Chapter 89: Adjustments

As the two were now living together, Janet was fully aware of the release schedule for "Run Lola Run." Thus, the next day, she took over all matters almost without hindrance.

Simon had initially planned to accompany her to help her transition for a few days, but she flatly refused.

Janet's reasoning was strong; with Simon by her side, she tended to soften, unable to perform to her full potential.

Simon didn't know exactly how Janet worked. However, after a meeting about the continuation of distribution rights on Thursday afternoon, Mike Medavoy hurriedly called, sounding a bit aggrieved as he complained about Janet being too reckless, hoping Simon would continue to handle matters personally and not let a woman mess things up.

Though somewhat concerned, Simon would not heed Mike Medavoy's words rashly.

After work that day, before Simon could ask Janet about the morning's negotiations, she had already brought back another contract: Mattel had agreed to pay $2.3 million to buy out the doll distribution rights for the characters from "Run Lola Run."

Even with its box office success, "Run Lola Run's" merchandising rights couldn't compare with mega IPs like "Star Wars."

Moreover, as a company that mainly produced Barbie dolls, Mattel was clearly only interested in the character Lola; characters like Manny obviously wouldn't be as popular among consumers. Therefore, Janet had essentially sold the exclusive doll distribution rights for Lola for $2.3 million, far exceeding Simon's expectations.

Based on industry data, Simon had initially anticipated the deal might fetch at most $1.5 million.

Given this, Simon no longer doubted Janet's capabilities and confidently entrusted her with all responsibilities.

Additionally, Simon made some adjustments to his own holdings in the two companies.

Through a series of internal transactions, all income related to "Run Lola Run," including box office shares, buyout revenues, and merchandising, was transferred from Daenerys Filmworks to Westeros Corporation.

This separation was to comply with Amy's contract, agreed upon before signing, which did not include any earnings from "Run Lola Run."

Subsequently, to further avoid entangling finances with Janet, Simon drafted an official supplementary contract under Westeros Corporation: as a 61.5% stakeholder, Janet's earnings from "Run Lola Run" would only need to be settled by December 31 of that year.

This supplementary contract meant that Westeros Corporation could freely use these funds for reinvestment until the settlement, and any additional profits generated would not be shared with Janet.

Simon also planned to engage in futures trading and further investments in the second half of the year under the name of Westeros Corporation.

After resolving these matters, the hidden conflicts of interest that had emerged around Simon due to the unexpected success of "Run Lola Run" were finally sorted out.

Deep down, Simon was a man lacking in security.

Without resolving these issues, he even feared ending up like the male protagonist in "When Harry Met Sally," where, after falling out of love, they would hysterically dispute over who owns an $8 dinner plate, wasting $1000 on phone bills.

Janet clearly understood this aspect of Simon's personality, which is why she persistently wrote IOUs for him to stamp. She knew that by doing this, not only would Simon not resist, but he would actually feel relieved.

While Simon was making adjustments to his companies, with Janet handling the distribution of "Run Lola Run," many other tasks also began to progress more efficiently and quickly.

Mattel was very eager to launch the Lola dolls, which was quite understandable.

After the contract was signed, the company transferred $2.3 million to the Westeros Corporation account within three days. Simon then injected $1 million into Daenerys Filmworks as a loan, allowing Amy Pascal to finally stop paying out of pocket for assistants, and the company began hiring more staff.

With the funds in place, Amy quickly negotiated a script deal for "When Harry Met Sally" for $150,000—not cheap, but certainly affordable for Simon.

However, to secure this script, Daenerys Filmworks promised Nora Ephron to start the project within a year with a production budget of no less than $10 million.

If they defaulted, the script rights would automatically revert to her.

As for "Pulp Fiction," since Simon no longer had to manage the distribution of "Run Lola Run," he produced the first draft of the script within the following week.

Although Orion Pictures was not very optimistic about this project, Jonathan Friedman still helped Simon secure a revenue-sharing deal comparable to "Final Destination."

