HOLLYWOOD WHAT IF

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 360

"Congratulations, Director."

"Ah? Yes, thank you."

Kazir nodded confusedly as he entered the Blue Sky Studio building. This was the first time he had been to this place, so he was confused when the security guard congratulated him. He was not even sure what the guard was congratulating him for.

'Is he talking about Pirates of the Caribbean? Or maybe The Equalizer?'

Kazir was not sure.

Both movies were making a lot of money at the box office on September 6.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl has already grossed $280.44 million at the North American box office. Overseas, the film has currently grossed more than $172 million. The worldwide box office for Pirates Of The Caribbean has now reached $452 million.

The movie was still making money internationally and its reception was mostly positive. The pirate theme was not common, but people liked Pirates Of The Caribbean.

As for The Equalizer, it grossed $170.25 million at the North American box office. The movie just had its first week of international release and made $48 million.

As for the other movies released in the same month (August) as The Equalizer, their performances were mediocre.

American Wedding, Freaky Friday, S.W.A.T. and Freddy vs. Jason, their genres and popularity were nothing compared to a CCU movie.

They couldn't compete with The Equalizer in the long run. This shows how much Grey Pictures has struck gold with their franchises. All they had to do was set the movie in the CCU universe and audiences would buy tickets just to see it.

However, Kazir was adamant that the Continental Cinematic Universe should focus solely on the action genre. He had no intention of adding drama, comedy, or romance to CCU. It would lose its appeal, Kazir felt.

'Now that I think about it, my birthday is coming up... Maybe the guard wished me a happy birthday earlier. Probably not. I know I'm famous now, but most people probably don't know when my birthday is or any other information about me.'

He turned 35 this month. He made sure to stay healthy by going to the gym. In fact, he went to the gym just an hour ago before heading to Blue Sky Studio. His physique looked amazing, but Kazir knew he was rarely getting 8 hours of sleep lately. His schedule was so packed and he was busy most of the time.

Blue Sky Studio was an American visual effects and computer animation studio based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Although the company had an office here in Los Angeles, where Kazir was currently.

Blue Sky Studio was a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox. This company was designed to compete with Pixar and DreamWorks Animation in the 3D animation industry. Hollywood knew how much money these 3D animated films made each year.

Toy Story alone, a single franchise, was worth over $1 billion based on the revenue generated, such as merchandise and movies. God knows how many Toy Story toys and merchandise Disney has sold.

Naturally, 20th Century Fox wanted a piece of that delicious pie. So Blue Sky Studio was formed.

'As I recall, Blue Sky Studio produced Rio, Robots, The Peanuts Movie, and other 3D cartoons. But their most successful franchise is Ice Age. This is also their first movie.'

Ice Age was released last year and its performance gave Blue Sky Studio and 20th Century Fox hope. The film grossed $383 million.

But compared to Pixar, the best in the business, Blue Sky Studio's animation was pale and bland. It didn't have much to say in terms of animation.

After Walt Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, Blue Sky Studio closed down miserably because Walt Disney didn't need another animation studio. Walt Disney already had Pixar and Disney Animation.

Blue Sky Studio died in 2019, along with Fox. Of course, one of the reasons for the closure of Blue Sky Studio was the lack of profit.

Only Ice Age and Rio were the famous franchises of Blue Sky Studio, unlike Pixar and DreamWorks Animation films, which had dozens of franchises to make profits.

20th Century Fox believed that Blue Sky Studio could compete with Pixar and DreamWorks Animation, but it needed to excel in other areas.

Blue Sky Studio's 3D animation was not bad, but it was not good either. The technology was improving every year, and their animation would probably catch up as the technology matured.

The reason Kazir came to this place was because of the scripts Tom Rothman wanted him to write. Everyone knew that Kazir was a talented screenwriter and his stories made money.

If Blue Sky Studio couldn't beat Pixar at animation, why not at storytelling?

Finding Nemo was a heartwarming movie... Surely Kazir could cook up something similar, right?

As a veteran of Hollywood, Kazir was also interested in the animation market. Since he had been given the opportunity to participate in Blue Sky Studio, he wanted to make sure that his participation was worthwhile.

He had "come up" with three scripts for different purposes.

