Chasing Stars in Hollywood

On June 19th, in the third week of "Wonder Woman" screening, the North American theaters welcomed three heavyweight new films: "Indecent Proposal" by Daenerys in collaboration with Paramount, "Alien 3" by Fox, and Disney's 2D animated movie "Aladdin."

As the summer blockbusters from their respective studios, all three movies opened in over 2,000 theaters: 2,219 for "Indecent Proposal," 2,381 for "Alien 3," and 2,137 for "Aladdin."

The release of these three new films inevitably impacted "Wonder Woman."

However, "Wonder Woman" had already maximized its box office potential in the previous two weeks of a relatively relaxed schedule. Despite a 37% drop in the third week due to the new competition, it still garnered $43.16 million, maintaining its first position in the weekly box office rankings.

After three weeks, "Wonder Woman" had surpassed the $200 million mark, reaching a total of $200.67 million.

Thanks to the controversial theme of whether a man would be willing to sell his wife for a million dollars and the starring lineup of Robert Redford and "Catwoman" Valeria Golino, "Indecent Proposal" earned $32.27 million in its opening week, placing second.

Disney's 2D animated film "Aladdin" ranked third with a first-week box office of $29.63 million, also exceeding Disney's expectations.

It's worth noting that the production cost of "Aladdin" was only $28 million.

Moreover, animated films often have a relatively long and steady box office run.

Following that, Fox's "Alien 3," which cost $50 million to produce, earned $26.84 million in its opening week, ranking fourth.

While the opening box office of "Alien 3" wasn't low, the sequel's reputation was somewhat damaged, with a media score of only 4.3 out of 10. Its first-week earnings were primarily supported by the popularity of the "Alien" series and intensive pre-release promotion.

After the first week, industry insiders widely predicted a significant drop in its second-week box office.

Next, Disney's "Sister Act" ranked fifth.

In its fifth week, the summer box office dark horse starring Whoopi Goldberg continued to bring in $7.61 million, with a cumulative box office of $71.31 million.

Despite facing the still-strong "Wonder Woman" and the three new releases, "Sister Act" saw only an 11% drop in its weekly box office from June 19th to June 25th. Thus, even with a weekly box office of just over $7 million, this comedy starring a Black lead still had a chance of breaking the $100 million mark thanks to its excellent long-term performance.

In Simon's memory, "Sister Act" had a total North American box office of over $130 million.

This time, due to the strong impact of "Wonder Woman," while "Sister Act" still had a chance of crossing the $100 million mark, it was unlikely to exceed $110 million, a reduction of over $20 million.

In its sixth week, "Lethal Weapon 3" earned $6.85 million, ranking sixth with a cumulative box office of $124.06 million.

Because it was released earlier, "Lethal Weapon 3" was less affected by "Wonder Woman," and its total North American box office still had a chance of reaching the $140 million mark from the original timeline.

Tom Cruise's "Far and Away," with a budget of $60 million, only made $3.81 million in its fourth week, with a cumulative box office of $33.91 million.

Due to low attendance rates, the already declining number of screens showing "Far and Away" was drastically reduced as most theater contracts expired, leaving only 612 screens. The total North American box office would likely remain below $40 million.

Additionally, it's worth mentioning that "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II," released during the Easter season, reached its tenth week by June 25th.

Because of the popcorn nature of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" series, this sequel had been gradually reducing its screens since the fourth week of its release.

When "Wonder Woman" premiered on June 5th, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II" had mostly ceded its mainstream screens to the superhero movie, remaining in only a few hundred rural theaters.

From June 19th to June 25th, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II" earned another $290,000 from 263 screens, with a cumulative box office of $113.17 million.

It's safe to say that as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II" would soon be withdrawn from theaters, its total North American box office would be around $113 million. For a popcorn movie sequel based on an animated series, this box office result was already very successful.

San Francisco Bay Area.

In a villa in the wooded hills of Woodside, west of Palo Alto.

The time was June 27th, Saturday.

Having been involved in the affairs of several tech companies in the area on Thursday and Friday, Simon worked until 7 PM yesterday and then attended a dinner with some executives from Igreat, so he didn't return to Los Angeles.

Jennifer Reybould was the first to open her eyes in the morning, feeling the breath of the man behind her on her neck and his strong arm tightly wrapped around her waist. She instinctively snuggled closer.

The light filtering through the curtains indicated that it was already daylight outside. She reached for her watch on the bedside table and saw that it was 6:55 AM.

Reluctant but knowing she had to get up, she moved around a bit, waking Simon, who pulled her closer, kissed her neck, and whispered, "Good morning, baby."

"Good morning."

She loved the way he casually called her "baby," so sweetly.

She was too shy to respond the same way.

She wondered how he addressed Janet in private—was it also "baby," or "honey," or perhaps "darling," which seemed too formal.

She wanted to ask but was afraid he might think she was being competitive.

As she was lost in these thoughts, the hand that had been holding her began to roam, making her body heat up. Almost giving in, she finally said, "We should get up."

"Okay."

Simon pretended to be weak, making her smile. She kissed the back of his hand and said, "You can sleep for another 15 minutes. I'll get up and prepare breakfast."

"I was very tired last night. Maybe I should sleep for another half hour."

"You're a man. You can't be lazier than a woman."

After a bit of playful negotiation, Simon finally let her go. Jennifer got up, dressed, and went to wash up.

