Hunting in Hollywood

As a country with a separation of powers, the United States' legislative power is primarily held by Congress.

Members of both the House and the Senate, after being elected, focus on proposing, drafting, modifying, or repealing various bills based on the actual conditions across all sectors in the U.S.

Congress handles thousands of bills each year, ranging from major national and societal concerns to minor issues.

Of course, the importance of these bills varies.

For example, one of the recent lobbying focuses of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which primarily assists Hollywood's major studios, is the repeal of the legislation restricting mergers between Hollywood studios and public television networks.

The repeal of this law would impact an industry worth tens of billions of dollars.

On the other hand, it's naturally impossible for members of Congress to concoct bills out of thin air from their offices.

Most bills are the result of communications between the public, unions, business owners, interest groups, federal agencies, and members of Congress.

Thus, the U.S. has countless professional lobbying firms that facilitate connections between various groups and Congress members.

While U.S. lobbying cannot avoid behind-the-scenes power struggles or exchanges of interest, it is quite formal overall. At least publicly, no member of Congress would be foolish enough to accept dinners, gifts, or bribes from individuals they know are seeking favors.

To push a bill, one must first connect with influencers, usually through lobbying firms.

Without the right connections, efforts are futile.

It's worth noting that most lobbying consulting firms are often founded by politicians who have left various levels of government service. The higher the level of the politician, the higher the fees, which is a form of high-paying integrity maintenance.

Given the sheer volume of bills submitted to Congress each year, one can imagine the lucrative incomes of these individuals.

After making connections, no one can help you persuade a member of Congress to submit a bill without evidence, nor can anyone blatantly bribe someone on your behalf. You must gather and organize relevant data to demonstrate the necessity of enacting or repealing a particular law.

Once sufficient data is collected, a member drafts the bill for submission to Congress, followed by review, debate, and voting processes.

The post-submission process often becomes a focal point of negotiations.

In most cases, the importance of a bill does not guarantee its passage based solely on solid evidence and detailed data.

This requires bill proponents to continue showing their prowess through political maneuvering, compromises, public opinion campaigns, and exchanges of interests, among other tactics.

The frequent confrontations between the White House and Congress over the annual government budget, sometimes even leading to government shutdowns, are the most direct manifestation of such negotiations.

Of course, most of the murky behind-the-scenes conflicts are not visible to the general public.

The bill that Simon and Joseph Schlap discussed regarding the restriction on operators from participating in the telecommunications equipment manufacturing sector is a significant economic bill. From proposal to passage, it typically requires two to three years, possibly involving lobbying for other telecommunications regulation bills as well.

After discussing for over an hour and finalizing some details, Simon bid Joseph Schlap farewell and boarded a plane at the nearby Westchester County Airport to return to the West Coast.

Arriving back at Point Dume, it was just in time for lunch on the West Coast.

After lunch with Janet, casually discussing his trip to New York, Simon headed to Daenerys Studios for work.

Today, May 20th, was a Monday.

The upcoming Friday would mark the start of the 1991 summer movie season.

However, today was also significant for another reason; the Cannes Film Festival in France was concluding.

With a nine-hour time difference between Los Angeles and Cannes, Simon quickly received the festival's awards results by the afternoon.

Daenerys Entertainment had two films in the main competition, the Coen Brothers' *Barton Fink* and Spike Lee's *Jungle Fever*, neither of which won the top prize of the Palme d'Or, though they didn't leave empty-handed. *Barton Fink* won Best Director, and Samuel L. Jackson in *Jungle Fever* received Best Supporting Actor.

In Simon's memory, *Barton Fink* was actually supposed to win the Palme d'Or at this festival.

However, with the previous three years' Palme d'Or winners including *Pulp Fiction*, *Cinema Paradiso*, and *Wild at Heart*—two of which were American films, and one produced and another distributed by Daenerys Entertainment—it seemed the Cannes jury felt compelled to balance the scales this time.

The eventual Palme d'Or winner was *The Beautiful Troublemaker* by French director Jacques Rivette.