The first was Wall-E. In terms of plot, this movie was comparable to Finding Nemo. It won many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The box office was not bad either, grossing more than $500 million. Kazir liked this movie and he believed that this movie was not only for children but also for adults. No, it was actually meant for adults because of its plot alone.

As for his second script, he decided to write one of the highest grossing franchises in the animation market. Cars!

Cars, starring Lightning McQueen. This franchise grossed more than $21 billion in revenue! It had a simple plot, but the profit it generated was not so simple. Pixar struck gold with Cars.

The third was more in his forte, Kazir wrote the script for Kung Fu Panda. A 3D animated film based on a panda. It focused more on action and fighting, so boys and men would definitely like it.

Between the three, Cars and Kung Fu Panda were successful franchises that had multiple sequels. With Cars being the most profitable.

While Wall-E was more focused on novelty and prestige, it didn't have a sequel and was also the least profitable.

+++++

[Author's note: I almost suffered from a disease called procrastination. Fortunately, I persevered and updated three chapters today].

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 361


Kazir thought about it seriously and he had an idea which of the three movies Blue Sky Studio would accept.

Blue Sky Studio was a business, not a charity. Its priority was to make money. Obviously, Blue Sky Studio would prefer Kung Fu Panda and Cars for their second movie.

Wall-E seemed promising, but its profitability was too low compared to those two.

Kazir stepped into the elevator knowing how the conversation would go. He had been in the business for more than seven decades, adding his past life. At the end of the day, production studios only made movies because they needed money.

Art and passion were just the freebies, but money was the main reason there were thousands of movies being released every year. The reason why many people wanted to become actors and become famous.

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...

Carl Ludwig wiped his forehead for the nth time, quite nervous and excited. Carl Ludwig was one of the founders of Blue Sky Studio, he currently held the position of President/Producer after 20th Century Fox became interested in 3D animated movies and invested in Blue Sky Studio.

After the success of Ice Age last year, the parent company (20th Century Fox) gained confidence in Blue Sky Studio. They were willing to invest more money just to make sure that Blue Sky Studio would compete with Walt Disney and Pixar, the leading companies in the animation industry.

Last year, shocking news was released. 30% of Grey Pictures was acquired by 20th Century Fox and the two companies made sure that this venture would be profitable for both of them.

Carl Ludwig was a big fan of Kazir Grey. He loved action movies and fell in love with Kazir's filmography.

In his opinion, The Matrix, Fight Cl*b, Kill Bill and Charlie's Angels became successful because of the genre that CCU paved for them.

The greatness of realistic action stunts was realized and many studios started to follow the trend. Today, most action movies take advantage of CCU.

Speaking of CCU, it was the first of its genre to make billions at the box office. According to the estimate of Forbes magazine, the net worth of CCU was more than 20 billion dollars as of this year. This net worth would continue to grow as long as CCU continued to do its job well.

There were some rumors that some of the Big Six were planning to create their own Cinematic Universe, but there were no official announcements to support this. Though Carl knew the Big Six were salivating at the idea.

Carl Ludwig was surprised that he would be meeting Kazir today. He even has posters of his movies in his office... He hoped that Kazir would sign them.

Carl had already read the three scripts, but they were incomplete. No one wanted a data leak, much worse if Kazir's scripts were stolen.

Carl liked Wall-E and was amazed at how Kazir wrote it. He was curious how Kazir could write such an amazing plot.

But he knew that this time, Wall-E might have to be put on a pedestal. 20th Century Fox wanted to see what Blue Sky Studio could do, and the best way to show it was to make money.

Heck, they even sent Kazir here just to make sure the future of Blue Sky Studio would be positive.

His phone rang, informing him that Kazir had arrived.

Carl wiped his forehead again and put on his best friendly smile to greet the most sought-after director of the era.

"Good morning, director."

"Good morning."

As always, business meetings began with a handshake.

Kazir and Carl sat down and the director couldn't help but look around. His attention was drawn to some of the posters.

Wanted, Taken, John Wick.

Most of the posters were movies he had directed.

'Is this a way to make a good impression?' he thought to himself.

"Director, I'm actually a fan of yours. I like your movies."

"That's great to hear. Maybe I can sign your posters to show off to your guests."

"That would be nice."

The two began to talk about their plans, and their conversation turned to the scripts.

"I think Wall-E deserves to be animated, but we should wait for the right time. For now, let's focus on stable genres that kids will love. After all, they are the main audience."

