Chapter 191: The Unexpected Forbes Ranking

Robert Aiger's trip from the East Coast wasn't solely for the matter of "Beverly Hills Wives." After finishing his meeting with Simon and Amy, he hurried to Burbank for the production meeting of the new season of "Cops."

Although the strike had ended, Danylis Entertainment didn't have enough time this year to select new TV drama projects. However, as long as the production of the company's four reality shows could be ensured and the five TV drama projects renewed by New World Entertainment last year could be successfully completed, Danylis Entertainment would be able to solidify its strong position in the television program supplier field after this fall season.

Burbank.

The original headquarters of New World Entertainment was located on Ventura Boulevard, nestled among the film production companies at the foothills of Santa Monica, surrounded within a five-kilometer radius by several studios such as Disney, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros.

However, compared to the large park-like campuses like Universal Studios, which spans tens of hectares, New World Entertainment only owned a three-story office building, which now temporarily serves as a division of Danylis Entertainment, housing the company's distribution and television departments.

In the screening room, after the preview of "Scream" without its end credits finished playing and the lights came up, Simon stepped forward, looked around at Amy Pascal, Robert Lem, and other core members of the company's distribution department, and clapped his hands, saying, "Let's start with a lighter topic called 'The Survival Guide to Horror Movies.' If you were a character in a horror movie and wanted to survive, what do you think you should or shouldn't do?"

Everyone looked at each other, somewhat puzzled.

After waiting for a moment, Simon directly pointed to one of his female executives, "Amy, you first."

Amy thought for a moment and said, "Never say 'I'll be right back' because then you'll never come back."

Everyone laughed.

Simon also smiled and said, "Alright, although we've just mentioned it in the movie, you pass. What about you, Bob?"

This was the distribution meeting for "Scream."

Robert Lem had previously provided Simon with a marketing plan for "Scream," promising to secure at least 1,000 screens for the opening and had devised a marketing strategy mainly targeting the youth audience.

Decades of Hollywood experience made Robert Lem's work in this area seem effortless, but it was inevitably a bit formulaic and had not reached Simon's satisfaction level.

Hearing Simon calling on him, Robert Lem thought for a moment and said, "Don't get entangled with strangers on the phone."

"That counts."

Simon nodded and then randomly pointed to others in the screening room.

After a lively discussion, Simon concluded, "See, this is a great promotional point. Wes has made an excellent film, filled with suspense and horror from the beginning to the end. But on the other hand, I guess you all might feel that the movie uses too many conventional horror movie plots, making it seem cliché, right?"

Some employees instinctively nodded.

Without waiting for anyone to reply, Simon's expression turned serious, "But that's incorrect. As film distributors, your job is to find the merits of a movie as much as possible. Even if it has none, you must find a way to turn its flaws into merits and convey this idea to the audience. Just now, you thought the plot was repetitive and cliché, but I see that as a selling point. We can say this movie pays homage to and pokes fun at many traditional horror movie clichés. Your next task is to carefully concoct a 'Survival Guide to Horror Movies' and link it to 'Scream,' publishing it in newspapers and magazines that our target audience would notice, making it a topic of conversation. Now, can anyone give me more ideas?"

Feeling Simon's gaze, the room fell silent for a moment until a young employee raised his hand, "Mr. Westlow, I heard the original idea for this movie came from you, but you chose not to be credited as the writer?"

Simon nodded, "Correct."

The young man hesitated, then bravely said, "We could reveal that Simon Westlow gave up his writing credit because he was worried about sparking controversy like 'Basic Instinct' again. This could greatly pique the audience's curiosity."

"Good," Simon nodded, "What's your name?"

The young man, relieved by Simon's praise, said, "Mark Belfort."

"Let Mark join the marketing team for 'Scream,'" Simon instructed Robert Lem, who was sitting in the front row, then looked around, "Who else has ideas?"

With the chance to catch the boss's attention, others began to speak up eagerly.