Jacques Rivette wasn't particularly famous, but the lead actress in *The Beautiful Troublemaker* was well-known—Jane Birkin. The expensive and highly sought-after Birkin bag by Hermès was named after her.

With such a headline, plus

 the Palme d'Or boost, Ella Deutschman was already in talks to secure North American distribution rights for *The Beautiful Troublemaker*.

Despite *Barton Fink* and *Jungle Fever* not winning the Palme d'Or, securing two lesser awards was within Simon's expectations.

Daenerys Entertainment couldn't hog all the spotlight; strategic restraint was necessary.

Moreover, this year's focus for overseas awards at Highgate Studios was actually on the Venice Film Festival.

Due to production schedules, Jane Campion's *The Piano* couldn't participate in the just-concluded Cannes but was registered for this year's Venice Film Festival main competition.

Jane Campion's *An Angel at My Table* had received great reviews at last year's Venice Festival, and *The Piano* seemed more suited to Venice's artistic temperament than Cannes. The film had a strong chance of contending for this year's Golden Lion.

The connections that Ella Deutschman and Sophia Fieschi had cultivated in the Italian entertainment industry were also sufficiently supportive of *The Piano*'s success.

Beyond Cannes, back on the West Coast this week, Simon's primary focus was the film *The Flash*, which had just wrapped in Melbourne and returned to North America.

As the lead producer for *The Flash*, Warner Bros expressed significant concerns and dissatisfaction that Simon hadn't visited the Melbourne set during filming.

Simon offered no rebuttals; he simply didn't have the time. However, he had invested considerable effort in the film, enough to earn his fee from the initial producer contract.

For several consecutive workdays, Warner Bros CEO Terry Semel took time each day to review dailies with Simon.

Only after confirming there were no major issues with the dailies and personally overseeing the post-production plans did Terry Semel finally relax.

As the calendar turned to May 24th, a Friday, the 1991 summer movie season officially began.

This week alone saw the release of six major new films, aside from Highgate Studios' Antarctic documentary *Ice World* and New Line Cinema's summer comedy *Freddy the Menace*, the other four films each launched on over 1000 screens.

These films were *Backdraft*, a fire-themed crime action movie starring William Baldwin and Kurt Russell, distributed by Universal with 2036 screens; Columbia's comedy action flick *Hudson Hawk* starring Bruce Willis, on 1621 screens; Chris Columbus's romantic comedy *Only the Lonely*, on 1561 screens after his rise to prominence with *Home Alone*; and Disney's horse trainer biopic *Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken*, on 1521 screens.

*Ice World* and *Freddy the Menace* debuted on 687 and 821 screens, respectively.

Perhaps due to intense competition or because none of the six new films had significant blockbuster potential, from May 24th to May 30th, no film in North America achieved over $20 million in box office revenue for its opening week.

Universal's *Backdraft* ultimately topped the box office for the week, earning $19.21 million over seven days.

Following in second place was Disney's holdover *What About Bob?*, starring Bill Murray, which, due to positive word-of-mouth, managed a 5% uptick in its second week, earning $13.53 million.

Bruce Willis's new film *Hudson Hawk* ranked third, with a steep drop to $8.64 million.

With a production budget of $65 million, *Hudson Hawk* received dismal reviews and, with an anticipated second-week drop of 50% typical for commercial action films, was likely to gross less than $20 million in North America, marking a significant loss for Columbia and its corporate parent Sony, contributing yet another costly 'lesson' to Hollywood.

Chris Columbus's *Only the Lonely* ranked fourth, earning $7.73 million.

With a production budget of $20 million, it too was a flop.

Following in fifth place was not Disney's *Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken* or New Line's *Freddy the Menace*, but the surprisingly refreshing *Ice World*.

In its opening week, *Ice World*, despite a modest 687 screens, unexpectedly earned $6.97 million at the box office.

Remarkably, *Ice World* became the only film in the first week of the summer season to achieve an average box office of over $10,000 per screen.

It is well-known that for a new film opening on a large scale, averaging over $10,000 per screen in the first week is considered a blockbuster standard.

From the initial fashion documentary *The Gucci Mark*, to this year's Easter release of Madonna's music documentary *Truth or Dare*, and now the Antarctic documentary *Ice World*, Hollywood has reluctantly discovered that its studios have been following Daenerys Entertainment's lead, producing fashion documentaries, planning music documentaries, and now, a landscape documentary has emerged.

Even more frustratingly, the documentary had a budget of only $

3 million and was essentially a birthday gift from the Westeros couple to a young girl.

With a first-week box office of $6.97 million, the production costs were already recouped.

Given such an opening, a little more promotion, a slight increase in screenings, and further fermentation of public opinion and popularity, this documentary could easily accumulate a box office of $30 million.

While $30 million is still far from Simon's memory of *March of the Penguins*, in the eyes of other Hollywood studios, it is already a rare success.

Compared to a budget of $3 million, just the North American box office returns already represent a tenfold return on investment.

Following the success of *The Gucci Mark* and *Truth or Dare*, other Hollywood studios had been trying to emulate these successes; after the box office results for *Ice World* were released, many turned their sights to various scenic locations around the world.

Some producers also took the opportunity to pitch adventure projects in places like the Arctic, the Amazon jungle, and the Sahara desert to studios, with a proposal for a documentary exploring the African savannah even appearing on Simon's desk.

However, among the slew of films, Simon was particularly focused on *Freddy the Menace*.

Or more precisely, on New Line Cinema, the production company behind *Freddy the Menace*.

In the original timeline, New Line Cinema rose to prominence with the *Nightmare on Elm Street* series and entered the mainstream spotlight with the box office success of *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*, eventually being acquired by Time Warner and producing blockbuster series like *The Lord of the Rings* and *Rush Hour*.

Now, with *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* already snagged by Daenerys Entertainment.

Having lost a movie series that could support a second-tier studio for several years, and with the potential of the *Nightmare on Street* series nearly exhausted, coupled with New Line's recent years of blindly expanding its production and distribution scale, this summer's *Freddy the Menace* was one of New Line's last attempts before its decline.

Starring Carrie Fisher and Phoebe Cates, *Freddy the Menace* had a budget of approximately $6.7 million. This number alone showcased New Line's precision.

Despite years of accumulating distribution resources, forcing this fantasy comedy into the summer lineup, its opening box office was not promising, earning only $4.39 million, with little hope of crossing the $10 million mark.

Including marketing costs, the total budget for *Freddy the Menace* was around $10 million.

Clearly, this was a failed project.

For Daenerys Entertainment, a $10 million project failure was inconsequential.

But for New Line Cinema, which was fundamentally shallow, such losses could not be sustained repeatedly.

Simon had reviewed New Line's 1991 film slate, which included plans to distribute 11 titles.

Aside from *Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare*, Simon saw no potential blockbusters among the rest.

A barely second-tier film company churning out 11 movies in a year essentially meant burning through the reserves accumulated over the years. Adding Simon's covert opposition, the company was set to return to bleak operations.

Speaking of which, another company that had been under Simon's watch, the Weinstein Brothers' Miramax Films, had missed opportunities with films like *Sex, Lies, and Videotape* and *Cinema Paradiso* and was now stuck in a minor, workshop-style operation.

Lacking real production capabilities, the brothers could only schlep some rights from Europe to North America to make a small profit.

Ultimately, just as the annual number of moviegoers in the U.S. market is relatively fixed, so is Hollywood's fortune.

Daenerys Entertainment's rapid growth over the past few years has not only captured a large share of blockbuster films that originally belonged to other studios but also siphoned a significant portion of other resources in Hollywood.

Even the other major studios felt pressure in the face of Daenerys Entertainment, not to mention the second and third-tier film companies that lacked the scale to withstand risks.

In these years, Daenerys Entertainment continually devoured Hollywood's finest scripts, most talented filmmakers, hottest movie release slots, most popular media attention, and best promotional resources...

Studios that lost their blockbuster projects, even if they could still produce other quality films, found it increasingly difficult to compete at the box office against Daenerys Entertainment under the full-scale shrinkage of film production and marketing resources.

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