The aftermath of the new presidential election quickly settled, and in the period that followed, almost all the news in Hollywood that attracted attention came from Daenerys Entertainment.
From November 4th to November 10th, in its 17th week of release, 'Basic Instinct' officially ended its run in North America, with a cumulative box office of $117.12 million.
At the same time, 'Scream' maintained a very impressive 19% drop in its second week of release, earning another $18.35 million in seven days, bringing its cumulative box office to $39.06 million. In just these two weeks of screening, Daenerys Entertainment had completely recovered all its investment in the film and started to make a profit.
In addition, the results of the first week of limited release for 'Steel Magnolias' were also released on the same day. With a total of 22 limited release screens, the average per screen exceeded $68,000 for the week. In its first week of limited release, this film, which many people had not been optimistic about, grossed $1.51 million.
Following this, in the week before Thanksgiving, the Hollywood year-end schedule finally began to liven up.
On November 11th, if you include films that were also shown on a few dozen screens, a total of 7 new films were released in Hollywood.
However, to everyone's surprise, in the week from November 11th to November 17th, although the box office drop relative to the first week expanded to 23%, 'Scream' still maintained its position as the weekly box office champion, earning another $13.96 million, bringing its cumulative box office to a rapid $53.02 million in three weeks.
Moreover, a film closely following 'Scream' also came as a surprise: the horror film 'Child's Play' from United Artists, which grossed $9.61 million in its first week.
Without 'Scream', it's clear that this later very famous horror film would also have been the weekly box office champion. However, people also couldn't help but notice a problem: the Thanksgiving holiday, which should have been full of family-friendly atmosphere, had its two highest-grossing films both being horror movies, which was not normal at all.
Normally, only second-tier film companies like New Line, which specialize in horror films, would be keen to push their horror productions into the most popular slots, because they had no other choice. By extension, Hollywood actually didn't have many choices either; ultimately, it was the negative consequence of the Hollywood writers' strike.
Simon had studied the release schedule for the end of the year, and if Daenerys Entertainment was excluded, the major Hollywood film companies did not have any works in the Thanksgiving slot that he remembered could make it into the top ten of the box office rankings.
Only two films in the Christmas slot had this potential: one was Universal Pictures' 'Twins', starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, and the other was Paramount Pictures' 'The Naked Gun'. Moreover, neither film was released around the most popular Christmas period; 'Twins' was released on December 9th, and 'The Naked Gun' on December 2nd. Clearly, Universal and Paramount were not optimistic about these two films, but in the original timeline they became the box office dark horses of the Christmas slot next month.
However, this scheduling also meant something else: the popular December 16th and December 23rd slots were once again 'given up' by the seven major film companies. Daenerys Entertainment's 'Rain Man' and 'Dead Poets Society' would coincidentally be released on a large scale in these two weeks.
Looking at the present, after 'Child's Play', the focus remained on 'Steel Magnolias'.
In its second week of limited release, the number of screens for 'Steel Magnolias' increased to 35. Although the average weekly box office per screen decreased from $68,000 to $66,000, it still grossed $2.35 million in seven days.
As a result, even in the limited release stage, the cumulative box office for 'Steel Magnolias' had already reached $3.86 million, which was almost equivalent to the total box office of Warner Bros.' earlier film 'Feds',
In addition, like 'Basic Instinct', 'Pulp Fiction', which had been showing in North America for 23 weeks, also ended its run on November 17th, with a cumulative box office of $156.93 million over half a year, temporarily ranking first in the 1988 North American box office chart.
Following 'Pulp Fiction' was Disney's live-action and animation hybrid film 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit', which also surpassed $150 million in cumulative box office, although its weekly box office had shrunk to less than $500,000.
However, unless Disney was intentionally buying box office to compete for an annual box office champion position, it was basically unlikely for 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' to surpass 'Pulp Fiction' in its final few weeks of screening.
