Hollywood Hunter

Chapter 800.

While Simon was on the East Coast on Martha's Vineyard with Irene, on the West Coast in Los Angeles, still in that mansion halfway up the Palisades bordering Malibu and Santa Monica, Danielle Entertainment was hosting a sizeable party over here late in the evening.

In order to celebrate the box office success of Annabelle and the formation of the Psycho Cinematic Universe, the creators of the recent box office hit Unruly Night and many other Hollywood filmmakers who are friends with Daenerys Entertainment were also invited to the party.

First of all, we still have to talk about the recent movie market overview.

It's Friday, November 15, and the 1996 Thanksgiving season officially opens.

This past box office week, November 8 to November 14, the third week of the release of "Annabelle" with 21% of the weekly box office decline continued to earn $27.29 million, three weeks, the new series of the opening of the trickster movie universe cumulative box office reached $109.2 million, easy to enter the billion club, and at the same time is expected to hit the trickster movie universe first local box office to reach $150 million. The new series is on track to become the first local box office hit of $150 million.

The other one, produced by Daenerys Entertainment's Goldman Pictures, was down 24% in its fourth week of release to collect another $6.69 million for a box office total of $35.49 million, basically recouping $20 million of its total investment in production and distribution.

In stark contrast to Denise Entertainment's two sell-out films, there's no doubt that other Hollywood studios are stressed and burned out this year-end season.

This pressure comes primarily from three films, the new DC Cinematic Universe film "Wonder Woman 2" on November 22nd and the Christmas season continuity of "Braveheart's Game" and "Charlie's Angels.

Three super heavy hitters.

One of the "Wonder Woman 2" as the end of last year's global box office ended up as high as $1.938 billion "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" after the first DC movie universe blockbuster, the industry is expected the film's local box office easily $400 million to hit the bottom.

As for the "Brave's Game" and "Charlie's Angels", one is a special effects blockbuster with Sylvester Stallone to join, one is a linkage with the James Bond series and is expected to develop into a heavyweight project of the secret agent cinematic universe, as long as the release of word-of-mouth does not collapse, are basically local $200 million box office level.

So, just three super-heavy bombshells have basically locked up $800 million at the box office for the two major year-end dates, leaving a pitiful amount of room for other studio projects to make their mark.

By the way, Hollywood has been planning to proactively reduce or delay development plans in an attempt to circumvent this since the three films were announced one after the other starting last year.

Sony Pictures, under real pressure, simply adjusted the schedule of its $80 million Ron Howard and Mel Gibson team-up for the new film Ransom Storm before the marketing launch at the end of this September, pulling out of the established Thanksgiving Day 1996 and moving to the summer of 1997.

The reason Sony gave for wanting the film to get more ample post-production time, but where does an old-school crime action movie, not a special effects blockbuster, need too much post-production time?

Inevitably, there was a lot of talk about it, and it inevitably had a negative impact on the film.

Sony, however, had to do it.

Not only that, but Sony has also pulled the new Barbra Streisand film Two-Face Mirror, originally slated for Christmas, back to Thanksgiving, the week before Thanksgiving on November 8 to be exact, to get more of a spin after all.

Chapter 11.

However, in industry reviews, Sony is making a barely good move.

If "Two Sided Mirror" doesn't file, but continues to be placed during the Christmas period against a host of old and new blockbusters, this far less acclaimed feature film will only end up as cannon fodder, even if the local 40 million don't even think about it, once the local theatrical release completely failed to splash, the follow-up channel will only be more difficult.

Plus, the week before Thanksgiving opens with the release of Wonder Woman 2, there are still two strong contenders as well, Warner Bros. Pictures' "Slam Dunk in the Sky" and Paramount's classic sci-fi series "Star Trek 8.

It goes without saying that the Star Trek series, a rare Hollywood sci-fi evergreen, cost $45 million for this sequel.

The "Dunk in the Air" is a combination of live-action and animation, similar to Disney's box-office hit "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".

It's a shame that there's more than one Wonder Woman 2 in front of Ambition, even if the Nov. 15-Nov. 21 schedule is abysmal. Because the following box office week, November 18 is the much-anticipated fifth Vimy Show TV broadcast, November 19 and November 21 is the still as good as the second "American Idol" fall final episode, even if all on a weekday, occupy three nights of these two phenomenal TV shows, still will seriously impact the Thanksgiving first box office week viewing figures.

