Lillie Jones
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HOLLYWOOD WHAT IF
- Thread starter Pujimaki
- Start date
HWI 352
New
Pujimaki
Yes, My writing sucks .
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2022
- Messages
- 650
- Likes received
- 10,367
Hollywood What If Chapter 352
Some of the women in the audience squealed when Jay Leno showed Kazir's topless pictures. In these pictures, Kazir was walking on the beach wearing sunglasses.
Kazir chuckled and blushed slightly, embarrassed.
"I actually don't know how the tabloids found those pictures. Production was taking a break at the time, so I decided to go to the beach and have some fun. They probably took those pictures while I was on break."
He casually lied while maintaining his grin. Those pictures were taken to promote the movie. Not by accident, but on purpose.
But of course, Kazir had to keep the novelty. In this business, lying has always been part of the job.
Oh, you tore your ACL while filming an action scene? How brave and dedicated are you? How can you still run like a cheetah then?
Oh, you don't have a stunt double? What, you're going to latch onto a plane a hundred feet off the ground? Wow, does your insurance cover that?
So you're not on steroids? You got ripped in two months? It's because you eat healthy meals every day, go to the gym, and maintain a perfect set of muscles. Yeah, yeah, you're not lying. *wink wink*
In this business, lying has always been part of the job.
"So where did you get your inspiration for this movie?"
"I'm not going to lie, I actually thought of a movie about pirates while riding one of the rides at Disney World."
.........
......
...
The opening day (July 9, 2003) of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was $13.50 million.
Unlike Spider-Man, which earned $39 million, and The Revenant, which earned $15 million on its first day, The Curse of the Black Pearl had a lower opening box office.
However, 20th Century Fox and Grey Pictures were happy with this result. Their expectations for this pirate movie were not that high.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines only made $9 million on the same day, so The Curse of the Black Pearl easily won first place that day.
On the second day, Thursday, July 10, Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl made another $10.48 million.
The movie had an unorthodox premiere, as The Curse of the Black Pearl premiered on Wednesday.
On Friday, July 11, the film earned another $14.84 million.
On Saturday, July 12, it made another $17.41 million.
On Sunday, it made another $14.37 million.
The first weekend of Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl grossed $70.62 million.
Those numbers made a lot of people sit up and take notice. Publishers who were ready to bash the movie stopped their intentions before making a fool of themselves. The critics who wanted to criticize the movie also became quiet.
There was no reason to bash a movie that made $70 million at the box office. After all, money was an important aspect of the industry.
The plot of the movie was great. It was also entertaining. The acting was impeccable.
No matter what the "professionals" said, the movie was a success. The audience enjoyed the movie, which was the most important thing.
Some of the film critics were disappointed that Kazir returned to his usual style - entertaining the mindless audience instead of making an art film about the hardships of human life. Ah, really disappointing.
Now that Kazir had gotten what he wanted from the Academy Awards, there was no reason to please them... Unless Pirates Of The Caribbean had a chance to compete at the Oscars.
Johnny Depp's performance as Jack Sparrow has been praised by many people, even critics. He had a chance to compete for Best Actor, although his chances of winning were slim.
However, the movie had an amazing makeup, character design, sound editing and also visual effects. In this aspect, Pirates Of The Caribbean could probably compete for at least one or two awards.
The news this week was about Johnny Depp's amazing performance and how Kazir Grey broke the curse of pirate movies.
Waterworld was a flop.
Cutthroat Island was also a flop.
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas was a flop.
But Pirates of the Caribbean was the opposite of a flop.
After that, Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl did well at the box office.
On its second week, Friday, July 18, The Curse of the Black Pearl officially crossed the $100 million mark. To be exact, the movie earned $109.47 million.
Everyone was surprised, but not by much. If Kazir was the director, the movie would surely make money.
However, on the same day, the movie met a tough opponent.
Bad Boys II was the sequel to Bad Boys which was released in 1995 and was directed by Michael Bay. It starred Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.
Martin Lawrence and Will Smith were famous black actors with dozens of movies under their belts.
To make matters worse, Michael Bay was also an amazing director. He was known as the explosive director, not because of his explosive behavior, but because of his addiction to explosions. This director loves to make things explode.
Bad Boys, The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and now Bad Boys II.
His filmography was similar to Kazir's in that all of his movies were profitable. The only difference was that Kazir produced one movie a year while Michael Bay could only produce one movie every two years. In that aspect, Kazir was better.
The first day of Bad Boys II made $16.88 million, $3 million more than the first day of Pirates Of The Caribbean.
On its second day, July 19, Bad Boys II made another $16.20 million. This was $6 million more than the second day of Pirates Of The Caribbean...
Maybe... Maybe Pirates Of The Caribbean would lose to Bad Boys II.
+++++
[Author's note: Yeah, I don't know what I'm doing with my life lately. Anyway, since I know I have a lot of backlogged chapters on my Patreon, I decided to post three chapters a day for five days straight].
Some of the women in the audience squealed when Jay Leno showed Kazir's topless pictures. In these pictures, Kazir was walking on the beach wearing sunglasses.
Kazir chuckled and blushed slightly, embarrassed.
"I actually don't know how the tabloids found those pictures. Production was taking a break at the time, so I decided to go to the beach and have some fun. They probably took those pictures while I was on break."
He casually lied while maintaining his grin. Those pictures were taken to promote the movie. Not by accident, but on purpose.
But of course, Kazir had to keep the novelty. In this business, lying has always been part of the job.
Oh, you tore your ACL while filming an action scene? How brave and dedicated are you? How can you still run like a cheetah then?
Oh, you don't have a stunt double? What, you're going to latch onto a plane a hundred feet off the ground? Wow, does your insurance cover that?
So you're not on steroids? You got ripped in two months? It's because you eat healthy meals every day, go to the gym, and maintain a perfect set of muscles. Yeah, yeah, you're not lying. *wink wink*
In this business, lying has always been part of the job.
"So where did you get your inspiration for this movie?"
"I'm not going to lie, I actually thought of a movie about pirates while riding one of the rides at Disney World."
.........
......
...
The opening day (July 9, 2003) of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was $13.50 million.
Unlike Spider-Man, which earned $39 million, and The Revenant, which earned $15 million on its first day, The Curse of the Black Pearl had a lower opening box office.
However, 20th Century Fox and Grey Pictures were happy with this result. Their expectations for this pirate movie were not that high.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines only made $9 million on the same day, so The Curse of the Black Pearl easily won first place that day.
On the second day, Thursday, July 10, Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl made another $10.48 million.
The movie had an unorthodox premiere, as The Curse of the Black Pearl premiered on Wednesday.
On Friday, July 11, the film earned another $14.84 million.
On Saturday, July 12, it made another $17.41 million.
On Sunday, it made another $14.37 million.
The first weekend of Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl grossed $70.62 million.
Those numbers made a lot of people sit up and take notice. Publishers who were ready to bash the movie stopped their intentions before making a fool of themselves. The critics who wanted to criticize the movie also became quiet.
There was no reason to bash a movie that made $70 million at the box office. After all, money was an important aspect of the industry.
The plot of the movie was great. It was also entertaining. The acting was impeccable.
No matter what the "professionals" said, the movie was a success. The audience enjoyed the movie, which was the most important thing.
Some of the film critics were disappointed that Kazir returned to his usual style - entertaining the mindless audience instead of making an art film about the hardships of human life. Ah, really disappointing.
Now that Kazir had gotten what he wanted from the Academy Awards, there was no reason to please them... Unless Pirates Of The Caribbean had a chance to compete at the Oscars.
Johnny Depp's performance as Jack Sparrow has been praised by many people, even critics. He had a chance to compete for Best Actor, although his chances of winning were slim.
However, the movie had an amazing makeup, character design, sound editing and also visual effects. In this aspect, Pirates Of The Caribbean could probably compete for at least one or two awards.
The news this week was about Johnny Depp's amazing performance and how Kazir Grey broke the curse of pirate movies.
Waterworld was a flop.
Cutthroat Island was also a flop.
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas was a flop.
But Pirates of the Caribbean was the opposite of a flop.
After that, Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl did well at the box office.
On its second week, Friday, July 18, The Curse of the Black Pearl officially crossed the $100 million mark. To be exact, the movie earned $109.47 million.
Everyone was surprised, but not by much. If Kazir was the director, the movie would surely make money.
However, on the same day, the movie met a tough opponent.
Bad Boys II was the sequel to Bad Boys which was released in 1995 and was directed by Michael Bay. It starred Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.
Martin Lawrence and Will Smith were famous black actors with dozens of movies under their belts.
To make matters worse, Michael Bay was also an amazing director. He was known as the explosive director, not because of his explosive behavior, but because of his addiction to explosions. This director loves to make things explode.
Bad Boys, The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and now Bad Boys II.
His filmography was similar to Kazir's in that all of his movies were profitable. The only difference was that Kazir produced one movie a year while Michael Bay could only produce one movie every two years. In that aspect, Kazir was better.
The first day of Bad Boys II made $16.88 million, $3 million more than the first day of Pirates Of The Caribbean.
On its second day, July 19, Bad Boys II made another $16.20 million. This was $6 million more than the second day of Pirates Of The Caribbean...
Maybe... Maybe Pirates Of The Caribbean would lose to Bad Boys II.
+++++
[Author's note: Yeah, I don't know what I'm doing with my life lately. Anyway, since I know I have a lot of backlogged chapters on my Patreon, I decided to post three chapters a day for five days straight].
HWI 353
New
Pujimaki
Yes, My writing sucks .
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2022
- Messages
- 650
- Likes received
- 10,367
Hollywood What If Chapter 353
Bad Boys II's first weekend grossed $46.52 million. The movie was only in theaters for three days and its performance was promising, good news for Sony-Colombia.
