HWI 291

Hollywood What If Chapter 291

Cinematic Universe. A huge franchise that grossed billions at the box office and its influence all over the world was astronomical. Even outside the box office, the money it produced was billions. 

Back in Kazir's past life, there were only a few Cinematic Universe that could be said as successful. The MCU, DCEU, and Monsterverse. 

Star Trek and Star Wars could also be said as Cinematic Universe but they were just a single franchise with many sequels in Kazir's opinion. There was a difference. 

However, after Kazir debuted the CCU, he basically fucked the timeline and changed a lot of things. 

Now, the CCU was the first official Cinematic Universe in this timeline and Kazir was the founder of it. 

The money they made from this project was huge and Grey Pictures had ample amount of money to invest in its own movie promotions. 

"If Kazir and Grey Pictures can do it, then why not us? We are one of the Big Six, the biggest studio in the world and we can produce more high-quality movies than a 2nd tier studio like Grey Pictures."

That was what Michael Eisner thought. He strongly believed that Walt Disney had the capability to produce its own Cinematic Universe. 

However, he also admitted that making one was dangerous and they were not sure about the consequences. In the first place, this "genre" was new and Grey Pictures pioneered it. 

Michael Eisner thought that this kind of ambitious goal was impossible to achieve because of the expenses and the situation. No one knew the future and they didn't know if this endeavor would be successful. Putting many protagonists of each franchise into one universe would be hard to do. Yet Grey Pictures did it and earned a lot from it. 

That was the reason why Michael Eisner wanted Disney to start its own Cinematic Universe. 

For that, Michael Eisner didn't hesitate to acquire the Barsoom series as their playground. This novel was popular and the author was also famous. Even though decades already passed, it could still attract the attention of many people. 

They even invested another $100 million in promoting the movie, adding their overall expenditure to $350 million. 

The executives of Walt Disney knew that the investment was huge but they agreed because of the promising future that Cinematic Universe could bring. 

The initial net worth of Grey Pictures was only $1 to 2 billion at best but the success of Continental Cinematic Universe changed everything. Their net worth skyrocketed last year, especially when John Wick Chapter 2 and The Fast and The Furious generated more than $1 billion at the box office, giving Grey Pictures higher status. 

Despite the dispute over the management of Walt Disney, the executives and Chairman Eisner agreed that John Carter should be taken seriously. Everyone wanted to make money, after all. 

After months of preparation, from buying an advertising segment in the Super Bowl to plastering movie posters everywhere, Walt Disney did everything to make sure that the movie would be successful. 

The plot was good. 

The special effects were also good. 

The hype seemed promising. 

If there was a downside, they cast an unknown actor... They copied what Grey Pictures did and cast an unknown but young actor to become John Carter. They initially wanted to hire someone like Matt Damon but the guy was busy with Bourne Supremacy that was set to be released in July. 

The executives also had a fight regarding the title of the movie but they decided to agree with Michael Eisner. Chairman Eisner was a tyrant but it was indeed true that he was the one responsible for the current success of Walt Disney. In the end, they agreed to make the title John Carter instead of the initial title of Princess In Mars. 

With that, the premier of John Carter happened. 

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The premiere of John Carter was quite lively, Walt Disney was paying a lot of attention to this movie. 

The audience seemed excited and watched the movie... Only to them to be left unsatisfied.

Why? Because the latter part of the movie was unanswered. 

Basically, Walt Disney focused too much on possible sequels instead of completing the plot of the movie.

Did John Carter really return to Mars, or not? 

A question that would be impossible to answer because, surprise surprise, the movie didn't get a sequel! 

Walt Disney fucked themselves up. There were rumors that Michael Eisner micromanaged almost everything regarding the movie and the executives blamed him. 

First, their expressions were filled with excitement. Their faces flushed to hear the good news. They waited for 24 hours to hear the first-day results... And they were greeted with utter bullshit. 

The first-day box office of John Carter was a miniscule $9 million. 

Seems promising, right? After all, many movies could hardly perform like this on their first day. 

But John Carter was different... Or rather, the amount of money they invested in this shit was cluster fucking huge. 

$350 million! For a single movie, they invest $350 million! 

The executives were not stupid. They worked in this industry for a long time and they knew that $9 million on its first day was not enough to recoup the investment.

The management did some math and forecasted that the first weekend of John Carter would only be around $30 million at best. 

Yeah... Shit was sinking in. 

"N- No! Listen to me! This is just the start. The box office will be better in the next few days, I believe that. We are still doing our utmost promotion, right?"

Michael Eisner faced the shareholders and executives. Trying his best to calm things down. 

Now that his friend, Michael Ovitz was gone, Eisner slowly lost his authority. 

He prayed that John Carter would never betray him...

"Box office my ass! Did you forget that Star Wars will have its premier two weeks from now? We are losing money because of your adamant decisions!"

On May 16, 2002, Star Wars Episode 2: Attack Of The Clones would be released in theaters. 

This movie was for sure affected the performance of John Carter once released. Star Wars had so many fans in the United States alone. 

"No, this can't be happening..."

Michael Eisner felt that he was going to be kicked out after this. He was sweating a lot. 

Suddenly, he recalled that time when he first negotiated with Kazir. If he agreed to kick Harvey Weinstein out of Disney and Miramax, perhaps his relationship with Kazir positively changed. The director might worked with Walt Disney. But alas, regret had no use in this current situation. 

All he did was hope that John Carter wouldn't cause his downfall.