Hollywood Hunter

Friday, January 3, 1992.

In the new box office week, when people started working after the festival, the box office at the end of the year just passed has a very obvious drop in box office.

From January 3 to January 9, the box office of "The Flash" fell 49%, compared with the previous week's box office of 53.18 million US dollars, this week's account shrinking to 27.12 million US dollars.

However, in three weeks, the cumulative box office of "The Flash" quickly reached $153.6 million.

With the box office base of US$27.12 million in the third week, “The Flash” continued to record US$100 million in the future. It is no problem. The total box office in North America can easily exceed US$250 million, becoming the runner-up in North America in 1991.

"Toy Story", which has been very stable at the box office, also fell 43% at the box office this week after the New Year. The single-week box office slipped to 7.79 million US dollars, and the cumulative box office was 106.683 million US dollars.

Immediately afterwards, "Captain Hawke", "Assassination of Kennedy", "007's Golden Eye" and other films this week's box office declines have reached about 40% or 50%.

Of course, according to the past box office law, after this week's deep decline, according to factors such as the media's word-of-mouth and audience popularity, the box office's decline next week will be readjusted to a level similar to the popular year-end schedule.

After finishing some of the work accumulated by Daenerys Entertainment at the end of last year, Simon flew to New York on January 6 and was busy with the final preparations before the construction of the Westero Building in the following days.

The specific design work of the Westero Building was carried out by the famous North American SOM architectural design firm. The design firm of David Johnston’s girlfriend Leslie Whitaker also thought about this, but Simon did not The design of such an important building may be handed over to a company that is only medium-sized and has little experience in super high-rise building design because of personal factors.

In comparison, SOM Architects, founded in 1936, has a lot of experience in the design of high-rise buildings.

The construction of the building is also contracted by the historic Tishman Speyer Real Estate Construction Company.

For ordinary people, the fame of Tishman Gate is not so loud, but the series of projects that this engineering and construction company has undertaken are all familiar and familiar. The most classic one is the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Responsible for construction.

In addition, Tishman Speyer has also undertaken the Disney World project in Florida and a large number of Hilton hotel projects around the world.

The selection of SOM Architects is based on Simon's personal wishes. There are other factors in the selection of Tishman Gate.

In simple terms, Tishman Speyer is equivalent to a snake in the New York real estate industry.

This engineering and construction company, established at the end of the last century, is under the control of the Speyer family behind the scenes. It has a complex network of intertwined relationships in New York's political and commercial circles. There is even a Rockefeller family behind the scenes of the Iron Lion Gate.The current and former heads of Tishman Speyer have also served as chairman of the New York Real Estate Union.

The final design of the Westero Building is 622 meters high and 139 floors.

It includes 135 floors above ground and 4 floors underground.

The residences of Simon and Janet will occupy a full ten floors of 50 meters at the top of the building.The apron platform of the original Avengers Building is also retained in this building, which is also one of the most difficult greetings in the construction of the Westero Building.

Compared with the 443 meters of the existing Empire State Building and the 417 meters of Tower One of the Twin Towers, there is a gap of 200 meters, which is truly the world's tallest building.

Such a skyscraper destined to become a landmark can make any architectural design firm become famous, and any engineering construction company that takes over can become famous. As New York's old engineering building snake, Tishman Gate naturally does not Will let such an important project fall into the hands of other contractors.

The news of the Westero Building project has just been heard,

Simon didn't have such a bad idea with this ground snake, not to mention that Tishman Gate also had sufficient qualifications to build this building. After several discussions between the two parties, the contract was officially signed last year.

To vote for Lee, Tieshimen also provided a lot of help in the construction approval of Westeros Building.

However, although the main construction task was handed over to Tishman Speyer, Simon would not trust the other party completely because of the veteran qualification of this engineering and construction company.

Similar to the old-style buildings such as the Empire State Building, Simon hopes that the Westeros Building will stand for a hundred years.

Therefore, all details of the project should not be lost.

For this purpose, Westeros has organized a dedicated financial supervision team to monitor and control all expenditures of the Westeros building project during the construction period of the next five years.

At the same time, Simon also organized a technical expert group in Australia from building materials to structural engineering through the connections of the Johnston family.Over the next five years, these people will be based in New York, keeping an eye on all construction details of the Westero Building.

The two teams work together to ensure that the construction party will not have any opportunities to drill holes.

After a week of continuous busy, I re-examined the various details of the building in the plan, and signed a series of contracts from the purchase of construction materials to accident insurance. The preliminary preparations for the project were finally finalized. It is located at 59th Street next to Madison Avenue in the Upper East Side. The six buildings between and 60th Street will be officially demolished next week.

It is estimated that it will take two months to demolish the six buildings and complete the subsequent clean-up.

Counting the previous expenditures for the purchase of this land, the design costs of SOM, Tishman Speyer's underwriting deposits and building materials purchase contracts, etc., in order to complete this building, Simon has invested more than 400 million US dollars.

Because Simon has extremely high requirements for all the details of this building, the five-year construction cycle and the subsequent annual expenditure will not be less than 200 million US dollars.

After the construction is completed, the internal hydropower renovation, etc., is also a considerable expense.

Overall, the total budget of the Westero Building is likely to reach more than 1.6 billion U.S. dollars, which is undoubtedly the single most expensive building in history.

In the original time and space, the New World Trade Center rebuilt with the highest specifications has an overall expenditure of only 3.1 billion US dollars.

The building was started in 2006, and it is 14 years after now.

It is now 1992, the US dollar is very valuable, and the wealth of most of the rich in the United States is within 5 billion US dollars.

