[Shout out to Alexander, Gee H, Adam C, Mark S, Ashywar B, SAINT, zwarrior0596, and Oliver HS!]
Hollywood What If Chapter 159
After seeing John Wick, audiences who saw Taken st year realized that the two movies were ected.
The appearance of Raizo.
The gold s as currenbsp;
And the High Table.
These three appeared in both movies, and the audience felt that directrey was cooking up something big. Some of them were excited, while others felt that this pn might fail before it happened.
They were talking about movies that costs millions to make. It was not that easy to plete something like ematiiverse without failing at least one.
After all, most of the audience believed in stand-alone movies with no e to other movies. This broad cept was difficult to realize because the movie panies preferred safe movies with an obvious profit. What Kazir Grey and Grey Pictures did was a gamble.
No one knew if this so-called tial ematiiverse would be successful. Even the Big Six were afraid to veo this uncharted territory.
Some tried, but only the Md DCEU came out on top. The hree decades would be all about superhero movies.
Ohing was for sure, audiences were eager to see directrey's film. Maybe it would be reted to Taken and John Wibsp;
The midnight results were within the expectations of Grey Pictures and Paramount. They did their best and promoted the movie in various ways. Heck, Kazir Grey even used his love retionship to promote the movie. Something he didn't like to do.
Maybe it was lucky that they didn't have any petition this week. Most of the movies this month were not promisiher.
September 10, 1998. John Wick grossed 4.60 million. Paramount and Grey Pictures had agreed that the movie looked promising for the month of September. Maybe Kazir was starting to get a reputation.
The day, some tabloids and neers were talking about the e between Taken and John Wick. Signifitly, the two movies are set in the same universe. Also, one of the characters in Taken showed up in John Wibsp;
Even Kazir and Fremont's cameo was used to promote the movie.
Oember 11, 1998, with 3,500 theaters. The total gross of John Wick was 12.84 million. The weekend usually had a good reception for theaters. Many people would see movies on the weekend.
Saturday, September 12, 1998. The movie overall grossed 22.52 million.
Sunday, John Wick's box office was 30.03 million and easily won the box office champion of the week.
Just like the usual forecast, the performance from Monday to Thursday was dismal. John Wily rose to 41.08 million. Meaning, in that five days, the movie only made around 11 million.
"What do you think, Ovitz? Will John Wick cross the 100 million mark in North America?"
Michael Eisner dropped the neer and looked at his right-hand man. The two old Michaels watched every move Grey Pictures made. It would be a lie to say they were not ied. After all, Grey Pictures was doing something new.
"The best it do is 90 million.
Michael Ovitz shook his head. He watched the movie on his own time and didn't like too much violence. Maybe his age was one of the reasons he didn't like the movie. The schedule, the promotion and the movie itself were too weak to produce a good result.
"It make over 100 million iionally, but it might be hard for the movie to make the same result here in North America."
"So you think John Wick make at least 190 million worldwide? That's not bad, sidering the movie's budget is only 30 million."
"Indeed. But it all depends on Paramount's decision. Will they distribute it iionally?"
The two old me ied in this movie, so they won't tact Grey Pictures. They don't think the other panies will either.
While people specute, John Wick crossed the 50 million mark on its sed Sunday, September 19, 1998. The movie grossed 54.48 million to be exabsp;
Unfortunately, John Wick didn't win the box office champion of the week because it was beaten by Rush Hour. Rush Hrossed 33 million and obviously knocked John Wick off its throne.
After that, Paramount decided to cut their advertising budget a fate decide the oute. Grey Pictures had no say iter uhey used their own money, which would be detrimental to their projects.
Overall, everyone involved with John Wick was happy. Even Viggo Mortensen was happy that his first movie as a protagonist didn't flop. Plus, he heard from Kazir himself that there would be a sequel in the wo or three years. He even had cameos in a couple of movies.
Viggo Mortensen was still not famous and almost nobody knew his name. He was still a nobody. He hoped that his appearan Lord of the Rings as Aragorn would bring him fame, but after attending the script reading, Viggo realized that he was not the protagonist at all. The plot of Lord of the Rings didn't revolve around him. In a way, he p character. He was only protagonist in the movie focused on so many people.
With no hope, his role as John Wick was his best optioarted studying Russian just to make sure his performance would be better. As long as he art of Kazir's movie, he had a ce to turables and bee a household name known all over the world.
Just like that, two months passed and John Wick did its best to cross the 100 million mark. The film grossed 103.36 million. Obviously, John Wick just scraped by to cross 100 million.
ema Alliance felt that John Wick had already wasted all of its potential and pulled it out from theaters.
Fortunately, Paramouheir promise and released the film iionally.
Worldwide, the film grossed 186.72 million. Uhe North Ameri box office, John Wick did quite well in other tries. Paramount expected the movie to make at least 100 million iionally.
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"I'm back."
Kazir Grey sighed as he stepped onto the ground in Los Angeles. He joihe cast and promoted the movie in major tries like UK, Japan and Australia.
He ehe fn tries, especially Japan. Japan was a great try. The people there were det and disciplined. Probably the best try in Asia in his opinion. Japan, Numbah Wan In Asia.
He returned earlier than the cast because he had a lot of things to do in the month of November.
The first was the release of The Hangover Part 2.
The sed was auditioning for The Bourne Identity.
Kazir had . Luckily, the new crew that Salvatore hired were all enthusiastic, so he didn't have a problem w them to the max.