Wall-E had a certain seriousness to it, and kids might be confused or not like the movie. Well, Kazir knew that as long as they followed the original version, Wall-E would do well at the box office.

"I think we should make Cars instead. I can imagine how boys would like that movie." Carl added.

"Indeed, although I think Kung Fu Panda has a chance as well." Kazir nodded.

"Director, if you don't mind, we're hoping you'll take the position of executive producer on this project. We need your talent."

"Executive producer, huh..."

Kazir was the Executive Producer of so many projects this year and next year, but he only visited the sets a few times to check on the projects.

If he became the Executive Producer for Blue Sky Studio, he might have to spend one day a week in this place.

"Of course, we will make sure that this will not affect your projects. We just want to hear your thoughts and suggestions."

"We need the approval of 20th Century Fox."

"Oh, they will accept it for sure. We are talking about you."

"You are indeed a fan, you praised me quite highly. Then I have no problem."

"That's great to hear. Then I guess we have to choose Kung Fu Panda. You're a director who specializes in the action genre, I think the chances of Kung Fu Panda being successful will be much higher now that you're going to be involved."

"I don't have a problem."

Cars was good, too, but Kazir was more confident about Kung Fu Panda because action was his forte.

"By the way, we are going to hire Dan Schneider to direct this project."

Carl was thrilled that Kazir would be involved in this project.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Dan Schneider, from Nickelodeon. He produced a lot of shows at Nickelodeon like All That, Kenan & Kel, and The Amanda Show. I'm sure he knows how to get kids' attention."

Kazir was speechless at this shocking news!

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 362


Dan Schneider. Quite a famous person in the industry. Although two decades later, his fame would turn to infamy.

You see, Dan Schneider was facing some allegations. Alleged sexual misconduct and gender discrimination, many of them underage.

Dan Schneider was a bully on set, but because of his high status at Nickelodeon, he was protected for quite some time. Until the #MeToo movement started, which was the beginning of his allegations coming out.

This sick fuck of a guy was forcing young kids to show their feet for his fetish reasons. He had a foot fetish and everyone knows it, but really, why do that to kids? Bruh.

God knows how many foot scenes there were on iCarly alone.

"Has he signed a contract yet?" Kazir inquired. He didn't feel good about Dan Schneider being the director of Kung Fu Panda, the movie might be filled with foot scenes or something.

"No, but he has expressed interest."

"I think Dan has little knowledge of how animation works. His projects at Nickelodeon are mostly live action sitcoms."

"Yeah, you have a point."

"What about Chris Wedge? I know he's responsible for Ice Age 2, but the sequel is probably 4 years away. Maybe he can spend his time on Kung Fu Panda instead."

"Let's see, we will contact Chris about that. He is also interested in meeting with you.

Chris Wedge was the director of Ice Age, and Ice Age was actually his debut as a director. He was also a voice actor, he voiced Scrat in the Ice Age series.

Scrat was the squirrel that almost destroyed the Earth several times in the Ice Age.

"Also, Dan Schneider works for Nickelodeon and Nickelodeon is owned by Paramount. We don't want a data leak."

"I understand."

The two had an agreement. Kung Fu Panda would be the project that Blue Sky Studio would focus on this time. Of course, the project had to be approved by 20th Century Fox, as they were the investors.

But considering that Kung Fu Panda was written by star screenwriter Kazir Grey, 20th Century Fox would surely approve.

Kazir subsequently left Blue Sky Studio.

Sony-Colombia was now pushing him to start production on Spider-Man 2. Most of the cast had already signed on, Kazir was just the missing link.

Spider-Man had been a huge success and Sony-Columbia wanted that again. So yeah, they might have to agree to Kazir's big salary again.

Starting this month, Salvatore raised the base salary to $30 million + 28% worldwide box office + 7% merchandise profits.

Kazir had no intention of wasting any time. He just wanted Salvatore to play a little tug of war, since Salvatore had 3% of that amount. Kazir already had a lot of money to think about. His money was in the stock market, which was just getting bigger.

Wanted 2 will be released in the last week of October, while Game of Thrones will air in November.

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"Heh, don't you believe it? That bitch keeps lying that she's Kazir's sister when she's not. What a fucking liar! Pweh!"