If it weren't for the early run of "Ransom Storm," "Slam Dunk in the Sky" might not even have been able to resist the fallout.

But when you think about next summer and the end of the year, there's not really much room for Tornado, Lone Star Day, Titanic, etc., to fall off the map, and it can't always run into 1998.

Ultimately, the root of all this is that the current Danielle Entertainment is just too powerful, and the Hollywood plate is just so big that Danielle Entertainment has too much of it, and other studios naturally have less and less room to survive. In order to prevent their investments from becoming cannon fodder, other Hollywood studios will be forced to cut back on production, which will lead to a vicious cycle of further decline.

The party at the Palisades hillside mansion.

The heads of WMA and CAA, two of the biggest talent agencies in the world, were discussing this very issue.

Michael Ovitz, who was also quite glamorous in the eighties, was full of emotion: "The way things are going, five years at the most, the phrase Hollywood Seven is going to be a thing of the past, and I think that by then, Danielle's Entertainment will be a dominant player, with at most two or three attached to it whose combined strength can't compete with the second tier, and the other labels, probably the only ones left will be the labels. "

Jonathan Friedman, who is now all junior and therefore meeting with his former enemy but is quite at peace with him, followed with a slight nod and asked, "Who do you think is left?"

"Backed by GE and owning the DC Cinematic Universe, Warner definitely counts as one. MGM only counts as half even if they can make the Secret Service movie universe work. The remaining one and a half will depend on who's more dead weight at Fox, Disney, Paramount and Sony and their back-up capital, plus there's Simon's attitude."

"Considering the News Corp. factor, I think Fox should be able to count for one."

"Not necessarily," Orwitz said, "News Corp is News Corp, Fox is Fox, Simon will definitely be on good terms with News Corp, and Fox's side, even Murdoch himself isn't really on board, he prefers to do TV rather than movies with too much uncertainty. I actually talked to Eisner about this recently, and he's more sorry for Disney, which is in the hands of the French and has the greatest chance of falling."

That's something Friedman agrees with: "Simon doesn't seem to like France. However, Disney's theme park business should be of interest to Simon."

"That's for sure, so the Disney label can definitely be retained, just like Universal Studios. And even with Universal Studios already owned, there's enough Danielle Entertainment now to eat Disney," said Ovitz and couldn't help but lament, "It's mind-boggling to do that in ten years."

Jonathan Friedman's expression showed some nostalgia and smiled, "Every time I think about that ambitious young man when I first met Simon, I feel like everything is normal now."

"It's a shame I let you get the better of me back then, otherwise I would have beaten WMA down completely."

"Honestly, with how bad WMA was at the time, I thought about jumping ship and working with you at one point, but luckily I met Simon."

The two of them laughed at that, raised their glasses to each other under the lights of this cliffside lawn, sipped a sip of champagne, and Jonathan asked, "Speaking of which, what happened to that collar you and Eisner did?"

"The IPO has already started, and if all goes well, it'll be listed next January," said Ovitz, who was inevitably worried again: "Hopefully, we'll catch up."

Jonathan, of course, knows what Ovitz is worried about and is quite sympathetic: "The Nasdaq is so crazy right now that I sold all of my tech holdings before the election vote and, frankly, made a lot of money. However, I'm planning to buy back some of the Big Three in the future, just as a long-term investment, and I have absolute trust in Simon."

"Heh, I cleared out earlier than you did, sold out at the beginning of October, and my wife complained to me recently that I sold out early and wanted to buy some more."

"Never listen to a woman on such matters."

"Of course," laughed Ovitz, "I was a little worried that I couldn't control myself and simply invested it all in a two-year closed fund."

"Haha, suddenly realized I need that too, help me out with that?"

"Then I'll have my assistant send you the information tomorrow."

They were chatting, and were greeted by the sight of Amy Pascal, who was six months pregnant, walking with her husband, Bernard Weinraub, on her arm.

"Good evening, Amy, and Bernard."

"Good evening, Jo."