After about half an hour of discussion, Simon summarized, "If you pay close attention, you'll notice that many things in Hollywood have been changing rapidly in recent years. This summer, Paramount's saturation release strategy for 'Crocodile Dundee II' and 'National Lampoon's Vacation' both achieved unexpected success, setting a trend for the future of Hollywood film marketing. The traditional strategy of relying on long-term screenings to build word of mouth and attract audiences will gradually become obsolete. We must adapt to change and make our movies visible to the audience before they're released."

Simon paused briefly to let everyone digest his words, then continued, "To achieve this, we must abandon traditional film marketing concepts and find various innovative promotional methods that can generate audience interest without revealing the movie's content. Provoking controversy, hyping up the lead actors' scandals, releasing insider information in advance—these are all effective methods. Of course, you must also understand that these are all supplementary. The main channels for expanding a movie's visibility are still cinema posters, TV trailers, and magazine ads. However, the relationship between these two is like the branches and leaves of a tree, both essential. You need to flexibly combine various marketing strategies based on the specific circumstances of a movie."

After finishing, Simon looked around the screening room, "I'm very busy, and I'll only say this once today. Whether you can grasp and implement it is up to you. Do well, and you'll receive generous compensation. Do poorly, and I won't hesitate to kick you out of the company. So, always remember, never be prejudiced against any movie. Once you start working on distributing a film, it should be the best in your eyes. Your job is to discover all its selling points and then market it."

In the screening room.

As Simon's words ended, everyone softly applauded.

Simon didn't linger on, waiting for everyone to quiet down again before announcing the meeting was adjourned.

Amy Pascal and Robert Lem stayed behind. Simon sat back down, took a few sips of water handed to him by Jennifer, and then said to Robert Lem, "Bob, for 'Scream,' 'Mulan,' and 'Dead Poets Society,' I'll give you a marketing budget of 5 million dollars each. In the last few months of the year, I need you to spend all of that money."

Before Robert Lem could react, Amy exclaimed in surprise, "Simon, that's too much. And 'Mulan' and 'Dead Poets Society' haven't even been completed yet."

"I've been personally monitoring these films, and I'm very clear about their quality," Simon shook his head and continued, "Moreover, this money is not just for the promotion of these three films. Amy, you must have noticed something over the past year. Any news about me or Danylis Films attracts excessive media attention, and I don't want this to continue. However, we don't have enough time to build good relations with these media outlets, so we have to use money to break through."

Amy Pascal and Robert Lem understood Simon's strategy upon hearing this.

These days, the controversy surrounding Simon's dismissal of "Rain Man's" director Barry Levinson hadn't completely settled down, and the media occasionally mentioned the lingering controversy of "Basic Instinct" and the severe impact of Danylis Films' reality shows on the results of the writers' strike.

Danylis Entertainment's foundation was too shallow, lacking the time to establish extensive contacts with various media channels, leading to frequent public opinion out of control.

Simon's strategy was very effective in addressing this situation.

Allocating a marketing budget of 5 million dollars for each of the three films not only maximized their promotion but also allowed Danylis Entertainment to become a major client of North America's major newspapers, magazines, and television networks in a short time.

As long as this situation continues, if there are future negative news like 'Simon Westlow arbitrarily interferes with directors' creative processes,' newspapers and television stations would have to consider whether reporting such news might cost them the lucrative advertising orders Danylis Entertainment places with them every year.

In a capitalist society, controlling media opinion through capital is the most effective means. Other so-called good relationships and personal friendships are illusory. Whether it's the seven major studios or giants in the agency industry like CAA, the reason they can form close ties with the media and seldom have explosive scandals leaked is fundamentally due to the interconnected interests between them.

Today is August 25th, Thursday.

Simon had planned to fly to Australia next Monday. After finishing the day's work, he specifically discussed this matter with Amy.

Since he was going to Australia, he naturally couldn't just stay for a day or two. Confirming the shooting locations for "Batman," negotiating tax rebates and cooperation on shooting matters with the Australian government, visiting Janet's family, and so on, would conservatively take about a week.

