After the string of holidays, everyday life in North Arica gradually returned to normal.
For Hollywood, the first full box-office week of 1990 slipped by quietly. And throughout that week, Batman remained the focus of everyone's attention.
From January 5 to January 11, in its third week of release, Batman saw a clear drop in weekly earnings, down 33% from the previous week.
But with the prior week's base of over eighty million, even a 33% decline still ant a huge haul. The film brought in $59.51 million this week.
In three weeks, this groundbreaking superhero film blasted past the $200 million milestone, reaching a cumulative total of $230.69 million.
Under the glare of Batman, every other movie out at the sa ti looked insignificant.
Thanks to dia attention that burned just as hot as its box office, many news stories related to the film beca headline fodder during this period.
Naturally, the first was the DC superhero universe plan born alongside Batman.
According to information from various channels, Daenerys Entertainnt and Warner Bros. would jointly develop multiple film projects over the next few years featuring DC heroes like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, and connect all the films through a complete overarching storyline, forming a massive DC superhero cinematic universe series.
Once the news was officially made public, it wasn't just comic fans and moviegoers who erupted. A wave of dia outlets also began digging for every scrap of additional information about the DC film universe plan. In recent days, a host of Ti Warner and Daenerys executives had beco pri targets for reporters.
While everyone closely tracked the negotiations between the two companies over the plan's implentation details, another piece of juicy gossip spread rapidly after last Saturday's Batman celebration party.
When the Batman project first launched, Adam Baldwin, Valeria Golino, and the other lead actors had all signed long-term deals with Daenerys Entertainnt. That wasn't a secret to outsiders. Back then, plenty of people had even questioned whether Daenerys Entertainnt really needed to do it.
As the film's box office exploded, rumors spread that so of the key creative personnel who'd signed those long contracts were unhappy with their salaries and wanted to renegotiate.
To show its displeasure at that kind of behavior, Daenerys Entertainnt reportedly canceled an extra cash bonus plan that had been intended for every crew mber on Batman, a plan worth twenty of millions of dollars in total.
The rumor was simply too tempting. It involved enormous sums of money and was guaranteed to hook the public, so it was whipped into a frenzy almost imdiately.
The dia first circled back to what everyone really wanted to know, just how much Daenerys Entertainnt and Ti Warner would earn from distributing Batman.
With dostic box office surging to $230 million in just three weeks, there was no doubt Batman in North Arica. Next ca overseas.
Batman was one of Arica's cultural symbols. He had extrely broad recognition worldwide, but foreign audiences didn't share the deep emotional attachnt Aricans had built up over half a century. Before release, so industry publications had concluded the film's overseas box office would definitely not surpass its dostic take.
But what happened next caught everyone by surprise.
The phenonon-level superhero film Simon Westeros created was packed with innovation. With its breathtaking film techniques and action design, even if you swapped Batman out for so other character, the result would still deserve one word, dazzling. That alone ensured overseas audiences would have no cultural barrier to enjoying it.
As a result, the dia now broadly believed Batman's overseas box office would be at least on par with its dostic performance.
Using a global box office estimate of $800 million, the producers and distributors would likely receive around $350 million in box office revenue share. Based on leaked distribution agreent details, roughly $250 million of that would belong to Daenerys Entertainnt.
Given the usual release cycle in recent years, that money would likely be collected within the next year.
Another major revenue stream that would also deliver most of its returns within a year was rchandising. With the dia predicting $2 billion in tie-in product sales over the next twelve months, Daenerys Entertainnt would likely bring in around $300 million, and after paying DC Comics its 10%, there would still be $270 million left.
Add those two together, and Daenerys Entertainnt could pull in $500 million from Batman within the next year.
Even if the production budget and marketing costs were simply counted as $100 million, Daenerys Entertainnt's net profit from the project within the next year could still reach $400 million.
