After the string of holidays, everyday life in North America 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 meant 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 same time looked insignificant.
Thanks to media attention that burned just as hot as its box office, many news stories related to the film became headline fodder during this period.
Naturally, the first was the DC superhero universe plan born alongside Batman.
According to information from various channels, Daenerys Entertainment 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 media outlets also began digging for every scrap of additional information about the DC film universe plan. In recent days, a host of Time Warner and Daenerys executives had become prime targets for reporters.
While everyone closely tracked the negotiations between the two companies over the plan's implementation 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 Entertainment. That wasn't a secret to outsiders. Back then, plenty of people had even questioned whether Daenerys Entertainment really needed to do it.
As the film's box office exploded, rumors spread that some 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 Entertainment reportedly canceled an extra cash bonus plan that had been intended for every crew member 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 immediately.
The media first circled back to what everyone really wanted to know, just how much Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner would earn from distributing Batman.
With domestic box office surging to $230 million in just three weeks, there was no doubt Batman in North America. Next came overseas.
Batman was one of America's cultural symbols. He had extremely broad recognition worldwide, but foreign audiences didn't share the deep emotional attachment Americans had built up over half a century. Before release, some industry publications had concluded the film's overseas box office would definitely not surpass its domestic take.
But what happened next caught everyone by surprise.
The phenomenon-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 some 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 media now broadly believed Batman's overseas box office would be at least on par with its domestic 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 agreement details, roughly $250 million of that would belong to Daenerys Entertainment.
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 merchandising. With the media predicting $2 billion in tie-in product sales over the next twelve months, Daenerys Entertainment 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 Entertainment 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 Entertainment'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 merchandising, videotape sales, and television licensing income would only be higher, not lower, compared to those first two streams. After all, according to the latest statistics, as the home 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 Entertainment's first-year income from the film.
All told, Daenerys Entertainment could earn at least $800 million from Batman across all distribution channels over the next five years. As the distributor, Time 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 media outlets now commonly attributed to Batman.
If Daenerys and Time Warner could make a billion dollars off Batman, then what were the male and female leads paid?
The media immediately 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 media gleefully stoking the flames, fans watched their idols supposedly earn so little while Daenerys and Time Warner raked in a billion dollars. Naturally, resentment flared. Many fans began writing letters and calling, demanding Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner renegotiate the contracts and give their idols a raise.
Since the related news had been deliberately released by Daenerys Entertainment in the first place, the company naturally responded quickly.
CNN, under Turner Broadcasting, which had not yet been acquired by Time Warner but maintained close ties with it, ran a special segment soon after the story fermented, 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 become 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 Entertainment was already extremely 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 endorsement deals. Added together, it would put his total earnings above most Hollywood stars.
The same 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. Some 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 Time Warner, Warner Bros. CEO Terry Semel stated outright in an interview on ABC's Good Morning America that Warner Bros. would never work with film people who lacked basic respect for contracts.
Hollywood studios usually signed additional option agreements with actors in major projects, especially newcomers. This was, in fact, a core interest of the entire studio class.
So after Terry Semel's statement, 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 seemed 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 Meg 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 confirmed Melanie Griffith as the female lead, and that earlier rumors about Meg 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 Meg Ryan as the female lead, he would walk away from the project, and several other already-confirmed cast members also openly stated they did not want to work with Meg Ryan.
Once is an accident, twice is a pattern, three times makes it obvious. Anyone with half a brain could see the problem.
Meg Ryan's bad blood with Daenerys Entertainment was practically public. After When Harry Met Sally pushed her rapidly into the top tier, she quickly terminated the remaining two films on her option contract with Daenerys Entertainment once she became famous.
When Daenerys Entertainment clashed with CAA over the Rain Man incident, the end result was that Meg Ryan, who seemed 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, Meg Ryan had only just become famous and had not yet fully secured her footing.
Then she first demanded an outrageous price once she found success, then broke with Daenerys Entertainment, then appeared in The Rockeeter, which Paramount had stolen from Daenerys Entertainment. 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 Entertainment 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 Entertainment. 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 Entertainment.
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 Entertainment face.
Even though The Rockeeter had failed, as long as Meg Ryan was willing to slash her salary, Paramount's management would still be happy to pick up a bargain based on the popularity of When Harry Met Sally.
However, Daenerys Entertainment 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 Meg Ryan was the result of Amy's maneuvering behind the scenes. Even if Paramount didn't care about Daenerys Entertainment, those filmmakers still hoped to work with Daenerys Entertainment in the future.
In the end, Paramount could not possibly defy the will of every other key creative and force Meg Ryan into the role.
Outside the Big Seven, under Daenerys Entertainment'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 Meg Ryan.
Watching a top-tier actress lose her footing in Hollywood almost overnight under Daenerys Entertainment's pressure, many stars felt both awe and fear at the company's power. At the same time, Adam Baldwin, the male lead of Batman, who had previously still harbored some dissatisfaction, very wisely discarded every last thought of it. In an interview with Entertainment 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 installments, 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 fermented ended quietly in a haze of gossip.
After the stick, you still had to offer a sweet date.
Daenerys Entertainment then announced that qbecause of the film's huge box office, it would issue an additional cash bonus to all crew members 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 Entertainment stood to earn from the Batman, it was insignificant.
Cutting the bonus in half was, in truth, Daenerys Entertainment's response to that earlier "rumor."