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 disappoi.
Johnny English, starring Rowan Atkinson, was released on July 18.
"July 18th..." He muttered weakly.
The Equalizer ged its release date, but Johnny English still met a strong oppohat week. It was Bad Boys II, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrehis movie was also directed by Michael Bay.
The toughest oppos 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 domihe theaters and stole the most tickets from Johnny English. Betweewo, 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 inf Ronald that someone wao see him.
"Sir, Peter Ja is here." The secretary announced.
"Tell him to e in."
Ronald returo his serious expression, casually hiding the disappointing dots regarding Johnny English.
Peter Ja, his success i 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 Ameris 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 Uates knew about these movies.
Peter Ja was a master at creating the culture of Lord Of The Rings.
So far, New Line ema has released two Lord of the Rings movies, and the st part of the trilogy was to be released in December of this year.
Peter Ja has already pleted the filming of the trilogy and has only had to focus on post-produ.
Being one of the most sought after directors in the industry, Peter Ja was invited by Universal Pictures to diree 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 aer Ja passed the test. His st 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 Trossed 949 million worldwide.
Of course, Universal Pictures wao hire Peter Ja in the hope that he would bring them profits. Universal Pictures already uood that it would be impossible to work with directrey, something that Ronald Meyer sometimes regrets.
Four of the Big Six had much to gain from w 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 ied in the project.
"Actually, I heard that you io sell the chts to King Kong to Sony-bia, is that true?"
"What!?"
Ronald stood up in surprise.
'Who the hell spread those false rumors?'
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July 28.
It had been three days sihe 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 uesting 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 uood 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 aer Ja. 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 pany.
James Cameron never accepted any projects after Soris, which was a huge failure. There was hat James Cameron was w on something about CGI and motion capture teologies.
Robert Zemeckis is currently trating on The Por Express.
Quentin Tarantino was never a mainstream director and his films were not family friendly.
And evehese directors worked with Paramount Pictures, the aking 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 tury, the industry khe importance of talented directors. They were the brains of the movies, and hiring someoo direct a major movie was something to be taken seriously.
If Paramount had a ce, they would pay directrey 20 million plus box office shares just to work with him. Because the director was the sure definition of making a profit.
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[This first chapter of today.]