A female spat on the ground, close to Mara's feet.

The group of women laughed, leaving Mara in a deep, seething rage. She wanted to punch the woman and rip her hair from her scalp.

She glared at her ex-friends.

Mara continued to spread the news that her brother was Kazir Grey, and she was not lying. Unfortunately, she couldn't control the news, so then everyone misunderstood she was close to the director. She didn't have the courage to deny it, so she went with the flow instead. It made her popular, so she didn't deny it.

But the result was too bad for her.

Rumors began to circulate that Mara was Kazir's half-sister, but their relationship was non-existent. Her friends started pestering her about it, and Mara had no choice but to admit the truth.

She looked at the ugly Asian woman sitting in the distance. Mara saw the woman smiling at her and Mara felt angry. She couldn't believe that she had come to the point where the ugly flat nose could grin at her... Now everyone made fun of her.

Mara left school to tell her dear mother. She knew her mother would do anything for her. Hell, her mother would bend over backwards for Mara.

"Mom! Mom! They are making fun of me!" Mara screamed loudly, frightening the maid who was polishing Elizabeth's nails.

"Baby, what's wrong?" Elizabeth asked elegantly. She was relaxing on the sofa while the maid did her nails.

"Mom, can you believe it? My friends started to hate me. They said I'm a liar! God, I hate them so much! Mom, do something about it! Please!"

"Okay, honey. I want you to calm down and explain it to me."

Mara started to yap and tell her story.

"Mom, can you please talk to my brother to stop this bullying?"

"Honey, that might be hard. But don't worry, I have another plan. I'll make sure everything works out. I'll also find a suitable role for you."

"Really? Thank you, Mommy. You're the best!"

Mara jumped for joy.

Elizabeth smiled and decided to contact someone at Universal. An important person in Universal Pictures wanted to meet her, the guy promised him a lot. Even bigger than the careers Harold and Salvatore had given them.

"I guess it's time to find another boat, a bigger boat to sail in comfort."

She smiled. She loved(?) Kazir, but she loved her daughter the most. Mara reminded her of your young past, an innocent woman who didn't know the cruelty of the world. As her mother, she wanted to protect that innocence.

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 363


"Happy Birthday, Kazir!"

Angelina hugged and kissed her boyfriend. She was happy about the small party she had prepared for him.

Kazir shrugged and sat down. A cake with his age on it, and a candle with the number 35 on it.

He knew damn well that he was getting old. But he was happy for the life he had. He had already experienced being old, and this was basically his 2nd season of turning 35.

In his past life, his 35th birthday was depressing because he spent it alone. He had no one to trust deeply, he had friends but they were more like colleagues to be precise.

His status in the industry was stagnant and there was no hope. He tried his best to contact investors to invest in his movie, knowing that his horror movies never did well at the box office.

The good thing was that he was not in debt.

He was also 35 when his father died.

'If I remember correctly, then next year was the year that Napoleon Dynamite was originally released.'

Napoleon Dynamite was released in 2004, which was the year Kazir heard the news that his father had died. He went to the funeral, but got punched by his brother instead.

This time, Kazir promised himself that tragedy wouldn't happen again. He would live a happy life.

He looked around and saw his friends with whom he had formed a bond. Now he was not alone.

Angelina knew that Kazir never liked lavish parties, so she decided to keep this one small.

However, the people who attended the party were not ordinary.

Tom Cruise was talking to Tom Rothman about a possible collaboration. 20th Century Fox was getting better and Tom's career had gotten a boost after winning the Oscars last year.

Agent Salvatore and cinematographer Rector were also invited. Unfortunately, Producer Harold couldn't make it because he was busy. However, he sent a gift, an expensive bottle of wine.

Palenque Simone and Fremont Smith also attended the party, although they were busy so they didn't stay long. The two directors were now working on their projects.

Palenque with Game of Thrones, while Fremont was looking for scripts to film. If Fremont couldn't find a script, he would write one himself. Although he was not sure he had the talent, he understood that someone like Kazir was hard to find.

It was a small group, but they were friends and acquaintances that Kazir made along the way.

His family was also in the house. Aaron and his father were there.

Kazir couldn't help but be happy to see them. Especially his father. Surely his father would stay healthy this time. Kazir begged his old man to go to the gym and work out at least twice a week.

