On a Boeing 747 first-class flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles, Michael Ovitz spent the entire 12-hour journey poring over various documents.
Initially, when attempting to broker a deal for Sony to acquire MCA, Lou Wasserman demanded a hefty $8 billion. Sony, with a market value of only $14 billion at the time, declined. Michael Ovitz then shifted his focus to Columbia.
Coca-Cola also coincidentally intended to divest non-core businesses, and both parties had officially commenced negotiations.
The date was January 7th.
Michael Ovitz, leading the negotiation team assisting Sony in acquiring Columbia, had spent two days in Tokyo and was now returning.
Currently, that young man had already departed for Australia to film 'Batman', but it seemed Hollywood still revolved around Daenerys Entertainment these past few days. The several documents Michael Ovitz reviewed during his journey were also related to Daenerys Entertainment.
In the past year, as of December 31, 1988, the total cumulative box office revenue in the US market was $4.69 billion.
If calculated based on the December 31st deadline and categorized by distributor, Disney was the highest-grossing film company in Hollywood this year, with a total of $531 million, accounting for an 11.3% market share.
Following Disney, Paramount, Warner, and Universal each held roughly 10% of the market share.
Among these, Daenerys Entertainment's independently distributed films, 'Scream', 'Steel Magnolias', 'Dead Poets Society', 'Rain Man', and the bonus film 'Elvira: Mistress of the Dark', had a cumulative box office of only $256 million as of December 31st, representing a 5.5% market share.
Based solely on this data, Daenerys Entertainment appeared to be nothing special.
However, the entire Hollywood understood that this method of calculation was simply burying one's head in the sand.
If calculated by production company, Daenerys Entertainment's seven films this year, 'When Harry Met Sally', 'Pulp Fiction', 'Basic Instinct', 'Scream', 'Steel Magnolias', 'Dead Poets Society', and 'Rain Man', had already reached a cumulative box office of $730 million as of December 31st.
$730 million would immediately raise Daenerys Entertainment's market share from 5.5% to 15.6%.
What's even more impossible to ignore is that this $730 million in box office, accounting for 15.6% of the market share, was generated by only 7 films. In comparison, Disney's $531 million in box office represented 15 films, one of which was Daenerys Entertainment's 'When Harry Met Sally'.
Moreover, if calculated based on the estimated total North American box office for Daenerys Entertainment's films, the total box office for the seven films could potentially reach a terrifying $900 million. $900 million, this is already close to 20% of the annual US box office.
It is conceivable that if this situation continues, Daenerys Entertainment is very likely to become an industry hegemon like MGM in Hollywood's Golden Age.
A standalone film company that has risen in only two years showing such strong development potential would normally elicit a few words of praise from Michael Ovitz. But now, this powerful company is in opposition to CAA.
Michael Ovitz had no regrets about CAA's role in fanning the flames of the 'Rain Man' incident. He had once told his clients that if necessary, he would kill for them. It was precisely because CAA unconditionally stood by its clients, doing its utmost to protect their interests, that more and more top stars were willing to join this talent agency.
If you can't be friends, then be enemies.
Daenerys Entertainment's strong position would undoubtedly severely harm the interests of traditional Hollywood major film companies. After his attempt to reconcile with Daenerys Entertainment was rejected a few days ago, Ovitz had probed the heads of various Hollywood film companies. He wanted to know if the Big Seven could potentially unite to suppress Daenerys Entertainment.
The answer, however, was no.
Among the Big Seven, Warner was currently collaborating with Daenerys Entertainment on 'Batman' and 'Look Who's Talking'. At this point, it was simply impossible for them to be an enemy of Daenerys Entertainment.
Disney still held a directing contract with Simon Westeros. Judging from the box office performance of 'Run Lola Run' and 'Pulp Fiction', films personally directed by Simon Westeros had great potential to break $100 million at the box office. Disney was clearly unwilling to oppose Daenerys Entertainment and lose a project that was very likely to gross over $100 million.
Then there was Fox. With three consecutive film collaborations, 'The Butterfly Effect', 'Final Destination', and 'Basic Instinct', coupled with the Murdoch family and Westeros' girlfriend, the Johnston family, both being Australians, the likelihood of Fox opposing Simon Westeros was also very low.
With three of the Big Seven out, uniting to suppress Daenerys Entertainment had already become a fantasy.
Of the remaining Paramount, Universal, Columbia, and MGM, Paramount's operations had been very good in the past two years, and they had no intention of being an enemy of Daenerys Entertainment. Columbia was busy selling itself and also had no intention of doing so.
MGM, having been "tricked" in the 'Rain Man' incident, did have such an intention, but with MGM's current dilapidated state, it was completely willing but unable.