However, before Simon could depart for Australia, another matter suddenly arose.

The next day, August 26th, Friday, Forbes magazine officially released the 1988 Forbes Global Billionaires List and the Forbes 400 list of North America's wealthiest.

In Simon's memory, the release dates for the Forbes Billionaires List were somewhat erratic, sometimes in March at the beginning of the year, sometimes during the autumn months, and occasionally at the end of the year.

Of course, these were just minor details.

Before this year's list was announced, Forbes had contacted Simon, hoping he would cooperate with the data collection. Due to deeply ingrained beliefs about not flaunting wealth, Simon instinctively chose to refuse, and Forbes did not persist afterward.

The sudden list results not only caught Simon off guard but also surprised the entire world.

In the new list, Forbes' valuation of Simon's personal wealth was 3.1 billion dollars.

3.1 billion dollars, a figure that wouldn't attract much attention thirty years later, but in the 1980s, it represented a conspicuously enormous fortune.

It's worth noting that this year, the list's top spot was held by Tsutsumi Yoshiaki of Japan's Seibu Group, with a personal fortune of 19 billion dollars. Only two individuals in the list had personal wealth exceeding 10 billion dollars, both Japanese. With Tokyo's real estate bubble yet to burst, one of these individuals, Mori Shigekiro, who owned 68 office buildings in Tokyo, had a personal fortune of 18 billion dollars.

Following the two billionaires, the third spot went to Canada's Reichmann family with 9 billion dollars.

In the United States, Walmart founder Sam Walton was the wealthiest individual with a personal fortune of 6.7 billion dollars, ranking seventh globally.

Then there's Simon's 3.1 billion dollars.

On the global billionaires list, this wealth ranked him sixteenth. While this ranking might not seem too striking, within the United States, Simon's personal wealth was only surpassed by Walmart founder Sam Walton's 6.7 billion dollars and media mogul John Kluge's 3.2 billion dollars.

Ranked third!

From 1986 to 1988, in just two years, a young man who had turned twenty without any family wealth suddenly emerged with a colossal fortune of 3.1 billion dollars, surpassing most of North America's traditional wealthy families accumulated over decades or even centuries, becoming the third wealthiest individual in the US and the sixteenth globally.

How could this not astonish people!

The first reaction of many upon seeing the list was disbelief.

Yet, the statistical basis Forbes provided left no room for argument.

The publicly traded tech stocks owned by Simon alone, according to Forbes' statistics from a month prior, amounted to 1.8 billion dollars.

Moreover, with the successful launch of projects like "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Basic Instinct," and the acquisition of New World Entertainment, the recent valuation of Danylis Entertainment significantly increased.

Just the immensely profitable "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," considering a decline in popularity and viewership, was expected to net Danylis Entertainment no less than 500 million dollars in profits over the next three years. After integrating New World Entertainment, Danylis Entertainment Group not only became North America's top second-tier film company, just behind the seven major studios, but also a pivotal television program supplier in North America.

Combining various data, Forbes magazine finally valued Danylis Entertainment Group at 1.5 billion dollars.

To lend more credibility to this valuation, Forbes conducted a survey in which 96 out of 100 consulted fund managers on Wall Street expressed their willingness to invest in Danylis Entertainment at this valuation.

Additionally, Simon's various real estate and private investments were valued at 250 million dollars by Forbes.

This valuation was also well-founded.

Half of the over 300 million dollars Westlow Corporation made from selling its Motorola shares was used to increase holdings in tech stocks, and the other half, approximately 150 million dollars, was invested in other non-public sectors. Also, the 100 million dollars loaned from Wells Fargo recently was used for private investments and expenditures.

In total, this amounted to exactly 250 million dollars.

After subtracting the total debts of 450 million dollars from Westlow Corporation and Danylis Entertainment, Simon Westlow's personal net worth was precisely 3.1 billion dollars.

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