Saturday, January 11.

After finishing the busy day, Simon rushed from Manhattan to East Hampton in Long Island to visit Steve Ross in the morning.

At the end of last year, Steve Rose had privately resisted prostate cancer recurrence for five years, and recently started chemotherapy.

Simon also knows that this media mogul of the same age as Rupert Murdoch and Sam Redstone will, without surprise, die this year.

Rose is 65 years old this year. For those who have reached the top of the pyramid, 65 years old is actually not too big.

Murdoch and Lei Shidong, who are similar in age, are still in control of their media empire even after nearly 30 years.

For an ambitious person, losing time is undoubtedly a great regret.

Rose was very happy about Simon's visit. He told his family to start preparing a rich lunch in advance, and invited some guests to come to accompany him.

After a lively lunch, sending away others, Steve Ross and Simon strolled around the East Hampton manor.

As the best summer resort for the wealthy in Manhattan, East Hampton, which is still in the coldest season of the year, is not so striking. It has just happened to have snow recently, covering the dead grass and dead wood. The white scene of decay.

Putting his hands in his trench coat pocket casually and talking about the DC movie universe, Simon looked around again and said, "It's quiet enough here, but it seems too cold, Steve, I still recommend you to go to Los Angeles, then The climate on the edge is more suitable for cultivation."

Steve Rose also wore a thick black trench coat and a hat.

Chemotherapy has left him with very little hair.

"I still prefer the East Coast, and Time Warner's headquarters is also here, you know, Simon, I can't leave recently."

Simon certainly knows.

Just after the year, the news that Ross will get an annual salary of $79 million through his work in 1991 has once again become a hot spot in media controversy.Moreover, after last year's merger, Ross also prepared a ten-year salary agreement for himself. This agreement will continue to be implemented even after his death.

Simon can feel that the cumulative annual salary of more than 100 million US dollars for two consecutive years and the ten-year salary contract are obviously the rhythm of Rose's arrangement of events.

This undoubtedly caused strong dissatisfaction with other factions within Time Warner.

There are too many memories in his mind, and Simon certainly knows how terrible cancer is.

The huge amount of wealth can ensure that a person will not have financial burden after suffering from cancer. However, cancer is difficult to cure after all, and this disease varies from person to person.Some people can continue to survive for decades after suffering from cancer, just like normal people, but some people are menacing.

In Rose's current situation, changing the environment does not help.

Simon and Rose didn't really have a deep relationship, but the media tycoon who started from scratch in black and white has undoubtedly a strong personality charm and is very good at attracting and making someone feel good about him.

Clint Eastwood has been filming only for Warner Bros. in the last ten years, which was influenced by Rose.Spielberg even regarded Rose as his father's general existence. The original "Schindler's List" in time and space also specifically noted that it was dedicated to Rose.

Although there were not many contacts, Rose also gave Simon a very worthy feeling.

The two went on a stroll for a while, and Ross's wife came to call her husband and Simon to return to the villa. Ross's body is not suitable for staying outdoors in the cold for a long time.

Returning to the warm living room and waiting for the maid to deliver coffee, Rose said again: "There is one more thing, Simon, I hope you can help me."

Simon nodded and motioned for Rose to speak.

"That’s it, I hope that next, um, Terry and Bob can take over my current CEO position. I have greeted them with Steven. Of course, if you can get your support, they both want to It will definitely be easier to take over Time Warner."

Ross said that Terry and Bob are Terry Semel and Robert Daly. These are two close friends who Rose has cultivated in these years.

Terry Semel has been the CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures in recent years, and Robert Daly is responsible for Warner Bros.’s communications business.

In Simon’s memory, after Ross’s death, Time Warner’s CEO was indeed Terry Semel and Robert Daley.

Daenerys Entertainment now has a very precise cooperation with Time Warner. In the stock issuance last year, Simon also bought 1 million shares of Time Warner. Although the proportion is very low, he has no voting rights, but Simon Weiss Tello's stake in Time Warner means too many things in itself.

Therefore, Simon does have the strength to support the heirs that Ross wants to promote.

Since the two of them remembered Warner in charge, Simon certainly didn't mind sending this relationship, and nodded seriously, saying: "No problem, Steve, I will support them by then. Well, what about the chairman?"

Rose heard this question and smiled helplessly.

Now in Time Warner, Ross personally serves as chairman and CEO.

Pushing Terry Semel and Robert Daly to the position of co-CEO is probably also the limit of Ross' layout.

"The chairman will probably be Levine."

Nicholas Levin, another important shareholder of Time Warner, an executive of the original Time company system, is also one of Time Warner's main rivals within Ross.

Because of Rose's repression, Levin now has only one vice chairman position with few real powers.

However, once Ross died, Nicholas Levin combined with the forces of the original era company system, and perhaps Warner's internal long-term dissatisfaction with Ross's high-level support. If you want to get the position of chairman, you really need Bitri Semel and Robert. ·Daly has more advantages.

Simon actually had some bolder ideas, such as the annexation of the entire Time Warner.

However, this idea is just to think about.

Controlling MGM by holding its shares is already the limit that the current US antitrust regulations and related media regulations can tolerate.

Even if the regulation of the media industry is further liberalized, with the current size of Daenerys Entertainment, it will be difficult to acquire Time Warner.

What's more, Daenerys Entertainment itself needs competitors.

Time Warner is just right to be such a competitor in the future. Of course, it may be more superficial. After all, the cooperation between the two parties is actually closer.

Steve Rose took the initiative to compromise and ceded the chairmanship to Nicholas Levin, which just happened to create some excuses for the "antagonism" between Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner.