Simon returned to Los Angeles just as the summer blockbuster season officially kicked off with the release of Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
The film opened unconventionally on a Wednesday, May 24 and across 2,327 screens. In just those first two days, Wednesday and Thursday, it pulled in $9.9 million, easily outpacing United Artists' action flick Road House, which had opened the same weekend.
Road House had debuted on the traditional Friday, May 19, and earned $8.24 million over its first seven days, projected to finish around $30 million in North America. Far from competing with Indiana Jones 3, but against a $17 million production budget, it wasn't a flop.
Worth noting is that the star of Road House was Patrick Swayze, the original lead of Ghost.
To guarantee Ghost's success, Simon had no intention of recasting the leads. While he'd been away from Los Angeles, Daenerys Entertainment had already locked in contracts with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze for the classic romance.
Swayze had vaulted to A-list status two years earlier with Dirty Dancing, a global smash grossing over $200 million. His final fee came in at $5 million.
Demi Moore, beyond being Mrs. Bruce Willis, had no standout credits. If Simon hadn't insisted, Amy Pascal wouldn't have considered her at all. Negotiations were tough; Amy kept the salary low, just $300,000, slightly above newcomer rates plus an option for one future film.
With a swarm of actresses circling the project, Moore knew she had no leverage and quickly accepted after minor quibbling.
Whoopi Goldberg also signed on to play the medium Oda Mae Brown.
On May 29, Daenerys officially announced the key cast and crew for Ghost. Shooting would begin in August with a $20 million budget and a tentative summer release next year.
But with Daenerys greenlighting a slew of projects in recent months, the news barely rippled. Hollywood's real focus was on the studio's first summer offering, The Bodyguard, due any day now.
Over the past few months, Daenerys releases had posted only middling numbers. If The Bodyguard continued that lukewarm streak, the dazzling aura the studio had built in 1988 would fade fast.
Worse, whispers around town suggested internal test screenings hadn't gone well.
Daenerys had kept a tight lid on word-of-mouth right up to release week no public press or fan screenings, which only fueled the rumors.
Los Angeles.
Century City Hotel in Beverly Hills.
It was May 31. That morning, the soundtrack album launch event for The Bodyguard had taken place in grand style at the hotel. The album would hit shelves the following Monday, three days after the film opened. Whitney Houston had done exhaustive prep for her screen debut and her third studio album.
After the press conference, Daenerys hosted a luncheon in the hotel for the cast, crew, and invited media.
Inside the banquet hall.
Clive Davis, president of Arista Records, Whitney's label chatted warmly with Simon over champagne for a few minutes. Then he moved toward Whitney, his expression turning grave.
Arista had been founded in the seventies with backing from Columbia Pictures. After years of upheaval, it was now a subsidiary of Germany's Bertelsmann Music Group. Clive had been president since day one. The label's turnaround finally came four years ago when Whitney broke big.
Whitney's team-up with Daenerys on The Bodyguard had been Clive's passionate push.
Now he was regretting it.
Ever since late last year, Daenerys seemed to have lost its golden touch, no breakout hits in the first half of the year. That alone might have been fine, but with The Bodyguard still unreleased, doubts about its quality were already swirling.
As for the soundtrack: to seal the deal, Arista had made major concessions. The album would be co-produced with Daenerys's nascent music division, with Simon Westeros personally advising.
In exchange, Daenerys would take fifty percent of gross profits.
Clive had hoped Simon might deliver another banger like the Madonna hit "Celebration." Instead, Arista got a patchwork of covers and old Whitney tracks, headlined by a seventies Dolly Parton song, "I Will Always Love You."
Whitney's first two albums had each sold over ten million worldwide. With that streak now at risk, Clive pulled his star aside and began quietly coaching her on damage control.
If the film tanked, the album's prospects looked even bleaker.
Clive's only hope was to shift as much blame as possible onto Daenerys and shield Whitney's career.
Across the hall.
Once Clive left, Amy Pascal stepped up to Simon.
Unlike Clive, whose concern was solely The Bodyguard, Amy worried about both June releases, The Bodyguard and The Sixth Sense. But she brought up something else first. "Bob flew to New York on Monday. Nothing unusual in itself, but someone spotted him dining with an executive from Sony's U.S. division."
Simon knew "Bob" meant Robert Rehme.
At that Cannes lunch, Simon had caught Rem's salary hint and ignored it, later mentioning it privately to Amy and asking her to keep an eye out.
He hadn't expected Robert to connect with Sony so quickly.
Or perhaps Sony had reached out first.
By now, Sony's bid for Columbia Pictures was public knowledge.
Columbia's largest shareholder, Coca-Cola, wanted to unload non-core assets; Sony desperately needed a Hollywood studio. Both sides were eager, the deal was essentially done.
In Simon's memory, once Sony closed the purchase, they installed Peter Guber and Jon Peters as heads, veteran producers behind hits like An American Werewolf in London.
The original Rain Man script had landed with their Guber-Peters company first; after it moved to Daenerys, the pair still snagged executive producer credits.
But the duo bled Sony dry.
Lavish spending and repeated flops forced Sony to fire them and take a $2.1 billion write-down on Columbia, the company's biggest loss ever.
Simon figured anyone would be better than those two, but on paper Rem didn't stack up.
Guber and Peters had produced multiple successes; Rem's strength was distribution. Before running New World Entertainment, he'd been VP of marketing at Universal. New World hadn't produced a single bona fide blockbuster under him.
Currently he was simply president of Daenerys's distribution arm.
Marketing was growing more vital in Hollywood, but creative talent still ruled. Studio chiefs usually rose through production, Michael Eisner at Disney, Joe Roth at Fox. Distribution backgrounds were rare at the very top.
After a moment, Simon said, "Then keep a closer watch on distribution for a while."
Amy nodded. "You don't want to talk to him?"
Simon countered, "Do you remember when he started?"
"Around August last year, I think."
He shrugged. "Not even a full year, Amy. Honestly, I'm happy with Bob's work. But during contract talks I already offered top-tier terms, three million in bonuses, matching what big-studio distribution heads get. The company's made a fortune, but I don't feel I owe him more. If he thinks it's not enough, he can walk."
Amy paused, then nodded. "I'll quietly look for possible replacements."
Simon let it drop and shifted topics. "One more thing, tweak the final month of marketing for The Sixth Sense. Tell De Niro and the others not to hint at the twist in talk shows. Treat it like a standard horror promo. Same for our media copy."
Amy gave a wry smile. "Simon, that'll make it even less appealing to most audiences."
"De Niro starring, my screenplay, that's appeal enough. The Sixth Sense isn't built for a huge opening weekend. I want a long, word-of-mouth curve."
…
After the soundtrack launch, the film's release arrived quickly.
June 2, The Bodyguard opened on 2,021 screens in North America. After last year's saturation successes, major studios now routinely launched summer tentpoles above 2,000 screens.
The same weekend brought the first full-week numbers for Indiana Jones 3.
From May 26 to June 1, Spielberg's juggernaut raked in $46.01 million domestically, surpassing the $42.16 million single-week record set by Return of the Jedi and setting a new benchmark.
Against that onslaught, The Bodyguard's critical reception was brutal.
Entertainment Weekly, Variety, The New York Times, all panned it.
Amy nearly pulled all Daenerys ads from Variety after reading their line calling it "a messy disaster."
On a ten-point scale, the film scraped barely past 3 far from passing.
A few outlets like Rolling Stone praised the soundtrack, but the positives couldn't salvage the overall reputation.
Affected by the reviews, the film opened to $16.61 million over the three-day weekend.
Not a disaster compared to Road House, and with strong Monday holdover projected, the full week would likely top $20 million.
Yet pundits agreed the opening owed more to Daenerys's aggressive marketing than quality. With bad word-of-mouth, the drop-off would be steep; North American total might cap at $50 million.
Production budget: $20 million. Marketing: $8 million. Total investment: $28 million. Fifty million domestic would break even on theatrical alone.
But against Daenerys's jaw-dropping 1988 slate, a $50 million ceiling felt like failure especially after months of lukewarm releases. The studio's miraculous box-office halo from last year was officially gone.
By contrast, entering its third weekend, Indiana Jones 3 still pulled $21.23 million—a mere 27% drop. In twelve days it had already amassed $77.14 million.
Per schedule, June 9 would bring Columbia's sequel Ghostbusters II, the follow-up to their 1984 runner-up for annual champion on 2,410 screens, topping even Indiana Jones 3.
To juice the stock price during pivotal Sony negotiations, Columbia was sparing no expense on promotion.
Caught between Indiana Jones 3, the incoming Ghostbusters II, and terrible reviews, The Bodyguard's future looked grim.
Then, on Monday, June 5, the soundtrack album officially went on sale in North America.