Then after that, in the longer revenue window, from one year onward and within five years, the film's continued rchandising, videotape sales, and television licensing inco would only be higher, not lower, compared to those first two streams. After all, according to the latest statistics, as the ho video market expanded, Hollywood films' global videotape revenue had already risen to more than 45% of total revenue on average, while box office had slipped to under 30%.
So Batman's downstream revenue would be at least equal to Daenerys Entertainnt's first-year inco from the film.
All told, Daenerys Entertainnt could earn at least $800 million from Batman across all distribution channels over the next five years. As the distributor, Ti Warner's share across various cuts would also be no less than $200 million.
One billion dollars. That was precisely the total profit scale most dia outlets now commonly attributed to Batman.
If Daenerys and Ti Warner could make a billion dollars off Batman, then what were the male and female leads paid?
The dia imdiately splashed the numbers everywhere.
Adam Baldwin, who played Batman, $300,000. Valeria Golino, who played Catwoman, $200,000.
Together, that was only $500,000.
The supporting cast's salaries were even lower.
Because of Batman: Dawn of War, Adam Baldwin and Valeria Golino had rapidly accumulated a fanbase.
With the dia gleefully stoking the flas, fans watched their idols supposedly earn so little while Daenerys and Ti Warner raked in a billion dollars. Naturally, resentnt flared. Many fans began writing letters and calling, demanding Daenerys Entertainnt and Ti Warner renegotiate the contracts and give their idols a raise.
Since the related news had been deliberately released by Daenerys Entertainnt in the first place, the company naturally responded quickly.
CNN, under Turner Broadcasting, which had not yet been acquired by Ti Warner but maintained close ties with it, ran a special segnt soon after the story fernted, investigating the current situation of the last few Hollywood actors who had made the final shortlist to play Batman last year.
Compared to Adam Baldwin, who had now beco famous, the best of those other shortlisted actors had only just landed a regular role on an ABC television series. Even more dramatically, one of them had fallen all the way to certain kinds of "film" sets in the San Fernando Valley.
After that, The Hollywood Reporter also revealed the details of Adam Baldwin's five-film deal.
Aside from the first film's low $300,000 salary, the total value of Adam Baldwin's remaining four films was actually as high as $30 million. An average of $7.5 million per film was fully in top-star territory. Compared to what Christopher Reeve had been paid across the three Superman films, Daenerys Entertainnt was already extrely generous.
The Hollywood Reporter also noted that thanks to the popularity he gained from appearing in the Batman series, Adam Baldwin would not only be able to take other film roles at top-star pay, he could also secure many lucrative endorsent deals. Added together, it would put his total earnings above most Hollywood stars.
The sa was true for the other actors in Batman whose profiles had surged.
Without the opportunity of Batman, most of them would never have been known to the public. So might even have ended up like those who had made the Batman shortlist but were ultimately passed over.
Because the DC film universe plan mattered so much to Ti Warner, Warner Bros. CEO Terry Sel stated outright in an interview on ABC's Good Morning Arica that Warner Bros. would never work with film people who lacked basic respect for contracts.
Hollywood studios usually signed additional option agreents with actors in major projects, especially newcors. This was, in fact, a core interest of the entire studio class.
So after Terry Sel's statent, other studio executives also spoke up, including Fox's Joe Roth and MGM UA's Sherry Lansing, declaring they would resist working with film people who lacked contract integrity.
Words alone were never truly persuasive. Then, a series of small events that seed unrelated on the surface made many Hollywood stars and filmmakers feel a chill.
After finishing Born on the Fourth of July with Tom Cruise, Oliver Stone, who was preparing his new film The Doors, publicly stated that he did not intend to invite g Ryan to play the female lead in his biopic about the band.
Soon after, veteran director John Schlesinger, who had directed Midnight Cowboy, also publicly clarified that his new film Midnight Portent had already confird lanie Griffith as the female lead, and that earlier rumors about g Ryan possibly taking the role were complete nonsense.
