HWI 125

Hollywood What If Chapter 125

Celebration. People tend to celebrate when a good thing happened. 

And well, generating a $200 million box office is definitely a good thing. 

Grey Pictures officially created its own party and invited people in the industry. This was their first time making a party. They just hired an Event Planner and let them do most of the job, the company was only responsible for paying them. 

Grey Pictures was just a new studio and it only created two projects which were The Hangover and Taken. Yet these two movies might generate 1 billion dollars combined. 

The Hangover grossed more than $500 million at the worldwide box office. As for Taken, the current status of the movie was $387 million. 

It was already October 20, 1997, and the internal promotion of Taken was already done. Kazir and most of the cast returned to the United States after a tiring month of endless traveling. They flew around the world, quite literally. 

At the North American box office, Taken already lost its vigor and the number of theaters that were screening the movie went to 426 theaters. Still, the movie generated a few million every week. The current box office of Taken was $265.63 million. 

As for the international box office, the movie grossed $121.37 million. The good thing was that some countries just recently started the screening of Taken and the final box office would keep increasing. 

Paramount believes that Taken would exceed $500 million. 

Unfortunately, each country had different laws about foreign movies. In some countries, Hollywood could only get 15% of the box office and the local businesses would get the remaining. 

So the profit was quite complicated in that regard. Still, the bigger the box office, the higher they can get. So Paramount would still work to promote their movies. 

"Congratulations Kazir! You are a superstar now!"

"David, glad to meet you."

Even though Grey Pictures was a new studio, many famous people still attend the party. They didn't care about the company, all they wanted was to make a connection with Kazir Grey. 

Kazir was a promising director. And so far, his movies and scripts created huge profits. Being friends with him was a good thing. 

"Congratulations on The Game too. It's a great movie."

"Kazir let's not joke around here. The performance of The Game is nothing compared to Taken."

David Fincher smiled. He did his best and believe that the movie would be great, but it was a shame that the result was not good. 

The Game was distributed by PolyGram Films, a second-tier studio company. Perhaps it might be the reason why the movie didn't have a strong reception. The Big Six was the Big Six because of their ability to promote their movies through different media. 

The movie was released on September 12 and it was cold schedule. September was not the best month to release movies. One of the reasons why The Game didn't have a good performance. 

So far, the movie grossed more than $44 million as of October 20. It was not bad... However, the production of The Game was $80 million. One month already passed and they failed to recover their investment. 

"I heard you have a new script, can I read it?"

"It's actually my problem right now. I'm trying to pitch this script to the Big Six but none of them are interested."

"I'll try to contact my friends in the Big Six." Kazir Grey's influence was getting stronger. 

"Thanks, Kazir. My next movie is a bit different, I decided to name it Fight Club but it's an experimental name."

"Of course. Do you want me to invest in your movie?"

"It depends."

Kazir grinned. He remembered that the box office of Fight Club was not so great. However, its videotape/DVD sales were different. 

'Maybe we can get a share of the videotape profit.'

This thing needs negotiation and he knew that the Big Six would have to be tough for this kind of thing. 

"Let's enjoy the party."

"Okay."

The two clanked their wine glasses. 

The face of this party was none other than Kazir Grey. He was the owner of Grey Pictures and he was the director of Taken. He had to greet many people just to make sure that they would feel welcome. That was his duty as the main star of the party. 

He greeted the people from Warner Bros who kept pestering him about The Hangover 2. 

He talked to the people from 20th Century Fox who asked him about the script of Napoleon Dynamite III. 

Even Sony-Columbia and Walt Disney attended the party, asking for his next project. 

Overall, his job was very tiring. Especially when the gazes of many beautiful women were pointed at him. He felt like he was a weak prey in the wilderness, surrounded by wolves. 

"Hello, Mister Grey."

"Oh, hello. Miss Diaz."

Kazir was slightly shocked when a woman blocked his way to the restroom. On top of that, the woman was someone he recognized. It was none other than Cameron Diaz. 

Kazir helplessly looked at the woman's figure. She was sexy and beautiful. Kazir Grey, as a man, could not help but adore her beauty. 

Still, he maintained his composure. He was not stupid, the woman definitely had a reason why she talked to him. 

"Can I get your number?"

"Ah? You mean my business number. Here you can take this--"

"No, I want to know your private number. You know, so that we can talk privately..."

She winked and leaned closer. 

"... I'm sorry Miss Diaz but we are not that close to exchange private numbers. But if you are interested in cooperating with Grey Pictures, this is the contact info of the company."

Kazir pulled out a business card and gave it to her. 

"Is that so? Maybe we can get to know each other later? What do you think? I know a nice scenery here in L.A."

She giggled. 

Kazir gulped. He was just a man and he understood that his past status was nothing compared to a famous actress like Cameron Diaz. 

Still, even though his lower half was screaming, Kazir maintained his composure and declined her offer. 

"I'm sorry Miss Diaz, but I have many things to do later."

He walked away quite fast.