HWI 266

Hollywood What If Chapter 266

Promoting a big movie was very difficult. Since Spider-Man was predicted to gross more than $400 million outside the U.S., Sony-Columbia felt they needed a lot of publicity.

The cast of Spider-Man went to Japan as their first stop. The culture of Japan and the U.S. were not the same at all, and the Americans had a hard time adjusting to their week in Japan. Only Kazir knew how to use chopsticks.

Fortunately, most of the major countries that contributed to the box office were English-speaking, such as Great Britain and Australia.

Kazir was a famous and important director. With that in mind, Kazir personally told Frank Price that he would only promote the film for three weeks. After that he would return to the U.S. to attend the premiere of John Wick Chapter 2.

Frank Price had no problem with that. Kazir was the director but he never showed his face in the movie, the audience wanted to see the cast like Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe more than him.

Another reason was that Frank Price wanted to maintain a good relationship with the director. He was working with Kazir for the fourth time and he knew that Kazir was an amazing talent.

John Wick

The Bourne Identity

Wanted

Spider-Man

These four films were distributed by Sony-Columbia and they were all successful. Unfortunately, Sony-Columbia couldn't maximize their profits because three of these movies were solely owned by Grey Pictures.

But hey, Spider-Man did well, so that's good.

Recognizing this fact, Frank Price even went to Sony headquarters to get approval to take over Grey Pictures. Sony-Columbia was weak because they couldn't make a successful franchise. If Sony-Columbia acquired Grey Pictures, that problem would be over.

Sony was promoting their DVD players to the masses and Sony-Columbia was an important part of that project. Even though Sony-Columbia was currently surviving, Sony wanted to maintain its position in the US.

Sony's management felt that acquiring Grey Pictures would be a good thing, so they decided to start an acquisition plan. Besides, Grey Pictures was just a start-up company and the highest net worth it could get was $4 billion... Unless the Big Five decided to compete and increase the value of Grey Pictures.

Three companies had already agreed to acquire Grey Pictures. Although there was no official announcement and they were all still in the watch and listen stage.

Another reason why Frank Price let Kazir leave the promotion earlier was because John Wick Chapter 2 was also going to be distributed by Sony-Columbia. If Kazir's presence would help the movie sell more tickets, then Sony-Columbia would let the guy attend the premiere.

According to the contract, this was the last time Sony-Columbia would distribute their films. Grey Pictures and Sony-Columbia signed a deal for four movies.

After that... Kazir's plans were unknown at the time, and it was not certain that he would renew the contract.

One thing was for sure, Sony-Columbia would not fall for another 20% of the box office as a distribution fee. This contract was a terrible deal for Sony-Columbia.

In exchange for Bruce Almighty and writing the screenplay for 21 Jump Street, Sony-Columbia bled a lot. Although working with Grey Pictures has given them something good as well.

Now more audiences are realizing that Sony-Columbia is getting better because their recent movies have been mostly successful.

......

...

...

Late on the night of August 16, 2001, at the Dolby Theaters in Los Angeles, the lobby was filled with fans eager to see the movie.

Also, most of the fans were wearing black tuxedos. They looked professional and neat. Most of the men in tuxedos had shoulder length hair and beards. Some of these were fake, but most were real hair and beards.

Kazir heard that his fans were starting to get a reputation. He decided to reach out to the fan base and invited 100 Grey fans to the premiere.

This was the first time Grey fans were officially invited to a premiere. Kazir also promised Grey that he would sign autographs after the premiere in the building next to the Dolby Theater. The fans could get their merchandise signed by the famous director himself.

Kazir attended the premiere alone because Angelina was promoting Lara Croft: Tomb Raider overseas.

Before Kazir could enter the theater, he heard a loud cheer from the fans. He turned to find Tom Cruise walking down the red carpet.

The actor waved to reporters and fans, basically stealing the spotlight. Tom Cruise remained famous for the next two decades. One of the actors who maintained his popularity and relevance throughout the decades.

"Show-off." Kazir chuckled.

He was actually the one who had invited the actor to see John Wick Chapter 2. He wanted to talk to him about possible movies they could work on together.

But surprisingly, Tom Cruise did not attend the premiere with his wife. Maybe the rumors were true. Maybe the relationship between them is already over.

Maybe Eyes Wide Shut (1999) made their relationship rocky because that was the last time the couple worked together and the result of the movie was good but not the best.

The cast of Eyes Wide Shut was star-studded. Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and director Stanley Kubrick. Damn, it was basically a dream team.

The production cost of Eyes Wide Shut was $65 million and the box office was $162 million. So yeah, not too bad. Unfortunately, the couple went cold on each other after that.

+++++

[Author's Note: Next year, I want Kazir to compete for the Oscars. I like Tom Cruise as an actor, so he will work with him. I'm going to make a poll about the possible movies they can make to win Best Director and Best Actor].

[By the way, do you want Kazir to change his girlfriend or stay with Angelina for a while? I can make a poll about that as well]

[Edit: The patrons had decided the fate of our MC.]

[Another Edit: I know some of you might not like Tom Cruise, but bear with me. I've watched Tom Cruise movies when I was a child and I can say I'm a fan. I like him as an actor. As for his personality outside his job, I can't say he is perfect. My favorite Tom Cruise movie is War Of The Worlds.]