With the end of 'Pulp Fiction's run, Hollywood once again realized that although the distributors of 'Pulp Fiction', 'When Harry Met Sally' and 'Basic Instinct' were not Daenerys Entertainment, no one could deny that they were all works under Daenerys Entertainment, projects controlled by Simon Westeros.
Moreover, all three of these now-ended films were among the top ten on the North American annual chart. The cumulative North American box office of over $380 million for these three films was already equivalent to the annual total box office of more than half of the studios among the seven major film companies.
At this time, with the continued dazzling box office performance of 'Scream' and 'Steel Magnolias' at the end of the year, Hollywood finally felt the pressure brought by Daenerys Entertainment.
Most importantly, although they were very reluctant to admit it, the heads of the seven major companies had to face a reality.
Just as Simon had conveyed through Jack Valenti earlier, although Daenerys Entertainment had only been rising for two years, it had indeed become one of Hollywood's players. Hollywood's tricks against newcomers were nothing more than restricting distribution channels and funding sources, or perhaps adding some unsavoury lawsuit bombardments and scandal tactics, but these tricks were almost useless against Daenerys Entertainment.
Simon Westeros, with his billions of dollars in net worth, ranking third in the United States, was enough to ensure that Daenerys Entertainment would not suffer from funding shortages. Stimulated by a series of hit blockbusters, North American theatre owners would simply not join the seven majors in blocking Daenerys Entertainment's distribution channels; instead, they would eagerly cooperate with them.
As for those unsavoury methods, they might be very effective against some weak or struggling film companies, but against Daenerys Entertainment, the result would likely be a strong counterattack.
However, things always seem to have some 'breakthroughs'.
When the entire Hollywood was marvelling and confused by the rise of Daenerys Entertainment, the news that Paramount Pictures was negotiating a new film collaboration with 'Scream' director Wes Craven immediately made many people realize something.
Indeed.
Even if they couldn't directly confront Daenerys Entertainment, they could certainly poach talent from them.
As this rising star grew stronger, even if Simon Westeros was a genius, one person couldn't do everything. Moreover, even if 'Scream' was still considered Simon Westeros's work, when 'Steel Magnolias' once again showed signs of being a box office dark horse, not many people in Hollywood doubted Simon Westeros's eye for selecting projects and talent.
Who wouldn't know how to poach talent?
Due to the popular test screening results of 'Steel Magnolias', on November 18th, when the film officially opened on a large scale in North America, the number of screens had increased from the previously contracted 922 to 1135. Moreover, in the following weeks, as long as the film's box office performance met expectations, major North American theatre chains would provide even more screen resources for this film.
Encouraged by 'Scream', Daenerys Entertainment's distribution team was even more daring in their promotion and distribution of 'Steel Magnolias'.
In the week before its mass release, 'Steel Magnolias' even placed advertisements on ABC's hit show 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'. Although the ratings for 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' had been suppressed by 'Survivor' during this period, it was the program most geared towards audiences of all ages compared to 'Survivor', which perfectly aligned with the target audience of 'Steel Magnolias' as a holiday family film.
As one of the most expensive TV programs for advertising in North America, Daenerys Entertainment's previous 'Scream' hadn't dared to place ads on 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' because the winter hiatus was approaching, and the upcoming 'Rain Man' and 'Dead Poets Society' also wouldn't have such an opportunity. Three episodes of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' a week, with two 30-second commercial breaks per episode, cost Daenerys Entertainment $1.5 million in advertising fees alone.
Finally, from November 18th to November 24th, during Thanksgiving week, 'Steel Magnolias' stormed in and replaced 'Scream' as the new weekly box office champion.
In its first seven days, the final cumulative box office for 'Steel Magnolias' was $12.81 million.
Ultimately, due to the limitations of being a women's film, $12.81 million was indeed far less than 'Scream's first-week gross of $20.71 million, but it was already the best opening performance in the year-end slot, second only to 'Scream'. The film's first-week average box office per screen also reached the blockbuster level of $10,000 US dollars.
Although some media outlets manipulated the narrative that 'Steel Magnolias' box office performance was below expectations, more people understood that due to good word-of-mouth and gradually spreading audience recommendations, 'Steel Magnolias' box office had a good chance of following a very impressive long-term trajectory, similar to 'Big' from the summer slot.
The subsequent box office figures for 'Steel Magnolias' immediately proved this point.
During the Thanksgiving weekend from November 25th to November 27th, compared to its opening weekend, the film's box office drop was only a very slight 5%. Compared to the $8.26 million of its opening weekend, the three-day box office for the second weekend still reached $7.86 million, bringing its cumulative box office to $20.67 million in ten days.
Malibu.
Time had unknowingly reached Tuesday, November 29th.
Simon did not go to the company in the morning because he had to sign some bank loan and property transfer contracts today. After Janette personally went to Europe last time, Sophia Fessey had completely settled the European property matters for Simon during this period.
Crédit Lyonnais in France finally agreed to provide Simon with this loan. Considering other expenses such as renovation and maintenance for some of the houses, Simon simply borrowed $200 million from Crédit Lyonnais in one go.
After negotiations between both parties, perhaps as a prelude to future cooperation, Crédit Lyonnais offered Simon a very favourable annual loan interest rate of 4.3% for a period of five years this time.
With the consecutive runs of 'Basic Instinct' and 'Pulp Fiction' ending, and the TV show winter hiatus approaching, Daenerys Entertainment would receive many payments and final instalments in the coming month. This huge profit alone already ensured Simon's repayment ability, not to mention that in the coming years, even without other popular projects, Daenerys Entertainment was destined to continue to earn more from existing projects.
Various procedures and contracts took up the entire morning. Simon did not ignore the goodwill shown by Crédit Lyonnais this time, and even hosted a small luncheon to entertain the representatives from Crédit Lyonnais who had specially come from France.
The luncheon continued until 2 PM. After seeing off most of the guests, Simon discussed some matters of Westeros Company with James Raybould, who had also come from New York this time. Finally, the villa became quiet.
After a busy half-day, Simon took a comfortable shower, changed his clothes, and came out to see Janette and Sophia Fessey huddled together on the living room sofa, discussing how to renovate the properties. Simon felt a bit helpless; the woman had kept Sophia again.
Tying his tie independently, Simon said to Janette, "Well, you two chat slowly. I'm going to the company first. I have some things scheduled at 4 o'clock".
Janette got up, smiled, and came over, taking Simon's tie to adjust it. Then she walked out with him, saying, "We bought so many houses all at once, when are we going to live in them?"
"Next year", Simon said, feeling Janette intimately clinging to him, "There's still a year of work. After we finish the production of 'Batman' next year and the company is completely stable, we'll take a good break for a while".
"Mhm", Janette leaned her head on Simon's shoulder and nudged it, saying, "It's a promise, then".
"Of course". Simon said, "I never thought of being a workaholic my whole life. Of course, I still want to enjoy life".
Janette pouted and said, "Hmph, many workaholics think that, but they end up never stopping".
Simon chuckled and said, "Isn't there you? If I can't stop, you can just jump in and hold me back".
"I said a long time ago that I wouldn't hold you back," Janette walked Simon to the car, then nodded confidently to herself, saying, "Never".
Neil Bennett opened the car door. Simon kissed the woman on her forehead and said, "You still have to hold me back when you need to".
Joking and saying goodbye, Simon got into the car and hurried to the company headquarters in Santa Monica.
There wasn't much working time left today, so Simon arranged to meet with several candidates for Wonder Woman.
During this time, various Hollywood film companies had sent several batches of Wonder Woman candidates. Although many agencies instinctively chose the Linda Carter type, there were still quite a few who met Simon's requirements, and he easily found a few targets he wanted among them.