The internet industry had just begun to emerge, and no similar online rental platforms had yet appeared.
Therefore, Blockbuster did not face any urgent need for transformation.
The launch of Blockbuster Online was more of a proactive layout. In the early stages, business would only be conducted in a few major prosperous cities on the East and West Coasts, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. This approach could save costs while allowing them to accumulate online operation experience in advance.
However, thanks to the strong foundation Ygritte Company had already established in the e-commerce field, Blockbuster Online opened during the American Independence Day holiday and achieved very good results over the following weekend. In just three days, the number of Blockbuster members who activated online services reached 160,000, and the number of purchase and rental orders placed through the online platform exceeded 200,000.
After the Independence Day holiday, with Simon's support, Nancy Brill also began pushing Blockbuster to gradually eliminate the late fee system.
Due to the existence of relatively independent franchisees, even if the measure passed board approval, it would be difficult to implement all at once.
Fortunately, Nancy Brill had always planned to use this opportunity to cancel late fees to progressively strengthen Blockbuster's membership system and increase user stickiness, so she was not in a hurry.
In Hollywood, during the week from July 3 to July 9, the three new films that debuted in North American theaters, The Last of the Mohicans, Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, and Patriot Games, received the boost of the Independence Day holiday but ultimately delivered disappointing opening box office performances.
As the sequel to Paramount's previous film The Hunt for Red October and featuring Harrison Ford, Patriot Games had the best box office performance of the three. It earned 25.29 million dollars over its first seven days and ranked second on the weekly box office chart.
Also a sequel, Disney's Honey, I Blew Up the Kid did not enjoy the same luck as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids three years earlier. With a production budget of 40 million dollars and an opening on 2,311 screens, this sci-fi family comedy only earned 18.39 million dollars in its opening week, far below Disney's expectations.
Moreover, both the media and audience reception for Honey, I Blew Up the Kid were less than ideal. Starting from such a low point in the first week, it was likely to suffer a sharp box office drop in the second week, making its box office prospects difficult to predict.
Daenerys Entertainment's collaboration with Warner Bros., The Last of the Mohicans, this repeatedly remade story adapted from the 'knight rescues princess' novel, received unanimous acclaim from critics upon release, achieving a composite media score of 9.5 points.
However, probably due to its period costume genre, the film's opening week box office was also unsatisfactory. With an opening on 2,173 screens, The Last of the Mohicans earned only 23.19 million dollars in its first week. While it achieved over ten thousand dollars per screen, reaching blockbuster level, it could not be considered a massive hit.
Of course, thanks to its excellent word of mouth, The Last of the Mohicans should be able to deliver a very strong long run compared to Disney's Honey, I Blew Up the Kid.
The mediocre opening performances of the three new films meant that Wonder Woman continued to claim the weekly box office crown.
In its fifth week of release, thanks to the Independence Day holiday, Wonder Woman's box office drop was only 17 percent this week. It continued to earn 26.15 million dollars. Over five weeks, the North American cumulative box office for this female superhero film reached 260.32 million dollars.
This figure had already surpassed last year's The Flash total North American box office and ranked only behind Batman and The Dark Knight.
Considering that Wonder Woman still had a single-week box office base of over 25 million dollars remaining and was maintaining a good weekly drop curve, the film's North American total box office had a very strong chance of breaking through 350 million dollars. It was even possible for it to catch up to The Dark Knight's 373 million dollars.
With the release of The Last of the Mohicans, all four major Daenerys Entertainment-related films for the 1992 summer season had now been released.
Overall, Wonder Woman naturally showed the strongest performance.
Next, Indecent Proposal had the highest opening among the other two, earning 32.27 million dollars in its first week. However, in the second and third weeks, Indecent Proposal experienced relatively large drops of 40 percent and 32 percent respectively, earning 19.10 million dollars and 12.99 million dollars.
Over three weeks, Indecent Proposal's North American cumulative box office reached 64.37 million dollars. Through subsequent screenings, the film's total North American box office was expected to fall between 80 million and 100 million dollars. This was enough for the producers to recoup all production and marketing costs and possibly achieve a small profit.
The fact that it could break even on domestic box office alone meant that Indecent Proposal would generate very substantial profits through overseas releases, video tape sales, and television broadcasts.