When she went downstairs, Zoe Parks and Isabelle Dunn, who had come along, were already up.

Knowing Jennifer's habits, they had prepared breakfast ingredients and the day's newspapers before making themselves scarce.

Simon didn't stay in bed for another half hour either. After Jennifer got up, he also quickly got out of bed.

He habitually went for a morning run in the quiet and fresh air of Woodside, often encountering Larry Ellison. Since their first meeting on this mountain path last year, Simon frequently ran into the Oracle founder during his visits to San Francisco. Ellison was indeed adept at networking in such subtle ways.

Oracle had long overcome its previous crisis after some painful adjustments, and the early internet boom had further invigorated this database software company.

Most professional internet sites required databases.

Moreover, with Westeros Company holding a 25% stake in Oracle, Igreat naturally preferred to develop web technologies compatible with Oracle's database software.

There wasn't any substantial discussion during their run. After a brief chat, they parted ways.

Simon returned to the villa, showered, and dressed. Jennifer had prepared breakfast and laid out the newspapers and the previous day's North American box office reports on the table.

As Simon reviewed the box office report, Jennifer, serving him sweet soup, remarked, "Only $4.79 million on the first day. It seems a bit low."

She was referring to "A Time to Kill."

Compared to the original, the new "A Time to Kill" starred Nicolas Cage, Sandra Bullock, and Samuel L. Jackson, with a story similar to the original adapted from John Grisham's novel, dealing with themes of racial discrimination and judicial justice.

With a first-day box office of $4.79 million, the opening weekend was expected to be between $20 million and $25 million.

Such an opening was not as strong as "Wonder Woman," "Lethal Weapon 3," or even last week's "Indecent Proposal."

However, Simon was not worried. He said, "The key is the long-term box office performance. 'A Time to Kill' aims for a trajectory similar to Harrison Ford's 'Presumed Innocent.'"

Two years ago, "Presumed Innocent" had an opening weekend of just over $10 million but, thanks to strong word-of-mouth, its total North American box office exceeded $80 million.

In comparison, a $20 million to $25 million opening for "A Time to Kill" was already excellent.

After "Wonder Woman" in early June, the rest of the summer didn't have any blockbuster releases. "A Time to Kill" had been well received by critics, so its long-term performance was promising.

Having been with Simon for so long, Jennifer understood these things but habitually felt that projects led by him should have higher box office results.

After casually chatting over breakfast, they flew to Chicago for matters related to "Home Alone 2."

The post-production of this phenomenal children's comedy sequel was nearly complete.

Simon had entrusted full control

 of the "Home Alone" series to John Hughes. Hughes's company was based in Chicago, and most of his films were shot and edited there.

Although Simon could have had Hughes send the finished product to Los Angeles, he chose to visit personally.

This way, he could review the final cut and then take Jennifer shopping in nearby Toronto, Canada.

Unlike Los Angeles and San Francisco, where many eyes were watching and caution was necessary, in these cities, as long as they stayed low-key, they wouldn't be noticed.

After returning to Los Angeles on Sunday night, it was back to work for a new week.

The acquisition of LTD was now finalized, and the Victoria's Secret fashion show was rapidly progressing.

The schedule set the fashion show for early November, with the broadcast on television in mid-November, just before the holiday shopping season.

Given Simon's direct involvement, the four major North American networks showed strong interest in the show.

After several bidding negotiations, ABC acquired the broadcast rights for $5 million.

Although the $5 million covered both the premiere and five years of re-broadcast rights, this price still impressed LTD founder Leslie Wexner with Simon's influence.

The entire show's budget was only $10 million, and ABC's purchase covered half of that.

Had they known, LTD wouldn't have needed to transfer half of the show's rights to Daenerys Entertainment. But Leslie Wexner understood that without Daenerys Entertainment's involvement and Simon's leadership, ABC wouldn't have offered such a high price.

Simply put, ABC's offer was largely due to Simon's influence.

Additionally, the planned forty Victoria's Secret Angels and five spokespersons for the show had become hotly contested targets in the modeling industry.

The forty-person runway team seemed large but was insignificant in the broader context.

Modeling had virtually no entry barriers—anyone with a decent appearance could enter the field.

Although beautiful women were scarce around ordinary people, globally, the most attractive individuals, even just a small fraction, numbered in the millions.

Of course, very few could reach the top of this industry.

The rise of supermodels like Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and Claudia Schiffer over the years had always involved significant luck.

The announcement of the Victoria's Secret show immediately attracted media attention, with top modeling agencies in North America and Europe realizing that this television-broadcasted lingerie show, led by Simon, would be an exceptional platform for their models.

To climb the ranks, models sought exposure through beauty contests, relationships with celebrity singers, magazine covers, or top-brand runways.

Major luxury brands might seem aloof to the public, but they often favored models with higher visibility.

This was evident years later when top brands competed to hire IT girls or internet celebrities for their shows.

Particularly with internet celebrities, despite their lack of sophistication, they commanded millions of followers and unparalleled exposure compared to ordinary supermodels.

In recent years, anything associated with Westeros rarely lacked exposure.

Hence, top modeling agencies were now leveraging all connections to secure spots for their models among the forty Victoria's Secret Angels. The coveted five spokesperson positions were fiercely contested by established supermodels and promising newcomers alike.

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