Chapter 85: Chapter 85: Money
"Run Lola Run" turned out to be a blessing in disguise and is now almost universally recognized as the North American box office champion of 1987.
However, Simon realized that he was increasingly resembling a pauper.
Recently, renting luxury mansions, hiring Patrice Kingsley, signing contracts with Amy Pascal, maintaining Daenerys Productions, and addressing various expenses from a public relations crisis all cost a substantial amount of money.
Now, not only was Simon's own pocket empty, but even Janet's purse was thoroughly depleted. The $50,000 saved from the budget of "Run Lola Run" had long been spent.
On the other hand, although the expected earnings were in the tens of millions of dollars, the North American box office revenue from "Run Lola Run" would only be settled after the movie finished its theater run, and the timing of realizing other distribution rights remained uncertain.
Thus, Simon was still facing a mountain of bills.
He owed rent for the mansion, Kingsley's commission, and Pascal's base salary. Even the money Pascal wanted to hire an assistant with had to come out of her own pocket, for which she severely reproached Simon.
Now, securing funds as quickly as possible was of the utmost urgency for Simon.
Last month, Simon had instructed Janet to take the distribution contract for "Run Lola Run" with Orion to the bank for a mortgage evaluation.
Unlike the $100,000 loan he secured from Wells Fargo Bank previously using the "Butterfly Effect" script contract, this time Simon was applying for tens of millions of dollars, which naturally couldn't be achieved overnight.
Just the preliminary material review took a full month, after which Simon encountered a public relations crisis, leading several banks to consider the associated risks and outright reject his loan application.
In the end, it was still Wells Fargo Bank that remained.
Los Angeles.
Inside the cliffside mansion in Palisades.
After evaluation, Wells Fargo Bank ultimately offered a loan amount of $20 million, $10 million less than Simon and Janet's expected contract share.
However, $20 million was clearly not a small figure.
Due to the substantial amount of the loan, Wells Fargo Bank dispatched a Senior Vice President named Paul Olson to personally conduct the most critical part of the loan review process with Simon and Janet.
Paul Olson, around forty years old with brown hair and a square face, appeared cultivated and mild-mannered. Although he was quite talkative in private, he became meticulous and somewhat stern when it came to work.
In the study of the mansion, the three sat in the living area.
After Paul Olson methodically asked all routine questions and turned his attention directly on Simon and Janet, he reiterated, "Mr. Westeros, Ms. Johnston, I must ask you both to confirm once again that the loan you're applying for is solely for personal use and will absolutely not be used for any unauthorized purposes like film investment, correct?"
For the third time.
Simon inwardly muttered but nodded without hesitation, saying, "Yes."
Janet also rigorously concurred.
Paul continued, "Then, I must reiterate, Mr. Westeros, Ms. Johnston, that we will periodically track the flow of the loan funds. If we find that you have used this loan for unauthorized activities like investing in films, Wells Fargo has the right to recall the loan immediately, and your credit records would be severely impacted."
Simon and Janet both maintained somewhat rigid smiles, nodding mechanically again.
"With that clarified," Paul Olson finally closed the folder, smiled, and stood up to say, "It's been a pleasure meeting you both, and I hope we enjoy a fruitful collaboration."
Simon and Janet finally relaxed, quickly standing up to shake hands with Paul Olson.
After seeing Paul Olson off, Simon returned to the living room of the villa and laid down on the sofa, exhausted. Janet, equally drained, flopped onto him.
Simon wrapped his arms around her, staring at the ceiling, and sighed, "We finally conned the money out of them."
Janet responded weakly, "Yeah."
Simon's ultimate plan was to use this money for trading futures in the latter half of the year, but this was obviously something he couldn't mention.
Anyone with common sense would know that banks would never provide loans for such purposes, even with collateral.
But to apply for a loan of $20 million, a legitimate reason was needed.
After some consultations, they listed 'personal consumption' as their reason in the loan application, with a repayment period of one year.
Many Hollywood stars often apply for massive loans from banks for consumption purposes.
Since personal consumption typically involves purchasing tangible assets like luxury homes or cars, if the borrower fails to repay, the bank can recoup the assets to mitigate losses, making it a very legitimate reason for a loan.
However, Simon and Janet's application still raised suspicions at Wells Fargo Bank.
Mainly because the amount was too substantial.
Even if Simon and Janet were extravagant, $20 million was certainly not an amount that could be easily
spent.
They even concocted a pretext of wanting to buy a private jet, which still did not fully convince Wells Fargo Bank.
Purchasing a private jet could be done in installments, and wealthy individuals usually opt for this method, which also wouldn't require so much money.
Given Simon's background, it was easy for Wells Fargo to suspect he might intend to use the funds for film investment.
The risks associated with film investments are comparable to those of stocks and futures.
Normally, banks would also not approve such types of loans.
Of course, this isn't to say it never happens.
After the establishment of Orion, Mike Meadow and others directly obtained a $200 million credit line from a bank in New York.