Even if it was not quite a dark horse, this was clearly a very successful project.
After A Time to Kill opened with 23.73 million dollars in its first week, it benefited from excellent word of mouth. Its second week saw only a 13 percent drop, earning another 20.64 million dollars. The two-week cumulative total reached 44.37 million dollars. This courtroom crime drama involving racial discrimination and judicial justice had clearly replicated the box office trajectory of Harrison Ford's Presumed Innocent. Through its long run, the film was very likely to break the 100 million dollar mark in North America.
The Last of the Mohicans enjoyed even better critical reception than A Time to Kill, and its opening of 23.19 million dollars matched the level of A Time to Kill. Although it was still the first week and the subsequent box office trend could not yet be seen, the box office curves of the two films were likely to be very similar.
In summary, the three co-production films were all expected to reach around 100 million dollars in total North American box office.
Such box office results naturally could not compare to Wonder Woman, but they were still sufficient to rank near the top of the annual box office chart.
After Indecent Proposal, A Time to Kill, and The Last of the Mohicans, Daenerys Entertainment only had four remaining co-production projects. The confirmed ones were Sleepless in Seattle with Disney, The Pelican Brief with Warner Bros., and the two Mission: Impossible films in cooperation with Paramount Pictures.
After the Independence Day holiday, the summer season was already more than halfway over.
On July 10, North American theaters debuted two new films: MGM's Housesitter and Fox's The Temp.
Housesitter was originally a project incubated by Universal Pictures, starring Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn. It told the story of a hotel waitress who moves into the male protagonist's villa and pretends to be his wife, leading to a series of events.
Daenerys Entertainment's project slate was too full, so Housesitter had originally been slated for cancellation.
However, considering that the film had achieved decent box office in his memories, Simon directly transferred it to MGM.
Fox's The Temp was yet another extramarital affair film riding the wave of Michael Douglas's Fatal Attraction.
Looking further ahead at the subsequent July and August slate, aside from Clint Eastwood's new film Unforgiven scheduled for August 7, Simon did not spot any other movies with major hit potential. This lukewarm state, lacking strong box office competitors, was perfect for the long runs of films like Wonder Woman and A Time to Kill.
For Daenerys Entertainment, this summer season remained a major harvest.
Entering July, two other key Daenerys Entertainment projects, Sleepless in Seattle starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, and the television series Desperate Housewives scheduled to air in the fall season, began filming one after another. In addition, marketing and promotion work for the year-end releases of The Ring, Home Alone 2, and Jurassic Park officially kicked off.
However, during this period, the most attention was focused on the 1992 U.S. presidential election, which had already entered its second half.
After the first half year of competition, incumbent President George Bush had further secured his position as the Republican candidate for this year's election. On the Democratic side, with a series of competitors gradually withdrawing, Bill Clinton's advantage had become increasingly obvious.
Yet this time, neither of the traditional two-party candidates could overshadow Ross Perot, the independent party candidate.
Due to various controversies surrounding George Bush's administration, the Democrats' lack of a widely admired candidate, and possibly the economic downturn causing American dissatisfaction with the status quo, Ross Perot, this strong-willed and attention-seeking billionaire, gradually drew more and more attention.
Since officially announcing his candidacy, Ross Perot's support rate had once reached 36 percent.
Gradually, both major parties began to feel the threat posed by Ross Perot.
Out of this wariness, attacks on Ross Perot from certain parties became increasingly frequent.
This continued until July 13. On this new week, Simon and Janet had just gotten out of bed when James Rebould called. At nine o'clock in the morning Eastern Time, Ross Perot suddenly held a press conference and announced his withdrawal from this year's presidential election.
Even though he remembered that Ross Perot had withdrawn in the original timeline, Simon was still somewhat surprised to hear the news.
However, some things had still 'happened again.'
Janet had originally been scheduled to fly to New York alone. With this sudden development, the couple ate breakfast and then boarded the plane to the East Coast together.
By the time they arrived in Manhattan, it was already four o'clock in the afternoon on the East Coast.