In the same days, July 18 to 20, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl earned $33 million. Those three days were won by Bad Boys II.
However, the entire week of Pirates Of The Caribbean made $55 million, so this pirate-themed movie still won the box office champion for the week.
So far, after 12 days of release, Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl has grossed $133 million at the North American box office.
In just its second week, the film has already crossed the $100 million mark. 20th Century Fox reacted quickly and started promoting the film in North America. Next month they will release the movie in other countries.
Kazir has already spoken to Tom Rothman. He won't participate in the international promotion because he has a lot of things to do this year.
Tom Rothman understood his intentions and decided to let Kazir finish Game of Thrones instead. Game of Thrones would be broadcast by Fox TV and he expected that this TV show would bring them more viewers in their network.
Fox TV was already recognized as one of the known TV networks in the United States, but it was weaker compared to NBC and ABC. Fox TV needed more programs to attract viewers.
Perhaps Kazir Grey, a director known for his talent, could make history and give Fox TV its most awaited moment.
The cast of Pirates of the Caribbean was enough to promote the movie and Kazir could stay in the country.
Depending on how quickly Kazir finishes filming Game of Thrones, the TV show could air in late 2003 or early 2004.
.........
......
...
In the CEO office of Sony-Colombia, Frank Price listened to his secretary.
"Sir, as of today, Thursday, July 24, 2003, Bad Boys II has grossed $66 million at the box office."
"That's good to hear. We didn't spend a lot of money casting Will Smith and Michael Bay only to have the movie fail."
Will Smith and Michael Bay were recognized as superstars in their respective professions, and Sony-Columbia had to increase the budget of Bad Boys II just to hire them again. The budget of Bad Boys II was $130 million, certainly expensive as hell.
After working with Kazir Grey, Sony-Colombia understood that hiring a talented director was the best way to ensure the success of the project.
Two years ago, Sony-Colombia paid Kazir more than $200 million just for directing Spider-Man. Although Sony-Columbia spent a lot, the profit they made was also huge.
Both Bad Boys II and Spider-Man had the same budget, but the performance of Spider-Man is three times better.
The production cost of Bad Boys II was $130 million.
The production cost of Spider-Man was $139 million.
Sony-Colombia hired Kazir for $27 million + 27% worldwide box office + 7% peripheral profit share. It was a deal that Sony-Colombia was conflicted about at first, but the result was good in the end.
As for Bad Boys II, Sony-Colombia hired Michael Bay for $30 million + 13% worldwide box office + 3% peripheral profits.
Even though Michael Bay's salary was lower than Kazir's, it was still a massive blow to Sony-Colombia's guts.
'The result of Bad Boys II is not that bad, so I have nothing to say... I just can't help but be disappointed, I guess it's impossible to find someone like Kazir. I thought Michael Bay would have no problem surpassing Kazir.'
To be fair, Michael Bay's highest grossing film was Armageddon, which grossed $553 million at the worldwide box office. That was only half the box office of Spider-Man or Wanted.
Sometimes Frank couldn't help but sigh because they had lost out to 20th Century Fox in the acquisition of Grey Pictures. Now it would be hard to work with Grey Pictures again.
'Bad Boys II and Pirates of the Caribbean have a rivalry right now, but Pirates of the Caribbean has the upper hand. If we play our cards right, we can beat Pirates Of The Caribbean... We can start a scandal...'
Frank decided to drop the idea. In his opinion, it was not worth it. He knew that Kazir would be working on Spider-Man 2 next year. The CEO didn't want to ruin their relationship, at least not yet.
The profit that Spider-Man 2 could bring to the company was immense. Sony-Columbia won the top-grossing film of 2001 just by making Spider-Man.
'Who would have thought a superhero movie could make us that kind of money?'
Frank Price licked his lips at the thought. He didn't remember that his secretary was still in the office, slightly uncomfortable with what he was doing.
'Damn you Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox! Who said you could monopolize the superhero genre?'
If they knew what the two companies were up to, they should have created their own superheroes.
Frank Price was no fool, he knew that superheroes would dominate the movie theaters from now on.
So he was angry that DC and Marvel, the two biggest comic book companies in the United States, were already owned by their rivals.
"...Secretary Vanessa."
Awakening from his inner monologue, Frank decided to ask his secretary.
"Y- Yes, sir," the secretary nervously replied.
"Do you think we could start our own Cinematic Universe? What do you think about MonsterVerse? Where Godzilla and King Kong live in the same universe."
"Sir... I have no idea what you are talking about."
"..."
Frank sighed again.
+++++
[Author's Note: I will post another chapter later.]
Bad Boys II's first weekend grossed $46.52 million. The movie was only in theaters for three days and its performance was promising, good news for Sony-Colombia.
In the same days, July 18 to 20, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl earned $33 million. Those three days were won by Bad Boys II.
However, the entire week of Pirates Of The Caribbean made $55 million, so this pirate-themed movie still won the box office champion for the week.
So far, after 12 days of release, Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl has grossed $133 million at the North American box office.
In just its second week, the film has already crossed the $100 million mark. 20th Century Fox reacted quickly and started promoting the film in North America. Next month they will release the movie in other countries.
Kazir has already spoken to Tom Rothman. He won't participate in the international promotion because he has a lot of things to do this year.
Tom Rothman understood his intentions and decided to let Kazir finish Game of Thrones instead. Game of Thrones would be broadcast by Fox TV and he expected that this TV show would bring them more viewers in their network.
Fox TV was already recognized as one of the known TV networks in the United States, but it was weaker compared to NBC and ABC. Fox TV needed more programs to attract viewers.
Perhaps Kazir Grey, a director known for his talent, could make history and give Fox TV its most awaited moment.
The cast of Pirates of the Caribbean was enough to promote the movie and Kazir could stay in the country.
Depending on how quickly Kazir finishes filming Game of Thrones, the TV show could air in late 2003 or early 2004.
.........
......
...
In the CEO office of Sony-Colombia, Frank Price listened to his secretary.
"Sir, as of today, Thursday, July 24, 2003, Bad Boys II has grossed $66 million at the box office."
"That's good to hear. We didn't spend a lot of money casting Will Smith and Michael Bay only to have the movie fail."
Will Smith and Michael Bay were recognized as superstars in their respective professions, and Sony-Columbia had to increase the budget of Bad Boys II just to hire them again. The budget of Bad Boys II was $130 million, certainly expensive as hell.
After working with Kazir Grey, Sony-Colombia understood that hiring a talented director was the best way to ensure the success of the project.
Two years ago, Sony-Colombia paid Kazir more than $200 million just for directing Spider-Man. Although Sony-Columbia spent a lot, the profit they made was also huge.
Both Bad Boys II and Spider-Man had the same budget, but the performance of Spider-Man is three times better.
The production cost of Bad Boys II was $130 million.
The production cost of Spider-Man was $139 million.
Sony-Colombia hired Kazir for $27 million + 27% worldwide box office + 7% peripheral profit share. It was a deal that Sony-Colombia was conflicted about at first, but the result was good in the end.
As for Bad Boys II, Sony-Colombia hired Michael Bay for $30 million + 13% worldwide box office + 3% peripheral profits.
Even though Michael Bay's salary was lower than Kazir's, it was still a massive blow to Sony-Colombia's guts.
'The result of Bad Boys II is not that bad, so I have nothing to say... I just can't help but be disappointed, I guess it's impossible to find someone like Kazir. I thought Michael Bay would have no problem surpassing Kazir.'
To be fair, Michael Bay's highest grossing film was Armageddon, which grossed $553 million at the worldwide box office. That was only half the box office of Spider-Man or Wanted.
Sometimes Frank couldn't help but sigh because they had lost out to 20th Century Fox in the acquisition of Grey Pictures. Now it would be hard to work with Grey Pictures again.
'Bad Boys II and Pirates of the Caribbean have a rivalry right now, but Pirates of the Caribbean has the upper hand. If we play our cards right, we can beat Pirates Of The Caribbean... We can start a scandal...'
Frank decided to drop the idea. In his opinion, it was not worth it. He knew that Kazir would be working on Spider-Man 2 next year. The CEO didn't want to ruin their relationship, at least not yet.
The profit that Spider-Man 2 could bring to the company was immense. Sony-Columbia won the top-grossing film of 2001 just by making Spider-Man.
'Who would have thought a superhero movie could make us that kind of money?'
Frank Price licked his lips at the thought. He didn't remember that his secretary was still in the office, slightly uncomfortable with what he was doing.
'Damn you Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox! Who said you could monopolize the superhero genre?'
If they knew what the two companies were up to, they should have created their own superheroes.
Frank Price was no fool, he knew that superheroes would dominate the movie theaters from now on.
So he was angry that DC and Marvel, the two biggest comic book companies in the United States, were already owned by their rivals.
"...Secretary Vanessa."
Awakening from his inner monologue, Frank decided to ask his secretary.
"Y- Yes, sir," the secretary nervously replied.
"Do you think we could start our own Cinematic Universe? What do you think about MonsterVerse? Where Godzilla and King Kong live in the same universe."
"Sir... I have no idea what you are talking about."
"..."
Frank sighed again.
+++++
[Author's Note: I will post another chapter later.]
HWI 354
New
Pujimaki
Yes, My writing sucks .
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2022
- Messages
- 650
- Likes received
- 10,367
Hollywood What If Chapter 354
In a small, dark hall, Daenerys Targaryen walked slowly toward the three small, chained dragons.
The three dragons squealed adorably, like kittens excited to see their mother.
Daenerys reached out to touch them.
"Cut--! Pack your things, today's job is over!"
