Chasing Stars in Hollywood

The internet industry was just beginning to rise, and similar online rental platforms had not yet appeared.

Thus, Blockbuster had no urgent need to transform.

The launch of Blockbuster Online was more of a preemptive move. Initially, the service would only be available in major cities on the East and West Coasts, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. This strategy would save costs while allowing them to gain experience in online operations early on.

Thanks to Egret's early success in e-commerce, Blockbuster Online opened on Independence Day weekend in the USA and achieved impressive results. In just three days, 160,000 Blockbuster members activated their online services, and over 200,000 purchase and rental orders were placed through the platform.

After the Independence Day holiday, with Simon's support, Nancy Briar also began pushing for the gradual elimination of late fees at Blockbuster.

Due to the strong independence of franchisees, even with board approval, this change was difficult to implement quickly.

Fortunately, Nancy Briar planned to use this opportunity to further strengthen Blockbuster's membership system and increase user retention, so she was not in a rush.

In Hollywood, during the week of July 3rd to July 9th, three new films hit North American theaters: "The Last of the Mohicans," "Honey, I Blew Up the Kid," and "Patriot Games." Despite the boost from the Independence Day holiday, their box office performances were disappointing.

"Patriot Games," the sequel to Paramount's "The Hunt for Red October," featuring Harrison Ford, had the best performance, grossing $25.29 million in its first seven days, ranking second in the weekly box office.

Similarly, Disney's sequel "Honey, I Blew Up the Kid" did not replicate the success of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" from three years ago. With a $40 million production budget and 2,311 screens, this sci-fi family comedy grossed only $18.39 million in its first week, far below Disney's expectations.

Moreover, "Honey, I Blew Up the Kid" received mediocre reviews from both critics and audiences, and with a low initial gross, it faced the possibility of significant drop-offs in the following weeks, making its box office prospects uncertain.

The collaboration between Daenerys Entertainment and Warner Bros. on "The Last of the Mohicans," an adaptation of the frequently remade "knight saves princess" novel, received unanimous praise from critics, achieving a composite media score of 9.5.

However, perhaps due to its period setting, the film's opening week box office was underwhelming. With 2,173 screens, it grossed $23.19 million, achieving a per-theater average of over $10,000, indicating strong performance, but it couldn't be considered a blockbuster.

Of course, due to its excellent reviews, "The Last of the Mohicans" was expected to have strong long-term box office prospects compared to Disney's "Honey, I Blew Up the Kid."

The mediocre openings of the three new films allowed "Wonder Woman" to retain the top spot in the box office for another week.

In its fifth week, thanks to the Independence Day holiday, "Wonder Woman" saw only a 17% drop, grossing $26.15 million. In five weeks, this female superhero film's North American box office reached $260.32 million.

This figure had already surpassed last year's "The Flash" North American total, second only to "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight."

Considering "Wonder Woman" still had a weekly box office base of over $25 million and a favorable drop-off curve, it was very likely to surpass $350 million, potentially even catching up to "The Dark Knight's" $373 million.

With the release of "The Last of the Mohicans," the four major films related to Daenerys Entertainment for the 1992 summer season had all been released.

Overall, "Wonder Woman" was the strongest performer.

Next was "Indecent Proposal," which had a higher opening box office than the other two films, grossing $32.27 million in its first week. However, in its second and third weeks, "Indecent Proposal" saw significant drop-offs of 40% and 32%, grossing $19.10 million and $12.99 million, respectively.

In three weeks, "Indecent Proposal" grossed $64.37 million in North America. With subsequent releases, the film's North American box office was expected to be between $80 million and $100 million, enough for the producers to recoup all production and marketing costs and possibly make a small profit.

Making back its production costs domestically meant "Indecent Proposal" would earn substantial profits from international releases, home video sales, and television broadcasts.

Even if not a dark horse, it was undoubtedly a very successful project.

"Time to Kill," after grossing $23.73 million in its opening week, had only a 13% drop in its second week, grossing another $20.64 million, reaching a total of $44.37 million in two weeks. This courtroom crime film about racial discrimination and judicial justice successfully replicated the box office trajectory of Harrison Ford's "Presumed Innocent," and it was expected to break the $100 million mark in North America through long-term screening.

"The Last of the Mohicans" had even better reviews than "Time to Kill." Its $23.19 million opening matched "Time to Kill," and while its future box office trajectory was still uncertain, the two films were likely to follow similar patterns.

In summary, the three co-produced films were all expected to gross around $100 million in North America.

While these box office numbers couldn't compare to "Wonder Woman," they were enough to rank high on the annual box office charts.

Following "Indecent Proposal," "Time to Kill," and "The Last of the Mohicans," Daenerys Entertainment's remaining external projects included four films: "Sleepless in Seattle" with Disney, "The Pelican Brief" with Warner Bros., and two "Mission: Impossible" films with Paramount.

After the Independence Day holiday, the summer season was halfway over.

On July 10th, two new films opened in North America: MGM's "HouseSitter" and Fox's "Consenting Adults."

"HouseSitter" was originally a Universal project, starring Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, about a hotel worker who moves into the protagonist's villa and pretends to be his wife, leading to a series of events.

Daenerys Entertainment had too many projects, and "HouseSitter" was initially set to be cut.

However, given the film's decent box office potential, Simon decided to transfer it to MGM.

Fox's "Consenting Adults" was another film following the trend of extramarital affair thrillers like Michael Douglas's "Fatal Attraction."

Looking ahead to the remaining films in July and August, aside from Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven" set to release on August 7th, Simon didn't see any other films with significant box office potential. This lack of strong competition was ideal for the long-term performance of "Wonder Woman," "Time to Kill," and the other four films.

For Daenerys Entertainment, this summer season was another major success.

Entering July, two other key projects for Daenerys Entertainment began filming: "Sleepless in Seattle" starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, and the fall TV series "Desperate Housewives." Additionally, promotion for the year-end releases "The Ring," "Home Alone 2," and "Jurassic Park" officially began.

However, the most attention was still on the ongoing 1992 U.S. presidential election.

After months of competition, incumbent President George Bush further secured his position as the Republican candidate for this year's election. On the Democratic side, with the gradual withdrawal of various competitors, Bill Clinton's advantage became increasingly apparent.

Yet, this time, the traditional two-party candidates were overshadowed by independent candidate Ross Perot.

Due to George Bush's numerous controversial policies and the Democratic Party's lack of a universally favored candidate, combined with the economic downturn leading to public dissatisfaction, Ross Perot, a strong-willed and attention-seeking billionaire, gradually garnered increasing attention.

Since officially announcing his candidacy, Ross Perot's support rate once reached 36%.

As a result, both parties increasingly felt threatened by Perot.

Fearing his influence, some began attacking Ross Perot more frequently.

On July 13th, the start of a new week, Simon and Janet had just woken up when James Rebold called. At 9 a.m. Eastern Time, Ross Perot suddenly held a press conference announcing his withdrawal from the presidential race.

Despite knowing from memory that Ross Perot would withdraw, Simon was still surprised by the news.

However, some things did happen "again."

Today, Janet was originally supposed to fly to New York alone. With this sudden development, the couple had breakfast and then boarded a plane to the East Coast together.

They arrived in Manhattan at 4 p.m. East Coast time.

In the evening, they invited the Rebolds and Joseph Schrap, head of Schrap Consulting, to dinner at their estate in Greenwich. Joseph Schrap shared some newly acquired information with Simon.

Ross Perot's withdrawal was actually a strategic move.

Privately, Perot knew he couldn't win this presidential election, so he was gradually being courted by the Democratic Party.

Currently, Ross Perot, with over 30% support, not only threatened George Bush's votes but also significantly impacted both major party candidates. If this continued, it could undermine the intended split of conservative votes.

After several rounds of communication, Ross Perot decided to temporarily withdraw, allowing his high support rate to cool down and giving the Democratic Party enough time to gain momentum.

Upon hearing Joseph Schrap's explanation, Simon reviewed his

 memories and quickly understood.

In his memory, Ross Perot indeed announced his withdrawal in July. However, some people still didn't let him go, even attempting to disrupt Perot's daughter's wedding in August through malicious media gossip.

If Ross Perot was genuinely withdrawing, he would know not to provoke this strong-willed billionaire further.

The continued petty actions suggested that some had sensed something.

These actions gave Perot an excuse to re-enter the race in October.

Moreover, in his memory, Ross Perot specifically accused the Bush administration of using unscrupulous means to ruin his daughter's wedding.

In reality, these means were not that severe, just publicizing some alleged lesbian photos of Perot's daughter in the gossip media. Perot insisted these photos were doctored.

As for the truth, Simon didn't care.

In recent months, Egret Portal had been subtly promoting news favoring Bill Clinton. Although Simon didn't intervene personally, some high-level figures in the Westeros system quietly organized several fundraisers for Clinton.

Moreover, Hollywood and Silicon Valley had many people supporting the Democratic Party, largely influenced by the Westeros system.

Having done what he could, and knowing the inside story of Perot's withdrawal, Simon made some arrangements and then retreated to observe.

After acquiring LTD, the Apollo Management team wouldn't take major actions in the short term.

Cersei Fund Management's hedge fund team also reported its mid-year performance. Stimulated by the increasing market interest in tech stocks, the hedge fund team achieved a 21% net return through long positions in tech stocks in the first half of 1992.

After the routine settlement at the beginning of the year, the $3 billion principal had grown to $3.6 billion through six months of operations.

Conservatively estimated, the hedge fund was expected to achieve a post-tax profit of $1 billion by the end of 1992.

Even if the return rate wasn't as high as during the market boom of the past two years, over 30% net profitability still surpassed most industry competitors.

Of course, it wouldn't match the Quantum Fund's upcoming attack on European currencies.

However, Simon had no intention of being a front-runner in this.

Earning a profit on European currencies could lead to more significant losses in Westeros's other European businesses.

Additionally, BlackRock Asset Management, one of Cersei Capital's three subsidiaries, had seen the fastest growth.

Both Cersei Fund Management and Apollo Management controlled tens of billions of dollars each.

BlackRock Asset Management, mainly dealing with low-risk investments like fixed income, government bonds, and large-cap stocks, rapidly expanded its scale following the post-Gulf War North American stock market recovery. Its managed assets now exceeded $70 billion.

Of course, this figure was still far from the $6 trillion asset scale that BlackRock Asset Management reached at its peak in Simon's memory.

Nevertheless, compared to similar asset management companies, BlackRock Asset Management had become a major player. Considering the company was less than ten years old, even counting its beginnings as a Blackstone Group subsidiary, its growth rate was remarkable.

Moreover, the $70 billion asset scale was already enough to significantly influence many industries.

_________________________

[Check out my Patreon for +200 additional chapters in all my fanfics! $5 for all!!] [[email protected]/INNIT]