HWI 274

Hollywood What If Chapter 274

Warner Bros could not help but compare Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to Spider-Man. After all, their first choice of director was Kazir Grey. Just like Sony-Columbia, Warner Bros was confident that they could satisfy Kazir's contract but the man ultimately chose Spider-Man. 

It was sad but Warner Bros had to move forward. The plan was already ongoing. In the first place, they promote J.K. Rowling and his books just for the upcoming movie. 

Warner Bros was looking for movie franchises to milk and they felt like Harry Potter was profitable. Lord Of The Rings was a different thing because it was acquired by New Line Cinema. The profits of the two companies never mixed. Furthermore, New Line Cinema had its own distribution. Warner Bros could do nothing about it. 

In the past few years, Warner Bros had two movies that they were focusing on, Matrix and Harry Potter. They put hundreds of millions on each movie. 

The sequels of Matrix were already in production and it seemed promising.

If Harry Potter didn't succeed, then they would lose money. So the management at that time invited Kazir Grey who stepped out of CCU to be the director. 

Well, the outcome was obvious. Kazir declined and they go with Chris Columbus, the director of Home Alone. 

Now, comparing the two movies hurt the management of Warner Bros for many reasons.

To be fair, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was an amazing movie. And it was an amazing feat. In just three days, it grossed $90 million. That was amazing, only a few movies could achieve that.

However, it was still bitter to think that Kazir Grey, the one who declined the movie, had a better performance with his movie Spider-Man. 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was an adaptation of the novel and a lot of scenes in the novel were obviously never shown in theaters, creating some disappointment to the novel fans. Perhaps if Kazir was the director, he would have done a great job regarding that. 

Unfortunately, they never bring back the past. Regretting their decision was useless, especially when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was doing well. 

After the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, no movies had promising performances in November. 

When the month was over, only Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was the one that generated $202 million at the box office. The movie was screening for only 15 days and it was already making that amount of money. 

Hehe, too bad but Spider-Man made over $252 million within 15 days.

Someone from Warner Bros curiously did a comparison and was disappointed by the results. 

Seems like some people in Warner Bros were bitter about it. They couldn't help but compare the two. 

December 7 and another batch of movies were released. Warner Bros had another movie that they were promoting and it was Ocean's Eleven. 

For this movie, Warner Bros invited so many big personalities. They invited George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt. Yup, this was like a dream team. To achieve this task, Warner Bros invested $85 million for this project. 

Ocean's Eleven was a heist film about a group of people who stole money from a casino to get revenge. 

Actually, Kazir was quite interested in this movie but he failed to get the rights. 

Ocean's Eleven was a remake of the same name Ocean's Eleven(1960). Some stuff was not according to his plan. Ocean's Eleven was not meant for him and Grey Pictures. 

The one that acquired the movie was Warner Bros. Well, Grey Pictures would have to invest a lot of money to film this movie. Furthermore, Ocean's Eleven was meant to be a trilogy and Grey Pictures might have trouble casting famous actors. After all, they were not one of the Big Six. 

Grey Pictures was a B-tier studio at least. For them to be an A-tier studio, they should have a distribution. But from the looks of it, Kazir Grey, the owner of the company, has a different future for the company. 

The first weekend of Ocean's Eleven was good, but not the best. It managed to make $38 million... Not comparable to Harry Potter or Spider-Man at all. 

But again, this performance was already amazing. Only a few movies could make that amount in three days. People just couldn't help but compare it to the best. Just like how basketball fans kept comparing players to Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Lebron James... These three were the common topics regarding who was the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT). 

12 days after its release, Ocean's Eleven made $76 million. Again, an amazing feat... But not comparable to Spider-Man and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. 

But that would change because on December 19, another movie was released and it could rival Spider-Man and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. 

2001 was a terrible year for the United States but it was true that three movies had huge performances this year. 

The third movie was none other than The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Rings. 

The Lord Of The Rings had so many cast but it was acknowledged protagonist was Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen). 

Viggo already had a status in Hollywood with his role as John Wick. But after this, Viggo Mortensen would have another role to be proud of being written in his filmography. 

Now, the trio of 2001 was released and it would determine which one would be the highest-grossing movie this year(2001). 

Last year, the highest-grossing movie was Wanted, with $1.21 billion... Would Kazir Grey make a miracle and have a back-to-back championship? 

++++

[Apparently it's Sorcerer's Stone, it's my mistake and I apologize. I'm gonna edit it, haha.]

[I was interested in Ocean Eleven at first but I can't find the right timing to include it in the CCU. In the end, I decided not to because Ocean's Eleven is never an action but more of a heist film. It can fit well with CCU but the timing just didn't feel right.]

[Based on Google the highest-grossing movie of 2001 was Harry Potter. Should I keep it like that or should I do another butterfly effect bullshit? Haha.]