That evening, they invited the Rebould couple and Joseph Schlapp, head of Schlapp Consulting, along with their families, to dinner at the estate in Greenwich suburbs. Joseph Schlapp also passed on some newly obtained information to Simon.
Ross Perot's withdrawal was actually just a delaying tactic.
Privately, Perot had always known clearly that he could not win this presidential election, so he had gradually been drawn closer by the Democratic side.
However, the current Ross Perot, with over 30 percent support, would not only severely impact George Bush's votes but would actually affect the candidates of both major parties seriously. If this continued, it could lose the effect of splitting the conservative vote.
After several rounds of communication, Ross Perot ultimately decided to temporarily announce his withdrawal. This would allow his previously high support rate to cool down while also giving the Democratic side enough opportunity to perform during the critical months ahead.
Hearing Joseph Schlapp's explanation, Simon reorganized some information from his memories and immediately understood.
In his memories, Ross Perot had indeed announced his withdrawal from the race in July. However, certain people seemed unwilling to let him go and had even attempted to disrupt Perot's daughter's wedding in August through some malicious gossip in the media.
If Ross Perot had truly intended to withdraw from the election, anyone with sufficient intelligence would know that they should not provoke this strong-willed billionaire any further at this time.
The fact that some people were still making covert moves behind the scenes suggested they had realized something.
However, this behavior had precisely given Perot an excuse to re-announce his candidacy in October.
Moreover, in Simon's memories, Ross Perot had even named names, accusing the Bush administration of using underhanded tactics to try to ruin his daughter's wedding.
In reality, those underhanded tactics had not been all that severe. They had simply involved publishing some photos in tabloid media suggesting that Perot's daughter might be a lesbian. Perot firmly claimed that the photos were fabricated.
As for what the truth actually was, Simon did not care.
Over the past few months, the Ygritte portal had been quietly promoting news favorable to Bill Clinton. Although Simon had not appeared personally, some senior figures in the Westeros system had also quietly helped Clinton organize several fundraising dinners.
Furthermore, both in Hollywood and Silicon Valley, a large number of people had aligned themselves with the Democrats, largely due to behind-the-scenes efforts by the Westeros system.
Everything that needed to be done had already been done. After learning the inside story of Perot's withdrawal, Simon made some brief arrangements and then retreated back behind the scenes to observe quietly.
After completing the acquisition of LTD, the Apollo Management team would not have any major moves in the short term.
The hedge fund team's performance for the first half of the year at Cersei Fund Management Company had also been officially released. Stimulated by technology stocks receiving increasing market favor, the hedge fund team had achieved a 21 percent net return in the first half of 1992 by going long on tech stocks.
After the routine settlement at the beginning of the year, the roughly 3 billion dollars in principal had grown to 3.6 billion dollars through the first half year's operations.
Conservatively estimated, by the end of 1992 this hedge fund could generate 1 billion dollars in after-tax net profit.
Even though the return rate was not as high as during the big market of the previous two years, a net profit margin exceeding 30 percent would still surpass most competitors in the industry.
Of course, it would certainly fall short compared to the Quantum Fund, which was about to launch its attack on European currencies.
However, Simon still had no opportunity to step forward as the leader in that.
Earning a sum on European currencies would mean that the Westeros system's other businesses in Europe would suffer even greater losses.
In addition, among the three subsidiaries under Cersei Capital, the relatively low-profile BlackRock Asset Management Company had actually been developing at the fastest pace.
Whether it was Cersei Fund Management Company or Apollo Management Company, their fund scales were both controlled at around several billion dollars.
BlackRock Asset Management Company, which mainly engaged in low-risk fixed income, government bonds, and large-cap stock investments, had seen its scale expand rapidly due to the recovery of the North American stock market following the Gulf War last year. The total assets it now managed had already exceeded 70 billion dollars.
Of course, this figure still had a very large gap compared to the 6 trillion dollars in assets that BlackRock Asset Management managed at its peak in Simon's memories.
However, compared to other asset management companies of the same type, the current BlackRock Asset Management had successfully risen to giant status. Considering that even counting from its beginning as a subsidiary of Blackstone Group, the company had been established for less than ten years, this growth rate was even more astonishing.
Moreover, an asset scale of 70 billion dollars was already enough to exert considerable influence on many industries.
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