Since the two are already living together, Janet is completely clear about the release schedule of "Lola Run". Thus, the woman took over everything the next day almost without obstacles.
Simon originally wanted to accompany her to help her transition for a few days, but was rejected outright.
Janet's reason is also very strong, Simon is by her side, she is easy to relent, and can't show her strength.
Simon didn't know how Janet worked. But on the following Thursday afternoon, after completing the first formal contact on the issue of follow-up distribution rights, Mike Medova hurriedly called, even accusing Janet with a little grievance that Janet was so ignorant. I hope Simon can continue to come out in person and don't let a woman make a fool of himself.
Although he has some doubts, Simon will not rashly listen to Mike Medova's side words.
However, after get off work that day, before Simon had had time to ask Jenny about the negotiation process in the morning, the woman had already brought back another contract: Mattel bought out a series of characters in "Lola Run" for $2.3 million. Distribution rights.
Even if the box office is booming, the peripheral copyright of "Lola Run" is definitely far from being compared with super IPs such as "Star Wars".
Moreover, as a toy company that mainly produces Barbie dolls, Mattel definitely only looks at the role image of Laura, and roles such as Manny will obviously not be welcomed by consumers. Therefore, Janet is equivalent to selling a simple Rolla doll distribution rights for $2.3 million, which is far beyond Simon's expectations.
According to some information in the industry, Simon's previous highest expectation for this business was only about 1.5 million US dollars.
In this case, Simon naturally would no longer doubt Janet's ability, and he was very relieved to leave everything to her.
In addition, Simon subsequently made appropriate adjustments to the two companies in his hands.
After some left-handed-to-right-hand operations, the box office share, sell-out income, and peripheral revenue related to "Rora Run" will be transferred from Daenerys Pictures to Westeros.
This kind of divestiture is to adapt to Amy's contract, and the two parties have reached an agreement before signing the contract. Amy's 5% of the company's net profit share does not include the related income of "Lola Run".
Immediately afterwards, in order to avoid the financial situation with Janet becoming more and more entangled, Simon also drafted a formal supplementary contract in the name of Westeros: as an investor with 61.5% of the shares, Janet The revenue share obtained from "Lola Run" only needs to be settled before December 31 this year.
This supplementary contract means that before the payment is settled, Westeros is completely free to manipulate the funds for reinvestment, and the additional profits generated do not need to be shared with Janet.
Simon also intends to operate stock index futures in the name of Westeros in the second half of the year, and even more subsequent investment actions.
After fixing these two aspects, some potential interest entanglements hidden by Simon after the sudden overwhelming success of "Lola Run" are also thoroughly straightened out.
Deep down, Simon is still a person who lacks security after all.
Without getting this, he even worried that he would encounter a certain situation described by the male protagonist in "When Harry Meets Sally": Two people fell in love one day, turned back, and then ordered a dinner plate worth 8 dollars. Who should go to, hysterically wasting $1,000 in phone bills and arguing over the air.
Janet clearly saw this in Simon's character, so she took the trouble to write out IOUs for him to press her fingerprints. When a woman knows that she does this, Simon will not only not resist, but will feel very relaxed.
While the two companies of Simon's rivals were making adjustments, as Janet shared the release of "Rora Run," many other things began to move forward more efficiently and quickly.
Mattel is very eager to launch the Rolla doll as soon as possible, which is actually well understood.
Therefore, after completing the contract, the other party credited $2.3 million into the Westeros account within three days. Simon then injected $1 million into Daenerys Pictures in the name of a loan, and Amy Pascal finally no longer had to pay for an assistant out of his own pocket, and the company began to officially recruit more people.
With the money, Amy quickly talked about the script of "When Harry Met Sally". The final price is $150,000, which is not cheap, but it is definitely not expensive for Simon.
However, in order to win the script, Daenerys Films also promised Nora Efron that the company would start the project within a year, and the production budget would not be less than US$10 million.
If the contract is breached, the copyright of the script will automatically return to the other party.
As for "Pulp Fiction", Simon produced the first draft of the script in the following week because he no longer had to take care of the release of "Lola Run".
Although Orion Pictures is very unoptimistic about this project, Jonathan Friedman helped Simon negotiate a share contract comparable to "Reaper Is Coming".