Kazir announced and the studio, which looked like a dungeon at the moment, started to get noisy. The crew members began to put things back in their places. The camera crew carefully placed their cameras in a safe room.
Emilia Clarke returned to her cheerful demeanor once the filming was over. The dark atmosphere in the studio was gone, and the lights came up for the last time tonight.
Emilia was now getting better with her acting after three months of acting classes. The acting class that Harold Witsend had recommended to her was top-notch, and she learned quickly.
In fact, she was now the star of her class. After all, she was the only one who had a role in a TV show, and it was even filmed by a famous director.
Some of her classmates had experience working in the industry, but they were not as lucky as she was. Emilia suddenly realized how lucky she was.
She was grateful that the crew accepted her. Thankful that Director Grey (whom she didn't recognize at first) hired her to be one of the main characters in this TV show.
Director Grey was an amazing person and Emilia realized this as they worked together. He was serious and a workaholic, but his discipline was on another level.
Kazir had so much patience when Emilia made a mistake, she was a newcomer after all. The director taught her a lot about acting and how to keep her mentality. He would remind her of her character's behavior and how to portray it.
Important advice that even her drama teacher never taught her.
When the day's work was done, Emilia would always approach Kazir to say thank you... She didn't know why she did that. Maybe she owed him something. She couldn't help but look into his eyes most of the time, looking up at him, he was quite tall after all. Her face sometimes turned red when she talked to him.
"Director, thank you as always. I'm grateful that you patiently taught me about my mistakes."
"I rarely cause a fit, and your acting is not that bad. But I won't lie, if you make a mistake for the tenth time today, I might have to yell at you to stop bothering everyone. The more mistakes you make, the longer the cast and crew will have to work."
"I-I understand."
Anyway, she changed her mind. Kazir was not a good person. He was bad!
Sometimes Emilia was confused as to why her agent was trying to tell her to make a connection with this director.
'I mean, yes, he is handsome. But that's the only good thing about him,' she thought.
Her agent even told her that if the timing was right, she should sleep with the man. Yes, Emilia's agent literally said that word for word.
Too bad, because that was never going to happen. This month would be the last time Kazir would direct this project. His assistant, Palenque Simone, would take over as director.
Kazir Grey had to focus on his next project, which would be Spider-Man 2... A very famous one.
'Sometimes I forget that director Grey is actually the guy who directed Spider-Man and Wanted. He seems so down to earth.'
She worked with the guy for months, so her opinion of him was normal.
Fox TV and Grey Pictures had already made a deal and Game of Thrones would air in November. The first two episodes would be the pilots. If the ratings were not satisfactory, Fox TV would pull Game of Thrones out of primetime.
.........
......
...
There was a reason why Kazir left work early today.
Tonight was the premiere of his girlfriend's movie, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life... A long title to remember. The movie would be released on July 25, which was today.
On July 25th, Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl grossed $160.51 million at the North American box office.
Critics have already accepted that this movie is different from the usual pirate movies. Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl was, to say the least, entertaining.
This changed their minds about pirate movies, but not that much. They just accepted that Kazir was a talented director, even more so.
It was amazing how a director like him thought of this movie. He was the scriptwriter of Pirates of the Caribbean, his imagination was really out of this world.
On the same day, July 25, Bad Boys II, which was recognized as Pirates Of The Caribbean's rival that month, grossed $73.14 million. It did well, but was weaker compared to Pirates Of The Caribbean.
"... Again, my movie was released in the same month as yours. Do you really love me so much that you want our movies to be so close?"
This was the second time this had happened. Two years ago, Gone in 60 Seconds and Wanted were only a week apart.
Angelina teased the man next to her, lewdly pinching his thick arm.
"Babe, you should ask Paramount Pictures, not me. I have no idea why they scheduled your movie two weeks after mine."
"I already asked them. They said that this week was the best time for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: blah blah blah." She slurred her last sentence.
She was not lying, Paramount Pictures was releasing the movie in the last week of July because August would be dominated by Grey Pictures' newest franchise, The Equalizer.
20th Century Fox announced that they would be releasing The Equalizer in August instead of what they had originally planned. The Equalizer was supposed to be released in July, but 20th Century Fox changed it.
+++++
[Author's note: If you want to read more, you can wait for the 3 chapters tomorrow or subscribe to my Patreon or Ko-fi].
In a small, dark hall, Daenerys Targaryen walked slowly toward the three small, chained dragons.
The three dragons squealed adorably, like kittens excited to see their mother.
Daenerys reached out to touch them.
"Cut--! Pack your things, today's job is over!"
Kazir announced and the studio, which looked like a dungeon at the moment, started to get noisy. The crew members began to put things back in their places. The camera crew carefully placed their cameras in a safe room.
Emilia Clarke returned to her cheerful demeanor once the filming was over. The dark atmosphere in the studio was gone, and the lights came up for the last time tonight.
Emilia was now getting better with her acting after three months of acting classes. The acting class that Harold Witsend had recommended to her was top-notch, and she learned quickly.
In fact, she was now the star of her class. After all, she was the only one who had a role in a TV show, and it was even filmed by a famous director.
Some of her classmates had experience working in the industry, but they were not as lucky as she was. Emilia suddenly realized how lucky she was.
She was grateful that the crew accepted her. Thankful that Director Grey (whom she didn't recognize at first) hired her to be one of the main characters in this TV show.
Director Grey was an amazing person and Emilia realized this as they worked together. He was serious and a workaholic, but his discipline was on another level.
Kazir had so much patience when Emilia made a mistake, she was a newcomer after all. The director taught her a lot about acting and how to keep her mentality. He would remind her of her character's behavior and how to portray it.
Important advice that even her drama teacher never taught her.
When the day's work was done, Emilia would always approach Kazir to say thank you... She didn't know why she did that. Maybe she owed him something. She couldn't help but look into his eyes most of the time, looking up at him, he was quite tall after all. Her face sometimes turned red when she talked to him.
"Director, thank you as always. I'm grateful that you patiently taught me about my mistakes."
"I rarely cause a fit, and your acting is not that bad. But I won't lie, if you make a mistake for the tenth time today, I might have to yell at you to stop bothering everyone. The more mistakes you make, the longer the cast and crew will have to work."
"I-I understand."
Anyway, she changed her mind. Kazir was not a good person. He was bad!
Sometimes Emilia was confused as to why her agent was trying to tell her to make a connection with this director.
'I mean, yes, he is handsome. But that's the only good thing about him,' she thought.
Her agent even told her that if the timing was right, she should sleep with the man. Yes, Emilia's agent literally said that word for word.
Too bad, because that was never going to happen. This month would be the last time Kazir would direct this project. His assistant, Palenque Simone, would take over as director.
Kazir Grey had to focus on his next project, which would be Spider-Man 2... A very famous one.
'Sometimes I forget that director Grey is actually the guy who directed Spider-Man and Wanted. He seems so down to earth.'
She worked with the guy for months, so her opinion of him was normal.
Fox TV and Grey Pictures had already made a deal and Game of Thrones would air in November. The first two episodes would be the pilots. If the ratings were not satisfactory, Fox TV would pull Game of Thrones out of primetime.
.........
......
...
There was a reason why Kazir left work early today.
Tonight was the premiere of his girlfriend's movie, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life... A long title to remember. The movie would be released on July 25, which was today.
On July 25th, Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl grossed $160.51 million at the North American box office.
Critics have already accepted that this movie is different from the usual pirate movies. Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl was, to say the least, entertaining.
This changed their minds about pirate movies, but not that much. They just accepted that Kazir was a talented director, even more so.
It was amazing how a director like him thought of this movie. He was the scriptwriter of Pirates of the Caribbean, his imagination was really out of this world.
On the same day, July 25, Bad Boys II, which was recognized as Pirates Of The Caribbean's rival that month, grossed $73.14 million. It did well, but was weaker compared to Pirates Of The Caribbean.
"... Again, my movie was released in the same month as yours. Do you really love me so much that you want our movies to be so close?"
This was the second time this had happened. Two years ago, Gone in 60 Seconds and Wanted were only a week apart.
Angelina teased the man next to her, lewdly pinching his thick arm.
"Babe, you should ask Paramount Pictures, not me. I have no idea why they scheduled your movie two weeks after mine."
"I already asked them. They said that this week was the best time for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: blah blah blah." She slurred her last sentence.
She was not lying, Paramount Pictures was releasing the movie in the last week of July because August would be dominated by Grey Pictures' newest franchise, The Equalizer.
20th Century Fox announced that they would be releasing The Equalizer in August instead of what they had originally planned. The Equalizer was supposed to be released in July, but 20th Century Fox changed it.
+++++
[Author's note: If you want to read more, you can wait for the 3 chapters tomorrow or subscribe to my Patreon or Ko-fi].
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HWI 355
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Pujimaki
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Hollywood What If Chapter 355
"I don't know if we're lucky or not."
Ronald Meyer of Universal Pictures sighed as he looked at the data they had collected.
Universal was happy that The Equalizer had been moved to August, giving Johnny English time to breathe... However, their expectations were met with disappointment.
Johnny English, starring Rowan Atkinson, was released on July 18.
"July 18th..." He muttered weakly.
The Equalizer changed its release date, but Johnny English still met a strong opponent that week. It was Bad Boys II, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. This movie was also directed by Michael Bay.
The toughest opponents were usually sequels to successful movies and Bad Boys II fit the criteria very well.
Johnny English only made $9 million in its first weekend, while Bad Boys II made a whopping $46 million at the box office.
Obviously, Bad Boys II dominated the theaters and stole the most tickets from Johnny English. Between the two, moviegoers would definitely choose Bad Boys II because it had a better premise and a successful franchise.
So even though Johnny English dodged The Equalizer, they still lost to Bad Boys II. Their hard work was in vain.
"Maybe it's a good thing that Johnny English only made $40 million. We should lower the promotion budget for this week."
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door informing Ronald that someone wanted to see him.
"Sir, Peter Jackson is here." The secretary announced.
"Tell him to come in."
Ronald returned to his serious expression, casually hiding the disappointing documents regarding Johnny English.
Peter Jackson, his success in the last few years was obvious. He resurrected the glory of Lord of the Rings by bringing that piece of literature to theaters, creating another culture for Americans to follow.
Star Wars became a culture.
Lord of the Rings also became a culture.
And yes, even Harry Potter became a culture.
They were no longer movies, they were culture. Almost everybody in the United States knew about these movies.
Peter Jackson was a master at creating the culture of Lord Of The Rings.
So far, New Line Cinema has released two Lord of the Rings movies, and the last part of the trilogy was to be released in December of this year.
Peter Jackson has already completed the filming of the trilogy and has only had to focus on post-production.
Being one of the most sought after directors in the industry, Peter Jackson was invited by Universal Pictures to direct one of their projects.
The project was called King Kong. Universal Pictures was willing to pay the director at least $20 million just to direct this project.
The Big Six only trusted the past performance of directors and Peter Jackson passed the test. His last two films were all successful, very successful in fact.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring grossed $883 million worldwide.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers grossed $949 million worldwide.
Of course, Universal Pictures wanted to hire Peter Jackson in the hope that he would bring them profits. Universal Pictures already understood that it would be impossible to work with director Grey, something that Ronald Meyer sometimes regrets.
Four of the Big Six had much to gain from working with the director, while Universal Pictures and Walt Disney had none.
"Peter, how's it going?"
"I'm fine. I'm here to ask about King Kong."
"Of course, of course. Feel free to ask me." Ronald Meyer smiled, quite pleased that the director was interested in the project.
"Actually, I heard that you intend to sell the copyrights to King Kong to Sony-Colombia, is that true?"
"What!?"
Ronald stood up in surprise.
'Who the hell spread those false rumors?'
.........
......
...
July 28.
It had been three days since the premiere of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life.
As usual, the cast of the movie had to promote the movie by going to different states, appearing on some local TV shows or guesting on famous shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno or The Oprah Winfrey Show.
In those three days, the movie grossed $21.78 million. It may be smaller than Pirates Of The Caribbean and Bad Boys II, but it was clearly a win for Paramount Pictures. They understood that Bad Boys II and Pirates Of The Caribbean were directed by superstar directors and it would be hard to copy their performance.
In fact, Paramount Pictures hoped to have the opportunity to work with Kazir Grey, Michael Bay and Peter Jackson. Knowing that these directors were the kings of the box office at this time.
Steven Spielberg rarely makes films outside of DreamWorks. The director focused his attention on his own company.
James Cameron never accepted any projects after Solaris, which was a huge failure. There was news that James Cameron was working on something about CGI and motion capture technologies.
Robert Zemeckis is currently concentrating on The Polar Express.
Quentin Tarantino was never a mainstream director and his films were not family friendly.
And even when these directors worked with Paramount Pictures, the chances of making a profit were not certain.
They were not Kazir Grey, a director who never made a bad movie... Except for his three horror films.
Even before the new century, the industry knew the importance of talented directors. They were the brains of the movies, and hiring someone to direct a major movie was something to be taken seriously.
If Paramount had a chance, they would pay director Grey $20 million plus box office shares just to work with him. Because the director was the sure definition of making a profit.
+++++
[This first chapter of today.]
"I don't know if we're lucky or not."
Ronald Meyer of Universal Pictures sighed as he looked at the data they had collected.
Universal was happy that The Equalizer had been moved to August, giving Johnny English time to breathe... However, their expectations were met with disappointment.
Johnny English, starring Rowan Atkinson, was released on July 18.
"July 18th..." He muttered weakly.
The Equalizer changed its release date, but Johnny English still met a strong opponent that week. It was Bad Boys II, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. This movie was also directed by Michael Bay.
The toughest opponents were usually sequels to successful movies and Bad Boys II fit the criteria very well.
Johnny English only made $9 million in its first weekend, while Bad Boys II made a whopping $46 million at the box office.
Obviously, Bad Boys II dominated the theaters and stole the most tickets from Johnny English. Between the two, moviegoers would definitely choose Bad Boys II because it had a better premise and a successful franchise.
So even though Johnny English dodged The Equalizer, they still lost to Bad Boys II. Their hard work was in vain.
"Maybe it's a good thing that Johnny English only made $40 million. We should lower the promotion budget for this week."
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door informing Ronald that someone wanted to see him.
"Sir, Peter Jackson is here." The secretary announced.
"Tell him to come in."
Ronald returned to his serious expression, casually hiding the disappointing documents regarding Johnny English.
Peter Jackson, his success in the last few years was obvious. He resurrected the glory of Lord of the Rings by bringing that piece of literature to theaters, creating another culture for Americans to follow.
Star Wars became a culture.
Lord of the Rings also became a culture.
And yes, even Harry Potter became a culture.
They were no longer movies, they were culture. Almost everybody in the United States knew about these movies.
Peter Jackson was a master at creating the culture of Lord Of The Rings.
So far, New Line Cinema has released two Lord of the Rings movies, and the last part of the trilogy was to be released in December of this year.
Peter Jackson has already completed the filming of the trilogy and has only had to focus on post-production.
Being one of the most sought after directors in the industry, Peter Jackson was invited by Universal Pictures to direct one of their projects.
The project was called King Kong. Universal Pictures was willing to pay the director at least $20 million just to direct this project.
The Big Six only trusted the past performance of directors and Peter Jackson passed the test. His last two films were all successful, very successful in fact.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring grossed $883 million worldwide.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers grossed $949 million worldwide.
Of course, Universal Pictures wanted to hire Peter Jackson in the hope that he would bring them profits. Universal Pictures already understood that it would be impossible to work with director Grey, something that Ronald Meyer sometimes regrets.
Four of the Big Six had much to gain from working with the director, while Universal Pictures and Walt Disney had none.
"Peter, how's it going?"
"I'm fine. I'm here to ask about King Kong."
"Of course, of course. Feel free to ask me." Ronald Meyer smiled, quite pleased that the director was interested in the project.
"Actually, I heard that you intend to sell the copyrights to King Kong to Sony-Colombia, is that true?"
"What!?"
Ronald stood up in surprise.
'Who the hell spread those false rumors?'
.........
......
...
July 28.
It had been three days since the premiere of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life.
As usual, the cast of the movie had to promote the movie by going to different states, appearing on some local TV shows or guesting on famous shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno or The Oprah Winfrey Show.
In those three days, the movie grossed $21.78 million. It may be smaller than Pirates Of The Caribbean and Bad Boys II, but it was clearly a win for Paramount Pictures. They understood that Bad Boys II and Pirates Of The Caribbean were directed by superstar directors and it would be hard to copy their performance.
In fact, Paramount Pictures hoped to have the opportunity to work with Kazir Grey, Michael Bay and Peter Jackson. Knowing that these directors were the kings of the box office at this time.
Steven Spielberg rarely makes films outside of DreamWorks. The director focused his attention on his own company.
James Cameron never accepted any projects after Solaris, which was a huge failure. There was news that James Cameron was working on something about CGI and motion capture technologies.
Robert Zemeckis is currently concentrating on The Polar Express.
Quentin Tarantino was never a mainstream director and his films were not family friendly.
And even when these directors worked with Paramount Pictures, the chances of making a profit were not certain.
They were not Kazir Grey, a director who never made a bad movie... Except for his three horror films.
Even before the new century, the industry knew the importance of talented directors. They were the brains of the movies, and hiring someone to direct a major movie was something to be taken seriously.
If Paramount had a chance, they would pay director Grey $20 million plus box office shares just to work with him. Because the director was the sure definition of making a profit.
+++++
[This first chapter of today.]
HWI 356
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Pujimaki
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Hollywood What If Chapter 356
[Note: I've never seen any of The Equalizer so I didn't add the summary.]
Sean William Scott was standing in front of the audience of SNL (Saturday Night Live).
He told jokes and his delivery was on point, the audience liked it very much.
He was a guest this time, trying to promote the movie he was in. Sean knew that their movie might lose this time, but there was nothing wrong with trying.
Besides, even Universal Pictures hoped that this sequel would be worth it. Otherwise, Sean wouldn't be on SNL to promote the movie.
"By the way, don't forget to check out our movie, American Wedding! Sound familiar? That's right, it's the sequel to American Pie!"
He announced and the audience cheered.
Their movie, American Wedding, was to be released on August 1, 2003. The movie was promising and Sean had already seen it, it was good.
However, Sean and the cast were nervous about the success of their movie. Universal Pictures might be suffering this year as only a few of their movies were doing well. And it seemed that American Wedding might also flop.
On the same day of American Wedding's premiere, The Equalizer would also have a premiere.
.........
......
...
Unlike the budgets of Pirates Of The Caribbean and Wanted 2, The Equalizer had a budget of only $55 million. The highest paid person in the crew was Denzel Washington with more than $10 million. Even the director was paid less than the actors.
Almost all of the cast had small salaries, except for some cameos such as Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker).
Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox were not looking for huge results like over $500 million. They would be satisfied as long as the movie made over $200 million because the production and advertising budgets were not large.
The two companies decided to focus more of their resources on Pirates of the Caribbean and Wanted 2, as these two had better chances at the box office.
Of course, they didn't abandon The Equalizer, they just put more promotion on Pirates Of The Caribbean and Wanted 2. Grey Pictures was having problems with their funds, so they couldn't invest more in The Equalizer.
Kazir thought he should start looking for investors for his film projects outside of CCU. It was the only way to keep the company breathing.
Three movies and a TV show were enough to strangle the company.
Just like that, August 1st came and both Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox were busy.
One did a red carpet at the TCL Chinese Theater, the other at the Universal Cinema AMC.
The others had Denzel Washington, Kazir Grey and the cast of The Equalizer.
As for American Wedding... Well, most of the cast was not that famous except for Allison Hannigan and Sean William Scott. Although Universal Pictures invited Leonardo DiCaprio as a guest in the premiere to attract more attention.
Before 12 midnight, both shows started the premiere of their movies.
The strongest advantage that The Equalizer had was that it was part of a huge Cinematic Universe, which made it more interesting. In fact, most of the audience watching the movie were fans of CCU. They had no idea what The Equalizer was really about.
As for American Wedding, it was a comedy and a sequel to a successful movie. It already had a fan base that would buy tickets.
However, American Wedding was rated R because it was a sex comedy. This might limit the profit of American Wedding.
As for The Equalizer... Well, it was also rated R. 20th Century Fox and even Stella Willow were against it, but Kazir wanted the movie to keep its bloody and dark theme, just like John Wick. So yeah, the kids couldn't see the movie, unfortunately.
The two were both R-rated, but had different genres. Both sides wanted to beat the other to make more money.
.........
......
...
"Hello, babe? How's your day? Oh my bad, how's your night? It's morning here in New York."
Angelina and Kazir were on the phone. The actress was promoting the film in New York and might be back in a week or two.
As of August 1, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life has grossed $31.25 million at the North American box office.
As for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, it has already earned $196.33 million in North America. The international release will take place next week, starting with English-speaking countries.
"It's fine, we just finished the premiere and the audience reaction is not that bad. I'm at Fox headquarters right now, waiting for the midnight results of The Equalizer."
Kazir yawned slightly.
If it was 7 a.m. in New York, it was still 4 a.m. in Los Angeles, and the sun was still missing to light the surroundings, Kazir was sleepy.
"Promise me that you will rest as soon as you hear the result."
"I promise." Kazir nodded and ended the conversation.
He returned to the office and found people sitting in front of their computers, calculating the midnight box office.
Even Tom Rothman was in the place, waiting for the news.
After tabulating the result, the person handed the documents to Tom Rothman and Kazir Grey.
"This result is 97% accurate."
"...Looks like there's no reason to be afraid of American Wedding," Kazir muttered, and Tom agreed.
The midnight box office was $5 million.
+++++
[2nd chapter for today.]
[Note: I've never seen any of The Equalizer so I didn't add the summary.]
Sean William Scott was standing in front of the audience of SNL (Saturday Night Live).
He told jokes and his delivery was on point, the audience liked it very much.
He was a guest this time, trying to promote the movie he was in. Sean knew that their movie might lose this time, but there was nothing wrong with trying.
Besides, even Universal Pictures hoped that this sequel would be worth it. Otherwise, Sean wouldn't be on SNL to promote the movie.
"By the way, don't forget to check out our movie, American Wedding! Sound familiar? That's right, it's the sequel to American Pie!"
He announced and the audience cheered.
Their movie, American Wedding, was to be released on August 1, 2003. The movie was promising and Sean had already seen it, it was good.
However, Sean and the cast were nervous about the success of their movie. Universal Pictures might be suffering this year as only a few of their movies were doing well. And it seemed that American Wedding might also flop.
On the same day of American Wedding's premiere, The Equalizer would also have a premiere.
.........
......
...
Unlike the budgets of Pirates Of The Caribbean and Wanted 2, The Equalizer had a budget of only $55 million. The highest paid person in the crew was Denzel Washington with more than $10 million. Even the director was paid less than the actors.
Almost all of the cast had small salaries, except for some cameos such as Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker).
Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox were not looking for huge results like over $500 million. They would be satisfied as long as the movie made over $200 million because the production and advertising budgets were not large.
The two companies decided to focus more of their resources on Pirates of the Caribbean and Wanted 2, as these two had better chances at the box office.
Of course, they didn't abandon The Equalizer, they just put more promotion on Pirates Of The Caribbean and Wanted 2. Grey Pictures was having problems with their funds, so they couldn't invest more in The Equalizer.
Kazir thought he should start looking for investors for his film projects outside of CCU. It was the only way to keep the company breathing.
Three movies and a TV show were enough to strangle the company.
Just like that, August 1st came and both Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox were busy.
One did a red carpet at the TCL Chinese Theater, the other at the Universal Cinema AMC.
The others had Denzel Washington, Kazir Grey and the cast of The Equalizer.
As for American Wedding... Well, most of the cast was not that famous except for Allison Hannigan and Sean William Scott. Although Universal Pictures invited Leonardo DiCaprio as a guest in the premiere to attract more attention.
Before 12 midnight, both shows started the premiere of their movies.
The strongest advantage that The Equalizer had was that it was part of a huge Cinematic Universe, which made it more interesting. In fact, most of the audience watching the movie were fans of CCU. They had no idea what The Equalizer was really about.
As for American Wedding, it was a comedy and a sequel to a successful movie. It already had a fan base that would buy tickets.
However, American Wedding was rated R because it was a sex comedy. This might limit the profit of American Wedding.
As for The Equalizer... Well, it was also rated R. 20th Century Fox and even Stella Willow were against it, but Kazir wanted the movie to keep its bloody and dark theme, just like John Wick. So yeah, the kids couldn't see the movie, unfortunately.
The two were both R-rated, but had different genres. Both sides wanted to beat the other to make more money.
.........
......
...
"Hello, babe? How's your day? Oh my bad, how's your night? It's morning here in New York."
Angelina and Kazir were on the phone. The actress was promoting the film in New York and might be back in a week or two.
As of August 1, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life has grossed $31.25 million at the North American box office.
As for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, it has already earned $196.33 million in North America. The international release will take place next week, starting with English-speaking countries.
"It's fine, we just finished the premiere and the audience reaction is not that bad. I'm at Fox headquarters right now, waiting for the midnight results of The Equalizer."
Kazir yawned slightly.
If it was 7 a.m. in New York, it was still 4 a.m. in Los Angeles, and the sun was still missing to light the surroundings, Kazir was sleepy.
"Promise me that you will rest as soon as you hear the result."
"I promise." Kazir nodded and ended the conversation.
He returned to the office and found people sitting in front of their computers, calculating the midnight box office.
Even Tom Rothman was in the place, waiting for the news.
After tabulating the result, the person handed the documents to Tom Rothman and Kazir Grey.
"This result is 97% accurate."
"...Looks like there's no reason to be afraid of American Wedding," Kazir muttered, and Tom agreed.
The midnight box office was $5 million.
+++++
[2nd chapter for today.]
HWI 357
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Pujimaki
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Hollywood What If Chapter 357
"Why do bad things keep happening to us? Why?"
Ronald Meyer couldn't help but ask himself, gritting his teeth in anger and disappointment. He was angry that their big movies this year were shot down by their rivals, and they lost the chance to make more money.
This year, Ronald could already predict their status in the rankings. Universal Pictures would be at the bottom of the Big Six.
Sony-Columbia already had steady franchises to make money, while Universal Pictures had nothing but Jurassic Park and The Mummy. Everything after that were mid-tier franchises like American Pie and Chronicles Of Riddick/Pitch Black.
Universal Pictures could start with the remake of Jaws, but that kind of genre had already lost all its novelty. There were already a lot of shark horror movies in the industry.
To make matters worse, Sony-Colombia, the company that had risen from its lowest point, was asking to buy the copyrights to King Kong!
Everything has been chaotic lately.
Bad Boys II lost against Pirates Of The Caribbean.
American Wedding also lost to The Equalizer.
There was no good news at all. Ronald Meyer felt that Comcast might kick him out of Universal Pictures and put all the blame on him.
If he knew that this would happen to him if he tried to destroy Kazir's reputation by spreading false news that the guy was a wife beater, he would immediately stop his past self from blowing himself up.
For some reason, Ronald felt that what he did to Kazir was the catalyst for this outcome.
Everything started to go downhill after he tried to sabotage Kazir.
'... If we can't work with Kazir, we might as well destroy his image.'
This was his idea a few years ago, and now it seemed that this idea was coming back to his mind.
Actually, Ronald Meyer didn't know it, but Kazir stole a couple of movie franchises from Universal Pictures.
The Fast and the Furious.
Meet the Parents trilogy.
Bruce Almighty.
The Jason Bourne series.
Wanted.
These movies were originally made by Universal Pictures.
Yes, Universal Pictures fucked up big time, but they had no idea how much they lost. All they knew was that Kazir Grey and Grey Pictures were one of the reasons why their company was slowly sinking.
They have now hit rock bottom and have truly become the weakest of the Big Six in recent years.
"..." Ronald gritted his teeth and decided to do what he had to do from the beginning.
He was a cornered, wounded beast and his fangs were still sharp. Before he lost his position, he would make sure that Grey Pictures would be badly affected.
"Secretary," Ronald called to his secretary.
"Yes, sir."
"Find me a private investigator, I want the best. Someone who can keep his mouth shut and be slippery."
The secretary was confused but decided to follow his instructions.
"I will look for any dirty secrets that can destroy your image. If last time it was false accusations, this time it will be the real thing.
Ronald realized long ago that Kazir would never work with Universal Pictures. There was no reason to be friendly, he might as well destroy the guy in one incident.
..........
.......
...
"Achoo--!"
Kazir sneezed hard and wiped his nose. He got a runny nose after working on the set of Game of Thrones. He was about to finish filming the first five episodes of Game of Thrones, and Palenque Simone would take over after that.
So far, Kazir concludes that the set has worked wonders and everyone has been cooperative. There were instances where some actors hated other actors. But Game of Thrones has been peaceful so far.
This is just the beginning of the season. Things will change after that. The actors are definitely going to ask for raises, and some actors might get jealous of other actors after that.
Bill Murray and Lucy Lui of Charlie's Angels actually hated each other off-screen. One of the reasons Charlie's Angels never got a third movie.
Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, these two hated each other on the set of Mad Max: Fury Road.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Vin Diesel hated each other while filming the Fast and Furious franchise.
The list goes on.
'... I can't believe I'm going back to film Spider-Man.'
The atmosphere on the set of Spider-Man was kind of eerie for Kazir. Especially when the producer and one of the actors didn't like each other.
Jezebel Salome and Kirsten Dunst. Jezebel was a strict woman and she didn't like Kirsten's free attitude, of course Kirsten didn't like Jezebel either after those hurtful words she said.
The set of Spider-Man 2 will probably lack female workers as well, because Jezebel didn't like to work with other women.
In fact, Kirsten wanted to leave the franchise. She didn't want to be Mary Jane anymore, Spider-Man gave her a lot of bad memories. Jezebel Salome and Angelina Jolie to be exact.
However, Sony-Colombia was afraid that the franchise would be affected if she left, so they calmed her down with more money.
After all, money could buy a lot of things.
Kirsten was only in it for the money, but her commitment to the franchise was long gone.
"... Next year could be a difficult year for me."
Kazir felt the disturbance in the force. Something was coming, and he didn't know if he could overcome it or not.
Life was like an elevator, sometimes you're way up and sometimes you're down in the parking garage.
Kazir prepared himself because he knew that life would give him sour lemons... He might have to learn to make lemonade.
+++++
[I feel like the plot is running smoothly lately, so I need to add some spice, I want to hear your thoughts on it.]
[For clarification, I don't hate Universal Pictures. In fact Universal Pictures is far better than Walt Disney in any angle. Unfortunately, the plot just went that way so I have to go with the flow.]
[This is the last chapter today. If you want to read more, you can wait for tomorrow or subscribe to my Patreon or Ko-fi.]
"Why do bad things keep happening to us? Why?"
Ronald Meyer couldn't help but ask himself, gritting his teeth in anger and disappointment. He was angry that their big movies this year were shot down by their rivals, and they lost the chance to make more money.
This year, Ronald could already predict their status in the rankings. Universal Pictures would be at the bottom of the Big Six.
Sony-Columbia already had steady franchises to make money, while Universal Pictures had nothing but Jurassic Park and The Mummy. Everything after that were mid-tier franchises like American Pie and Chronicles Of Riddick/Pitch Black.
Universal Pictures could start with the remake of Jaws, but that kind of genre had already lost all its novelty. There were already a lot of shark horror movies in the industry.
To make matters worse, Sony-Colombia, the company that had risen from its lowest point, was asking to buy the copyrights to King Kong!
Everything has been chaotic lately.
Bad Boys II lost against Pirates Of The Caribbean.
American Wedding also lost to The Equalizer.
There was no good news at all. Ronald Meyer felt that Comcast might kick him out of Universal Pictures and put all the blame on him.
If he knew that this would happen to him if he tried to destroy Kazir's reputation by spreading false news that the guy was a wife beater, he would immediately stop his past self from blowing himself up.
For some reason, Ronald felt that what he did to Kazir was the catalyst for this outcome.
Everything started to go downhill after he tried to sabotage Kazir.
'... If we can't work with Kazir, we might as well destroy his image.'
This was his idea a few years ago, and now it seemed that this idea was coming back to his mind.
Actually, Ronald Meyer didn't know it, but Kazir stole a couple of movie franchises from Universal Pictures.
The Fast and the Furious.
Meet the Parents trilogy.
Bruce Almighty.
The Jason Bourne series.
Wanted.
These movies were originally made by Universal Pictures.
Yes, Universal Pictures fucked up big time, but they had no idea how much they lost. All they knew was that Kazir Grey and Grey Pictures were one of the reasons why their company was slowly sinking.
They have now hit rock bottom and have truly become the weakest of the Big Six in recent years.
"..." Ronald gritted his teeth and decided to do what he had to do from the beginning.
He was a cornered, wounded beast and his fangs were still sharp. Before he lost his position, he would make sure that Grey Pictures would be badly affected.
"Secretary," Ronald called to his secretary.
"Yes, sir."
"Find me a private investigator, I want the best. Someone who can keep his mouth shut and be slippery."
The secretary was confused but decided to follow his instructions.
"I will look for any dirty secrets that can destroy your image. If last time it was false accusations, this time it will be the real thing.
Ronald realized long ago that Kazir would never work with Universal Pictures. There was no reason to be friendly, he might as well destroy the guy in one incident.
..........
.......
...
"Achoo--!"
Kazir sneezed hard and wiped his nose. He got a runny nose after working on the set of Game of Thrones. He was about to finish filming the first five episodes of Game of Thrones, and Palenque Simone would take over after that.
So far, Kazir concludes that the set has worked wonders and everyone has been cooperative. There were instances where some actors hated other actors. But Game of Thrones has been peaceful so far.
This is just the beginning of the season. Things will change after that. The actors are definitely going to ask for raises, and some actors might get jealous of other actors after that.
Bill Murray and Lucy Lui of Charlie's Angels actually hated each other off-screen. One of the reasons Charlie's Angels never got a third movie.
Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, these two hated each other on the set of Mad Max: Fury Road.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Vin Diesel hated each other while filming the Fast and Furious franchise.
The list goes on.
'... I can't believe I'm going back to film Spider-Man.'
The atmosphere on the set of Spider-Man was kind of eerie for Kazir. Especially when the producer and one of the actors didn't like each other.
Jezebel Salome and Kirsten Dunst. Jezebel was a strict woman and she didn't like Kirsten's free attitude, of course Kirsten didn't like Jezebel either after those hurtful words she said.
The set of Spider-Man 2 will probably lack female workers as well, because Jezebel didn't like to work with other women.
In fact, Kirsten wanted to leave the franchise. She didn't want to be Mary Jane anymore, Spider-Man gave her a lot of bad memories. Jezebel Salome and Angelina Jolie to be exact.
However, Sony-Colombia was afraid that the franchise would be affected if she left, so they calmed her down with more money.
After all, money could buy a lot of things.
Kirsten was only in it for the money, but her commitment to the franchise was long gone.
"... Next year could be a difficult year for me."
Kazir felt the disturbance in the force. Something was coming, and he didn't know if he could overcome it or not.
Life was like an elevator, sometimes you're way up and sometimes you're down in the parking garage.
Kazir prepared himself because he knew that life would give him sour lemons... He might have to learn to make lemonade.
+++++
[I feel like the plot is running smoothly lately, so I need to add some spice, I want to hear your thoughts on it.]
[For clarification, I don't hate Universal Pictures. In fact Universal Pictures is far better than Walt Disney in any angle. Unfortunately, the plot just went that way so I have to go with the flow.]
[This is the last chapter today. If you want to read more, you can wait for tomorrow or subscribe to my Patreon or Ko-fi.]
MichaelSuave
Not too sore, are you?
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I think its stupid to add artificial drama when there is plenty already. The whole UP investigation is stupid for a business man who already got smacked down to double down like this without any benefit. It won't save his position and is a distraction from what matters, it only makes sense given the narrative main character and not the universe as a whole
Lillie Jones
Well worn.
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thanks for the chapters
HWI 358
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Pujimaki
Yes, My writing sucks .
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Hollywood What If Chapter 358
American Wedding and The Equalizer premiered on the same day.
They were both mid-budget movies, and both movies had a budget of $55 million.
The production budget for movies kept going up, and $55 million was now considered mid-budget for movies. A decade ago, $55 million was a huge amount of money to make a movie.
After one week in theaters, American Wedding grossed $49.75 million, which was an amazing feat since American Wedding was an R-rated comedy. Perhaps many adults could relate to the humor of the movie.
The Big Six were surprised that this franchise actually had the power to do well at the box office... Unfortunately for Universal Pictures, this sex comedy couldn't maximize its profit because its rival was much stronger.
If American Wedding grossed $49 million, then The Equalizer showed the importance of world-building. The Continental Cinematic Universe was a universe where hitmen, assassins, agents and ninjas lived with their almost superhuman physiques. CCU was molded over the years and created a perfect universe. The audience loved it.
Everyone in the industry understood that the success of The Equalizer was due to the Continental Cinematic Universe. If this action movie was not part of that huge universe, then it might be nothing to moviegoers.
With that, the first seven days of The Equalizer was $92.97 million.
Obviously, The Equalizer took the top spot in the weekly box office.
Universal Pictures couldn't help but shake their heads and accept the result. It would be detrimental if they rescheduled American Wedding, they would lose their money since they had already promoted the movie for months.
August was the last month of summer and they had no choice but to put it in the first week to make it relevant... And it seems that 20th Century Fox and Grey Pictures had the same idea and put The Equalizer in the same week.
For the most part, the Big Six were careful not to release their movies in the same week. But there were also cases where two mid-budget movies were released on the same week. Both sides would be affected because they couldn't maximize the potential of their movies. One of the two would surely lose its ground and fall off the scene, American Wedding suffered that fate while The Equalizer continued to thrive.
.........
......
...
"Haha, Bob. I know it's late, but congratulations on becoming CEO of the company. You deserve it. Old fart Michael needs to retire anyway." Harvey greeted his friend, unaware that he, too, was getting old.
CEO/Executive Chairman Robert "Bob" Iger laughed and shook Harvey's hand.
The two had formed an alliance to oust Michael Eisner and Michael Ovits from Walt Disney.
It was funny that the two Michaels wanted to kick Harvey Weinstein, but instead they suffered the consequences. Fate really does know how to joke.
Harvey and Bob rallied the shareholders and executives to dethrone the Michaels. And now Harvey and Bob were reaping the rewards of their hard work. Most people at Walt Disney respected them and feared they might be the next to be fired.
"Did you hear the news that 20th Century Fox is investing more in Blue Sky Studio? Those fools, they think they can beat Walt Disney in animation. Hah, their movie last year, Ice Age, looks stupid and boring compared to Pixar. Even DreamWorks has better animation than them!
Harvey Weinstein scoffed.
Ice Age was the first film produced by Blue Sky Studio to be released theatrically. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox, the company that owned Blue Sky Studio.
In Hollywood, the best computer animation studio was none other than Pixar. Pixar was the first company to produce computer animated films, it was Toy Story. Since then, Pixar has continued to dominate the computer animation industry.
Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo were the recent projects released by Pixar. Finding Nemo, which was released this year, gained a lot of reputation and positive reviews. Finding Nemo has been in theaters for almost three months and has currently grossed more than $322 million. For obvious reasons, animated films tend to have a longer life in theaters, unlike horror and R-rated films.
Below Pixar was DreamWorks Animation. This company also had amazing movies, but they couldn't compete with Pixar, at least in the 90s and 00s... Things would change around 2020s when people started to lose interest in Disney movies.
So far, DreamWorks has made Antz, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken Run, Joseph: King of Dreams, Shrek, Spirit: Stallion Of Cimarron, and Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas. DreamWorks currently only made two 3D animated films, Antz and Shrek, with Shrek becoming one of their most profitable franchises of all time.
Next in line were Blue Sky Studio and Illumination.
So far, Blue Sky has only made one movie and that was Ice Age. The movie was released last year and grossed $383 million at the worldwide box office. Honestly, the movie was not bad since it only cost $59 million to make.
The main problem with 3D animated movies was time. It took a lot of time to make a 3D animated movie, especially when the technology was just starting to blossom. Pixar could only make one every two years, that's how difficult it was. And that was considered fast.
As for Illumination, that studio was owned by Universal Pictures... And it did not exist currently.
Illumination would release their first movie in 2010, their first movie was Despicable Me.
So yeah, there are only three computer animation studios in Hollywood right now. With Blue Sky Studio being the weakest.
'Blue Sky, huh... Their first movie is not that bad. Yes, the animation is not that great, but they can polish it with experience.'
Bob Iger was thinking of Blue Sky Studio, which made its debut last year. Suddenly he had an epiphany.
American Wedding and The Equalizer premiered on the same day.
They were both mid-budget movies, and both movies had a budget of $55 million.
The production budget for movies kept going up, and $55 million was now considered mid-budget for movies. A decade ago, $55 million was a huge amount of money to make a movie.
After one week in theaters, American Wedding grossed $49.75 million, which was an amazing feat since American Wedding was an R-rated comedy. Perhaps many adults could relate to the humor of the movie.
The Big Six were surprised that this franchise actually had the power to do well at the box office... Unfortunately for Universal Pictures, this sex comedy couldn't maximize its profit because its rival was much stronger.
If American Wedding grossed $49 million, then The Equalizer showed the importance of world-building. The Continental Cinematic Universe was a universe where hitmen, assassins, agents and ninjas lived with their almost superhuman physiques. CCU was molded over the years and created a perfect universe. The audience loved it.
Everyone in the industry understood that the success of The Equalizer was due to the Continental Cinematic Universe. If this action movie was not part of that huge universe, then it might be nothing to moviegoers.
With that, the first seven days of The Equalizer was $92.97 million.
Obviously, The Equalizer took the top spot in the weekly box office.
Universal Pictures couldn't help but shake their heads and accept the result. It would be detrimental if they rescheduled American Wedding, they would lose their money since they had already promoted the movie for months.
August was the last month of summer and they had no choice but to put it in the first week to make it relevant... And it seems that 20th Century Fox and Grey Pictures had the same idea and put The Equalizer in the same week.
For the most part, the Big Six were careful not to release their movies in the same week. But there were also cases where two mid-budget movies were released on the same week. Both sides would be affected because they couldn't maximize the potential of their movies. One of the two would surely lose its ground and fall off the scene, American Wedding suffered that fate while The Equalizer continued to thrive.
.........
......
...
"Haha, Bob. I know it's late, but congratulations on becoming CEO of the company. You deserve it. Old fart Michael needs to retire anyway." Harvey greeted his friend, unaware that he, too, was getting old.
CEO/Executive Chairman Robert "Bob" Iger laughed and shook Harvey's hand.
The two had formed an alliance to oust Michael Eisner and Michael Ovits from Walt Disney.
It was funny that the two Michaels wanted to kick Harvey Weinstein, but instead they suffered the consequences. Fate really does know how to joke.
Harvey and Bob rallied the shareholders and executives to dethrone the Michaels. And now Harvey and Bob were reaping the rewards of their hard work. Most people at Walt Disney respected them and feared they might be the next to be fired.
"Did you hear the news that 20th Century Fox is investing more in Blue Sky Studio? Those fools, they think they can beat Walt Disney in animation. Hah, their movie last year, Ice Age, looks stupid and boring compared to Pixar. Even DreamWorks has better animation than them!
Harvey Weinstein scoffed.
Ice Age was the first film produced by Blue Sky Studio to be released theatrically. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox, the company that owned Blue Sky Studio.
In Hollywood, the best computer animation studio was none other than Pixar. Pixar was the first company to produce computer animated films, it was Toy Story. Since then, Pixar has continued to dominate the computer animation industry.
Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo were the recent projects released by Pixar. Finding Nemo, which was released this year, gained a lot of reputation and positive reviews. Finding Nemo has been in theaters for almost three months and has currently grossed more than $322 million. For obvious reasons, animated films tend to have a longer life in theaters, unlike horror and R-rated films.
Below Pixar was DreamWorks Animation. This company also had amazing movies, but they couldn't compete with Pixar, at least in the 90s and 00s... Things would change around 2020s when people started to lose interest in Disney movies.
So far, DreamWorks has made Antz, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken Run, Joseph: King of Dreams, Shrek, Spirit: Stallion Of Cimarron, and Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas. DreamWorks currently only made two 3D animated films, Antz and Shrek, with Shrek becoming one of their most profitable franchises of all time.
Next in line were Blue Sky Studio and Illumination.
So far, Blue Sky has only made one movie and that was Ice Age. The movie was released last year and grossed $383 million at the worldwide box office. Honestly, the movie was not bad since it only cost $59 million to make.
The main problem with 3D animated movies was time. It took a lot of time to make a 3D animated movie, especially when the technology was just starting to blossom. Pixar could only make one every two years, that's how difficult it was. And that was considered fast.
As for Illumination, that studio was owned by Universal Pictures... And it did not exist currently.
Illumination would release their first movie in 2010, their first movie was Despicable Me.
So yeah, there are only three computer animation studios in Hollywood right now. With Blue Sky Studio being the weakest.
'Blue Sky, huh... Their first movie is not that bad. Yes, the animation is not that great, but they can polish it with experience.'
Bob Iger was thinking of Blue Sky Studio, which made its debut last year. Suddenly he had an epiphany.
HWI 359
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Pujimaki
Yes, My writing sucks .
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Hollywood What If Chapter 359
"Harvey, what do you think of Kazir Grey?"
"Kazir? That fucking bastard deserves a place in hell! I hate him to the bone!"
"Yeah, I thought so. But you can't deny that he has an amazing imagination. His talent in script writing is one of the factors why he's the most sought-after director."
"Tch, yeah, and what about that."
"Do you... Do you think Kazir can make a story for children?"
"Most of his work has been action, dark mystery thrillers, horror and adult comedy. Well, Napoleon Dynamite is more on the soft side of comedy, but most of his work has been for adults. I don't think he has the talent to make movies for children. What made you think of that?"
"Nothing."
Bob Iger shook his head, but he couldn't help the pressure.
'I just hope what I imagined doesn't happen. I don't want Kazir dabbling in 3D animation... Walt Disney could lose its position as the most dominant animation studio in Hollywood.'
That was a future Bob Iger didn't want to see. He was the CEO of the company, and he wanted to make sure that Walt Disney was thriving on his watch.
"By the way, I heard there is a Disney movie coming out this week. Do you think it will be affected by The Equalizer?"
"Yes, it's called Freaky Friday. I hope not, but we have been in this business a long time, The Equalizer will affect our movie."
Just like Universal Pictures, Walt Disney had no choice but to release one of their movies in August. Letting it rot in their library was a waste of money. They might as well release it in theaters and make a profit.
Freaky Friday was a movie starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis. Where the mother and daughter switch bodies because of a magical fortune cookie.
The movie only cost $26 million to produce, so Walt Disney didn't take the importance of this movie and decided to release it in August.
.........
......
...
Just like Universal Pictures and Walt Disney, Sony-Colombia also had a movie they wanted to release in August.
It was to be released on August 8, two days after Freaky Friday.
The title of the movie was S.W.A.T. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, Brian Van Holt, Jeremy Renner, Josh Charles and Olivier Martinez.
It is based on the 1975 TV series S.W.A.T., which aired on ABC. Sony-Colombia hired some future big stars for the cast like Michelle Rodriguez and Jeremy Renner. The movie was also star-studded with Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell.
