[Shout out to Israel C!]
Hollywood What If Chapter 133
In the history of movies, perhaps only Titanic had a urend. Normally, the box-office trend of movies would go down after two or three weeks.
But Titanic had an upward trend. The movie didn't have a good reputatio was released. The first and sed week were below average performance. Even the movie critibarded it as a disaster. Everyohought it would be a flop.
Paramount and 20th tury Fox ied a lot of money into the project, but they felt that the only way to make a profit was by relentlessly selling videotapes/DVDs for decades.
The extravagant filmography. The real ship built under James Cameron's orders. The siess the cast suffered while w in the middle of the ke. The st part of the movie was about the shipwreck, so the cast had to be ier every time they shot. Some of the cast went to the hospital.
There were many disasters and bad signs that Titanic would be the biggest flop of 1997.
Even Paramount and 20th tury Fox were not fident in the movie. So it was released in December.
Everyone expects the downfall of Titanic, just like its historical version.
But well... The opposite happened.
A month after the release of Titanic, critics began to ge their minds. They said that Titanic was the best movie ever made. That it was the movie that would ge Hollywood after Jurassic Park. They were n.
If Jurassic Park was the first billion dolr movie in history, then Titanic was the sed. However, Titanic's performance was tremendous. It was the highest grossing movie of all time before Avatar.
hat Titanid Avatar were created by her than James Cameron.
Unlike Kazir Grey, James Cameron was the real deal. Holy, he is the goat in my opinioer than Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick or Alfred Hitchcock if you based it on the box office of each of his movie.
The man had three movies that grossed over a billion dolrs worldwide. A feat that was hard to achieve.
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February arrived and the North Ameri box office for Titanic was already a whopping 308 million. The film easily beat Taken's 268 million.
The people who gratuted Kazir scratched their heads in embarrassment. They didn't think that Taken's performance would be so easy to beat.
However, uhem, the director himself was not affected.
For someone who khe future, Kazir remained calm. He went about his work meticulously. He met with the cast, checked the props, atteheir rehearsals, and searched for shooting locations.
They even hired a professional dog actor for the film. This meant that the animal rights anization would visit the crew.
Grey Pictures also tacted several panies for possible product pt.
Rolex agreed to pay 1 million to promote their new watch. They would pay another 1 million if the movie grossed more than 300 million worldwide.
Even Ducati and Coca-Co agreed to pay 1 million eabsp;
The iment for John Wick was firmed to be 30 million. But it seemed that Grey Pictures only o i 27 million.
The three panies didn't trust the movie. They only believe in the abilities of director Kazir Grey. Hollywood accepted the fact that Kazir Grey has what it takes to sell movies.
The three panies uood that the movie would have a positive performand iing 1 million was not a problem.
"Are these the real numbers?"
"That's right." Erica Mendez assured her boss.
"I'm not good at math. In fact, I hate math. Still, seeing numbers like this makes me ugh."
Kazir Grey grinned as he looked at the videotape sales. Even though Paramount took a 25 pert profit cut, the money going into their bank at was still impressive.
They started selling the Taken's videotapes at the end of November st year.
Now, after almost four months, the profit that went to Grey Pictures was nothihan 98 million. This includes both the rentals and the sales of the videotapes.
"... Tell ma they will get a bonus this quarter."
"Uh, sir, are you sure about that? You just gave them a bonus st December."
Erica Mendez looked at Kazir Grey. She had an idea how much the pany had spent st year.
"Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with rewarding people for their work. Besides, I know you like getting bonuses anyway."
"Of course." The assistant didn't deny it.
"Sometimes I wonder if I'm your secretary or your assistant." The woman sighed.
"What's the differenyway?"
"You're always in your office, so yes, I guess I'm both. Well, the sary is great and I get to spend more time with the kids."
Erica mumbled. She was also a bodyguard. The gun in her purse always reminded her of that.
"I'm actually gd you stay in one pce all the time."
She felt like her job was getting mixed up.
"I'm sad to say it, but your expectations will be different ohe filming starts. The crew will go to different pces. I'm the director, so I have to travel with them, and yes, you will follow us."
Kazir chuckled. He could not help but smile when he saw the profit the pany made after selling the videotapes. That business was not bad. However, he still preferred the thrill of the box office after the hard work of making a movie. He felt it was more rewarding than selling videotapes.
"It's okay. I'm prepared. I'm already happy that you're shooting in the try."
"Better stick to the plot."
John Wick was set in the imaginary dark city of New York City. Although the crew would shoot most of the movie in Los Ao cut costs. There was no reason to leave the try as they could not get tax iives anyway. They were not part of 20th tury Fox, which has strong ties to Australia, or any of the Big Six.
But the decision to shoot in the try made most of the crey. At least they didn't have to travel far.