[Shout out to Israel C!]
Hollywood What If Chapter 133
In the history of movies, perhaps only Titanic had a unique trend. 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 reputation when it was released. The first and second week were below average performance. Even the movie critics bombarded it as a disaster. Everyone thought it would be a flop.
Paramount and 20th Century Fox invested 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 sickness the cast suffered while working in the middle of the lake. The last part of the movie was about the shipwreck, so the cast had to be in the water 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 Century Fox were not confident 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 change their minds. They said that Titanic was the best movie ever made. That it was the movie that would change Hollywood after Jurassic Park. They were not wrong.
If Jurassic Park was the first billion dollar movie in history, then Titanic was the second. However, Titanic''s performance was tremendous. It was the highest grossing movie of all time before Avatar.
Note that Titanic and Avatar were created by none other than James Cameron.
Unlike Kazir Grey, James Cameron was the real deal. Honestly, he is the goat in my opinion. Better 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 dollars worldwide. A feat that was hard to achieve.
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February arrived and the North American box office for Titanic was already a whopping $308 million. The film easily beat Taken''s $268 million.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The people who congratulated Kazir scratched their heads in embarrassment. They didn''t think that Taken''s performance would be so easy to beat.
However, unlike them, the director himself was not affected.
For someone who knew the future, Kazir remained calm. He went about his work meticulously. He met with the cast, checked the props, attended their rehearsals, and searched for shooting locations.
They even hired a professional dog actor for the film. This meant that the animal rights organization would visit the crew.
Grey Pictures also contacted several companies for possible product placement.
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-Cola agreed to pay $1 million each.
The investment for John Wick was confirmed to be $30 million. But it seemed that Grey Pictures only needed to invest $27 million.
The three companies 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 companies understood that the movie would have a positive performance and investing $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 laugh."
Kazir Grey grinned as he looked at the videotape sales. Even though Paramount took a 25 percent profit cut, the money going into their bank account was still impressive.
They started selling the Taken''s videotapes at the end of November last year.
Now, after almost four months, the profit that went to Grey Pictures was nothing less than $98 million. This includes both the rentals and the sales of the videotapes.
"... Tell management they will get a bonus this quarter."
"Uh, sir, are you sure about that? You just gave them a bonus last December."
Erica Mendez looked at Kazir Grey. She had an idea how much the company had spent last 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 difference anyway?"
"You''re always in your office, so yes, I guess I''m both. Well, the salary 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 glad you stay in one place all the time."
She felt like her job was getting mixed up.
"I''m sad to say it, but your expectations will be different once the filming starts. The crew will go to different places. 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 company 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 country."
"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 Angeles to cut costs. There was no reason to leave the country as they could not get tax incentives anyway. They were not part of 20th Century Fox, which has strong ties to Australia, or any of the Big Six.
But the decision to shoot in the country made most of the crew happy. At least they didn''t have to travel far.