Simon and Janet left the house early together, driving from Malibu to Santa Monica to meet up with Kathryn.
After breakfast, Simon drove both women to Los Angeles International Airport.
It was Monday, August 27.
Janet was flying to New York to handle Cersei Capital's affairs.
Kathrynhad already finished filming Point Break and was still staying on the West Coast for post production. She was hitching a ride this time for the New York Film Festival in September, where she'd been invited to serve as a jury member.
After a few words of farewell, the Boeing 767 roared down the runway and climbed into the sky.
Once the plane leveled out, Kathrynunfastened her seatbelt and instinctively looked down through the window. LAX was no longer in view, and of course she couldn't possibly see that figure by the runway anymore.
He's definitely already left.
Always so busy.
Janet also unfastened her seatbelt. Noticing Kathryn's gaze, she smiled, glanced out the window, and teased, "Missing him already?"
Kathrynshot Janet a glare. "Don't joke like that. You're married."
Janet bared her teeth in a grin, pressed the call button, and summoned the C girl, Claire Gaine, asking for a glass of water, then asked Kathryn what she wanted.
Kathrynalso asked for only water. She watched Janet get up and move to the wide couch on the other side, casually turning on the television, and didn't stand.
This was the lounge on the upper deck at the front of the Boeing 767.
Simon still complained it was a bit small, but to Kathrynit already felt luxurious, so much so that she still occasionally saw people in newspapers criticizing Simon for being too extravagant because of this plane.
But considering the recent articles discussing his newest net worth, a plane like this didn't seem like much at all.
Two days ago, The Los Angeles Times had even mentioned that because of the sudden outbreak of the Kuwait War, Cersei Capital had made several billion dollars in profit through crude oil futures. Forbes, which was supposed to release its annual Forbes 400 list this month, had even delayed publication this year so it could dig up more detailed numbers on Simon's assets.
Claire delivered two glasses of water. Kathrynquietly thanked her. After the C girl left, Kathrynpulled her thoughts back and asked Janet beside her, "You fly back and forth between New York and Los Angeles every week. Are you really okay?"
Janet, sprawled on the couch with zero elegance while flipping through a document, understood the subtext. She shook her head. "I'm fine."
Kathrynthought Janet hadn't understood what she meant, so she made it clearer. "You and Simon haven't even been married for half a year."
Janet propped herself up, her bare feet lifting and dropping behind her. After a moment, she said, "Kate, that little bastard is only twenty two."
"Hm?"
"If I were twenty two, I'd wait until the day he actually wanted to get married, then marry him. But you know I can't keep waiting. I had to tie him down first. Still, he's not really ready yet."
Kathrynunderstood.
It would be easy for Cersei Capital to set up a Los Angeles branch, or even move headquarters here, so Janet wouldn't have to run back and forth. Janet was doing this on purpose, leaving Simon, who wasn't quite ready for married life, some personal space.
And she couldn't help thinking of herself.
And of him.
Back at the very beginning.
She knew perfectly well she and that young man were unlikely. But if she claimed there wasn't even the slightest lingering bitterness about Janet stepping in and taking him away, that would be a lie.
Still, Janet did love him more than she did.
At least, if Kathrynhad actually married him, she definitely wouldn't have tolerated him being unclear and entangled with other women.
Or maybe.
Maybe she wasn't so sure.
She remembered Janet once saying that a man as outstanding as him could never have only one woman.
She changed the topic, chatting casually with Janet, then pulled the festival packet for this year's New York Film Festival nominees from her purse to pass the time.
A little later, Janet called Claire back, handed her the document she'd been reading, and said, "Tell Hawker Beechcraft to go to hell. Switch to another company. And get our advance back too. Not a cent less."
Claire hesitated, then asked carefully, "Mrs. Westeros, the reason?"
Janet waved her off. "Let them figure it out."
Claire had no choice but to leave with the file.
After the C girl was gone, Kathrynasked, "What happened?"
Janet picked up the water glass from the coffee table, returned to sit opposite Kathryn, and took a few sips. "Simon and I are planning to build two private hangars at the airport in LA, just to store our planes. Hawker Beechcraft came back with a thirty five million dollar budget. That's double what I expected. They're trying to fleece us, so I'm making sure they don't earn a single dollar."