The chances of his father having a heart attack were slim... Unless a terrible accident happened. Unexpected events like that were impossible to avoid. Perhaps one day someone would run over your car and pulled out an AK-47.

Kazir knew he was doing great. His life now compared to his past life was very different. Like black and white.

The people around him were waiting for him to blow out the candle.

He closed his eyes.

'I hope our life will continue to get better. '

He wished silently and blew out the candle. Everyone clapped and the party continued.

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September passed and the cinemas cooled down as it was not a busy month.

There were no major films released this month, which was understandable.

However, the big summer releases continued to make money despite the weak schedule.

By the end of September, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl had already grossed $296 million at the North American box office. It was on the verge of passing the $300 million mark.

Internationally, the pirate-themed films have already grossed $283 million. Combining the two box offices, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl grossed $576 million.

Everyone was surprised, but not by much. There were a lot of factors why the pirate movie was successful, such as the stunt choreography and the storytelling. Of course, having a star-studded director was also one of the factors.

Now Kazir officially broke the curse that pirate-themed movies would never make money.

"Skill Issue. Get Gud."

Those should be the best answers to Carolco Pictures and Universal Pictures, the two production studios that failed to deliver great pirate-themed movies, Water World and Cutthroat Island.

Even college professors have studied Kazir's formula for breaking the curse.

Well, if anyone was going to bring change to Hollywood, it was probably Kazir. Because he has brought so many changes.

Kazir popularized realistic action stunts.

He also started the first successful cinematic universe.

He was the first director to make two $1 billion movies in a row.

He was out of this world. Truly a director who deserved the respect of many people.

As for The Equalizer, after 60 days in theaters, it has grossed $177 million in North America and $161 million overseas. That puts The Equalizer at $338 million.

Grey Pictures was in a pretty tight spot a few months ago, but now they can breathe a little easier. 20th Century Fox has already sent them $100 million for Pirates Of The Caribbean and $70 million for The Equalizer.

The deal for both movies was that 20th Century Fox would be responsible for distribution in exchange for 25% of the box office.

25% for 20th Century Fox.

40% for Cinema Alliance.

Leaving Grey Pictures with 35% as their share. The good news, as always, was that Grey Pictures owned the copyrights to these movies and they could control how they sold their TV broadcast rights.

The DVD copies were no problem either, Grey Pictures would have the bigger profit. In the long run, DVDs were more profitable than the box office. Because Grey Pictures could sell DVDs for years to come and the profits would increase.

+++++

[See you tomorrow.]

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 364


"Are you excited for Wanted 2?"

"Hell yeah."

Alexa Nguyen weakly replied as she watched the movie trailer on the television.

The trailer for Wanted 2 seemed extravagant and impressive. It said that Kazir taught Fremont Smith how to make a compelling trailer by showing him his formula.

There was something about Director Grey's trailers that compelled audiences to see the movie. Since then, art professors and other directors have studied his trailers. They wanted to know how to get people excited.

As one of the members of Grey Fans and the lucky one to meet the director in person, Alexa was excited to see the movie.

She was an film art student who wanted to be an actress, so she was quite knowledgeable about movies and TV shows.

In her opinion, Wanted was the movie that paved the way for the success of the Continental Cinematic Universe.

Sure, both Taken and John Wick were released before Wanted, but Wanted was the most significant of the three franchises.

It showed the relevance of each film and made people more interested in the characters. A lot of people would buy or rent DVDs just to keep up with the plot. Especially teenagers who wanted to keep up with the trends.

Alexa dreamed of working with the famous director. She was so happy when she realized that she was one of the lucky fans to meet Kazir in person at the premiere of The Equalizer.

She stayed up all night in the theater waiting for the premiere of The Equalizer to end.

When she met the director, she realized that the guy was down-to-earth and humble... He was also damn handsome, and Alexa admitted that she had a crush on him.

Suddenly, she remembered that Kazir and Mara were supposed to be siblings. Out of curiosity, Alexa told Kazir that she was Mara's classmate.

"Director, I'm your sister's classmate. I also studied at the California Institute of the Arts."

"Sister?"

Kazir frowned slightly at first. Then he seemed to remember something. Instead of smiling, his mood turned sour.

He looked at Alexa and said.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have a sister."

"Huh?"

