In Simon's view, the 1987 summer season carried the distinct flavor of a turning point in Hollywood's film production and distribution models.
From mid-May onward, films rolled out one after another: Dustin Hoffman's Ishtar, Eddie Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop II, Arnold Schwarzenegger's Predator, and Jack Nicholson's The Witches of Eastwick.
Among them, Ishtar and Beverly Hills Cop II stood as the most emblematic of this shift.
Ishtar's budget soared to $55 million, but its opening weekend haul of $5.7 million doomed Columbia Pictures to massive losses. Still, the film heralded the official dawn of Hollywood's big-budget era.
As the sequel to 1984's North American box office champ, Beverly Hills Cop II carried a $28 million production cost. But its true landmark was the staggering 2,326-screen opening.
For later blockbusters routinely claiming three or four thousand screens, 2,326 might seem modest—but in an era when most films scraped by with around 1,000, Beverly Hills Cop II's scale was unprecedented.
Paramount skipped the traditional Friday release, opting for Wednesday, May 20th.
Through an aggressive pre-release publicity blitz, the film raked in $7.61 million over just Wednesday and Thursday, shoving Ishtar's full-week $5.7 million to second place on the charts.
The following week, it added $40.03 million, pushing the nine-day total to $47.64 million.
Before 1987, such ferocious momentum was the sole domain of national phenomena like the Star Wars series.
By comparison, 1986's champ Top Gun opened to $12.21 million, while 1985's Back to the Future—also a Wednesday release—managed $22.02 million over nine days.
Yet after that $47.64 million surge, Beverly Hills Cop II's next week's take plummeted 40%—far steeper than the typical 10-20% slide for enduring hits.
Even so, it was destined to be another mega-blockbuster.
As studios dissected Paramount's strategy, Simon understood that beyond the big-budget surge, Hollywood was entering an age of massive upfront hype to build buzz, followed by blanket releases across thousands of screens for rapid box office recovery.
On his end, with the index futures positions locked in, Daenerys Films' Final Destination kicked off production on May 18th.
The film's primary shooting took place in New York's Queens borough. Simon flew out personally after the start, spending three days on set before heading back to Los Angeles.
In the weeks that followed, he dove headlong into casting, location scouting, and rehearsals for Pulp Fiction.
Final Destination's shoot was slated for eight weeks; if all went smoothly, it'd wrap around July 10th. Pulp Fiction's start was penciled for July 13th, with a tentative ten-week schedule.
Meanwhile.
The summer's wave of new releases hammered the box office runs of Run Lola Run and The Butterfly Effect.
But on June 15th, in its 18th week, Run Lola Run added $1.36 million over the weekend, officially crossing the $200 million threshold with a cumulative $201.07 million.
Then.
From June 19th to 25th, The Butterfly Effect's 12th week brought in another $1.82 million, pushing its total past $100 million to $100.87 million.
Though everyone anticipated the potential of Run Lola Run and The Butterfly Effect, when they actually shattered expectations, North American media erupted once more.
Newspapers brimmed with fresh stories on Simon.
Kathryn's Near Dark hit theaters on June 19th.
Thanks to Simon's prior involvement, amid the media frenzy, it reaped the most direct benefits.
Opening on 513 screens, the film pulled $7.86 million over its debut weekend—averaging over $15,000 per theater, squarely in blockbuster territory.
Simon and Janet had planned parties back in March or April to thank those who'd helped him over the past year.
Seizing the current buzz, they revived the idea.
June 27th, Saturday.
The grand affair unfolded that day at the Palisades mansion.
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