Hollywood What If Chapter 260
"Warner Brothers is interested in my company. That is obvious. But the timing is strange. If I'm not wrong, Time Warner and AOL will going to merge this year... Now that I think about it, I haven't heard any news related to their merging. Is this another butterfly effect?"
Kazir asked himself in confusion. He was surprised that Terry Semel personally visited Grey Pictures for the first time to inquire about the possibility of acquiring Grey Pictures.
Terry Semel was not a simple man, he was the CEO of Warner Bros and someone like won't easily visit another studio.
"Should I hire a detective and research regarding Time Warner and AOL?"
AOL was a web portal and online service provider. This company was very famous in the 90s but lost its strength in the 2000s. It merged with Time Warner and people called it the worst merger in corporate history. In the end, AOL lost and failed to adapt, becoming a small subdivision of AOL Time Warner.
"Is this a method to hide the news about their merging?"
The merging of AOL and Time Warner should have cost around $5 billion but it became $165 billion. As for how it became huge like that, there were many factors.
Anyway, the merging of Time Warner and AOL was a disaster.
"If this is indeed a method to benefit them, then that's good. But I have to think twice before selling shares to them. After all, I don't want to work with a sinking ship. If AOL and Time Warner indeed merged, then it will affect Warner Brothers and possibly Greg Pictures."
Kazir admitted that he was never good enough in business politics. He fucking hated it whenever he used his mind to think of this stuff. He should focus his mind on something that makes him happy, such as movies.
Yet because of Warner Bros, he couldn't help but think about it.
"Warner Brothers is not that bad. They are a giant in this industry. They can Grey Pictures."
However, Kazir had no intention of selling Grey Pictures for the tip being. He wanted to see the effect of Wanted on the audience. If the outcome was positive, then the net worth of Grey Pictures would increase, possibly becoming $2 billion or perhaps $2.5 billion.
Another thing was the videotapes profit from Wanted and other CCU movies
Because of Wanted, the other movies had an increase in sales as well. Overall, the profit from videotapes and peripherals reached more than $180 million. This was the profit last year (2000).
However, the profits of videotapes were getting smaller compared to DVDs. The DVDs sales portioned more than 50% of the profit last year.
Furthermore, Grey Pictures worked with clothing brands to promote their CCU clothes, for example, t-shirts with the faces of the protagonists. Then, Hasbro hoped to buy their copyrights to make action figures of the CCU characters. This business cooperation was part of the $180 million profit.
Hasbro was the toy company that produced Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Beyblade.
Yup, Hasbro had now the license to produce Continental Cinematic Universe toys. Ranging from action figures to paper toys and stuff.
"Stella Willow seems very active lately, perhaps because of the bonus and the shares I promised her, she's working harder."
Kazir had no intention of making his company public because it would affect the company. As for selling some shares to one of the Big Six for protection, that was Kazir's intention since the beginning anyway. Or else the company won't survive that long.
Unlike other studio companies that made losses from some of their movies, all of the movies that Grey Pictures produced were profitable. That was the biggest difference between them and Grey Pictures.
Perhaps because of this and the news that Warner Bros was interested in Grey Pictures, some of the Big Six felt like Grey Pictures was worth acquiring. To be precise, they wanted Kazir Grey, the mind of this company.
Was creativity really that important? In Hollywood, creativity means a huge chance of loss. Hollywood was not meant for art, it was a business. So a movie with too artistic sense would never work. All they wanted was movies that would print them more money.
And surprisingly, Kazir's creativity fit well with them. Using realistic action stunts and creating a Cinematic Universe. It was creative but it didn't give them aversion. Instead, they wanted more.
Kazir Grey fits perfectly in this industry. This was the reason why the Big Six wanted him.
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February was not that good for Hollywood. A lot of movies were released every week but most of them didn't perform well. Some of these movies deserved a better chance but fate was cruel to them.
The most sought schedule was always taken by the Big Six. These six giants would always have a battle in summer to determine which one would earn more. The Big Six would leave January, February, March, and April to small studio companies to release their movies and let these small studio companies get some crumbs.
In February, only one movie grossed more than $100 million. It was Hannibal, produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM). The movie grossed $350 million. Yes, MGM became one of the small studio companies that settled with crumbs to get by. The company could not face the Big Six in summer unless they use Bond films. But even Bond films were getting weaker, especially when Peirce Brosnan announced that he was done with the franchise.
In March, only two movies surpassed $100 million.
The first was The Mexican, grossing $145 million. Produced by DreamWorks.
The second was Spy Kids. Spy Kids grossed $197 million. This movie was produced and distributed by Walt Disney. It was very sad that even these not-so-famous schedules were getting dominated by the Big Six.
Small studios didn't have the strength to fight them. Marketing and movie promotion were hard to do since they didn't have any connection with the media(television, radio, and newspapers).
