Hollywood Hunter

After a week with Sophia, Simon left Rome on February 6 and returned to Los Angeles. The woman stayed in the manor in the southern suburbs of Rome to continue to raise the baby. Next, until the child was born, most of Melissa’s affairs will be handed over to deputy Angela. Alenz is responsible.

Simon's absence from Hollywood during this time, in addition to the successful closing of the Sundance Film Festival and the 52nd Golden Globe Dinner, the box office week just passed from January 27 to February 2, there is another thing It happened logically: "Toy Story 2", which was released last year on Thanksgiving schedule, continued to receive $4.31 million after being released in the 11th week, and the cumulative box office officially exceeded the $300 million mark, reaching $305.56 million. Became the third local box office film released in 1994 to exceed $300 million.

Another "Suicide Squad", from January 27 to February 2 in the 7th week of the release, the box office receipts were 10.37 million US dollars, the cumulative box office reached 278.36 million US dollars, and the threshold of 300 million US dollars was only 22 million US dollars. It is only a matter of time before the gap is successfully broken through.

In addition, the "Red Fan District" released on January 27 is also a small start for Daenerys after the New Year.

Seven days in the first week of painting, with excellent word-of-mouth and 1736 screens, "Hongfan District" reached US$14.19 million at the box office in the first week, and the single-week pavilion exceeded US$8,000. Although it did not reach the sales level of 10,000, it was in 1 At the end of this month, the unpopular schedule is still a low-cost Hong Kong film, and such results have exceeded everyone's expectations.

When Simon returned to Los Angeles, the box office for "Red Fan District" was also released. The second weekend's three-day year-on-year decline was only 27%, with a receipt of 6.34 million US dollars. The cumulative box office for the ten days of the release exceeded 20 million, reaching 20.53 million US dollars.

In comparison, the production cost of "Red Fan District" is only 7.5 million US dollars. As a cooperative investor, New World Pictures under Daenerys Entertainment originally obtained the film in North America and the US with only 2.5 million US dollars of investment share. The omni-channel distribution right in Europe, and the initial budget for the film in North America is only 3 million US dollars.

Now, with a total investment of 5.5 million US dollars, the box office can be exchanged for more than 20 million US dollars in 10 days. The total box office in North America is likely to reach between 35 million and 40 million US dollars, not to mention the European and follow-up video and television channels As a result, the total return of a Hong Kong film to Daenerys Entertainment may exceed many blockbuster movies.

Now that "Hongfan District" has been successful, "Peak Hour" can also be successfully put on the agenda.

The script of "Red Fan District" was basically saved in real time according to the Hong Kong film routines, and it was specifically tailored for Jack. It was also a Hollywood standard and even some overflowing brother film mode. Simon came up with a similar idea. There is no possibility of a crash.

However, Simon did not personally perform the operation, and just mentioned the general script concept with Danny Morris, the president of New World Pictures, to let the other party look for the screenwriter to improve himself.The key to the success of "Rush Hour" is the wonderful pairing of Jack Cheng and Chris Tucker. The plot is not the most critical factor.

Malibu, Daenerys Studios.

The time is already Wednesday, February 8.

Back in Los Angeles, most of Simon’s energy was devoted to a series of blockbuster bombs that Daenerys Entertainment is preparing or has entered production.

Work started at nine o'clock in the morning, three hours in a row, three consecutive meetings, which were the production meetings on "The Thunderbolt", "Mummy" and "Game of the Brave", which were four external cooperation projects finalized last year Three of them, the other "Spy", as part of the "Agent Movie Universe", will not be launched until the release of "Thunderbolt".

The three projects that have already started, the earliest release of "Mummy" in cooperation with Fox, is initially scheduled for the summer of next year, and "Perky Girl" and "Game of the Brave" will wait until the end of next year.

The three partners are not satisfied with this arrangement, but there are still too many projects.

Unless you want to kill each other, there will definitely be no suitable schedule this year. Even next year, the blockbuster that has been finalized will have a new restart 007 movie, "Broken Valley" directed by Tim Burton, Dan Niles and Paramount's "Mission Impossible 2" and another sequel to the DC movie universe, "Wonder Woman 2."