The same is the minimum guarantee of 20 million US dollars.
With a box office of more than $20 million, Simon gets 10% of the North American box office share and 5% of the North American video tape sales share.
Although there are too many chances for the box office success of "Lola Run", after all, it is the movie that has almost been determined to be the champion of the North American box office this year. Therefore, Simon was completely more than enough to get the first-line director's pay.
Orion signed Simon's next film contract with a basic salary of 500,000 US dollars, but since no sharing terms were finalized, at this time, he can only give a sharing agreement equivalent to Simon's worth.
Of course, this contract is also very different from "Reaper Is Coming". The video sales share that Simon can get is limited to North America. Because Orion does not have global distribution capabilities like Fox Pictures.
In addition, Orion also requires that the project budget must be controlled within 8 million US dollars.
If it exceeds, for every $1 million in the budget, Simon's two-part share will be reduced by 1% and 0.5% respectively, and the calculation model will be directly rounded up. However, Orion also promised to provide a certain share clause for big-name celebrities who are willing to drop their film pay.
In the final "Reaper Is Coming", the project progressed most smoothly.
The company quickly selected the director candidate, and it was Wes Craven who helped Xinxian Films shoot "Most Ghost Street" a few years ago. The other party's personal style is also very suitable for "Death is Coming".
Moreover, Wes Craven is also a customer of WMA. Although he has the success of "Hunting Ghost Street", the "Girl Next Door" directed by Wes Craven for Warner last year was tepid, and only sold at the box office. Just reached the cost line.
Under the recommendation of the agents of both parties, Simon and Wes Craven had a meal together and talked about the whole project in detail, and the matter was confirmed.
Speaking of it, Simon naturally remembers clearly that Wes Craven was also the director of the famous "Screaming Scream" series in the 1990s.
Simon did not immediately produce "Scream", the reason is similar to the choice of "Pulp Fiction" as his second film. Projects with higher box office potential should naturally be reserved for themselves as much as possible. In recent years, in the absence of funds and channels, Simon can only cooperate with other film companies for the time being, and most of the profits must go to these companies.
On Janet's side, she finalized the first peripheral sell-off contract, and the woman subsequently negotiated the license for the soundtrack, video games and other peripheral products of "Lola Run", once again bringing more than 8 million to Westeros. Dollars are received.
On April 6, Orion Pictures finally made a compromise and bought the North American video tape and TV broadcast distribution rights of "Lola Run" at a high price of $35 million. On April 9, the overseas copyright of the film was also bought by Warner Bros. for the same US$35 million.
Although it takes a month for these two sales to be paid, the total income of 70 million US dollars is 10 million US dollars higher than Simon's original expectation.
Coupled with Wells Fargo's US$20 million loan into Simon's personal account, as well as the US$30 million in box office share expected when the North American theaters of "Rola Run" are down the market a few months later. Operation of stock index futures in October raised more than US$120 million.
When Simon and Janet were busy in the division of labor, the 59th Oscars ceremony ended successfully.
The "Field Platoon" produced by Orion Pictures won the best film, best director and other awards without any suspense. The box office of this film also happened to break through the $100 million mark in the near future.
At the same time, after the box office of 23.36 million US dollars in the sixth week and seven days, the seventh and eighth weeks, "Lola Run" received another 21.22 million US dollars and 16.34 million US dollars. As of April 9, the North American box office of "Lola Run" has reached 146.79 million US dollars.
Although the single-week decline has begun to expand, there is almost no suspense for the total box office of "Lola Run" to exceed 200 million. What everyone is curious about is just how far the film's final cumulative box office can reach.
This continues until April 10.
In the first week of the Easter schedule, Simon's second movie "Butterfly Effect" after returning to this era was finally officially released.
Although the previous internal test screenings have been poor, but considering the popularity of "Lola Run", Fox Pictures still arranged 1,263 opening screens for "Butterfly Effect".
As a fairly popular schedule, "Butterfly Effect" naturally cannot be monopolized.
Also released in the same period is "The Road to Development" starring Michael Fox, the actor of "Back to the Future". This comedy film produced by Universal Pictures has 1,336 screens and a production cost of up to 12 million US dollars. All aspects are slightly better than "Butterfly Effect".