Robert Iger's trip from the East Coast wasn't just for 'The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills'. After finishing his meeting with Simon and Amy, he rushed to Burbank to attend a production meeting for the new season of 'Ultimate Police Network'.
Although the strike had ended, Daenerys Television didn't have enough time this year to select new TV projects.
However, as long as they could ensure the production of the company's four reality shows and smoothly complete the five TV projects New World Entertainment had renewed last year, Daenerys Entertainment would be able to thoroughly consolidate its strong position as a TV program supplier after this year's autumn season.
Burbank.
New World Entertainment's original headquarters was located on Ventura Boulevard at the northern foot of the Santa Monica Mountains, where film production companies clustered. Within a five-kilometre radius, major studios like Disney Company, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros. Studios were densely packed.
However, compared to a large-scale campus like Universal Studios which covered dozens of hectares, New World Entertainment only owned a three-story office building. It now served as a temporary branch for Daenerys Entertainment, housing the company's distribution and television departments.
Inside the screening room, the rough cut of 'Scream', finished playing. As the lights came up, Simon walked to the front. Looking at Amy Pascal, Robert Rem, and several core employees from the distribution department, he clapped his hands and said, "Let's start with a light topic. We can call it the 'Horror Movie Survival Guide.' If you were the protagonist in a horror movie and wanted to survive, what do you think you should do, and what should you not do?"
Everyone looked at each other in confusion.
Simon waited for a moment and then simply pointed to his female executive. "Amy, you go first".
Amy thought for a moment and said, "Never say 'I'll be right back', because then you'll never come back."
Everyone burst into laughter.
Simon also smiled and said, "Alright, even though that was just said in the movie, I'll let it pass. Anything else, Bob?"
This was the distribution meeting for 'Scream'.
Robert Rem had previously provided Simon with a distribution plan for 'Scream', stating that he could guarantee at least 1,000 opening screens and had formulated a marketing strategy primarily targeting teenage audiences.
Decades of Hollywood experience made Robert Rem's work in this area seem effortless, but it was also inevitably a bit by-the-book, not quite reaching the level of Simon's satisfaction.
Hearing Simon call on him, Robert Rem could only think back and say, "Don't get tangled up on the phone with a stranger".
"That counts too".
Simon nodded and then randomly pointed to others in the screening room.
After a lively discussion with everyone chiming in, Simon finally said, "See, this is a great selling point. Wes filmed an excellent movie. From the opening where Kathy is killed to the end of the film, it's filled with thrills and suspense, and the horror atmosphere has reached a peak. But on the other hand, I bet you all definitely felt just now that this movie uses too many common tropes of traditional horror films, so it feels a bit cliché, right?"
Some employees in the screening room nodded instinctively.
Without waiting for anyone to answer, Simon dropped his smile and said seriously, "But that's wrong. As film distributors, what you need to do is discover the strengths of a movie as much as possible. Even if it has no strengths, you must find ways to turn its weaknesses into strengths and convey that concept to the audience.
Just like now, you feel the plot is repetitive and cliché, but I think that's the selling point. So, what you need to do next is carefully craft a 'Horror Movie Survival Guide' and publish it in magazines that the target audience will notice. Now, does anyone else have any ideas?"
Feeling Simon's gaze from the stage, there was a moment of silence until a younger employee raised his hand and said, "Mr. Westeros, I heard the original idea for this film came from you, but you didn't take a screenwriting credit?"
Simon nodded and said, "That's right".
"Then", the young man hesitated for a moment before plucking up his courage, "we can leak this information. Simon Westeros gave up his credit because he was worried about sparking another controversy like 'Basic Instinct'. This could greatly pique the audience's curiosity".
"Very good," Simon nodded and asked, "What's your name?"
Hearing Simon's praise, the young man immediately felt relieved and said, "Mark Belford".