In addition, there are the essential sequel to the "Moving Soul Movie Universe" and some other low-cost key projects. The 1996 schedule was already too crowded. Both the "Independence Day" originally planned by Simon and the "Justice League" envisioned earlier It must be postponed because of this, otherwise it is fratricidal.

In the morning meeting, Simon and the production team basically finalized the production ideas for the three projects.

"Mummy" in collaboration with Fox uses the original plot from Simon's memory without much modification.Cooperating with MGM's "The Thunderbolt" is a brand new idea, Simon personally operated it.

In the final "Game of the Brave", after weighing the 1995 version of the memory from the 2017 version, Simon finally decided to use the main version of the 2017 Boulder Johnson in the memory, which was invaded and invaded by the game. Obviously the latter is more It is easy to bring a sense of substitution to the audience.

Even if the inflation factor is eliminated, the 2017 version is much higher than the 1995 version at the box office.

The reason why Simon hesitated was mainly that if the Boulder Johnson version was enabled, this time it was necessary to choose a highly paid male host, perhaps Schwarzenegger or Stallone.If it’s just one collaboration, it’s okay, 15 million or even 20 million will be fine. The key is that if the first part is successful, it will be very difficult to sequel to the cooperation with Schwarzenegger.

Simon still clearly remembers that Schwarzenegger specially prepared a strong team of lawyers for the "Terminator 3" to negotiate with the film side.

What's more, the 2017 version of "Game of the Brave" is still set by the four protagonists. Once the first song is successful, the remuneration of the four protagonists will increase.

Now that the plan is finalized, Simon must first solve the actor problem.

In the memory of the 2017 version, Sony is actually very economical. Except for Jushi Johnson, the other few are not big, and the production cost is only 90 million US dollars, and the budget is less than 100 million US dollars. The bombshell, and the film’s final global box office exploded to nearly $1 billion.

This time, Simon will not save money on special effects, and directly finalized a budget of 100 million US dollars.

The $100 million in 1995 and the $100 million in 2017 are clearly not a concept.

Not only that, Simon also plans to limit the cost of one main creative to 25 million US dollars, including producer, director and four protagonists, for which a certain profit share can be provided, if this version of "Game of the Brave" can still impact With 1 billion in the world, Simon is very happy to pay a share of US$100 million for a major creator.

Also, you must sign a packaging contract in advance.

Simon will not allow the success of the first song, because of the various rips in the film pay, the sequel is stranded for a long time or even completely aborted.

Of course, if the project fails, Daenerys Entertainment has the right to cancel the sequel, and there will be no additional compensation.Now Daenerys Entertainment has the absolute initiative in Hollywood. Once the stars pressed the studio to sign various unequal contracts, this situation has been completely reversed.

If you are not willing, then the opportunity is someone else's.No matter how big the star is, he can't stand up and down many times.

After a busy morning, I dine with Amy Pascal at the Studio’s executive restaurant at noon.

The waitress just sent lunch and left, and Amy Pascal smiled one thing in advance: "Recently in the media about your donation of AOL stock?

Simon picked up the cutlery and shrugged: "This kind of thing, no matter how you do it, you can't avoid controversy, but they are arguing, annoying me, and don't donate in the future."

A few days ago, when Simon was still in Rome, on the North American side, the Westero family began to honor the charity commitments at the beginning of the year and donated the first AOL company worth $1 billion to the Simon & Janet Westeros Foundation. Stocks are used to help large, elementary and secondary schools across the United States build modern, professional computer classrooms.

The promised donation is 3 billion US dollars, and Simon will certainly not give away all at once.

The first consideration is that the stock in hand is still increasing in value, and donating in batches can always save a little.Even if you have money again, you still have to do it carefully when you need to do it carefully.

