Hunting in Hollywood

After earning $27.11 million on its opening weekend, "Scream 3" ended its first week with a total box office of $37.13 million.

Calculations showed that the weekday earnings accounted for only 27% of the total weekly box office, which further indicated the final installment of this horror series lacked staying power despite the approach of Halloween.

As the new week began, with another weekend spanning Halloween, three new films hit North American theaters.

Industry expectations suggested that with the competition from the new releases, "Scream 3" could see a second-week drop of up to 50%, potentially capping its North American total at $80 million to $90 million.

Nevertheless, even though it might not perform as well as the first two films, a total box office exceeding $80 million was still an impressive feat for a horror film.

After Halloween, time moved into November 1991.

With the "Scream" series concluded, the focus shifted to the production of the follow-up project, "The Ring." Daenerys Entertainment's November film releases also began gearing up for the end-of-year holiday season.

Among the four end-of-year releases, the most important was undoubtedly "Toy Story."

In Simon's memory, the 1995 "Toy Story" not only became the highest-grossing film of the year in North America but also outperformed Warner's third Batman film, "Batman Forever."

However, this time, even if "Toy Story" matched the box office performance Simon remembered, surpassing this summer's "Batman: The Dark Knight" would be impossible.

After nearly six months in theaters, "Batman: The Dark Knight" officially ended its North American run a week before "Scream 3" premiered, with a total domestic box office of $373.91 million.

Simultaneously, the overseas box office for "Batman: The Dark Knight" reached $460 million by the end of October. With the film expected to earn another $50 million to $70 million overseas by the end of the year, its global total could reach $900 million.

In this era, a blockbuster earning over $300 million worldwide was enough to satisfy any studio.

Although "Batman: The Dark Knight" didn't surpass the $960 million global box office of the first film, "Batman Begins," its box office results, combined with revenue from home video, television rights, and merchandise, still significantly supported both Time Warner and Daenerys' film businesses.

Looking back over the past few years, Hollywood couldn't help but notice that Daenerys and Time Warner, increasingly linked, were also gradually leading the film industry.

Not to mention, this year alone, aside from "Batman: The Dark Knight," Daenerys Entertainment had several summer blockbusters—"Terminator 2," "The Fugitive," and "A Few Good Men"—all of which made it into the year's top ten box office rankings.

Moreover, Daenerys Entertainment independently produced two box office hits, "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" at the beginning of the year and "The Silence of the Lambs" at the end of summer.

On Time Warner's side, in addition to "Batman: The Dark Knight," Warner Bros. also collaborated with Daenerys on the hit "The Fugitive" and independently produced another box office success, "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves."

These seven films alone occupied seven of the top ten spots on the 1991 box office chart as of early November.

If broken down by studio, three of these films were under Warner Bros., naturally meaning substantial profits behind these projects.

Although Daenerys Entertainment only independently distributed "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" and "The Silence of the Lambs," both of which ranked lower in the box office, it couldn't be ignored that six out of the seven films were either Daenerys Entertainment's solo projects or co-productions.

In the original timeline, probably only Disney at its peak after 2000 achieved a comparable level of dominance.

Following successive acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm, Disney, with its 3D animated films, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the Star Wars series—along with live-action adaptations of traditional fairy tales—occupied nearly half of the annual North American box office charts.

With such a strong content advantage, Disney's market value at its peak approached $200 billion, almost the combined market value of Time Warner, Fox, and Paramount at the time.

Simon, leveraging his foresight, achieved a level of success comparable to Disney's peak. However, if this were the extent of his advantage, it wouldn't be sustainable.

Pixar was a crucial part of Simon's plan.

In fact, Simon had been laying the groundwork to replicate Disney's film business foundation over the past few years.

Pixar was already a studio under Daenerys Entertainment. Marvel Entertainment was also more comprehensively under Simon's control than in his memory, having even brought in DC's core trio.

Additionally, IPs such as the Thor King series, "Jurassic Park," "Mission Impossible," "Bourne Identity," and "Men in Black" were all treasures waiting to be developed.