Although "Run Lola Run" was a huge box office hit, Simon couldn't yet enjoy the same treatment Orion had because he only had one successful film so far. Hence, the repeated reminders and warnings from Paul Olson to Simon during their meeting.
If Wells Fargo knew of Simon's true intentions, perhaps even today's conversation wouldn't have occurred.
Moreover, being discovered during operations in the future would also pose significant trouble.
Regardless.
For now, he couldn't worry about that.
Getting the loan was a skill in itself. Those who completely abide by the rules after receiving the money are rare indeed.
Otherwise, banks wouldn't have so many bad debts.
After taking a deep breath and relaxing, Simon thought about the funds that wouldn't arrive until next week and still felt some concern. Tightening his grip around Janet's arm, he said, "Babe, we're still out of money. How about we cut back a bit, eat just two meals a day?"
Janet rubbed her face against Simon's chest and said, "I'd get hungry. Let's have three meals, and you can have one."
Simon nodded, "Understood."
"What?"
"You count as one meal, so that makes two."
"Hmm, what if I call Kate over?"
"Hm?"
"She counts as a meal too, that makes three."
"Federal quality girlfriend, here, let me kiss you."
"Psh, you rascal."
After a bit of playful banter, the two quieted down.
Simon started to reorganize his thoughts about recent events, most curious about the source of that tape at ABC.
Reflecting on the day's events, Simon still couldn't remember who had recorded that video.
He had made several phone calls and even went to ABC's headquarters in New York to inquire, but to no avail; ABC responded that the video provider requested anonymity, and the reasons remained unknown.
Today was March 24, Tuesday.
The storm had passed.
Yesterday, Simon finally officially signed a contract with Fox for "Final Destination."
The budget provided by Fox would also not be available until next week, and it wouldn't be paid all at once. The total budget of $8 million would start with an initial $500,000 for early project tasks like casting and location scouting.
Additionally, Orion was starting to discuss Simon's next film project, which also needed to begin soon.
Both projects were secure,
but Simon's planned final movie, Nora Ephron's "When Harry Met Sally," was still up in the air.
In fact, Simon hadn't yet secured this script.
Despite the failure of his previous film "Heatstroke" and the unusual structure of "When Harry Met Sally," no film company showed interest initially. During initial contacts, Ephron indicated that if Daenerys Productions wanted to purchase the script, they must present a viable production plan.
This concern was likely because Ephron feared Daenerys Productions was merely a shell company with no actual production capabilities, yet wanted to hoard her script.
Hollywood's script hoarding is quite common; film companies often purchase exclusive rights to scripts for several years. If the project goes into production within the contract period, they pay the screenwriter additional royalties; if the project remains uninitiated by the end of the term, the script rights revert to the screenwriter.
The box office for "When Harry Met Sally" was even considered the most secure among Simon's three planned films. His original thought was, if he couldn't find investors, he would personally finance the movie.
But now,
if he wanted the movie to premiere next summer, the project needed to start immediately.
Thus, all issues still circled back to one starting point.
Money!
Without money, nothing could be done.
Moreover, after estimating, the investment for "When Harry Met Sally" might be the highest among the planned three films, potentially reaching $15 million.
Frankly, Simon really didn't want to invest personally in this movie.
Although "Run Lola Run" was expected to generate significant revenue, he preferred to allocate those funds towards other targets with greater potential for appreciation.
After pondering for a while, Simon patted Janet, saying, "Get up, we have dinner with Meadow later, are you going?"
Janet gave a small grunt, which counted as a nod.
Now that the North
American box office potential of "Run Lola Run" was confirmed, it was time to address the film's other distribution issues. Since they had already signed a North American theatrical distribution contract with Orion, the remaining distribution rights naturally also belonged to Orion.
Simon's plan was to sell all other rights in one go, allowing him to quickly secure a lump sum for operations in the second half of the year and other investments.
However, given "Run Lola Run's" North American box office scale, the profits from overseas distribution rights, video tape rights, and subsequent TV broadcasting rights were at least double that of the domestic box office.
Simon wasn't aware of the specific details of the profit-sharing agreements Orion had with other theaters, but even an average fifty-fifty split meant that "Run Lola Run" was expected to bring in a total of $100 million in profits for Orion and Daenerys Productions.
Compared to the modest production and marketing investment, this $100 million was almost pure profit.
By this standard, the remaining channel distributions could generate profits of at least $200 million.
Based on the profit distribution rules for domestic box office, Simon could realistically ask for a $60 million price to sell off "Run Lola Run's" remaining rights.
$60 million, even for the big seven studios, was a substantial amount, and Orion certainly couldn't afford it.
Therefore, to execute the sale of the remaining channel rights in the short term, Simon could only sell them piecemeal.
However, due to contractual restrictions, Simon would need Orion's consent before proceeding.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
INIT
INIT Please give this book stones of power and raise it in the ratings so that it can get more readers.
If you want to support me, check my Patreon.
I post 3 chapters a day of the books on my Patreon, check it out!
www.patréon.com/INNIT
(Replace é with e)
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone