[Shout out to Benjamin, Magnus B, and John!]

  Hollywood What If Chapter 73

  The promotion for The Hangover went on for over a month before the st stop, Japan.

  Despite her hopes, Reese Witherspoon didn't meet Princess Diana. They only stayed three days in the United Kingdom before leaving. Besides, The Hanght be inappropriate for the prio attend.

  After all, the Princess was still married to Prince Charles when The Hangover premiered in the UK. They divorced on August 28, 1996... Six days after the film's release.

  Apparently, the cast had already flown to another try by the time it was officially announced.

  Anyway, Reese was surprised that when they returo the U.S., the news of Princess Diana and Prince Charles' divorce was all over the news.

  .........

  ......

  ...

  "Phew... Let me rest."

  Kazir y down on his bed and closed his eyes. He was exhausted.

  The two months of endless publicity had takeoll on Kazir. They went to different pces, traveled around the world just to promote the movie.

  The month of August came to an end and the summer schedule was over. There were still movies to be released iember, but they didn't get much attention.

  Film panies usually released movies that they were not sure about in that month. Like Se7en, it was released iember st year.

  Speaking of Se7en, the movie officially es run. It earned more than 400 million dolrs. The movie was now on the videotape market and people could buy it for about 30. There was no deluxe version of the movie.

  'A bnk videotape is cheap. A few years ago I bought ten bnk videotapes for 7. But prerecorded videotapes were the expensive ones. Almost 45 times as much as a single bnk videotape.'

  This was the reason why the film panies made more money from the distribution of videotapes. The revenues were much higher than the expenses. ema Alliance had a huge cut of the box office. The movie panies could only get 60 to 70 pert of the box offibsp;

  For example, Napoleon Dynamite grossed 149 million at the North Ameri box office. The ema Alliance (made up of AMC, Regal emas, emark and many smaller theaters) would get 59.60 million.

  This would leave Fox Searchlight Pictures with only 89.4 million. hat Fox Searchlight Pictures bought the movie for 2.3 million and their advertising cost was about 5 million. So they had 82.1 million... To be ho, that was a lot of money for a start-up pany like Fox Searchlight Pictures.

  Unfortunately, the pany made a deal with Kazir Grey that he would get 5% of the box offiot the profit, but the share of the box office. So Fox Searchlight Pictures was obligated to pay him 7.45 million.

  So their profit was 74.65 million dolrs. By the way, the pany also had to pay taxes, so...

  It was no uatement to say that the videotape market saved Hollywood. Because it really did. Without the iion of the VCR pyer, movie studios would be fag bankruptbsp;

  'If I'm not mistaken, Fox Searchlight Pictures sold the videotape of Napoleon Dynamite for 27. And they sold 3 million copies i two months. That's about 81 million...'

  Those numbers would tio grow throughout the year. So the pany had a steady ine. On top of that was the video rental business. Fox Searchlight Pictures had a cut of that too.

  Kazir opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. He could not believe he would reach this status in just two years. He went ba time to November 1994. That was wheched his script to New Line ema and worked for them for almost five months. He then asked his brother for an iment and began filming Napoleon Dynamite. He sold the chts to Fox Searchlight Pictures and made millions.

  'Maybe people will be disappoihat half the profits from Napoleon Dynamite went to Aaron... They go fuck themselves. I will never reach that status without his help. Besides, I'm not giving it to anybody, it's my brother. Maybe you didn't have a good retionship with your family. If you ask me, I'm willing to die for my family... Excluding mom, of course. I hadn't seen her for almost a decade. I had no idea what she was doing.'

  'People will hate me, but who cares? They live their lives and suck their dicks.'

  But The Hangover was different. Kazir ughed out loud. All 10% of the North Ameri box office was for him alone.

  Kazir had already received his 5 million sary. He was even thinking about buying a house.

  Warner Bros had signed a tract that if The Hangrossed more than 100 million, Kazir Grey would automatically get 10% of the box offibsp;

  Sihe month of August was already over. The Hangover pyed for more than 60 days. The movie made 261 million dolrs. Yes, he would get more than 26 million dolrs!

  "Not bad... Who am I kidding, it's the best! Haha!"

  He ughed as he y on the bed.

  Money. People said money was bad. They said it was the root of all evil. They said that money could never make you happy.

  "Well, I'm not sure about that."

  Ohing was for sure. He was happy now that he had a lot of money.

  "Now, about my pn..."

  Kazir knew he was taking a risk with his new project. In fact, many film panies were trying to tact him about his projebsp;

  'Terry Semel has already expressed his dissatisfa with my film not being a edy. He said it would be better if I directed the sequel of The Hangover instead. He has a point. It's better to direct a edy than an aovie, especially when I don't have any experien direg an aovie. But it's my dream to make an aovie... Hell, I even have a ematiiverse in my head.'

  Kazir yawned and slowly let his mind drift off to sleep. He had plenty of time to think about it. Now that his st two movies were successful, someone would be ied in w with him.