Even without the Star Wars series, these resources alone could allow Daenerys Entertainment to dominate Hollywood for the next twenty years.

In the traditional Hollywood film industry, everyone was essentially gambling, not knowing a film's box office potential. Therefore, most of the time, the top box office films came from various studios.

Now, Daenerys Entertainment was breaking that pattern, achieving what only Disney could years later—dominating a significant portion of the annual box office charts.

The upcoming "Toy Story" didn't need to match the box office of the "Batman" series. As long as it achieved the success Simon remembered, Daenerys Entertainment's foray into 3D animated films would be initially complete.

In the original timeline, "Toy Story" was a huge success, pushing Pixar's valuation from $50 million before the film's release to $1 billion after its IPO, a twentyfold increase.

However, at that time, Pixar only had a "contract manufacturing" agreement, with Disney taking most of the profits from the "Toy Story" series.

This time, Pixar was already an integral part of Daenerys Entertainment.

The original "Toy Story" not only grossed nearly $300 million worldwide, but according to Disney's later statistics, the first two "Toy Story" films alone generated $9 billion in merchandise revenue, averaging $4.5 billion per film.

Therefore, if "Toy Story" achieved the same success, the animation studio, as part of Daenerys Entertainment, would bring far more than just a $1 billion market value boost to the group.

As the head of Daenerys Entertainment's consumer products division, Nancy Brill had long proposed planning film merchandise from the project's inception.

"Toy Story" was no exception.

For the 3D animated film set to release on November 22, Daenerys Entertainment not only allocated a $20 million promotional budget but also made extensive efforts in preemptive merchandise planning.

By the film's release, "Toy Story" merchandise would have a retail value of $200 million.

This was also a gamble.

Including the film's $35 million production budget, the project's total production and promotional costs reached $55 million. If the project failed, the potential losses for Daenerys Entertainment would be significant.

Daenerys Entertainment relied on its brand and reputation built over the past few years to secure this large-scale merchandise rollout in advance.

If "Toy Story" failed at the box office, many merchandise manufacturers would face losses.

Rebuilding the brand's reputation would naturally become very difficult.

However, if the plan succeeded, the rewards would be substantial.

The period when audiences are most eager to purchase merchandise is usually in the first few weeks after a film's release. Preemptive rollout would allow them to capitalize on the film's most popular period.

Daenerys Studios.

It was already November 15.

"Scream 3," which premiered on October 25, had just ended its third week in theaters yesterday.

After a first week grossing $37.13 million, the film saw a 53% drop in its second week, earning $17.56 million.

From November 8 to November 14, its third week, "Scream 3" saw a smaller decline of 32%, adding $11.93 million.

In three weeks, "Scream 3" accumulated $66.62 million.

Based on the third week's near $10 million performance, the film could potentially earn another $20 million over the next few weeks, reaching an expected North American total of $80 million to $90 million.

In the second-floor loft office of the studio, Simon had just finished watching the 2D animated "Spider-Man" film, greenlit last year, with the Marvel Animation team.

Since it wasn't intended for theatrical release, the film's production scale was naturally much lower than a big-screen 2D animation, with a production budget of only $12 million.

Still, Simon was quite satisfied with the 91-minute final cut.

After viewing the sample with Marvel executives, including Stan Lee, who had flown in from the East Coast, and other high-level managers like Nancy Brill, they discussed the film's promotional strategy until noon.

This animated origin story of "Spider-Man" was planned for release during Easter next year.

After watching the sample, Nancy Brill agreed that Blockbuster would directly purchase the first batch of 300,000 VHS tapes, with more to follow based on sales performance.

Although they couldn't buy out Blockbuster entirely, firmly controlling the largest video rental chain in North America, or the world, gave Daenerys Entertainment's film business an unparalleled advantage.

It should be noted that North American home video sales were twice the total domestic box office revenue.

Blockbuster already held over 30% of the market share in this segment, with the potential to reach 50%.