Right on the heels of that, news broke that Barry Sonnenfeld, the well-known cinematographer behind films like Blood Simple and Back to the Future, who was preparing his first feature as a director, The Addams Family, had taken a hard line with Paramount executives. If Paramount insisted on casting g Ryan as the female lead, he would walk away from the project, and several other already-confird cast mbers also openly stated they did not want to work with g Ryan.
Once is an accident, twice is a pattern, three tis makes it obvious. Anyone with half a brain could see the problem.
g Ryan's bad blood with Daenerys Entertainnt was practically public. After When Harry t Sally pushed her rapidly into the top tier, she quickly terminated the remaining two films on her option contract with Daenerys Entertainnt once she beca famous.
When Daenerys Entertainnt clashed with CAA over the Rain Man incident, the end result was that g Ryan, who seed unrelated, was cut loose by CAA along with several Rain Man key creatives.
Unlike Dustin Hoffman, Barry Levinson, and Tom Cruise, who were deeply rooted in Hollywood, g Ryan had only just beco famous and had not yet fully secured her footing.
Then she first demanded an outrageous price once she found success, then broke with Daenerys Entertainnt, then appeared in The Rockeeter, which Paramount had stolen from Daenerys Entertainnt. The grievance only grew deeper.
Most crucially, The Rockeeter box office ended in failure.
In Hollywood, without box office to back you up, you were nothing.
And with the current atmosphere of public opinion added on top of that, a proverb flashed through many observers' minds.
Beat the dog before the lion.
In other words, make an example.
Even a year ago, the idea that Daenerys Entertainnt could blacklist a top-tier actress would have sounded like a fantasy.
But last year's ten-film plan had directly tied more than half of Hollywood closely to Daenerys Entertainnt. Five of the traditional Big Seven had received projects from that ten-film slate. Of the remaining two, MGM, because of Australian capital stepping in, had also begun moving closer to Daenerys Entertainnt.
The last one, Paramount, had not received any projects from the ten-film slate due to The Rockeeter and Firebirds, so it didn't need to give Daenerys Entertainnt face.
Even though The Rockeeter had failed, as long as g Ryan was willing to slash her salary, Paramount's managent would still be happy to pick up a bargain based on the popularity of When Harry t Sally.
However, Daenerys Entertainnt might not have been able to sway Paramount's top leadership, but influencing individual film projects was easy. The public resistance from The Addams Family's core team toward working with g Ryan was the result of Amy's maneuvering behind the scenes. Even if Paramount didn't care about Daenerys Entertainnt, those filmmakers still hoped to work with Daenerys Entertainnt in the future.
In the end, Paramount could not possibly defy the will of every other key creative and force g Ryan into the role.
Outside the Big Seven, under Daenerys Entertainnt's sharp edge, as long as they had other options, second- and third-tier studios had no reason to make an enemy for the sake of one g Ryan.
Watching a top-tier actress lose her footing in Hollywood almost overnight under Daenerys Entertainnt's pressure, many stars felt both awe and fear at the company's power. At the sa ti, Adam Baldwin, the male lead of Batman, who had previously still harbored so dissatisfaction, very wisely discarded every last thought of it. In an interview with Entertainnt Weekly, he proactively stated that he felt deeply honored to have been able to participate in Batman, and that he would absolutely do his best to play the role well in the subsequent installnts, and so on.
Once Adam Baldwin spoke, whether or not they had ever entertained certain thoughts, the rest of the key creatives also smartly made their positions clear, publicly or privately.
And so, a conflict that had never truly fernted ended quietly in a haze of gossip.
After the stick, you still had to offer a sweet date.
Daenerys Entertainnt then announced that qbecause of the film's huge box office, it would issue an additional cash bonus to all crew mbers who had participated in filming Batman.
Only, the total bonus pool for everyone was cut in half, down to $10 million.
Whether it was ten million or twenty million, compared to what Daenerys Entertainnt stood to earn from the Batman, it was insignificant.
Cutting the bonus in half was, in truth, Daenerys Entertainnt's response to that earlier "rumor."
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