Alexa was stunned and realized that Kazir was not comfortable talking about it.

Fortunately, the director didn't mind and continued the meet and greet. He even treated them to a fancy dinner.

The fans were happy with the event, they received personal memorabilia, autographs and rare merchandise from Grey Pictures.

In fact, Alexa was lucky enough to get a copy of Kazir's dance.

Yes, Kazir had a clip of him dancing Napoleon Dynamite's dance steps and he nailed it. It was rare footage!

Alexa couldn't help but watch the video every week. It became her way to relax.

She was excited now, she wanted the days to go fast so that the last week of October would come. She was so eager to watch Wanted 2. She even prepared a tuxedo just for the premiere.

Black tuxedo became the uniform of Grey fans, derived from the outfit worn by John Wick.

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There were no big movies released in September, and October had a little competition.

Many studios adopted the style of releasing movies they were not sure about in October. Movies that they weren't sure could make money, but they had already invested a huge amount of money, so they couldn't let them sit on the shelves and rot.

In the first week of October, Paramount released School Of Rock. It made $19 million in its first weekend.

The second week saw the release of Mystic River, produced by Warner Brothers. It made $13 million in its first weekend.

The same week, Kill Bill: Volume 1 was released. Miramax has never been confident in competing with the Big Six in the summer, so they usually release their heavy hitters from October to December. Depending on how the company's schedule works.

Kill Bill was a famous movie, directed by a famous director in his niche, Quentin Tarantino. Obviously, the movie would show at least one foot scene...

Quentin Tarantino's filmography slowly gained popularity because his movies had something unique about them.

However, it could never be denied that his movies would have a hard time facing the mainstream genres and mainstream audiences. A lot of people appreciated his works, but his movies hardly made money at the box office. In fact, the highest grossing movie in his career was Django Unchained, which earned $426 million. To date, this movie has not been made.

Quentin currently had one successful movie at the box office and that was Pulp Fiction (1994). The audience was not sure if this so-called Kill Bill would make any money at all.

But surprisingly Kill Bill: Volume 1 actually made money. 22 million dollars on the first weekend.

Miramax saw the potential and promoted the movie, of course with the help of Walt Disney. The relationship between the two companies was getting better thanks to Harvey Weinstein and Robert Iger.

In the third week, Texas Chainsaw Massacre from New Line Cinema. This franchise had so many movies and New Line Cinema did a good job of cultivating the franchise. The budget for each movie was small, but the profit was sometimes ten times the budget.

Also, the profit from the DVD market was huge because horror movies have always been part of the movie culture. God knows how many people love to watch horror movies in their houses.

The fourth week and a lot of people were excited, to be precise, the people who were fans of CCU were excited to see Wanted 2. The movie was to be released on October 24th. But it was not that easy, Wanted had two opponents that could prevent its domination.

Scary Movie 3 was a famous parody franchise created by Miramax.

Bear Brother had a serious theme, although it was a cartoon meant for children. And yes, it was made by Walt Disney.

It was ironic that Wanted 2 was going up against Miramax and Walt Disney, two companies Grey Pictures never liked.

Everyone in Hollywood was eager to see the outcome of this competition.

++++

[I lost to procrastination yesterday after doing laundry and decided to lie on my bed all night, so yeah, you'll get three chapters tomorrow to make up for it.]

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 365


Miramax and Walt Disney were not stupid. The two companies knew that the fourth week of October was not a good time to release their movies, but it was something they had to do.

In the first place, the movies they were releasing were not heavy hitters. Sure, they were putting money into the movies. They were also confident that the movies would make any money at all despite the odds.

So the best thing to do was to put them in a not-so-famous schedule, or else they would just let the movies rot and waste more money.

They have to release the movies in theaters first before selling them to the DVD market, this method gave them good profits. Since people had the mentality that if a movie was released in theaters first, it meant that the movie (DVD) was worth buying.

Miramax and Walt Disney couldn't release the movies in November and December because The Matrix Revolution, The Last Samurai, and Lord of the Rings: The Return Of The King would dominate the theaters during those two months.

Unfortunately, they also understood that Wanted 2 would do the same.

Wanted was one of four films to cross the $1 billion mark at the box office.

These Brother Bear and Scary Movie 3 would be buried by Wanted 2. Walt Disney and Miramax had no choice but to accept the fact.

