Hollywood What If Chapter 262
June was tough for everyone, not only the Sony-Columbia but even the Big Six. Heck, even Grey Pictures was going to have trouble this month.
Why? Because so many movies would be released this month. Even if they didn't want to, these movies would have to fight to make money. The promotion this month was so fierce that every TV channel promoted movies.
The first weekend of June was dominated by Spider-Man. This was the only schedule that Sony-Columbia found for the movie. Because every week was packed with big movies.
In fact, next week, starting on June 8, a new batch of movies will be released. This time, Walt Disney, DreamWorks, and Warner Bros would release their movies on the same night.
Walt Disney would release their animation titled Atlantis: The Lost Empire. A very underrated hand-drawn animation movie.
DreamWorks released Evolution, a comedy movie.
While Warner Bros released Swordfish, an action movie.
These movies performed well within the week. Unfortunately for them, it was hard to face a superhero movie that had great special effects. There was something about a superhero that people in the era loved so much.
To make it better, the word of mouth of Spider-Man was purely positive. Almost none said something bad about it. Kids, teenagers, and even adults praised the movie. This caused a massive increase in ticket sales.
Furthermore, the added reputation that the director of this movie was the director of Wanted made it better. Wanted was so huge last year, $1 billion at the box office. Of course it would receive so much attention. Because of this, Spider-Man joined the fun.
After 10 days of the premier, Spider-Man garnered $223.04 million! Freaking hell, how can a movie produce that amount in just ten days.
Was the movie really that good? Or Director Kazir Grey was just so talented that he could make any movie shine?
The path of Spider-Man was smooth sailing. Tobey Maguire and the other cast of Spider-Man easily became superstars because of the attention that Spider-Man got.
Even Willem Dafoe who gambled his career for a villain role was having a good day. Now studios realized that the guy could take many roles, ranging from a good assassin to a villain of a superhero movie.
Unfortunately, while Spider-Man was at its peak, Kazir Grey could not help but be sad about some stuff.
June 15, Paramount Pictures joined the battle with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, starring Angelina Jolie... A very tough time for the couple.
In fact, Kazir and Angelina had a small argument at that.
"This is the second time that this happened. Last time it was Gone In 60 Seconds. And now, it's Lara Croft."
Angelina grumbled while snuggling with her man. She hated that Paramount chose a schedule in June. They should have changed its release instead, far from Spider-Man. Angelina was confident that Kazir's movie would dominate the month.
"We can't help it. We are just a worker and we can't influence the management. Besides, Paramount can't find the right week to release the movie. In July, Legally Blonde, Jurassic Park 3, Planet Of The Apes, and Cats and Dogs are going to be released."
"So are you saying that I should stomach it instead?"
"Of course not, you can cry on my shoulder instead."
He teased the woman by touching her nose.
"Tch, I can't hate you because you are so hot."
The woman touched the guy's abs and playfully pinched them. Well, the first week of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was quite good. It grossed $47.73 million on its first weekend.
But comparing it to Spider-Man was quite brutal. The superhero movie grossed $289.88 million.
Numbers. Looking at these numbers was numbing but the amount it represents was outrageous. You could buy 170 McLaren Elva with that amount!
To be fair, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was only released for three days while Spider-Man was released for 18 days. However, the first three days of Spider-Man grossed $114.84 million so... Yeah, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was nothing compared to the glory of our friendly neighborhood Spiderman.
"Now that I think about it, are you going to be okay? Next week, Fast and The Furious will be released. Spider-Man and Fast and The Furious might clash."
Sony-Columbia was responsible for the distribution of Fast and The Furious and they decided to release the movie on June 22, the exact day when 20th Century Fox would release Dr. Dolittle 2.
"Just like what I said earlier, I can't help it. It's already good that Sony-Columbia chose the summer schedule to release two of our movies."
Actually, Kazir Grey fought for this outcome. He didn't want to gamble his two movies so it was better to release them before September.
Fast and The Furious in June while John Wick Chapter 2 in August. That was the schedule that Kazir fought to get.
Thankfully, Sony-Columbia didn't want to sour their relationship so they agreed. Besides, Sony-Columbia had nothing big to release this year except Spider-Man.
Kazir hoped the outcome of his hard work would pay off. He remembered back in his past life, after the success of Avengers, most of Marvel movies gained good profit.
If his calculation was right, Fast and The Furious and John Wick Chapter 2 would have the same treatment. He really hoped so... That would be another method to increase their net worth. The more good movies, the more chips they could use.
Just like that, June 22 arrived and Kazir had to attend the premiere. Even though he was not active in this project because he was working on Spider-Man, he made sure to participate in post-production. He had to watch the footage so that he knew what was happening.
Not gonna lie, the effect of CCU on Fast and The Furious was so serious.
[I skipped the summary for Spider-Man since all of us here already watched it. Yes, I believe all of us watched Spider-Man(2002). That movie was the biggest superhero of the early 2000s and I strongly believe that all of us watched the movie at least once.]
Hollywood What If Chapter 263
"Woohoo! This car is amazing!"
LAPD Brian O'Connor yelled in excitement as he tried the car that Dom Toreto gave him to try.