However, Sony-Colombia knew that the movie might have a problem with The Equalizer because both movies were action movies. There would be a lot of similarities between the two.
But unlike Universal Pictures and Walt Disney, who were bitter about Grey Pictures, Sony-Colombia had a more light-hearted approach. After all, Sony-Columbia and director Grey would be working together again. We are talking about a franchise that could make billions at the box office alone!
Sony-Colombia even invited Kazir and Angelina to their Anger Management(the movie) celebration party... Although Kazir didn't attend the party because he doesn't like parties that much. Besides, the director was busy putting the finishing touches on Game of Thrones before he could pass the baton to his ex-assistant director.
Yes, Kazir had to find another assistant director since Palenque Simone was no longer part of his team.
Recently, there was a rumor that the best way to become a director was to become an assistant director to Director Grey. It was already proven that his two assistant directors became directors... So a lot of people were trying to get the position.
Freaky Friday was released on August 6 and grossed $6 million on its first day.
S.W.A.T. was released on August 8 and grossed $13.58 million on its first day.
Both movies did well on their first day.
By Sunday, August 10th, Freaky Friday had grossed $33.10 million while S.W.A.T. had grossed $37.07 million.
Freaky Friday was released two days before S.W.A.T., so their box offices were closed when Sunday arrived.
As for The Equalizer, well, it made $43.27 million that week. The total box office for the movie was already $109.05 million.
With these results alone, The Equalizer easily won the number one spot for the week again. The power of the CCU became clearer as the years went by. Now even the Big Six were salivating at the idea of the Cinematic Universe. Although they had to do it carefully, because they didn't want to experience Walt Disney's failure. John Carter was the biggest flop of 2001.
.........
......
...
When the third week of August arrived, New Line Cinema released their usual horror movie. But this year they did something new.
New Line Cinema did something that copied the idea of the Cinematic Universe. They released a movie called Freddy vs. Jason!
Two horror franchises and two antagonists met in one movie to have a fight to the death!
Surely the audience would be excited to see that, right? Right?
Nightmare On Elm Street was a washed up franchise as people got tired of it. But the first movie was amazing.
Friday Of The 13th had the same fate. People got tired of that movie.
So Freddy vs. Jason was not that exciting. Especially when the two franchises had no connection before this movie.
But even so, those two franchises made names for themselves, so there were still some people who would watch it. It was an interesting concept.
So with a budget of $30 million, Freddy vs. Jason was released on August 15th.
The movie made $14.10 million on its first day, which was actually a promising start.
$12.83 million on Saturday.
$9.49 million on Sunday.
Combined, the movie grossed $36.42 million on its first weekend. New Line Cinema was pleased. For some reason, they also thought about creating a Cinematic Universe. Maybe they should have started this project with a clear intention.
As for The Equalizer, the movie was already running out of gas. Its third week only made over $20 million, the total box office of The Equalizer was $138 million.
The Equalizer ended its winning streak after two weeks, and Freddy vs. Jason took first place for the week.
+++++
[I know it seems obvious, but which 3D animated movie do you want Kazir to steal first?]
[Note: The poll is closed, but you can comment below which 3D animated movie you think Kazir chose. If you're right, I'll reply to it.]
"Harvey, what do you think of Kazir Grey?"
"Kazir? That fucking bastard deserves a place in hell! I hate him to the bone!"
"Yeah, I thought so. But you can't deny that he has an amazing imagination. His talent in script writing is one of the factors why he's the most sought-after director."
"Tch, yeah, and what about that."
"Do you... Do you think Kazir can make a story for children?"
"Most of his work has been action, dark mystery thrillers, horror and adult comedy. Well, Napoleon Dynamite is more on the soft side of comedy, but most of his work has been for adults. I don't think he has the talent to make movies for children. What made you think of that?"
"Nothing."
Bob Iger shook his head, but he couldn't help the pressure.
'I just hope what I imagined doesn't happen. I don't want Kazir dabbling in 3D animation... Walt Disney could lose its position as the most dominant animation studio in Hollywood.'
That was a future Bob Iger didn't want to see. He was the CEO of the company, and he wanted to make sure that Walt Disney was thriving on his watch.
"By the way, I heard there is a Disney movie coming out this week. Do you think it will be affected by The Equalizer?"
"Yes, it's called Freaky Friday. I hope not, but we have been in this business a long time, The Equalizer will affect our movie."
Just like Universal Pictures, Walt Disney had no choice but to release one of their movies in August. Letting it rot in their library was a waste of money. They might as well release it in theaters and make a profit.
Freaky Friday was a movie starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis. Where the mother and daughter switch bodies because of a magical fortune cookie.
The movie only cost $26 million to produce, so Walt Disney didn't take the importance of this movie and decided to release it in August.
.........
......
...
Just like Universal Pictures and Walt Disney, Sony-Colombia also had a movie they wanted to release in August.
It was to be released on August 8, two days after Freaky Friday.
The title of the movie was S.W.A.T. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, Brian Van Holt, Jeremy Renner, Josh Charles and Olivier Martinez.
It is based on the 1975 TV series S.W.A.T., which aired on ABC. Sony-Colombia hired some future big stars for the cast like Michelle Rodriguez and Jeremy Renner. The movie was also star-studded with Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell.
However, Sony-Colombia knew that the movie might have a problem with The Equalizer because both movies were action movies. There would be a lot of similarities between the two.
But unlike Universal Pictures and Walt Disney, who were bitter about Grey Pictures, Sony-Colombia had a more light-hearted approach. After all, Sony-Columbia and director Grey would be working together again. We are talking about a franchise that could make billions at the box office alone!
Sony-Colombia even invited Kazir and Angelina to their Anger Management(the movie) celebration party... Although Kazir didn't attend the party because he doesn't like parties that much. Besides, the director was busy putting the finishing touches on Game of Thrones before he could pass the baton to his ex-assistant director.
Yes, Kazir had to find another assistant director since Palenque Simone was no longer part of his team.
Recently, there was a rumor that the best way to become a director was to become an assistant director to Director Grey. It was already proven that his two assistant directors became directors... So a lot of people were trying to get the position.
Freaky Friday was released on August 6 and grossed $6 million on its first day.
S.W.A.T. was released on August 8 and grossed $13.58 million on its first day.
Both movies did well on their first day.
By Sunday, August 10th, Freaky Friday had grossed $33.10 million while S.W.A.T. had grossed $37.07 million.
Freaky Friday was released two days before S.W.A.T., so their box offices were closed when Sunday arrived.
As for The Equalizer, well, it made $43.27 million that week. The total box office for the movie was already $109.05 million.
With these results alone, The Equalizer easily won the number one spot for the week again. The power of the CCU became clearer as the years went by. Now even the Big Six were salivating at the idea of the Cinematic Universe. Although they had to do it carefully, because they didn't want to experience Walt Disney's failure. John Carter was the biggest flop of 2001.
.........
......
...
When the third week of August arrived, New Line Cinema released their usual horror movie. But this year they did something new.
New Line Cinema did something that copied the idea of the Cinematic Universe. They released a movie called Freddy vs. Jason!
Two horror franchises and two antagonists met in one movie to have a fight to the death!
Surely the audience would be excited to see that, right? Right?
Nightmare On Elm Street was a washed up franchise as people got tired of it. But the first movie was amazing.
Friday Of The 13th had the same fate. People got tired of that movie.
So Freddy vs. Jason was not that exciting. Especially when the two franchises had no connection before this movie.
But even so, those two franchises made names for themselves, so there were still some people who would watch it. It was an interesting concept.
So with a budget of $30 million, Freddy vs. Jason was released on August 15th.
The movie made $14.10 million on its first day, which was actually a promising start.
$12.83 million on Saturday.
$9.49 million on Sunday.
Combined, the movie grossed $36.42 million on its first weekend. New Line Cinema was pleased. For some reason, they also thought about creating a Cinematic Universe. Maybe they should have started this project with a clear intention.
As for The Equalizer, the movie was already running out of gas. Its third week only made over $20 million, the total box office of The Equalizer was $138 million.
The Equalizer ended its winning streak after two weeks, and Freddy vs. Jason took first place for the week.
+++++
[I know it seems obvious, but which 3D animated movie do you want Kazir to steal first?]
[Note: The poll is closed, but you can comment below which 3D animated movie you think Kazir chose. If you're right, I'll reply to it.]
HWI 360
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Pujimaki
Yes, My writing sucks .
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- 10,367
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].
"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].
Lillie Jones
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thanks for the chapters
HWI 361
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Pujimaki
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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.
.........
......
...
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!
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.
.........
......
...
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!
HWI 362
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Pujimaki
Yes, My writing sucks .
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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.
.........
......
...
"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.
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.
.........
......
...
"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.
HWI 363
New
Pujimaki
Yes, My writing sucks .
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- 10,367
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.
.........
......
...
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.]
"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.
.........
......
...
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
Yes, My writing sucks .
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2022
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I'll add that to my list
Lillie Jones
Well worn.
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2020
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- 13,446
Thanks for the chapters
HWI 364
New
Pujimaki
Yes, My writing sucks .
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2022
- Messages
- 650
- Likes received
- 10,367
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.
.........
......
...
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.]
"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.
.........
......
...
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.]
HWI 365
New
Pujimaki
Yes, My writing sucks .
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2022
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- 650
- Likes received
- 10,367
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.
.........
......
...
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.
.........
......
...
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.
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.
.........
......
...
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.
.........
......
...
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.
HWI 366
New
Pujimaki
Yes, My writing sucks .
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2022
- Messages
- 650
- Likes received
- 10,367
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.
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.
Lillie Jones
Well worn.
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2020
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thanks for the chapters