HWI 121

Hollywood What If Chapter 121

"So what's the decision of Sony-Columbia?"

Harrison Ford was sitting down, holding a glass of whiskey. He was trying to calm his nerves but it was hard to do so. 

"Harrison, you have to listen to me calmly."

"Brittany, I can't calm down when my movie is related to this situation."

Harrison Ford was a client of UTA( United Talent Agency). His agent was Brittany Balbo. 

Three agencies in Hollywood could rival each other. CAA, WMA, and UTA. These three agencies took over most of the market. 

"So, what's their decision?"

Harrison asked while drinking his alcohol, trying his best to calm down. 

"... They didn't agree on increasing the promotion budget too much, they added a little bit."

Sony-Columbia would increase the promotion budget if they feel like the movie was promising. But for Air Force One, the movie clashed against Taken which was trending right now. 

Sony-Columbia felt like it was useless to increase the budget a lot. So they decided to maintain the status quo. They would spend $5 million on advertising for the next week. 

"..."

Harrison Ford put down the glass and massaged his forehead. He already expected this outcome. 

At first, he was confident that Air Force One would defeat Taken in a head-on match... But the news about sex trafficking caught the interest of many people!

Harrison greeted his teeth. It would be a lie if he said that he was not affected. He chose his movies seriously. 

Harrison Ford had many blockbuster movies because of his ability to choose the best script. Air Force One had all of the ingredients to be a blockbuster. 

However, the outcome was different from what he thought. 

It was already August 3, 1997. Ten days already passed after the release of Air Force One. The box office of the movie was $80.73 million. If you compared it to other movies that were released this year, it was an amazing feat. Harrison Ford was satisfied with the amount. 

Unfortunately, Air Force One met Taken. As of August 3, 1997, Taken grossed $122.15 million. It was just ten days but Taken already passed the 100 million mark. 

Paramount would receive 25% of the box office while Cinema Alliance would get 40%. 

Grey Pictures would only receive 45% of the box office.

Respectively, Paramount already assured $30.53 million. While Cinema Alliance assured $48.86 million. Grey Pictures assured $54.96 million. 

However, the box office of Taken was steadily rising. These three divisions would get more as time passed. 

Paramount, Cinema Alliance, and Grey Pictures were all happy. 

Especially Kazir Grey. As a director, the best he could get was 20% of the North American box office share. Well, he never had the experience of having that kind of contract. Kazir Grey got a 10% box office share from The Hangover. 

Well, even though Kazir Grey owned Grey Pictures, it was a legal company and he couldn't let himself be bullied. So he had a contract of 10% box office share. 

Which means that 10% of the box office would go to his private bank account. Worldwide box office share. 

The production budget of Taken was $25 million. More than that would be a pure profit... After subtracting the taxes. 

"Damn it." That was all Harrison could say. 

"Harrison, you have to think about it seriously. You and Kazir are both Jewish, you guys have a strong chance of cooperating. I heard that Grey Pictures are going to start another project, maybe you can contact Kazir and get the script."

"... You're right Brittany. It's not that I lost. The performance of Air Force One already exceeded my expectations. Brittany, try to contact Grey Pictures. I want to read their script."

"I understand."

The two ended their conversation. Even though Harrison was still bitter, he knew that having bad blood against a talented director was not good for him. In the first place, he became famous because of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. 

Star Wars and Indiana Jones were movies that would never be forgotten even three decades later. 

.........

......

...

Sometimes, no one would expect the outcome of a movie. Everyone believe that Air Force One would be the winner but three days before the release, their opinions changed. 

Grey Pictures was having more contact these days. To be precise, more people were trying to contact them. However, Kazir wanted to keep all of the scripts in his library. He didn't want to share or sell them if the price was not right. 

'To make the matter worst, Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox became interested in my action scripts such as John Wick and Fast And The Furious.'

He realized that Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox felt like his Cinematic Universe might succeed so they wanted to buy the action scripts, either for a good or bad reason. 

Of course, Kazir didn't want to sell any script related to Continental Cinematic Universe. He was just getting started. 

As for the other scripts such as comedy and thriller/suspense, Sony-Columbia started contacting Grey Pictures to get Final Destination. 

'No one wrote the script so I decided to register it in my name... First come, first serve.'

Kazir Grey stretched his arms after polishing his next project. Although Taken was just released and he was going places to promote the movie, Kazir still take his chance to polish his script. 

The title of his next project was... John Wick. The reason why he chose the movie was because of its small budget. John Wick had a production budget of $20 to $30 million. Grey Pictures was still not ready to spend a big amount of money.

"Director Grey, it's your cue."

The assistant director notified him that the interview would start. 

"Okay." Kazir Grey closed his laptop after saving his script.

"Break a leg."

"..."

Even though it was a customary greeting, "Break a leg" was a bit...