This car had the new technology that Dom and his gang stole from a semi-truck trailer. The technology was still in the experimental stage but Brian O'Connor realized the danger it could bring.
The engine was so fast that he felt like everything was turning white.
...
...
...
These were just some of the changes in the plot that Fast and The Furious was affected by.
Kazir shook all of the hands of the cast of Fast and The Furious. These actors were still new and none of them had a stable foothold in this industry.
"Director, thank you for casting me."
Paul Walker approached him and sincerely thanked him. Paul Walker had been in this industry since the 80s and he knew that it was very hard to get stable jobs. Even though the Fast and Furious franchise has so many cast, Paul Walker knew that his role was important.
"It's nothing. By the way, do you use a stunt double in your stunts?" Kazir curiously asked.
"Yes and no. If the stunt is not that hard, I'll participate."
"... Okay."
Kazir nodded and didn't ask anything after that.
Paul Walker's death was very sad for the "family" of the Fast and The Furious franchise.
The guy died after attending a charity event.
'Paul didn't die on set but I still have to be sure.'
Honestly, Paul Walker's death brought something positive and negative to the franchise. But Kazir was not insane to do that. Life was something that he would never joke about.
June 22, the first day of Fast and The Furious grossed $17.05 million. And yes, this was a clear success based on 24 hours of screening. Now, all they needed to do was to maintain this trend. As long as Fast and The Furious was not affected much by other movies and didn't suffer negatively, everything would be fine.
But surprisingly, Dr. Dolittle 2 which was released the same day actually defeated Fast and The Furious!
With $27.63 million, Dr. Dolittle 2 secured the top spot that day! Even Spider-Man could not compete with only $7 million.
Well, Spider-Man already grossed $305.07 million so not a big deal. Sony-Columbia already recouped their investment in just 22 days which was a good thing.
It was a surprise that Dr. Dolittle 2 won against Fast and The Furious.
People didn't remember that the protagonist of Dr. Dolittle 2 was Eddie Murphy! That guy had a strong box-office appeal. 48 Hours franchise, Beverly Hills Cop franchise, and The Nutty Professor franchise. Man, this guy was a famous actor.
Compared to a bunch of new actors, of course Dr. Dolittle would have a good performance. The question was how long? The genres of the two films were comedy and action. Two completely different genres, which of the two would last long?
Grey Pictures was a bit on the edge and even Kazir was nervous. If Fast and The Furious flopped, it would be bad for them.
The week after that, Kazir Grey had a hard time sleeping. It was funny that Spider-Man was doing well while Fast and The Furious was still hanging. The publicity for Fast and The Furious was weaker compared to Spider-Man, which might be one of the factors.
Some critics even blamed Grey Pictures was getting arrogant and believed that their movies would always be box-office hits. They even blamed the Taiwanese director, Justin Lin.
Thankfully for Grey Pictures, the seven days showed that Fast and The Furious was just filling the gas tank to speed up.
Dr. Dolittle 2 grossed $56.27 million after seven days.
As for Fast and The Furious, it was $69.18 million.
With that, the movie critics gradually shut their mouths. Besides, who cares about the opinion of movie critics anyway? Most of their opinions were biased.
If people like certain movies, then the critics would fucking hate the said movies. Simple as that.
In the new century, critics became less relevant. Internet and blogging were some of the reasons why.
With that as the start, the performance of Fast and The Furious became better.
When Independence Day arrived(July 4), Fast and The Furious grossed $92.73 million.
Spider-Man grossed $360.11 million as well on that day.
Even Lara Croft: Tomb Raider did well, grossing $107.31 million.
The summer schedule was indeed the best months to release movies because so many people would buy tickets. The money that cinemas generated in this season might be over $2 billion if combined.
Just like that, June ended and July arrived. Another batch of movies would be released. The studio companies were very busy, vying for more theaters.
Even Spider-Man and other movies gradually lost theaters since more movies would be released and they needed theaters.
From 3600 theaters, Spider-Man went down to 2700 theaters. It was already a miracle that Sony-Columbia kept the numbers within a good amount because it was hard to maintain theaters in summer. Thankfully, Spider-Man had a good performance and it was making millions every day.
Although it won't take long for the theaters to go down 2000. That was an outcome impossible to invade.
After so many hectic days and knowing that Fast and The Furious would have a steady trend, Kazir received an invitation from 20th Century Fox to attend the premiere of Legally Blonde.
Kazir was the scriptwriter of this movie although his participation was only counted in one hand.
Cameron Diaz and Reese Witherspoon fought for the female lead of this movie and Reese Witherspoon won the role.
Now, Kazir had no idea if he should attend the premier or not.
[Author's Note: So should Kazir attend the premiere of Legally Blonde? I will write a chapter about the red carpet of Legally Blonde if you say yes. Anyway, these past few chapters were like summaries. But what can I do, this was the summer schedule and I have no plot to insert. Unless you guys want me to write about Kazir's mother instead. Maybe a few scenes about Mara Cohen's modeling career? I wrote two chapters today so we will back to the normal updating schedule unless I missed a day again.]