Jonathan finished his greeting, and Ovitz came forward to hug Amy gently, looking at her stomach and asking, "Do you know if it's a boy or girl?"

"It's a boy, we're going to name him Daniel."

"Oh, congratulations."

"Thanks."

Greetings were exchanged, and Jonathan asked about something that had been on Hollywood's mind lately: "Amy, I hear Titanic is in trouble over there in Australia?"

"Yeah, Tom has flown to Brisbane himself to keep an eye on it, well, if nothing else, we'll finally be able to kill it next month."

Michael Ovitz was also curious, "What does Simon mean, I remember he was on holiday in Australia last month?"

Amy didn't know what to say about her own boss, recalling the whole project, she always felt that her boss was just deliberately letting Cameron get out of control, anyway, now that 'big ship' can't get it done without $200 million, but of course this kind of thing can't just be said to anyone else, but just said, "Simon also It's always on the radar and everyone's got a headache."

Jonathan advised, "It's okay to be like this sometimes, Hollywood has always been like this, you should be resting now and paying attention to your kids."

"Thank you, Joe, that's very sweet of you."

The two didn't ignore Amy's husband, Bernard, and talked to each other again about some of the recent current events following Clinton's re-election.

Since she was in the current position, Amy simply couldn't have much time to rest, and seeing that the three men were on a warm topic, she greeted them and left alone, heading over to a few of the creators of "Annabelle" to express the congratulations she deserved.

As the most powerful woman in Hollywood at this time, who happens to be pregnant, all the guests took the initiative to greet her with attentiveness and caution along the way.

The director of Annabelle, William Malone, is 43 years old, another typical late-bloomer.

Or not quite a late bloomer, William Malone raised $70,000 to make his first sci-fi horror feature film back in 1980, which sold well upon release, and his second film was later nominated for a Saturn Award and invited as director of the theatrical version of Fierce Streets of Ghosts.

Unfortunately, it then got stuck in the TV loop.

This time, "Annabelle", is considered to be a salty turnaround, although signed a harsh long-term contract with Daenerys Entertainment, as the director's autonomy is also pitiful, but with the success of "Annabelle", William Malone has also become famous, tonight even more to experience a kind of star-studded feeling, 43-year-old middle-aged, in the face of all kinds of big and small curry around the close cage, and even have the urge to cry.

Hollywood is like that.

There's never a shortage of talent, just a lack of opportunity.

When Bernard Weinraub found his wife, Amy had just finished socializing on the set of "Unchained Night" and was talking to Linda Vargas, only to walk in and hear it was about "Saving Private Ryan".

"That's what Simon meant, there's no doubt about Steven, we're not involved in anything this time except sending an accounting team to follow up on the finances. By the way, the lead actor for Contact Out of Time has been dragging on for so long, have you gotten anywhere with that list you gave Simon the other day?"

"Well, Simon finally picked one this time, from Australia, Hugh Jackman."

Amy thought nothing of it, not impressed, but said, "That's good, Bob will freak out if he can't get the lead actor to start the movie early next year, I don't understand why Simon is bothering with such a small role."

Linda laughed, "Simon says he's a very religious man, but he'd have shades if he'd cast an actor who didn't look like a priest at all to play a priest."

Amy just wanted to roll her eyes.

After a few more chats, Amy waited for her husband to greet Linda and took his arm and walked to the other guests.

Separating from Amy, Linda Vargas' eyes searched the crowd of guests a little, locked onto her target, and walked right past.

Several men and women who had been chatting saw Linda approaching and stopped their conversations to say hello.

Simon Westeros's royal casting director is hotter than any major director or producer in Hollywood right now, because a major director or producer doesn't always make an actor famous, and the opportunity given by this Simon Westeros spokesman is much higher in monetary value.

With only a slight nod to the others, Linda motioned a young girl and the short-haired man in his thirties who accompanied her to the railing near the cliff edge.

The man's name was Scott Lambert, an agent under the WMA banner, a very ordinary sort, with the most famous clients under his name only at the level of Kiefer Sutherland, son of veteran actor Donald Sutherland, and a few other child actors, like the girl beside her at this point, who was twelve years old and had just had a role in Annabelle, named Scarlett Johansson.