Hollywood Hunter

Chapter 58

New Chapter!

In the week leading up to Easter, the tragic stock market crash culminated in a 24% drop in the Nasdaq in five days, with the Nasdaq plummeting from a high of 7045 on March 24 to 5346 at the close of trading on Friday, March 28. As a result, the total market capitalization of the NASDAQ plummeted from a high of $9.3 trillion to $7.1 trillion, equivalent to $2.2 trillion of the combined GDP of the United Kingdom and China in 1996, which evaporated in just five days.

The capital markets are in mourning.

The liquidation of the Tiger Fund in February gave another shot of adrenaline to all the multi-capitalists who were still bullish on the Internet industry at the time, thus triggering hundreds of billions of dollars in various buy and sell positions in technology stocks in just one month, many of which were leveraged financially.

Tragedy is inevitable when the highest position takes over.

For five days in a row, no less than 20 investor suicides around the world due to the collapse of the Nasdaq were reported in the newspapers alone, and many more former millionaires and multi-millionaires returned to the streets overnight, just like the collapse of the Tiger Fund a month earlier.

The worst loser in the crash was undoubtedly some young tycoon with a peak fortune of $2.3 trillion.

Compared to the Nasdaq's overall one-week decline of 23%, as a series of new technology leaders held under his name bore the brunt of the fall, Simon's personal fortune has fallen 31%, leaving him with only $1.6 trillion as of Friday's close, a loss of $700 billion in just five days, or nearly one-third of the Nasdaq's market capitalization loss, all by himself.

Quite tragic.

Of course, that's just the bleak part of the equation.

Even as many of the inexplicably gloating spectators celebrate the 'collapse of the oligarchy' with wild glee, those with a modicum of sense can see that even if $700 billion in personal wealth evaporates, $1.6 trillion in personal assets is still $1.5 trillion more than last year's Forbes list of America's 400 richest people! A full $100 billion.

Even if Simon Westeros's personal fortune falls back to less than $1 trillion next time, what will happen?

The other party is still the world's richest man with a personal net worth far greater than that of the second richest man on the list, and the average man would struggle for ten lifetimes before he could even beat that.

Unlike most of the investors who are in the game and watching their new technology holdings depreciate day by day, Simon is the most calm and collected of the storm.

While continuing to be a father-to-be to a group of pregnant women, Westeros is starting to assemble a financial audit team, headed by Veronica Johnston, to conduct a comprehensive audit of Westeros companies such as Ignite, Cisco, and AOL starting in April.

Simon is confident that the companies he has been watching closely in Westeros will not have the kind of serious financial problems that Enron and WorldCom had, but he is also aware that there are many small-scale problems and omissions.

Doing so, in fact, is equivalent to a pre-winter renovation of the house.

Preventing the unexpected.

And then, officially entering the Internet winter, will Simon also initiate mass layoffs to clean up the inevitable internal restlessness brought on by the new technology bubble that has been surging for several years? To achieve a nirvana so that after the winter, companies like Ignite can flourish even further? To reach a higher pinnacle.

In the meantime? Easter weekend is approaching? Tinkerbell's new products are now available in major markets around the world.

The previous week's pre-sales, iCam, iRec, iMac, and a series of other popular products online and offline across all platforms in North America and beyond totaled more than 12 million pre-sales, which was a bright positive against the backdrop of the collapse of the Nasdaq.

All weekend? A lot of media outlets have been tweeting about Tinkerbell's hot presale numbers and predicting four major electronic products for 1997, not counting peripherals. and predicted that Tinkerbell's four main electronic products for 1997, not counting the various peripherals

In fact? Even without all this momentum? Tinkerbell's stock price has fallen the least of any new technology company in the past week? Only 8.3% over five days.

On the other hand? For most ordinary people? The stock market crash is a bit far away from them.

This time of year is also associated with Easter.

Likewise, on the Hollywood side, the biggest concern is the Easter season.

Chapter 3

The English Patient has already grossed over $70 million at the local box office? With the Oscar for Best Picture just won? It is expected to follow up with about $10 million in box office? The total local box office is around $80 million.

Meanwhile? After the Oscars, "The English Patient" officially launched its overseas distribution, which is being handled by Daenerys Entertainment.

This is actually the big one.

With its Oscar-winning halo, the former "The English Patient" made more than $150 million at the overseas box office, almost twice as much as the local one? It won't be far behind this time.

Another film, "Mindcatcher", has recently made close to $160 million at the local box office, and only the Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars will make this film exit from the cinema soon.