However, this immediately triggered the first controversy. Some media believe that Simon’s $3 billion donation amount has shrunk severely and have fought against each other. Even though the Westeros’ press spokesperson has repeatedly clarified that some people are still a pair of me. Do not believe me do not believe me do not believe you are words and no faith' stubborn faction.

In fact, even if it is just this one billion US dollar donation, counting the previous expenditures, the size of the Simon & Janet Westeros Foundation has already chased after many old money families for more than half a century.

However, people who don't want to see this, obviously don't say anything.

Not only that, some people quickly objected to Simon donating stocks instead of cash, thinking he was deliberately avoiding taxes.

According to American charity rules, if Simon cashes this stock and donates it, even if you declare that the money will be used for charitable purposes, you must also pay capital gains tax before donating.

The current capital gains tax rate is still 28%.

That is to say, if Simon wants to donate cash, the cashing process is that capital gains tax will have to spend more than 1.1 billion US dollars. This kind of thing, of course, Simon will not do it. In fact, not many rich people will do so.

If you donate stocks directly and put them into a charity fund, there will be no tax issues.

In addition, Simon can also obtain a huge tax credit share, although it is not a full tax credit, and the tax rate of stock donations is only 30%, which is much lower than 50% of cash donations, but this is still a large tax credit. In the next few years, Simon can use this tax credit for the tax deduction of the Westeros.

Calculated, all the stocks worth 3 billion US dollars are donated, and the Westeros family can get a tax credit of up to 900 million US dollars.

Direct donation of stocks saves $1.1 billion in capital gains tax, and after all 3 billion stocks are donated, you can still get a $900 million tax deduction. This operation, in the eyes of many people, Simon Westero actually saved 2 billion The US dollar is actually equivalent to only donating 1 billion US dollars, and the other 2 billion US dollars is equivalent to using the federal government's due taxes for charity.

This is simply heartbroken!

For some unscrupulous media, which is very far-fetched but very attractive to the eye, even if it has been psychologically prepared before, Simon can only helpless.

Moreover, with the fermentation of the discussion, some media also questioned Simon's charity project.

It cost US$3 billion to build computer classrooms for American schools. Whether it is purchasing equipment or connecting to the network, basically it can't bypass the Microsoft, Intel, AOL and other companies in the Westero system. This money is equal to the return to Simon in the end. In my hands.

Calculate this way again, Simon Westero is almost equal to not giving a penny from start to finish.

This is no longer confusing.

After all, the media industry in the United States is still too developed. This kind of doubt is not the kind of direct personal attack last year. If someone sues if they question it, it will start a lawsuit bombing, which will inevitably only lead to a stronger rebound.

Simon only refuted the media resources that started the Westeros system as much as possible.

Moreover, it is really impossible not to donate like Simon said at this time.

The charity should be done.

After all, this is a basic strategy related to the future wealth inheritance of the Westeros family.

Such a huge asset must be passed on in the name of the foundation as much as possible in the future.Of course, when the time comes, compared to the individual foundations of some old money families, if the Westeros family-related foundations do not want to be too dazzling, they will definitely be reduced to zero if possible.

Amy could also feel the helplessness in Simon's tone and asked, "Has too much money started to worry?"

Simon heard this question, but shook his head: "There is nothing to worry about, I am happy with it, I like it simple. A lot of people see my personal worth figures are crazy."

Amy couldn't help laughing: "Yeah, I think about it occasionally, and I'm so jealous that I can't."

After a month-long rise in January, the Nasdaq index has exceeded 2000 points, and a series of stock prices held by Simon have continued to increase in value as the stock market rises. Now it is said that Simon’s personal worth has reached 500 billion US dollars, at least From the stock book, there is no water at all.

The personal net worth of $500 billion has completely exceeded the imagination limit of ordinary people, and those media and politicians who believe that Simon’s personal net worth should continue to grow are probably not knowing how to deal with it.

From the current situation, if you want to stop Simon Westero's personal net worth from continuing to rise, you can only break the scale of the capitalist society and forcefully collect Westero's assets.

This obviously doesn't work.

After all, nobody wants America to become the former Soviet Union.