HWI 206

Hollywood What If Chapter 206

The theater turned dark for a second before the ending credits showed up. 

The audience clapped their hands but they didn't stand up. They already knew the standard procedure. They remained in their seats as they waited for the post-credit scene. 

The influence of Taken on the female population was quite good and the audience this time had many females, unlike John Wick and The Bourne Identity. 

The Continental Cinematic Universe was heavily based on male audiences but the effect of Taken on females gave the theater a good male and female ratio. 

If Taken 2 was highly regarded, then the next movie of Continental Cinematic Universe would have a huge amount of female audience as well. 

Well, Taken 2 leveled up this time and the audience could clearly feel the adrenaline. This movie was great! 

Then, the post-credit scene appeared after a few seconds of the credits rolling. 

[Marcus was walking, limping as he groaned in pain. He was near shore where he had a yacht ready to use in case he met a dangerous situation.]

[This time, he realized that the enemy was quite strong. Perhaps the retired agent could go head to head with his friend John Wick.]

[Before Marcus could reach the shore, he stopped his feet near the cliff. Beneath the cliff was a strong current of waves that could engulf everything.]

["Hehe, I guess you guys showed your real intentions." Marcus could not help but chuckle.]

[He looked at the two people, his remaining teammates for this mission. There were five but two were killed by the retired agent.]

["Your relationship with the Fraternity is getting sour and Slone didn't like that."]

["Is it because I want to retire from this job?" Marcus grimaced. His wound in his left leg was aching.]

["That's one of the reasons."]

[The two Fraternity members raised their guns. Marcus was shot in the chest but he could still move. Marcus determined to survive and jumped down the treacherous cliff.]

[The post-credit scene ended when Marcus disappeared into the waves.]

That scene was a bit of a shock since they thought Marcus' appearance in the movie ended already. Now, the audience became interested in the Fraternity and how this organization would affect the next movies. 

The audience clapped and people started standing up, leaving the theater in excitement. Some of them were greeted by the people from CinemaScore to tally up the ratings of the movie. 

In the Paramount Theatre, the cast of Taken 2 stood up and received a standing ovation from the audience. 

It was known that the cast and the director of the movie would be interviewed after the premiere. 

Most of the time, the questions were pointed at Liam Neeson and Brianna Evans. These two actors had good performances this year and their box office appeal was getting appreciated. 

Of course some reporters and movie critics asked Willem Dafoe and Scarlett Johansson some questions. 

They were curious about Willem Dafoe's role in the next movie, considering that the post-credit scene was about him. 

Willem Dafoe was actually clueless about his role next movie. Although he knew that his screen time in the next movie would be a lot. Director Kazir Grey assured him about that. 

As for Scarlett Johansson, the questions about her were pretty mild since she was still underage. 

The other star of this movie was none other than the director, Director Fremont Smith. This young director proved that he could handle the pressure and successfully made a big-budget movie. 

"I just want to thank Director Grey for giving me a chance to direct this movie. God knows how happy I am right now. Of course, I like to thank my parents for believing in me. Mom, Dad, being an athlete and a rapper are not the only futures for someone like me. I believe that with strong determination and great hard work, I can do everything. I must dream higher and bigger." 

Fremont looked at his parents who attended the premiere. His mother was crying, while his father was rubbing his wife's, smiling and proud of his son. 

Fremont Smith smiled and waved his hand, trying his best not to tear up. 

Now, the premier ended and the first hurdle ended. 

Everything would be determined once the midnight and first-day box office arrived. The professionals would determine the forecast of the movie based on this data. Of course, the outcome might not be 70% or 80% right. 

The critics and even the professionals in the industry thought that Titanic was a huge box office flop after gathering the data in the first week. 

However, instead of decreasing, the box office of Titanic had an upward trend instead. 

No one knows the future. 

..........

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November 4, 1999. 

Two big-budget movies were released at midnight. The first was Taken 2 of Grey Pictures, distributed by Paramount Pictures.

The second was The Bone Collector which was distributed by Universal Pictures. 

In its first 24 hours, The Bone Collector grossed $7 million. Making that amount of money in just a day was impressive. 

Unfortunately for The Bone Collector, they were facing a strong opponent.

The first-day box office of Taken 2 was a whopping $17 million. So many people watched the people on its first day alone. On top of that, the reputation of the movie was strong as well. 

Using this as a basis, they concluded that the first-week box office of Taken 2 would be huge, ranging from around $55 to 60 million. Only huge movies with highly invested promotion could get the same treatment of grossing $60 million in a week. 

However, most of these big projects were released in the summer. Taken 2 had a good performance despite the schedule, even though its promotion was not heavily invested. It seemed that people just wanted to watch the movie.