amy nodded, and together with Simon, James, and Jennifer, they headed downstairs, chatting. Amy took out her Motorola Micro-TAC mobile phone from her bag, saying, "I think we should remind Rem to communicate with the media to avoid too many public spoilers in tomorrow's newspaper reviews."

Simon watched Amy dial the number on her Motorola Micro-TAC.

Since returning from Australia, Simon noticed that Amy, Nancy, and others had started using this palm-sized mobile phone, which he initially didn't pay much attention to. However, looking at it now, a thought suddenly crossed his mind.

Yes.

Nokia!

___________________

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