Los Angeles.
The 46th Golden Globe Awards ceremony, held on January 28, completely became a joke in the eyes of many.
Although there are no explicit rules, the long-standing tradition for film awards is usually five nominations for one award.
However, this year's Golden Globes completely let loose.
Best Motion Picture – Drama had seven nominations; Best Director, six nominations; Best Supporting Actor, six nominations; even the technical award for Best Original Song still had six nominations.
The Golden Globe film awards were already less comprehensive than the Oscars, and the appearance of four unconventional nominations at once made the Golden Globes organizers, who had been criticized for various scandals over the years, seem even more unprofessional.
If a series of unconventional nominations was merely mocked, the chaotic results of the awards completely turned the Golden Globes into a target for attack by a large number of media outlets.
Joint winners for film awards are not uncommon; when two equally strong films compete fiercely, judges splitting the award sometimes even becomes a positive talking point.
But, have you ever seen three joint winners?
Five nominations, three winners—how were the other two supposed to feel?
This situation occurred at this year's Golden Globes.
And more than once.
Including TV awards, the 46th Golden Globe Awards ceremony saw a total of two 'triple ties' and three 'double ties'. When Sigourney Weaver, Jodie Foster, and Shirley MacLaine, the three actresses who simultaneously won Best Actress – Motion Picture – Drama, stood together on the podium, the live camera broadcast showed awkward smiles throughout the audience.
Subsequently, a series of triple and double ties followed, leaving everyone awkwardly numb.
Moreover, the award results were completely unconvincing.
Best Motion Picture – Drama was awarded to the biographical film 'Gorillas in the Mist', starring Sigourney Weaver. 'Dead Poets Society' regrettably missed out, and the Golden Globes organizers had already clarified that 'Rain Man' had not been submitted for this year's awards, which was somewhat understandable.
'Gorillas in the Mist' was indeed an excellent film.
However, Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy was awarded to 'Working Girl', which surprised everyone.
During the nomination stage, Mike Nichols' (director of 'The Graduate' and 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?') new film 'Working Girl' receiving a nomination had already caused controversy. 'The Graduate' and 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' are classics, but 'Working Girl', a business drama clearly following the trend of last year's 'Wall Street', seemed very mediocre, and its nomination was completely undeserved.
Compared to 'Wall Street', which had highly professional content that was never obscure, 'Working Girl' merely told a very clichéd workplace story.
Tess (Melanie Griffith), a junior employee, provides a business proposal to her female boss, Katharine (Sigourney Weaver). Katharine outwardly claims the proposal is invalid but actually intends to steal the idea. Tess accidentally discovers the truth, impersonates her boss, and directly contacts the target company, where she meets the company's executive, Jack (Harrison Ford). Tess and Jack spark a romance, and with Jack's help, Tess gets promoted, and Katharine is fired.
That's it…..
'Wall Street' featured professional business clashes, intense intrigue, and Gordon Gekko's nakedly greedy "greed is good". As for 'Working Girl', perhaps its only claim to fame was Mike Nichols' veteran status, having won an Oscar for Best Director with 'The Graduate' twenty years prior.
Among the other four films nominated in the same category, apart from Universal's rather unremarkable 'Midnight Run', 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit', 'A Fish Called Wanda', and 'Big' were all clearly superior to 'Working Girl'. Moreover, there were also Daenerys Entertainment's 'When Harry Met Sally' and 'Steel Magnolias', both of which clearly had the qualifications for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy but didn't even receive nominations.
Facing strong controversy, the Golden Globes organizers could only publicly explain that 'When Harry Met Sally' also did not submit a nomination. As for 'Steel Magnolias', the jury believed the film leaned more towards the drama category, and therefore did not grant it a Musical or Comedy nomination.
Blah blah blah.
Daenerys Entertainment did not leave empty-handed at this year's Golden Globes, where someone clearly overdid it with public relations. The awards for Best Director for 'Dead Poets Society' and Best Supporting Actress for 'Steel Magnolias' had already met Simon's expectations, and he had no complaints.
In Simon's view, film awards that can be influenced and manipulated are good awards. If they are too fair, it would be very troublesome instead.
Of course, such an indifferent attitude certainly couldn't be shown.
Not only that, but to pressure the upcoming Oscars, Daenerys Entertainment also timely launched a public opinion offensive, speaking out for the company's films that suffered unfair treatment at the Golden Globes.
This strategy is usually very effective.