Kathrynsmiled, more or less understanding what kind of company Hawker Beechcraft must be.
Still, she asked curiously, "Can you build private hangars inside LAX?"
Janet nodded, speaking in the tone of a shamelessly rich woman. "Of course you can. As long as you pay enough."
Kathryncouldn't help rolling her eyes at her.
On this matter, Simon actually wanted to build an entire private airport of his own.
But in the short term, doing that would be far too conspicuous, so he chose to cooperate with LAX instead.
Across the whole Westeros system, counting Simon's Boeing 767, the Gulfstream IV he'd bought and handed over for Westeros Company use, plus the private planes leased under Daenerys Entertainment and Gucci, they already had four private aircraft.
Considering there would be more in the future, building dedicated hangars in Los Angeles and forming a specialized service team was necessary.
Working with LAX was troublesome, but as Janet said, as long as you paid enough, nothing was impossible.
...
After seeing the two women off, Simon headed to Daenerys Studios.
That morning, there was a senior management meeting to discuss the company's development plans for the second half of the year.
When he arrived at the large conference room in Building One of the studio's administrative district, Amy Pascal, Robert Iger, Nancy Brill, Ira Deutchman, Danny Morris, Robert Rehme, Mark Belford, and a whole roster of Daenerys Entertainment executives were already there. Even Stan Lee, who oversaw Marvel, showed up today.
When Simon walked in, everyone was gathered in animated conversation.
Seeing him, they greeted him one after another. Simon exchanged pleasantries and casually asked Amy, "What are you talking about?"
Amy handed him the latest issue of Forbes, adding, "I need to say this first, Simon. I didn't leak anything."
Forbes was a weekly magazine.
It was famous, but it wasn't on Simon's personal reading list. Anything he needed to pay attention to was usually summarized for him by his assistant.
Recently, Forbes had contacted Simon again, hoping he would cooperate with the next year's rich list statistics. As usual, Simon refused.
Taking the magazine from Amy, Simon motioned for everyone to sit, then took a seat near the conference table as well.
The first thing he saw was a bold, striking headline: "The Hundred Million Executive Dollar Club."
He skimmed quickly.
Forbes had clearly done a lot of "work" recently. The article had a remarkably accurate grasp on Daenerys Entertainment's financials from the first half of the year and on the profits Cersei Capital had made in crude futures not long ago.
But the real hype point of the piece was the projected 1990 compensation of several partners at Cersei Fund Management, and of Amy Pascal on the Daenerys side.
Based on what they could gather, Forbes concluded that in 1990, across the entire Westeros system, excluding Simon and his wife, there would be seven people with nine figure annual incomes. The six partners who each held 5% of Cersei Fund Management, plus Amy Pascal, who would receive 5% of Daenerys Entertainment's annual profits, along with equity rewards of an equal amount.
When Forbes had loudly announced earlier that it was delaying this year's Forbes 400 list and global rich list because of Simon, the media had immediately begun digging into the assets and financials of the entire Westeros system.
The more they counted, the more jaw dropping it became.
This projection from Forbes was basically identical to reality. Compared to other recent disclosures sensational enough to steal headlines, it wasn't even particularly shocking.
Of course.
For the crowd of executives in this conference room, most of whom were on roughly the same rung as Amy, it felt very different.
An annual income over a hundred million was, for a professional manager in this era, nothing short of a miracle.
Anyone with even a hint of ambition probably couldn't stay indifferent.
Simon laid the magazine on the table in front of him and swept his gaze over the room. "I assume you all know the report is true. You don't know the people at Cersei Fund Management, but you all know Amy very well."
With Simon personally confirming it, even though Amy had already verified it, the room still stirred.
Raising a hand to calm them, Simon continued. "All I can say is this: a hundred million a year is only the beginning. The Westeros system is big. Very big. Big enough for you to show what you can do. And it won't be just a handful of positions making nine figures a year. People in the industry like to say I'm harsh on stars, that I'm unwilling to pay them the kind of massive salaries other studios offer. The truth is, it's not that I won't pay. I only give what I believe is a fair price. You're the same. As long as you contribute enough to this company, I'm happy to pay any one of you a nine figure salary."
If someone else had said that, it might have sounded like empty promises. But sitting in this room, no one believed Simon was just talking nonsense. [TL/N: Where's the faceslapping troupe? Where's the guy that won't believe Simon and expose his ass for talking nonsense?]