The guaranteed minimum was $20 million.

With box office receipts exceeding $20 million, Simon would receive 10% of the North American box office revenue and 5% of the North American video sales revenue.

While the success of "Run Lola Run" involved many elements of luck, it was still almost guaranteed to be the top-grossing film in North America for the year. Therefore, Simon's compensation

 as a top director was more than sufficient.

Orion Pictures signed Simon for his next film with a base salary of $500,000, but since no revenue-sharing terms were initially fixed, they could only offer him a deal commensurate with his market value at that time.

However, this contract differed from "Final Destination" in that Simon's video sales revenue share was limited only to the domestic North American market, as Orion did not have the global distribution capabilities of a company like Fox.

In addition, Orion also stipulated that the project budget must be kept under $8 million.

If it exceeded this amount, for every $1 million over the budget, Simon's share of both box office and video sales revenue would decrease by 1% and 0.5%, respectively, and the calculation would be rounded up. However, Orion also promised to offer profit-sharing terms to major stars willing to reduce their acting fees.

Finally, the "Final Destination" project moved forward smoothly.

The company quickly selected a director, Wes Craven, who had helped New Line Cinema achieve success with "A Nightmare on Elm Street" years ago. His personal style was also very suitable for "Final Destination."

Wes Craven, also a WMA client and despite the success of "A Nightmare on Elm Street," had a lukewarm recent release with Warner Bros., "The Girl Next Door," which just broke even at the box office.

After a meal and detailed discussion about the project, Simon and Wes Craven agreed on moving forward together.

Of course, Simon was well aware that Wes Craven was also the famous director of the "Scream" series in the 1990s.

Simon had not yet pitched "Scream," for similar reasons to choosing "Pulp Fiction" as his second film. Projects with higher box office potential were naturally kept for himself. In recent years, lacking funds and distribution channels, Simon had to cooperate with other film companies, meaning the major share of profits would inevitably go to these companies.

On Janet's end, after securing the first merchandising buyout deal, she continued to successfully negotiate "Run Lola Run" soundtrack and video game licensing agreements, bringing in over $8 million more for Westeros Corporation.

On April 6, Orion Pictures finally compromised, purchasing the North American video and TV broadcasting rights to "Run Lola Run" for $35 million. On April 9, Warner Bros. acquired the international rights for the same amount of $35 million.

Although these buyout payments would take a month to process, the total of $70 million was $10 million more than Simon's original expectations.

Adding to this, the $20 million loan from Wells Fargo deposited into Simon's personal account, and the expected $30 million box office share when "Run Lola Run" was pulled from theaters in North America, even after deducting necessary expenses, Simon would have over $120 million available for futures trading in October.

During this busy period for Simon and Janet, the 59th Academy Awards ceremony smoothly concluded.

Orion Pictures' "Platoon" unsurprisingly won Best Picture, Best Director, and other major awards, and its box office also conveniently surpassed the $100 million mark around this time.

Meanwhile, after a seventh week earning $21.22 million and an eighth week taking in $16.34 million, by April 9, "Run Lola Run" had accumulated a North American box office total of $146.79 million.

Although the weekly declines were starting to widen, surpassing $200 million was almost a certainty for "Run Lola Run." Everyone was merely curious about how high the film's final cumulative box office would go.

Until April 10.

The first week of the Easter season marked the premiere of Simon's second film since his return to this era, "The Butterfly Effect."

Despite poor reviews from internal screenings, considering the popularity brought by "Run Lola Run," Fox still allocated 1,263 screens for its opening.

As a popular movie season, "The Butterfly Effect" was not the only release.

Also premiering was "The Road to Wealth," starring "Back to the Future's" Michael J. Fox, a comedy from Universal Pictures with 1,336 screens and a production budget of $12 million—slightly better in all aspects compared to "The Butterfly Effect."