Just like in the original timeline, when no black people were nominated at a certain Oscars, someone spoke out a few times, and then the next year, a Best Picture with an all-black production team was immediately given, black people also appeared in all director and actor award nominations, and even took home several statuettes, a proportion so high it was astonishing.
Next, on Wednesday, February 1st.
The nominations for the 61st Academy Awards were officially announced.
Daenerys Entertainment's 'Rain Man' received 8 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor.
Moreover, Simon's own name appeared in these eight nominations, for Best Original Score. Because he couldn't find the then-unknown Hans Zimmer, Simon personally completed the film's score after taking over the post-production of 'Rain Man', referencing the version he remembered.
'Dead Poets Society' also smoothly received two nominations: Best Director and Best Actor.
To avoid competing with 'Rain Man', Daenerys Entertainment voluntarily withdrew 'Dead Poets Society' from Best Picture consideration, but its other submission, Best Original Screenplay, did not make the cut.
In addition, the company also submitted 'Steel Magnolias' for 3 nominations: Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress, but only Julia Roberts received a Best Supporting Actress nomination, with the other two nominations also falling through.
In total, Daenerys Entertainment received 11 nominations for the upcoming Oscars.
Such a performance was not particularly outstanding. Warner Bros., through six films—'Dangerous Liaisons', 'The Accidental Tourist', 'Gorillas in the Mist', 'Bird', 'Beetlejuice', and 'Running on Empty'—garnered a total of 19 nominations.
However, apart from 'Dangerous Liaisons', starring Sandra, which led with 7 nominations, most of the other films received non-core nominations.
On the other hand, because Orion Pictures still focused its public relations efforts on 'Mississippi Burning', 'Pulp Fiction', whose rights were held by them, only received one nomination for John Travolta as Best Actor this time, one less than its Golden Globe script nomination.
As the winner of last year's Cannes Palme d'Or, 'Pulp Fiction' had undeniable critical acclaim and box office success.
After going home empty-handed at the Golden Globes and then being ignored by the Oscars, many media outlets couldn't help but speak out for the film. This was because, in this year's Oscar nominations, Mike Nichols's 'Working Girl' still garnered significant attention, receiving a total of 6 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.
A film critic from "Variety" magazine, after the Oscar nominations were announced, sharply criticized the Golden Globes and Oscar organizers for forcibly downgrading a super 'big year' with a large number of excellent films like 'Rain Man', 'Pulp Fiction', 'Dead Poets Society', 'A Fish Called Wanda', 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit', 'When Harry Met Sally' and so on, into a mediocre 'small year' through their insider-filled award selections.
The film critic also unreservedly pointed the finger at the Writers Guild of America.
Careful observers would easily notice that, apart from the universally acclaimed 'Rain Man', other Daenerys Entertainment films like 'Dead Poets Society', 'Steel Magnolias', 'When Harry Met Sally', and especially Simon Westeros's own 'Pulp Fiction', all failed to receive nominations in the screenplay categories.
Simon Westeros, as the most outstanding young screenwriter of the fading 1980s, failing to get even a single nomination for two consecutive years was simply a joke.
The judges for the Oscar screenwriting awards are basically all members of the Writers Guild of America.
Daenerys Entertainment's popular reality show 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' almost caused the Writers Guild's strike last year to fail completely. Although the strike eventually reached a successful settlement, the agreement reached was severely watered down.
Under such deep-seated conflict, the Writers Guild not ignoring 'Rain Man' was already them leaving themselves some leeway. For other Daenerys Entertainment films like 'Pulp Fiction', naturally, no nominations should be expected.
Of course, as Daenerys Entertainment's strength further increases, the conflict between the two sides will gradually resolve.
Ultimately, the relationship between screenwriters and film companies is always that of employee and boss. When it comes to their livelihoods, whether willing or not, most people must choose to forget or pretend to forget, and then compromise.
The turmoil in the Japanese financial market did not affect Daenerys Entertainment's operations.
After the Oscar nominations were announced, Ira Deutchman began the final stage of his public relations sprint.
At the same time, Daenerys Entertainment also released its first film of the new year, Kathryn's second theatrical feature, 'Blue Steel', on February 3rd.
Compared to blockbusters like 'Rain Man' that were still steadily raking in box office revenue, 'Blue Steel' received decent critical acclaim, averaging 7 points, but its box office performance was somewhat lacklustre. In its opening week, 'Blue Steel' only earned $3.81 million across 1,121 screens in North America, with an estimated total domestic gross of only around $8 million.