As for the films such as Wonder Woman 2, Bravehearts and Charlie's Angels, which were scheduled at the end of last year, they have all been off the schedule as Easter approaches in order to free up screen resources for new films.

In the Easter season, which started on March 21, three new movies were released in North American cinemas, including the Danielis Entertainment's Kim Carrey comedy "The Cable Repairman", MGM's "Fae 2" and Fox's TV series spin-off movie of the same name "The King Kong Warrior".

The most popular of these, "The Cable Repairman" and "Xenomorph 2," obviously didn't start off well.

After all, with a $35 million budget and $15 million in publicity, even if there were private disagreements, there was still work to be done. The Danielle Entertainment publicity team created a gimmick of a Kim Carrey transformation for The Cable Repairman, yet the film's press score was a passable 6.2, with an obvious PR component.

Fae 2, the film fans have been waiting for, suffered a similar fate.

The story moves from the Fae hunting in the first film to a two-generation Fae showdown in the second, and although the budget has risen to $40 million, the production team is more dedicated, and Simon is personally involved, the sequel's media score is only slightly higher than the first film's 4.3 overall rating, up to 5.5, which is still not good enough.

The Hollywood Reporter's review was very direct in pointing out the keys to the sequel's lack of critical recognition: the assembly line popcorn with no substance, and the over-selling of meat.

The reality, however, is that audiences can't help but love it!

Two beautiful women naked on the big screen tearing each other apart, who can stand it?

So, in the first week of the Easter holiday season from March 21 to March 27, amidst rumors that MGM was able to downgrade the film from an NC-17 to an R rating due to excessive exposure, "Fae 2" easily topped the box office with $33.14 million in its first seven days on 2,619 opening screens.

As the first film in Simon's multi-partner packaged project, Fae 2 is a good start.

The film's production budget of $40 million, distribution expenses of $15 million, a total of $55 million in spending, $33.14 million in North America to start, although the local return will certainly be hard, global distribution, but there is hope to recover all the budget.

The biggest part of this project is actually the video.

Not to mention Simon remembers the video market for the Fae series as hot, and this time the first Fae movie three years ago has also proved that.

The first "Fae" made a profit of $60 million at the local box office and accumulated $110 million worldwide. However, subsequent video sales, just to date, have sold 4.6 million cassettes, nearly $140 million in sales, which is more than the global box office.

In addition, revenue from the film's television broadcast has been equally lucrative.

Simon's initial concern was that the sequel would be met with the same kind of poor reception in theaters as Fae 2, which is why it was delayed. Now, the reimagined Fae 2 has grossed $33.14 million in its first week, which means that Fae 3 can go straight to production.

Because the two trilogies combined are already a mini Fae cinematic universe.

The concept of cinematic universes in Hollywood may be a bit overwhelming in recent years, but in the case of Fae, it's an apt description.

Let's go back to the box office list.

Following Fae 2, The Cable Repairman is in second place on the weekly chart with $27.07 million in box office.

Although also mediocre word of mouth, Kim Carrey's box office appeal accumulated in the previous three consecutive hit movies is still there, even if many fans expressed their dislike for Kim Carrey's transition after viewing the movie, the box office is still considerable, only the local box office, but also depends on the follow-up trend.

The third place on the list is "BJ's Single Diary".

This is a romance film that triggered strong reactions in both the U.K. and the U.S. In its sixth week of release, it was impacted by two new films, falling 32% and falling into the $10 million range in a single week, bringing in $8.37 million, but the cumulative box office has reached $122.53 million, temporarily ranking it as the 1997 annual crown.

The fourth place went to Star Wars 3: Return of the Jedi, which opened last week and was re-released in theaters.

Unlike the box office hit of the re-release of the Star Wars premiere two months ago, Star Wars 3 has accumulated $23.8 million in two weeks, and the estimated local box office total is only $30 million, which apparently sells less and less.

The fifth place was not Fox's new movie "The King of Kong", but a Disney urban comedy "Wild City", starring Hollywood comedian Tim Allen, with similar ideas to the 1980s hit "Crocodile Dundee", about 'primitive people' breaking into a modern city.

The film opened on March 7, the third week of release, revenue of $ 6.01 million, a total box office of $ 28.17 million, although the production budget of $ 30 million, but the estimated local box office of $ 40 million, in such a cold period is also good.

As for Fox's "G.I. Joe", it was ranked No. 8 on the list after several other older films.

This sci-fi movie, similar to the later "Dinosaur Squad", cost $45 million and was quite ambitious, but it didn't make any waves, and its first week and seven days' receipts were only $3.01 million, which was a miserable level that Murdoch had to cover his heart.

After that, it was the more competitive Easter week.