With such a strong retail

 channel, it was no surprise that Daenerys Entertainment's films consistently outperformed similar box office films from other studios in home video sales over the past two years.

To avoid subsidiary companies relying on parent company resources and becoming stagnant, Simon didn't favor "internal consumption."

Fair allocation of channel resources based on the quality of films from various studios was the long-term strategy.

However, resource bias was inevitable for a subsidiary.

Simon had privately visited some Blockbuster stores in Los Angeles and noticed that Daenerys Entertainment's films prominently occupied the most visible shelf spaces.

Fortunately, in recent years, Daenerys Entertainment's own productions—whether Oscar contenders or blockbuster hits—were of high enough quality that this resource bias hadn't caused much negative impact.

Otherwise, if a video rental chain's most prominent shelves were filled with poor-quality films while consumers' desired movies were "hidden," the results would be disastrous.

After mentioning this to Nancy Brill, the petite executive assured him she was mindful of the issue and even provided a written explanation. Simon reviewed the statistical data from the still-affiliated Daenerys Analysis Company and found no further cause for concern.

After lunch in the studio's second-floor cafeteria with everyone, Simon and Nancy headed to the Consumer Products Department office in Loft 3.

"These are the final toy designs for 'Toy Story,' a total of 37 types. Starting this weekend, these toys will begin distribution to North American retail channels. Boss, is there anything you think we should add?"

In a conference room within the office area, Simon played with the array of "Toy Story" merchandise displayed on the table as Nancy explained.

Simon was naturally well aware of the plan.

The $200 million worth of toys set for distribution was just part of the "Toy Story" merchandise plan.

Daenerys Entertainment had also signed intention agreements with companies like McDonald's, which would launch corresponding branded products if "Toy Story" performed well at the box office.

After playing with the toys for a while and discussing some details with Nancy, Simon finally smiled and said, "At least, even if 'Toy Story' doesn't become a big hit, these toys should still be liked by children."

Nancy Brill, holding a Buzz Lightyear figure, said, "Yes, otherwise, those businesses wouldn't take such a risk. But, Boss, your mindset makes me a bit worried."

Simon chuckled, pointing to the pile of toys on the table. "Pack all these up. I'll take them home for my son."

Hearing Simon mention this, Nancy also smiled. "You named your son Melbourne?"

"Yes, how does it sound?"

"It's much worse than Daenerys, Melisandre, Ygritte, or Cersei."

"It's a boy."

Nancy asked curiously, "What if it was a girl?"

"Seattle."

Nancy was puzzled. "Huh?"

Simon said, "If it was a girl, she'd be named Seattle."

"Will there be a Los Angeles in the future?"

Simon shook his head. "Los Angeles is two words, and I don't like the name."

Nancy rolled her eyes. "Your kids will be very grateful to you for their unique names when they grow up."

"Of course, and you got it wrong. Melbourne will grow up to find a lot of 'companions' named Melbourne."

"Why?"

"Because it's the name Simon Westeros gave his child. No one else can be Simon Westeros, but they often hope their children can have the luck of Simon Westeros' offspring. So, the name Melbourne will definitely become popular."

Nancy tilted her head. "Boss, you're so arrogant."

"You don't really think that, and by the way, you look good with your head tilted."

Nancy immediately straightened her neck, her expression a bit wary.

Simon laughed. "Relax, that was a genuine compliment, not flirting. I never flirt with women who aren't interested in me."

"Boss, you should get back to work."

"Of course," Simon nodded, pointing again at the toys. "Don't forget to pack these."

Watching Simon leave the conference room, Nancy couldn't help but pat her chest and mutter, "Dangerous guy."

Suddenly, she remembered there was something she hadn't discussed with her boss.

About Blockbuster, Simon had previously mentioned transitioning it to an online platform.

With the rapid growth of internet users in the U.S., Nancy, who initially thought Simon's idea was impractical, now believed it was time to start laying the groundwork.

Hmm, this isn't urgent.

Moreover, she had enough authority to set things up without needing to discuss everything with him.

Simon's hands-off approach was something she had always appreciated.

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