Hollywood What If Chapter 266

Promoting a big movie was very hard. Since the box office that Spider-Man could generate outside the US was forecasted to be more than $400 million, Sony-Columbia believed that they needed strong publicity for that to happen.

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

Thankfully, most major countries that contributed to the box office were English-speaking such as the UK and Australia.

Kazir was a famous and important director. With that as a factor, Kazir personally told Frank Price that he would only promote the movie for three weeks. After that, he would return to the US to attend the premiere of John Wick Chapter 2.

Frank Price didn't have a problem with that. Kazir was the director but he never showed his face in the movie the entire time, the audience wanted to see the cast such as Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe more than him.

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

John Wick

Bourne Identity

Wanted

Spider-Man

These four movies were distributed by Sony-Columbia and they were all successful. Sadly, Sony-Columbia couldn't maximize its profits since three of these movies were solely owned by Grey Pictures.

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

Realizing this fact, Frank Price even went to the headquarters of Sony to gain approval to acquire Grey Pictures. Sony-Columbia was weak because they couldn't make a successful franchise. If Sony-Columbia acquired Grey Pictures, then that problem would be over.

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

The management of Sony felt like acquiring Grey Pictures was 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, increasing the value of Grey Pictures.

Three companies already agreed to acquire Grey Pictures. Although there was no official announcement and all of them were still in the watching and listening stage.

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

According to the contract, this was the last time that Sony-Columbia would distribute their movies. Grey Pictures and Sony-Columbia signed an agreement for four movies.

After this... Kazir's plan was currently unknown and it was not sure if he would renew the contract.

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

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

Now, more audiences recognize that Sony-Columbia is getting better because their recent movies were mostly successful.

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Late night of August 16, 2001, In Dolby Theaters in Los Angeles, the entrance of the theaters was filled with fans who were excited to watch the movie.

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

Kazir heard that his fans were slowly gaining a reputation. He decided to contact the fan base and invited 100 Grey fans to watch the premiere.

This was the first time that Grey fans were officially invited to a premiere. Furthermore, Kazir Grey promised that he would have an autograph signing after the premiere in the building next to Dolby Theaters. The fans could get their merchandise signed by the famous director himself.

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

Before Kazir could enter the theater, he heard a loud cheer from the fans. He turned around and found Tom Cruise stepping on the red carpet.

The actor waved his hands at the reporters and fans, basically stealing the spotlight. Tom Cruise was still famous even in the next two decades. One of the actors who maintained his popularity and kept his relevance throughout the whole two decades.

"Showoff." Kazir chuckled.

He was actually the one who invited the actor to watch John Wick Chapter 2. He wanted to talk to him about possible films that they could work with.

But surprisingly, Tom Cruise didn't attend the premiere with his wife. Perhaps the rumors were real. The relationship between the two might be already severed.

Maybe Eyes Wide Shut(1999) made their relationship rocky because that was the last time the couple worked together and the outcome 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, that was basically a dream team.

The production cost of Eyes Wide Shut was $65 million while the box office was $162 million. So yeah, not that bad. Unfortunately, the couple became cold to each other after this.

[Next year, I intend to make Kazir participate in the Oscars. I like Tom Cruise as an actor so he is going to work with him. I'm going to make a poll about the possible movies that they can film to win the Best Director and Best Actor.]

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