HWI 513

Hollywood What If Chapter 513

Only July 31, Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End grossed over $361 million after 70 days of screening. The movie also grossed $423 million internationally.

The franchise received massive success internationally after the amazing performance of the 2nd movie last year. Since then, the franchise has gained millions of fans all over the world.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl grossed $650 million when it was released in 2003. At that time, it was considered a miracle since pirate movies were considered as box office failure.

Last year, 2006, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest grossed over $1.06 billion. It was a worldwide success that set the start of an amazing franchise that people all over the world loved.

And now, Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End grossed $784 million... No one would deny that the 3rd installment of the franchise would not gross over $1 billion. Because from the looks of it, the movie would surpass the $1 billion mark. h

So far, Kazir has made four movies that grossed $1 billion at the box office. They were Wanted, Spider-Man, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and Shadows Beneath... No one could replicate what he did; perhaps only people like Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, and Michael Bay could follow up on his lead since these four directors had strong selling factors in their filmographies.

Anyway, despite this good news, Kazir had complicated thoughts regarding the success of Pirates Of The Caribbean... He was not sure if he was going to sell the franchise after this or perhaps milk it till it was dry and dirty.

At first, Kazir wanted to keep the copyrights since it was a successful franchise. But the tragedy he experienced made him feel traumatic.

The police concluded that Aquino held a grudge against Kazir because he didn't include his performance in the final cut, which was sort of useless, by the way. After all, Aquino only had a 2-second scene where he was walking carrying a box. That was it. Fucking not relevant at all.

Because of what he suffered, Kazir felt like Pirates Of The Caribbean would keep reminding him of that terrible experience, and for the sake of his mental health, he thought of selling it. By that, they would lose most rights regarding merchandise sales and other peripherals.

"I gotta talk to Stella and the management regarding this... But they will probably be against selling such a gold mine."

The best they could compromise was that Kazir won't direct the sequels and Pirates Of The Caribbean had to rest for a few years. They won't film the movie for a few years, perhaps until 2011.

"What are you thinking?" Scarlett sensed that Kazir was thinking about something and she was worried that it was about the incident a month ago.

Kazir chuckled and shook his head.

"It's nothing, I'm thinking of Pirates Of The Caribbean. I wonder what's the next step."

"I'm sure you will find out, you're the best director in Hollywood after all."

Hearing his girlfriend's praise, Kazir couldn't help but laugh. Indeed, everyone recognized him as the best director. Not even the newcomer Christopher Nolan nor the once-every-decade James Cameron nor explosion addict Michael Bay could be compared to him. Kazir was at the top of the filmmaking industry.

Even if Kazir suffered a career-ending scandal and lost everything, studios would still hire him because of his profitability. His name alone was enough to attract audiences to buy the tickets.

"Thanks."

Kazir held Scarlett's hand.

The two were in a limousine, going to the red carpet for John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum.

Tonight was a busy night for them as the premiere would be filled with avid fans ready to watch another action-packed movie.

Then, the two reached their destination. They already saw people lining up and reporters taking pictures at the limousine, waiting for the next celebrities to show up.

Kazir first opened his door and extended his hand to Scarlett who followed suit after grabbing his hand.

Another deafening cheer echoed as the two walked on the red carpet, quite literally.

The scene was spectacular. Fans lined up the streets, screaming and waving pictures of the posters and the pictures of the cast, particularly Viggo Mortensen with his iconic long-haired beard.

Kazir and Scarlett, fresh from their vacation from Italy, were standing at the center of this applause. They were calm and composed as they followed the standard procedure. They attended movie premieres so many times that they became accustomed to what to do. Still, they had to admit that every CCU red carpet was so hype and energetic.

After posing for pictures, the couple reached the next stage which was interviews.

"Director, does the assassination attempt make you think of how to respect your employees better?"

A very bold question, but not shocking. Of course, interviewers loved to ask scandalous questions that could trigger the celebrities. At this point, this was the career of most reporters/paparazzi, they love making celebrities mad so that they could make money out of it.

Kazir smiled at the reporter who asked that question. He nodded.

"Yes."

One word, but it could imply many things.

"What do you mean yes?"

Kazir didn't bother answering because Scarlett pulled him out of the scene. Scarlett glared at the reporter before leaving.

Kazir was still suffering mentally from that incident, and that low-class reporter decided to remind Kazir of that terrible experience. Of course, any person close to Kazir would be mad.

+++++

[ I read the latest volume of Lord Of The Mysteries: Circle Of Inevitability, and oh boy, am I in for a surprise. Cuttlefish knows how to make his readers stick to every chapter until the very last... That's why I can't write for two days, sorry.]

[Also, I remembered that I should make a HWI PDF for this month. I'll post the PDF within 7 days. I'll also include the R-18 chapters in the PDF since I deleted them on my Patreon.]

[ I decided to delete all my R-18 chapters and smut novels since I have no intention of writing a smut novel again unless I'm desperate for money. Once I post all chapters of RDD and TOFD publicly, I'll delete all of their chapters on Patreon... I'm sorry, but I don't like writing smut anymore. I cringed reading smut scenes that I wrote myself, that's the moment I know I'm done.]