The final production cost of 'Blue Steel' was $10 million, with distribution and marketing costs around $3.5 million. A North American box office of $8 million, even with other distribution revenues, still destined it for a multi-million dollar loss.
The special relationship between Simon and Kathryn was no secret in the industry.
Therefore, Daenerys Entertainment was not overly concerned about the film's failure. In fact, after a whole year of blockbusters, an occasional loss or two even felt quite good.
The world couldn't stay abnormal forever, after all.
On February 17th, after more than a month of financial auditing, Daenerys Entertainment's 1988 financial report was finally released.
As of December 31, 1988, Daenerys Entertainment Group's total annual revenue reached $708 million.
Because Daenerys Entertainment was still in its early stages of development, the company's departmental revenues were not meticulously categorized. For now, they were only divided into three major business segments: film, television, and comics. Revenues from film and television derivatives, which were still very small, were directly consolidated, as were expenditures such as office space purchases and private jet leases.
Among the three major business segments:
Film business total revenue was $276 million, including various types of revenue sharing from a series of Daenerys Pictures films and theatrical and video channel revenues from New World Pictures films.
Daenerys Entertainment invested heavily in film production, distribution, and rights acquisition last year. Films like 'Rain Man' and 'Dead Poets Society' had not yet generated returns for the company before December 31, 1988, and the profits from various films under New World Pictures were also very meagre.
After deducting various costs, taxes, and other expenses, Daenerys Pictures' film business had a net profit of only $67.72 million.
In comparison, the television business, managed by Robert Iger, generated revenues of $361 million, with 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' alone contributing $196 million. Other reality shows like 'Survivor' and TV drama projects inherited from New World Pictures, such as 'The Wonder Years', also brought in good earnings.
Due to the extremely high profit margin of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' out of $361 million in revenue, after deducting all costs, the television business department's net profit still reached $165.75 million.
Finally, Marvel Entertainment's comic book business, which Simon specifically requested to be accounted for separately, had annual revenue of $71.32 million and a net profit of $5.26 million.
In fact, since 1975, Marvel, under the management of Stan Lee and James Gold, had consistently maintained a stable profit.
Although the North American comic book industry had been shrinking in recent years, and Marvel's net profit margin of less than 10% seemed somewhat low, if it weren't for the bankruptcy liquidation of Marvel's parent company, Cadence Industries Holding Group, in 1986, the comic company would not have been easily sold off.
Thus, after all calculations, Daenerys Entertainment Group's total net profit for 1988 reached $238.73 million.
A net profit of $238.73 million, not to mention Hollywood's second and third-tier film companies, even among the Big Seven studios, only Warner, Paramount, and Disney had profit scales exceeding this figure. Warner's figure also included the performance of the entire Warner Bros. company, not just Warner Bros. Pictures alone.
As for the others, Columbia and MGM were in the red last year, Universal's film performance for the past two years was only propped up by 'Twins' at the end of last year, the entire MCA Group's profit in 1988 was less than $200 million, Barry Diller's focus remained on television network expansion, and Fox Film Corporation was just barely breaking even.
In fact, the current situation wasn't due to the Hollywood studios being weak; it was mainly because Daenerys Entertainment's performance was too outstanding.
Even extending to other corporate sectors in North America, according to Forbes' data on the top 500 U.S. companies by revenue and profit, the 1988 figures were not yet fully compiled, but referencing 1987, Daenerys Entertainment's profit scale of $238 million was already enough to rank among the top 70 on the North American domestic top 500 list.
In this era, apart from a handful of companies like Ford Motor Company and General Electric whose profit scales could reach the billion-dollar level, over 95% of companies on the North American domestic top 500 list had annual profits within $100 million, and only about 150 companies had net profits exceeding $100 million.
Therefore, when these financial figures, which would undoubtedly make too many people envious, were released, the senior executives of Daenerys Entertainment unanimously decided to keep them as confidential as possible.
The outside world already had various speculations about Daenerys Entertainment's 1988 profit scale, and most media analyses were very accurate.
However, just like many well-known deeply closeted individuals in Hollywood, as long as a celebrity doesn't publicly come out, even if there are many signs proving they are gay, moviegoers who are often unwilling to face reality are still happy to believe that the facts are not so.
Similarly, as long as Daenerys Entertainment does not publicly disclose detailed financial data, other Hollywood film companies will only subconsciously ignore the matter.