Hollywood What If
Chapter 502

Chapter 502

From January to March, Kazir did nothing but work on The Dark Knight. His schedule was so packed that his sleep routine was only five hours at best.

If there was something great, it was the fact that Scarlett was in the same workplace to support him. Kazir was known as a professional director, and he made sure to stay professional even though he was working with his girlfriend… Although there were some instances when they cuddled in the trailer.

While Kazir was busy with the project, Hollywood kept spamming movie releases every week, particularly on weekends.

Movies such as Stomp the Yard, Epic Movie, and Shadows Beneath were released in January.

Hannibal Rising, Norbit, Music and Lyrics, Bridge to Terabithia, Ghost Rider, Hot Fuzz, and The Number 23 were released in February.

Bridge to Terabithia was a great movie, but this movie was not for depressed people.

As for Ghost Rider, this Marvel character was currently in the hands of Sony-Columbia, long before Marvel Comics was acquired by News Corporation.

Obviously, Marvel couldn't include Ghost Rider in their upcoming Cinematic Universe because of copyright issues. As long as Sony-Columbia was interested in Ghost Rider, the character would stay with them.

Sony-Columbia realized the power of a superhero movie, so they decided to make another franchise, hoping that they would have another Spider-Man-like success. They spent $110 million on the budget just to make sure Ghost Rider would have a better outcome.

Well, the box office of Ghost Rider was $334 million worldwide. Sony-Columbia cast Nicolas Cage just to make sure the movie would have strong box office appeal… Sony-Columbia was dissatisfied, but they could understand why the movie only grossed $334 million. After all, the director of Ghost Rider was not Kazir Grey.

Perhaps this dissatisfaction was one of the reasons why the sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance took five years to happen.

The movie was enjoyable though, and $334 million was not a bad performance.

In March, Wild Hogs, Zodiac, 300, Premonition, Shooter, TMNT, Blades of Glory, and Meet the Robinsons were released.

Zodiac was a movie directed by David Fincher. The movie was based on a true story, about the Zodiac Killer. Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo starred in this movie.

Another important thing was 300. The movie adaptation rights of this comic were first acquired by Grey Pictures before Kazir sold them to 20th Century Fox.

Kazir's intention in buying the rights to 300 was to hire Zack Snyder and indirectly stop him from working with Warner Brothers to produce the DCEU.

His plan had some rough surfaces, but things happened, and now Zack Snyder worked with 20th Century Fox to direct the movie.

The movie would perform great at the worldwide box office, grossing $456 million. A few months from now, 20th Century Fox would probably thank Kazir again and act friendly with him.

As for the premiere, Kazir didn't attend it since he was busy. He was also not comfortable meeting Zack Snyder because their last meeting was kinda awkward. Kazir invited Zack to work with Grey Pictures, but Zack Snyder chose Universal Pictures. To be fair, Zack was the one who was embarrassed to meet Kazir after that meeting.

When April arrived, news broke out and Kazir received many congratulations from people.

In April, Kingsman: The Secret Service successfully grossed over $1 billion.

This news broke on almost every TV station as news shows covered it. Kingsman: The Secret Service was the third movie that grossed $1 billion among those released last year.

The Bourne Ultimatum grossed $1.03 billion.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest grossed $1.06 billion.

Kingsman: The Secret Service grossed $1.01 billion.

These three movies easily occupied the top three highest-grossing movies last year.

Furthermore, these three movies were all from the same studio. It meant that Grey Pictures released high-quality movies with high success at the box office.

"Flabbergasted" was not enough to describe how shocked Hollywood was. The Big Six also regretted their decisions for the nth time.

There were some posts on the internet about kidnapping Kazir to force him to write movie scripts and direct movies. Of course, these posts were just humorous jokes… Right?

The only one from the Big Six who won was 20th Century Fox because 30% of that $3 billion went to their pockets. They were just the distributor and couldn't maximize the profit since they didn't own any copyrights of the three movies. Still, 30% of $3 billion amounted to $900 million. Only insane people would be dissatisfied with that amount of money.

With that, Grey Pictures became the center of attention again. Even Sony-Columbia offered another acquisition plan just to convince Kazir to sell another portion of his company. Of course, Kazir didn't entertain it, so the acquisition didn't happen.

Another fact was that Shadows Beneath was slowly crawling up to $900 million. The Big Six shuddered as they realized that Grey Pictures could make another $1 billion movie this time.

But if that happened, the biggest winner would probably be Universal Pictures since Grey Pictures could only get 5% of that amount… But does it even matter?

Shadows Beneath only spent $17 million, yet it already profited $80 million from the get-go plus a 5% worldwide box office share. A win is a win, no matter how small it is…

After that jaw-dropping news, Hollywood slowly adapted to Grey Pictures' monstrosity and focused on the summer schedule instead.

When May arrived, almost all moviegoers were excited to watch three particular movies.

Spider-Man 3 would be released on May 4.

Shrek the Third would be released on May 17.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was going to be released on May 24.

It was clear that May was packed with strong movies that could easily surpass $900 million at the box office.