Universal Studios in Burbank.
Halloween was tomorrow, and the park was staging a week-long celebration. Even though it was a Monday afternoon, the 200-hectare film-and-entertainment complex bustled with life.
In an office building in the northern admin quarter, MCA chairman Lew Wasserman and company CEO Sid Sheinberg sat by the fifth-floor window.
At 75, Lew Wasserman was gaunt, with huge tortoise-shell reading glasses perched on his nose. The man once lampooned by the press as the real-life model for E.T had controlled MCA for three decades, turning a talent agency into a media empire. Sid Sheinberg, barely past fifty, had discovered Spielberg and had himself been a Hollywood power for more than a decade.
Watching the crowds drift through the park, the two moguls talked about Daenerys Entertainment's 'Scream'.
Sid Sheinberg handed Lew Wasserman a file he had already studied several times. "Marketing just finished it. Daenerys's rollout of scream is textbook: pinpoint teen targeting, ads on network teen shows, MTV, youth magazines, and two teams blanketing every first- and second-tier city. Above all, their distribution team executes flawlessly. That's why the grosses are climbing".
Wasserman opened it. "Can we do the same for John Carpenter's 'They Live'?"
'They Live', the sci-fi thriller opening Friday, came from the director behind the Halloween franchise.
Sheinberg shook his head. "Carpenter's new film is mediocre, and it only cost $4 million. It's not worth a major push".
Wasserman glanced at him. "'Scream' didn't cost much either, did it?"
Sheinberg gave a dry laugh. According to the report, Daenerys had already spent $1.3 million just on 1,755 release prints, plus north of $7 million on ads and talent tours, easily topping the film's $10 million production budget.
With the grosses rising, Daenerys would keep spending, probably outstripping the picture's negative cost.
Would Universal dare do that?
Maybe.
But first you'd need a film as good as 'Scream'.
Take personal appearances: 'Scream's cast of attractive young actors naturally clicks with teens. 'They Live' is a buddy picture shot in black-and-white, its two leads in their thirties and barely known. Fine on screen, but in person they draw crickets.
Seeing Wasserman stay silent, Sheinberg hesitated. "Lou, what happened with the MPAA the other day?"
Wasserman's page-turning hand paused. He recounted MPAA chairman Jack Valenti's message, then added, "He's a wild kid at heart. He'll play by the rules yet thumb his nose at them; he knows restraint but can be ruthless. Worst of all, he's only twenty. That's an edge none of us have. If MCA is sold in the next few years I'll retire; I don't need an enemy who could ruin my old age".
Sheinberg wasn't ready to concede. "So we just let Daenerys keep growing?"
Wasserman's shrewd eyes met his. "If you want to try something, be my guest".
Sheinberg wavered. "Gene in distribution told me 'Scream's producer, Ron McMillan, got entangled with one of the actresses, promised her a big role and didn't deliver".
In Hollywood, reneging after the fact is hardly news.
Wasserman frowned. "How old is the girl?"
"Twenties, I think."
"A twenty-something, without serious leverage, why would she risk her career to fight Daenerys? And if they trace the stunt back to us, couldn't they hit Universal with the same weapon?"
The earlier rating flap had been a few old men trying to teach the newcomer a lesson; it nearly blew up in their faces.
Wasserman still shuddered at the message the kid had sent through Valenti. Age pushes men toward caution; he wanted no all-out war between old and new Hollywood.
Sheinberg's idea was bottom-of-the-barrel stupidity.
Almost no one in town is lily-white on sex; fling that mud and it comes right back.
And Universal would gain nothing.
In the end, only profit drives rivalry.
The writers' strike had hollowed out this Halloween season; 'Scream' surged into the void. Its red-hot grosses stirred envy, yet posed no real threat to The Big Seven.
Without a juicy prize, such sleazy tactics cost more than they're worth.
Sheinberg studied Wasserman's face and quickly dropped the notion.
Though he had been number two at MCA for years, he knew Wasserman held every real lever. If a scandal blew up and the Old Man wanted to keep MCA out of it, he would happily serve Sheinberg's head on a platter.
While Lew Wasserman and Sid Sheinberg were discussing scream, Paramount Pictures president Sidney Ganis had just hosted Wes Craven for lunch at the Paramount lot in Hollywood.