"Add Mark to the 'Scream' team," Simon instructed Robert Rem, who was sitting in the front row, then looked back at the crowd. "Who else has an idea?"
Seeing a chance to catch the boss's attention, the others began to speak up enthusiastically.
After discussing for about half an hour, Simon summarized, "If you are observant enough, you'll notice that Hollywood is changing rapidly. This summer season, the two films Paramount Pictures released with a saturated wide-release strategy, 'Crocodile Dundee II' and 'Coming to America', both achieved unexpected success. This is the future trend for Hollywood film marketing and distribution. The traditional strategy of relying on long-term screenings to build word-of-mouth and gradually attract audiences will be phased out. We must follow the change and get a movie into the audience's view as much as possible before it is released to be successful".
At this point, Simon paused briefly before continuing, "To achieve this, we must discard traditional film marketing concepts and find various promotional methods that do not reveal the movie's content in advance but still trigger audience interest".
"Actively sparking controversy, hyping up lead actors' scandals, leaking insider information ahead of time, these are all very effective methods. Of course, you must also understand that these are fundamentally supplementary. Theatrical posters, TV trailers, and magazine ads are still the mainstream channels for expanding a film's popularity. You must flexibly combine various marketing strategies based on the specific situation of a film".
After saying this, Simon looked at everyone in the screening room and said, "I'm very busy. I will only say these words today once. Whether you can grasp and execute them is your business. Do it well, and you will be handsomely rewarded. Do it poorly, and I will not hesitate to kick you out of the company. So, always, always remember: do not have a bias against any film. In your eyes, it should be the best. What you need to do is discover all the selling points of a movie as much as possible and then push it to the market".
Inside the screening room, after Simon's voice fell, there was a moment of silence, and then everyone instinctively began to applaud.
Simon didn't waste any more words. Once everyone quieted down, he adjourned the meeting.
Amy Pascal and Robert Rem naturally stayed behind. Simon sat back in his seat, took a few sips of water from Jennifer, and said to Robert Rem, "Bob, for the three films 'Scream', 'Steel Magnolias', and 'Dead Poets Society', I'm giving you a promotional budget of $5 million each. I need you to spend all that money in the final months of the year".
Before Robert Rem could react, Amy said in surprise, "Simon, that's too much. Besides, 'Steel Magnolias' and 'Dead Poets Society' aren't even finished yet".
"I've been personally keeping an eye on these films; I know exactly how good their quality is", Simon shook his head and added, "Furthermore, this money isn't just for promoting the three films. Amy, over the past year or so, you should have noticed that as long as there's even a little news about me personally or about Daenerys Pictures, the media will swarm and hype it up. I don't want this situation to continue. However, since we don't have enough time to curry favour with these media outlets, we can only smash them with money".
Amy Pascal and Robert Rem immediately understood after hearing Simon's words.
Lately, the matter of Simon firing 'Rain Man' director Barry Levinson still hadn't completely died down. The media also frequently saw the lingering controversy of 'Basic Instinct' and the severe impact of Daenerys Entertainment's reality shows on the results of the writers' strike.
Daenerys Entertainment's foundation was too shallow, and they simply hadn't had time to build good relations with the media, which led to the current situation.
Simon's strategy at this moment would indeed be very effective.
By throwing a $5 million marketing budget at each of the three films, they could not only promote the movies to the maximum extent but also become major clients for North America's major newspapers, magazines, and even TV networks in a very short time.
This way, if there were any negative news like 'Simon Westeros arbitrarily interfering with a director's creation' in the future, various newspapers, media outlets, and TV stations would definitely consider whether they might lose the lucrative advertising orders that Daenerys Entertainment places in their publications every year before reporting it.
In a capitalist society, control over the media is fundamentally control by capital; other so-called 'good relations' or 'personal friendships' are illusory. Whether it's The Big Seven studios or agency giants like CAA, the reason they can form close ties with the media and rarely have explosive scandals leaked is fundamentally due to the connection of interests.