Hollywood What If Chapter 261
Media was truly dominated by the Big Six and they would forever keep this status. One of the reasons why small studios would never have a chance to become rich in this industry unless they serve the Big Six.
How could they promote their movies if the Big Six didn't let them? So many movies were released every week but none of them made a profit at the box office, they would quickly go to the videotape market. The sad truth about this industry. This industry would never give a fair fight.
It was fortunate that Grey Pictures didn't suffer this outcome. But Kazir knew that this future would never be far. Because once the contract with Paramount and Sony-Columbia ended, Grey Pictures would have to beg the Big Six again to distribute their movies internationally.
Finding a local distributor was not that simple, but international distribution was a different thing. Only the Big Six MGM had the capability to do so.
April came by and only two movies surpassed $100 million. Again, these months were not a good schedule to release movies. People were usually busy these months.
First was Along Came A Spider by Paramount, grossing $105 million. This was not a horror movie, this was a Thriller/Mystery about kidnapping.
Second was Bridget Jones's Diary with $272 million, produced and distributed by Miramax.
As always, it was hard for small studios to profit from the box office if the Big Six controlled the media. No method to promote their movies, always eating crumbs. No chance to prove themselves.
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Now, the summer schedule officially began in May. So many blockbusters were released this month that people didn't know what to watch. This was the start of the yearly battle between the Big Six.
The Mummy Returns premiered in the first week, distributed by Universal. The Mummy franchise was a good movie but it lost its sense after Brendan Fraser disappeared in Hollywood. Brendan Fraser was sexually harassed and he didn't have a choice but to shut his mouth. Such was life in Hollywood, you had to shut your mouth even if crime was all around.
Anyway, The Mummy Returns grossed $435 million. See, the franchise was amazing.
In the second week, The Knight's Tale barely surpassed $100 million. It was produced by Sony-Columbia.
In the third week, the chad of the movie titled Shrek was released. This was an animated movie produced by DreamWorks Animation. This was proof that Disney was not the only one that could compete in 3D animation. The movie grossed $491 million.
In the fourth week, Pearl Harbor premiered. This was the first project that Ben Affleck worked on after Wanted. His fame leveled up and more people recognized him. The movie grossed $449 million.
From this, the summer schedule was indeed a fierce competition. Every week big movies were released, trying to fight for the box office ranking.
The schedule was very tight and everyone was vying for the best week. Sometimes, there were stances that two or three big movies were released in the same week, they had to face each other unfortunately.
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Midnight, June 1, Friday.
The Premier of Spider-Man ended with such a bang. So many kids, teenagers, and even adults were wearing Spider-Man costumes. They were so happy as they left the theaters one by one.
Each theater had satisfied customers. The movie Spider-Man would define the meaning of a Superhero movie.
"I'm gonna rate it A! I don't care what the other thinks! This is the best movie I ever watched! Dude, did you see the scenes when Spider-Man was swinging building by building? That's a shot that will never leave my memory! Locked in my childhood memories!"
An avid comic reader announced and many passers-by agreed with his opinion. Interested, they decided to answer the survey. They believed that the movie deserved this.
The word of mouth of Spider-Man was so influential. Perhaps its influence was comparable to Wanted which was released last year.
The rating averaged in A and CinemaScore felt like it would steady in A-. That was a high rating.
The midnight box office of Spider-Man was $10 million box office. This was just the midnight. Sony-Columbia forecasted that the first day would be around $30 to $35 million.
Having a first-day box office of $30 million was a clear success. Sony-Columbia made the right choice of choosing the right person to direct the movie.
As always, Kazir did it right. Everyone thought that the budget of $100 million would be too small to make a superhero movie. But Kazir was so good at budgeting the project that a few millions was remaining.
Sony-Columbia decided to add that few million to their marketing budget. The budget for marketing was $39 million, they promoted the movie all over the country. They have to win the US first before others.
The X-Men that was released last year was good, but Spider-Man was amazing.
This was the start of revelation for the Marvel Comics. They realized that their characters had a place in theaters. No, they were meant for theaters.
Time changed and people prefer digital. Movies and television shows were the answer to their problems.
Suddenly, they had an epiphany... Most of their characters were ransacked! They sold them so that Marvel Comics would survive!
They realized how much they fucked up! If they knew that their characters could make huge money, they would have kept them or sold them at bigger prices.
So yeah, the management was trying to contact some companies that acquired their characters. Their target, the one who owned most of their characters, the guy who actually directed Spider-Man. Director Kazir Grey of Grey Pictures.
Well, perhaps they could work with the guy.
[Damn, this is more like a fast-forward summary. I'm sorry, I have no idea what to write so I decided to fast forward the time. Besides, I know that you guys wanted the Spider-Man premiere to start anyway.]
[From the looks of it, most of you guys voted for 20th Century Fox. Alright, that's my second choice, with Warner Bros being my first choice. We have a month to choose so let's all take our time.]