Finally, Universal. Michael Ovitz knew that the 'Scream' rating incident was mainly driven by Lou Wasserman behind the scenes. But for some reason, Universal subsequently made no other moves.
In short, it was simply impossible to get the Hollywood Big Seven film companies to unite to suppress the rise of Daenerys Entertainment. Outside of the Big Seven, second and third-tier film companies like Orion had even less capital to oppose Daenerys Entertainment.
Michael Ovitz also understood that, in the final analysis, it was still a lack of self-interest. Or rather, while Daenerys Entertainment's share of Hollywood's box office was enormous, it had not yet reached a point where other film companies felt they could not survive.
In this situation, the traditional Hollywood forces could only instinctively retaliate in certain areas.
For example, the upcoming awards season.
The Oscar statuette represented profit, and to win awards, traditional forces would certainly move to suppress Daenerys Entertainment.
Additionally, it would likely involve directly snatching potentially successful projects from Daenerys Entertainment.
Thinking of this, Michael Ovitz once again lowered his head and found the two screenplays, 'The Rocketeer' and 'Fire Birds', from a pile of materials.
In recent days, Ovitz had read both screenplays several times and had also inquired in detail about how Paramount acquired them.
Paramount President Sidney Ganis bribed Simon Westeros' secretary, thereby intercepting these two screenplays. Such incidents were not uncommon in Hollywood, so there was nothing particularly glorious or inglorious about it.
However, Ovitz felt that this matter seemed not as simple as it appeared on the surface.
Because Simon Westeros' reaction was too calm. Daenerys Entertainment merely fired the secretary afterwards and made no attempts to salvage these two projects or similar actions. Compared to Daenerys Entertainment's actions with CAA in the 'Rain Man' incident, this was too abnormal.
Michael Ovitz had considered many possibilities.
Or, did Simon Westeros have enough confidence that these two projects would not succeed in other hands?
Or, was this originally a trap thrown out by Simon Westeros?
However, neither of these two conjectures seemed very reliable.
Michael Ovitz had always believed that as long as a film company was serious and focused enough, and invested sufficient resources into a project, then that film could not be too much of a failure, at least it would be difficult for it to fail miserably.
Furthermore, because a film goes through too many stages from script to finished product, it was also unlikely that there were inherently doomed scripts in Hollywood. In most cases, it was simply the creators messing up the script during the filming process.
After an unknown amount of time, the announcement in the cabin reminded that the plane was about to land, and Michael Ovitz woke up from his thoughts.
Perhaps, he was really a little too suspicious.
Among the films currently being developed by Daenerys Entertainment, there were two comic book adaptation projects: 'Batman' and 'Brenda Starr'. Warren Beatty, represented by CAA, was also recently negotiating a comic book adaptation screenplay, 'Dick Tracy', with Disney.
So, looking at 'The Rocketeer' in hand, perhaps comic book movies really are the trend for the next few years.
As for 'Fire Birds', he personally pushed for Tom Cruise to star in 'Top Gun'. Now, a film attempting to replicate the success of 'Top Gun', if done seriously, clearly couldn't fail too badly either.
Moreover, it was rumoured that Matt Dillon, represented by Jonathan Friedman, was trying to secure the lead role in 'Fire Birds'. Jonathan Friedman's relationship with Simon Westeros was self-evident, which also ruled out the possibility of this screenplay being a trap.
As the plane began its descent, Michael Ovitz tidied up the documents in front of him, buckled his seatbelt, and made up his mind to have CAA's artists try their best to secure the leading roles in these two projects. Cruise probably wouldn't want to repeat a role similar to 'Top Gun', so the lead role in 'The Rocketeer' was quite suitable for him.
Calculating this, he got off the plane.
As soon as he sat in the company car sent to pick him up, Ovitz's assistant told him about an unexpected event that had occurred in the past two days.
Kirstie Alley, a leading TV actress represented by CAA, suddenly announced in the past few days that she was moving to WMA. Kirstie Alley was very well-known in the television industry, and if a star of this calibre insisted on leaving, talent agencies usually found it difficult to retain them.
CAA didn't mind and simply let her go.
Then, this morning, Daenerys Entertainment suddenly announced that Kirstie Alley had officially joined the cast of 'Look Who's Talking', replacing Meg Ryan as the female lead, Mollie Jensen.
After hearing his assistant's narration, Ovitz, who usually had good self-control, couldn't help but curse loudly in the car.
Ovitz didn't care about a simple celebrity switching agencies.
However, Daenerys Entertainment's sudden move could potentially send a very unfavourable signal to Hollywood regarding CAA: if you want to join a Daenerys Entertainment film, quit CAA first.
It is conceivable that if this view spreads, and if Daenerys Entertainment's box office miracle continues, CAA will definitely face a talent drain disaster.