Today was already August 25th, Thursday.
Simon planned to head to Australia next Monday. After finishing his day's work, he specifically spoke with Amy about this.
Since he was going to Australia, he naturally couldn't just stay for a day or two and come back. Confirming the filming locations for 'Batman', negotiating tax rebates and filming cooperation with the Australian government, meeting Janette's family, and so on, at a conservative estimate, he would have to stay there for at least a week.
However, before the trip to Australia could begin, another matter cropped up the next day.
On August 26th, Forbes magazine officially released its new annual lists: the Forbes World's Billionaires and the Forbes 400 for North America.
In Simon's memory, the release date of the Forbes rich lists was very uncertain, sometimes it was in March at the beginning of the year, and sometimes it was in August or September in the second half of the year.
Of course, these were just minor details.
Speaking of which, before this year's list was announced, the Forbes company had contacted Simon, hoping he would cooperate with the relevant data statistics. After Simon refused, they didn't push it further.
Then the sudden results of the list not only caught Simon a bit off guard but also greatly surprised the entire world.
Because...
In the new annual rich list, Forbes' calculation of Simon's personal net worth finally came to $3.1 billion.
$3.1 billion, thirty years later, this wouldn't be noticed by many people, but in this era, it was a truly massive fortune.
To give some perspective, in this year's list, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the world's richest man in the top spot, had a personal net worth of only $19 billion. In North America, Walmart founder Sam Walton's personal net worth was only $6.7 billion and was only ranked 7th on the global list.
Looking at Simon's $3.1 billion.
On the world's billionaires list, this fortune gave Simon a ranking of 16th. If that ranking wasn't quite eye-popping enough, in North America, Simon's personal net worth ranking was third only to Sam Walton's $6.7 billion at number one and John Kluge's $3.2 billion at number two.
Ranked third!
From 1986 to 1988, appearing out of nowhere for just two years, a young man who had just turned twenty with no background or status suddenly, by virtue of a massive fortune of $3.1 billion, surpassed most of the traditional wealthy families in North America that had accumulated wealth for decades or centuries. He became the third richest person in the United States and the sixteenth richest in the world. How could people not be shocked?
After the Forbes list was published, many people's first reaction was even that it was absolutely impossible.
However, the evidence provided by Forbes magazine was undeniable.
Among the assets under Simon's personal name, the tech stock assets that could be fully verified through public reporting data had reached $1.8 billion during Forbes' statistical cycle in the previous month.
In addition, after continuously launching 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' and 'Basic Instinct' and acquiring New World Entertainment, the valuation of the integrated Daenerys Entertainment also increased significantly.
Just 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?', which could be called purely profitable, was estimated to earn Daenerys Entertainment no less than 500 million dollars in net profit over the next three years, even considering a decline in popularity and ratings. After integrating New World Entertainment, Daenerys Entertainment not only became the top second-tier film company in North America, second only to The Big Seven, but also jumped to become one of the most important TV network program suppliers.
Combining data from all aspects, Forbes finally gave Daenerys Entertainment a valuation as high as $1.5 billion.
To make this valuation seem more persuasive, Forbes also conducted a special survey. As a result, among 100 fund managers on Wall Street who were questioned, 96 said they would be willing to invest in Daenerys Entertainment based on this valuation.
Furthermore, for Simon's various undisclosed non-public companies and real estate, Forbes finally gave a valuation of $250 million.
This wasn't just pulled out of thin air either.
Of the more than $300 million in cash from Westeros Company's previous reduction of Motorola holdings, half was used to increase holdings in public tech stocks. The other half, about $150 million, was used for various non-public investments. Westeros Company had also recently taken out a loan of $100 million, which was also used for non-public investments.
Added together, it was exactly $250 million.
Finally, subtracting the total of $450 million in loans from Westeros Company and Daenerys Pictures, Simon Westeros's final personal net worth figure was, $3.1 billion!