HWI 298

Hollywood What If Chapter 298

The audience applauded after the post-credits scene ended. The movie was good, judging by the audience's reaction.

Kazir smiled and admitted that Paul Greengrass had a great filmography. The way he does steady action scenes with a camera stabilizer was worth hiring.

The lights came back on in the theaters and the audience stayed in the theaters to listen to the question and answer session.

Kazir saw Robert Ludlum standing next to him, a bit away from the stage. He was a little confused because Robert seemed to be too sick to stay in the theater for long, yet he seemed to want to see the interview through to the end.

"Do you want to take a picture with the cast?" Kazir asked. You know, a selfie with celebrities was quite a flex.

"All right, I'll stay for a while."

The old man nodded.

The interview ended after half an hour and the cast had a photo shoot on stage. Some actors were missing because they were busy and couldn't make it to the premiere.

Kazir and Robert were in the front, next to Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass. Well, Kazir was part of the cast as he had a cameo in the movie.

From the pictures it looked like they were close friends.

Just like that, the midnight premiere of The Bourne Supremacy happened.

24 hours later, the results from each theater were tallied and collected. The first day box office for The Bourne Supremacy was $27.64 million.

Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox were pleased with the results and continued to promote the film.

Grey Pictures had enough budget to promote the film on Jimmy Kimmel Live! A night-time Talk Show.

The program started with Cameron Diaz showing up and the two started talking about the movie and how it was working on the set of The Bourne Supremacy. Cameron Diaz was not at the premiere but she had a contract to promote the movie and that was part of the job.

After her was the new Hollywood director, Paul Greengrass. The director was quite modest and answered most of the questions with technicalities related to filming and stuff.

Last but not least was Matt Damon.

Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel shook hands and sat down.

"Matt, so how's it going? We really reserved a time slot for you this time."

"Oh yeah, I have been waiting for this moment for years, because clearly you never want me here."

The audience laughed at their banter. A few minutes into the conversation, a siren alarm echoes across the set and catches Matt's attention.

"Huh? What's that sound? What's happening?"

"Well, I'm sorry Matt, we've run out of time. It's time to end the show." Jimmy confirmed.

"What? I just got here. You can't just do that." Matt pretended to be angry and the audience laughed again.

"Come back next time."

"Come back, come back what? I've been waiting for this moment for two years and you're just going to leave it like that. You know what, go fuck yourself."

And with that, Jimmy Kimmel Live! ended. As the credits rolled, Matt Damon in the background was choking Jimmy Kimmel out of his seat...

The longest running joke on television was sailing. This episode was very funny and the people who watched it live on TV were more than 15 million people.

Because of this promotion, the next day (Saturday, July 6th) the box office for The Bourne Supremacy was $25.50 million.

On Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy added another $19.46 million in ticket sales. Combining the three days, The Bourne Supremacy's first weekend gross was $72.61 million.

The movie clearly did well.

But on Monday, while Kazir was busy editing The Revenant, he got a call from Robert Ludlum's son.

"... My condolences. I'm sure Robert was happy to see The Bourne Supremacy before he died."

Robert Ludlum died peacefully in his bed. He had a satisfied smile on his face when his family saw him.

The call ended shortly thereafter. Kazir knew it was unethical, but he knew both studios would take advantage of the situation.

Just as he expected, Stella Willow worked with 20th Century Fox to announce Robert's death and add it to the promotion of The Bourne Supremacy.

Suddenly, pictures of Robert and the cast appeared on the Internet and in newspapers. How the old man lived his life and his legacy.

Matt Damon was also interviewed and he was also sad about Robert's death. With tears in his eyes he told how great a person Robert was. People began to learn about the old man's life and his contribution to the Jason Bourne series.

Even though it was Monday, theaters were flooded with people wanting to see The Bourne Supremacy.

$8 million on Monday.

$9 million on Tuesday.

$6 million on Wednesday.

$5 million on Thursday.

$10 million on Friday.

$14 million on Saturday.

$11 million on Sunday.

Another week passed at the North American box office and The Bourne Supremacy grossed up to $139 million. And that was just ten days after its release.

The news of Robert Ludlum's death was a major factor in the film easily surpassing $100 million.

Kazir took a day off to attend Robert's funeral. He was not that close to the old man, but their time together was fun.

In a way, Robert achieved something that Kazir did not... To live a fulfilled life. To die with a smile on his face.

Kazir died because a truck hit him and he remembered how scared he was. He regretted many things and he knew he could never fix them.

In fact, despite returning to the past and completely changing his life, Kazir was still skeptical if this current life was just a dream. Nothing but a fake. A fantasy created by his brain before he died.

'But I can't deny that everything I experienced was real. If this is a dream, then it's very realistic. I don't know if my brain can even do that.'

He sadly stared at the new grave and placed the flowers. He would make sure that Jason Bourne would find a home in the Continental Cinematic Universe. He would see to it that the CCU remained relevant for the sake of Robert Ludlum's legacy.