It was the last three months of the year and Hollywood was investing in their respective big movies like Lord Of The Rings and The Matrix to make sure they would make more money before the end of the year.

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After Wesley Gibson destroyed the Fraternity along with John Wick and the others, his name slowly gained popularity in the underground society. However, this popularity was never a good thing.

Wesley was now a criminal, he left normal society and decided to live in the world of assassins and killers.

But it was not that easy... Because he didn't know where to start and what to do.

At first it was easy because Sloan and the Fraternity were there to show him the way. He took the path of being a hitman and killing people to find and kill the "man" who killed his "father".

Everything came to nothing when he realized the truth. He avenged his real father, but now he was lost.

He didn't know what to do after everything that had happened.

John Wick suggested that he quit before he succumbed to the abyss of the underground society.

But it was too late, because Wesley Gibson was officially a wanted man. In the first, he killed a lot of people while working for the Fraternity.

Now Wesley was on the run.

But things didn't get any better.

The other members of the Fraternity who survived the destruction of the organization were now hunting Wesley for revenge.

In addition, Luke Hobbs (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), a Diplomatic Security Service agent/bounty hunter, was also after him.

Luke Hobbs was a character from Fast and The Furious, played by Dwayne Johnson.

Wesley's plight was true to the title of the movie. He became a wanted man and was hunted by the authorities and criminals.

He survived the ordeal and killed his enemies. He fought Hobbs and escaped the battle with some injuries, but manageable. He successfully escaped the United States by crossing the Mexican border.

In the final chapter of the movie, Wesley's final opponent was a ninja. The ninja was looking for Raizo and knew that Wesley had information about Raizo, so he wanted to torture him to find the answer.

Despite being overpowered, Wesley won the battle. The film ended with Wesley holding his bleeding stomach as he walked forward. Unaware of his destination.

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The movie ended with that, but of course the audience never left their seats. They still waited for the post-credit scenes.

This became a standard procedure, as the post-credit scenes were usually about the sequels and the next movies that CCU would be making.

This time, Hobbs was with his team when he received important information about the missing military weapons. A small group of criminals were stealing and selling these military weapons and the authorities had no idea where to find them. These criminals disappeared, but new information surfaced. Dom Torero was found in the Middle East stealing oil tanks.

The scene ended with Hobbs smirking and the credits rolled.

Ben Affleck was the first to stand and received a standing ovation from the audience. His fame had waned after the failure of Daredevil, but Wanted 2 gave him a chance to prove himself.

Now he realized how important a stable franchise is to keep his fame. He understood how Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger kept their popularity despite the passing of time.

These actors had franchises to star in whenever they felt they were washed up.

Ben Affleck waved his hands and walked on stage with the cast of the movie.

The audience kept clapping. They knew this movie would not disappoint them. They were looking for an action-packed movie and Wanted 2 delivered it as expected.

There have been cases where a movie has crossed $100 million in three days, but those movies were usually sequels to famous franchises... Like Wanted.

The first weekend (October 24-26) of Wanted 2 was a whopping $187.42 million.

The Big Six were not even surprised. They were expecting this amount since the last box office was over $1 billion.

Now the biggest question was does Wanted 2 have the power to surpass $1 billion?

In history, no franchise has ever made $1 billion with every movie... Unless CCU begged to differ.

As for Grey Pictures and Kazir Grey. They were not looking for anything big, as long as the movie was commercially successful, everything was fine. They were happy if the movie made over $700 million worldwide.

After all, Wanted 2 didn't have big characters like John Wick and Bryan Mills to drive ticket sales.

 

[Pujimaki]

Hollywood What If Chapter 366


Wanted was the Avengers of CCU, but Wanted 2 was not Avengers: Age Of Ultron.

So even if Wanted 2 was commercially successful, it would be hard for the movie to top $1 billion.

The movie didn't have any heavy characters and most of the cast was new.

Despite this fact, the second week of Wanted 2 did well at the box office. Ten days of screening made $292.62 million. An expected amount since Wanted 2's predecessor was a $1 billion movie.

As for Wanted 2's two competitors, their box office did well despite the competition. The difference in genre made up for Scary Movie 3 and Brother Bear to make money.

Walt Disney's Brother Bear earned $49.52 million.

Miramax's Scary Movie 3 grossed $77.54 million.

The winner was clear and the difference between the three movies was huge in terms of box office.

This gap would continue to grow as the days went by.

Scary Movie 3 and Brother Bear only had around 3000 theaters showing the movie while Wanted 2 surely had over 4000 theaters.

This was also one of the factors why Wanted 2 did better.

The Cinema Alliance was not stupid. The CCU movies were proven, so of course they would put more resources into Wanted 2. It is safe to say that 65% of theaters in the United States and Canada were currently showing these three movies, since the United States and Canada had the most theaters in North America.

Walt Disney and Miramax were already happy with the results and hoped that the box office would continue to grow...

However, their hopes would be dashed after ten days of steady profit.

Cinema Alliance and the Big Six had a contract that allowed Cinema Alliance to reduce the number of theaters if the movie was not doing well... They used this clause to reduce the theaters for Brother Bear and Scary Movie 3 to 2800 theaters.

Walt Disney and Miramax didn't like this one bit, but Cinema Alliance's decision was firm.

As for Wanted 2, it certainly didn't get the cut.

Instead, Cinema Alliance added the subtracted theaters to the newest movie on the market, which was The Matrix Revolutions. The final installment of the Matrix trilogy.

The movie opened in 3800 theaters in its first week.

Warner Brothers realized that they had messed up the Matrix trilogy by putting too much trust in the directors and letting them put too many philosophical views into the trilogy.

These confusing philosophical views were the clear reasons why the movie didn't live up to Warner Brothers expectations.

So in order to correct the mistakes, or at least to mitigate them, the studio decided to release the last installment in November of the same year, so that they wouldn't lose money.

On November 5th, despite its terrible reviews on IMDb, The Matrix Revolutions grossed $24.31 million on its first day.

This showed that audiences were willing to consume any content as long as it filled their time and imagination.

However, the audience who watched the movie also had the same confused faces as when they finished watching The Matrix Reloaded.

Neo running into an endless loop in a train station.

Neo goes blind.

Trinity dies.

Flying robot squids attack the last stronghold of humanity.

Neo meets some kind of machine with a big face.

Neo defeated Agent Smith.

Neo was kidnapped by the Big Face robot.

And then the world was at peace again... That was it.

The aftertaste of The Matrix Revolutions was bitter. People liked the first movie because the plot was better and there was no confusing stuff. Honestly, what the audience wanted was action and meaningless fights that brought the plot to its well-deserved conclusion. Not Neo going blind and then disappearing... Maybe Warner Brothers wanted a possible sequel? Oh surprise surprise, after almost two decades, the fourth part of The Matrix actually happened.

Anyway, the first week (November 9th) of The Matrix Revolutions grossed $83.79 million.

On the same day, Brother Bear grossed $44.02 million.

Scary Movie 3 grossed $93.05 million.

Wanted 2 also grossed $342.78 million.

.........
......
...

Wanted 2 was released in October and all the movies that Grey Pictures produced this year were released. All of them made a lot of money.

The Equalizer grossed over $450 million. Cinema Alliance has already stopped showing this movie while some overseas countries are still showing it.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl defied many people's expectations and grossed more than $600 million. The pirate-themed movie was praised by everyone and even Johnny Depp's amazing acting was recognized.

And now, Wanted 2 is also doing well at the box office.

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

Palenque Simone happily raised his beer and started the party.

Game of Thrones was to be released in the last week of November, and the promotion was already underway. Fox TV kept promoting the show by saying that it was directed by Kazir Grey.

When people heard that the director was Kazir Grey, they were immediately interested. Of course they wanted to see the show.

There were only three episodes left for the crew to film. If a problem arose, they might have to reshoot some of the scenes they had already filmed.

Sometimes, if the audience didn't like the storyline, the writers and crew would have to reshoot the next episode to appease the audience.

So even though there were three episodes to shoot, the crew understood that the project was not finished until the entire season aired.

Unlike movies, which had no chance of being edited after the theatrical release, TV shows could change the plot of the next episodes depending on how the audience would react... Of course, the studio had to spend more money.

Kazir was invited to the party because his location was near the Game of Thrones set.

He missed the taste of beer, so he decided to relax a bit. The cast greeted him with the usual respect.

"This year seems kind of smooth."

He said to himself as he surveyed the party.