Compared with Sid Sheinberg's behind-the-scenes manoeuvring, Sidney Ganis was far more pragmatic.
Thanks to summer hits 'Coming to America' and 'Crocodile Dundee II', each topping $100 million, Paramount's slate looked spectacular, and Ganis was determined to keep the momentum, he had zero interest in picking a fight with Daenerys Entertainment.
A few years earlier, Wes Craven's self-written, self-directed 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' had let upstart New Line Cinema rocket into prominence; more recently he'd delivered the blockbusters 'Final Destination' and 'Scream'. Simon Westeros's invisible hand played a part, but Craven himself had become one of Hollywood's directors worth courting.
No deal was struck over lunch, yet Ganis sensed that Craven still hadn't locked a sequel agreement with Daenerys Entertainment, which left Paramount a wide-open door.
After seeing Wes Craven off, Sidney Ganis turned to the assistant behind him: 'Did you reach 'Scream's writer, Bruce Joel Rubin?'
The assistant nodded, "I've set a meeting for ten tomorrow morning."
Ganis nodded and was heading to his office when he added, "Compile dossiers on every key talent attached to Daenerys's year-end films".
Across Los Angeles, conversations like Warner's and Paramount's were circling the same topic: Daenerys Entertainment.
Until now, Daenerys's releases had piggybacked on other studios' distribution networks; 'Scream's breakout roar finally cemented the company as the top second-tier outfit, a notch below The Big Seven.
Some wanted to woo them, some to trip them, some to poach their people, and others could only watch in envy.
A hidden current had swirled around Daenerys without Hollywood even noticing; where it would break, no one could guess.
Weekend melted into Halloween, and weekday grosses, buoyed by holiday spirit, vaulted far above the norm.
After its first week, scream rang up a final $20.71 million.
Spurred by 'Scream', North America's total box office leapt from $32.67 million to $47.36 million for the October 28–November 3 frame. The slasher alone claimed 43 percent of the pie, leaving the other sixteen wide releases to split the scraps.
Runner-up 'Halloween 4' managed just $5.23 million against scream's $20.71 million.
Jodie Foster's 'The Accused', though well reviewed and leggy, slipped to $3.69 million in week three, limited by subject matter and market size.
Fox's 'Alien Nation', tumbling for the second week straight, scraped together $2.92 million.
'Gorillas In The Mist' with Sigourney Weaver and 'Punchline' with Tom Hanks rounded out fifth and sixth.
Warner Bros.'s 'Feds', seventh place as on opening day, limped to a miserable $1.63 million first week and would vanish the moment next weekend's wide releases arrived.
Friday, November 4.
Four new pictures were releasing, a sharp uptick from last week's quiet.
Only Daenerys Entertainment's limited rollout of 'Steel Magnolias' on twenty-two North American screens carried studio weight; the other three were afterthoughts.
Paramount's 'Rattle and Hum' was essentially a U2 concert doc, while John Carpenter's 'They Live' and Diane Keaton's 'The Good Mother' were clearly projects neither Universal nor Disney had much faith in.
Simon and Janette had flown to New York for Halloween and were back by Friday morning.
Santa Monica.
Inside a large conference room at Daenerys Entertainment headquarters that Friday afternoon, Simon listened with Amy Pascal, Robert Iger, Robert Rem, and several other execs as Nancy Brill, the newly hired head of consumer products, laid out her plan for the division.
Nancy Brill, poached from toy giant Hasbro, looked thirty-something, her soft French features swept into a blond chignon and black power suit projecting brisk competence.
Daenerys had few properties ready for merchandising: the earliest films had off-loaded 'Run Lola Run' rights cheaply, and 'Pulp Fiction' tie-ins were tied up at Orion.
For now, the company's exploitable titles were the hot reality shows, the newly minted 'Scream' franchise, and, on the horizon, next year's crown jewel, 'Batman'.
With rich profits already flowing from ticket sales and broadcasts, Simon was wary of over-exploitation; Nancy's mandate for the next year or two was to build infrastructure, train teams, and open channels.
"Lastly, videogames", she concluded. "The post-Atari crash is over; Japanese console makers are reviving the industry. 'Run Lola Run' and 'Scream' are naturals for adaptation, and we'll soon own more. Learning from Atari's implosion, we should license out, letting specialized studios develop while we invest selectively, never micromanage".