So even after the meeting ended at noon, many people were still caught up in an ambitious, fired up mood.
After lunch, Simon went with Stan Lee, who still hadn't left, to the second floor office loft area of the studio. Marvel's West Coast team had already moved in.
With the success of Batman and the expansion of the DC film universe, Marvel's team had repeatedly suggested developing Marvel superhero movies. Simon had never agreed.
Under current conditions, picking one or two heroes to develop as standalone films might work. But launching a full Marvel cinematic universe was impossible. The visual effects technology simply couldn't support it yet.
After several rounds of discussion, though, Simon approved a compromise plan.
Over the next few years, Marvel would invest in a series of 2D animated feature films based on Marvel superheroes, roughly similar in scope to the DC superhero animated films from the original timeline. PG 13 level, seventy to ninety minutes each, no theatrical release, distributed directly through VHS and television.
Marvel's existing West Coast branch in the San Fernando Valley was already an animation production team, previously focused on children's TV cartoons.
Now that the decision was made, Simon approved a $15 million budget for the first animated feature: $12 million for production, $3 million for marketing.
Because it would go straight to VHS and television, the technical process wouldn't be as complicated as big screen animated features, and it could be finished in about a year.
Since it was the first one, Simon patiently gave the Marvel animation team an eighteen month production window.
But a $15 million budget was equivalent to Marvel Entertainment's entire net profit over three years. Simon's stance was very clear: if they screwed it up, Marvel could forget anything else and stick to comics.
After finally getting Simon to loosen his grip, Marvel treated the opportunity like gold. They not only chose their most popular property, Spider Man, but Stan Lee, usually based in New York, even came to Los Angeles in person, intending to oversee preparation on the West Coast.
The first Spider Man animated film would cover the origin story as usual. After listening to Stan Lee explain the plot concept himself, Simon only reiterated that they must not make it into a childish kids' cartoon, and that they needed to plan the character designs properly, so future projects wouldn't have every superhero looking different from film to film. That was one thing Simon had always hated about the DC animated movies in his memory, even major characters like Superman and Batman kept changing designs.
Simon also knew that happened because different teams handled different projects. But that wasn't something he needed to worry about right now. He only needed to set the requirements.
...
The loft buildings on the second floor really did create an atmosphere that sparked creativity: spacious, open, easy to communicate in, without the frantic rhythm of the administrative district. Whether it was the graffiti on the walls or the movie figurines scattered everywhere, it all made you feel like this was where art should be born.
The earliest loft buildings in New York's SoHo, converted from abandoned factories, truly had been artist gathering places.
No wonder Nancy Brill had moved the entire consumer products division here, along with the Daenerys Analytics Company she managed, Blockbuster's Los Angeles branch, and Blizzard's studio. It gave off the vibe of a warlord holding a mountain stronghold inside the Daenerys empire.
Marvel's team only occupied a small corner of the first floor of Loft Three. The rest was territory claimed by a certain short woman.
Leaving Marvel's area, Simon had planned to stop by Pixar and check on Toy Story's development. Instead, he happened to run into Nancy coming out of the Blockbuster branch office. So they found a seat in a nearby lounge area and talked about Blockbuster.
During this period, Blockbuster had completed its acquisition of that company, Erol's, and its store count was still growing. By year end, the chain was expected to exceed 2,000 locations, becoming the undisputed number one video rental chain in North America.
After Nancy split the chairman and CEO roles that had originally belonged to Blockbuster founder Wayne Huizenga, and poached an executive from Walmart to serve as Blockbuster's CEO, the short woman completely took control of the company.
Or rather, Daenerys Entertainment completely took control of Blockbuster.
As Simon and Nancy had discussed many times, what Nancy was personally focusing on now was steadily improving Blockbuster's overall operational efficiency, preventing the video rental giant from suffering execution decline and bloated staffing due to overexpansion.
That was also why Nancy had recruited the Walmart executive, James Frey. When it came to solving problems like these, Walmart was unquestionably the best. In retail chains, only by continuously improving efficiency and lowering costs could a company maintain its advantage and competitiveness through all kinds of customer friendly discounts and policies.
If a company grew larger and larger, yet its prices only got higher, completely failing to reflect any scale advantage, then it wasn't far from decline.