HWI 73

Hollywood What If Chapter 73

The promotion of The Hangover went on for over a month before they went to the last stop which was Japan. 

Despite hoping, Reese Witherspoon didn't meet Princess Diana. They only had three days to stay in the United Kingdom before leaving. Furthermore, The Hangover might be inappropriate for the Princess to attend. 

After all, the Princess was still married to Prince Charles at the time when The Hangover premiered in the United Kingdom. They divorced on August 28, 1996... Six days after the movie was released. 

Obviously, the cast already flew to another country when it was officially announced. 

Anyway, Reese was surprised that when they returned to the USA, the news about Princess Diana and Prince Charles being divorced was being addressed all over. 

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"Phew... Let me take a rest."

Kazir lay down on his bed and closed his eyes. He was exhausted. 

The two months of endless publicity took a toll on Kazir. They went to different places, traveling around the world just to promote the movie. 

The month of August ended and the summer schedule ended. There were still movies that would be released in September but they didn't get much attention. 

Film companies usually released movies that they were not confident in this month. Just like Se7en, it was released in September last year ago. 

Speaking of Se7en, the movie officially ended its screening. It earned more than $400 million. The movie was now at the videotape market and people could buy it at around 30 dollars. The movie didn't have a deluxe version. 

'A blank videotape is inexpensive. A few years ago I bought ten blank videotapes for 7 dollars. But prerecorded videotapes were the expensive ones. Almost 45 times the amount of a single blank videotape.'

This was the reason why film companies were earning more in terms of videotape distribution. The income was much more than the expenses. Cinema Alliance had a huge cut from the box office. Film companies could only get 60 to 70 percent of the box office. 

For example, Napoleon Dynamite grossed $149 million at the North American box office. The Cinema Alliance(consisting of AMC, Regal Cinemas, Cinemark, and many small theater companies) would receive $59.60 million. 

So Fox Searchlight Pictures would only have $89.4 million. Note that Fox Searchlight Pictures only bought the movie for $2.3 million and their publicity cost around 5 million. So they had $82.1 million... In all honesty, that was big money for a start-up company like Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Unfortunately, the company signed a contract with Kazir Grey that he would receive a 5% box office share. Not the profit, but the box office share. So Fox Searchlight Pictures was obligated to pay him $7.45 million. 

So their profit was 74.65 million dollars. By the way, the company had to pay taxes too so...

It was not an understatement that the videotape market saved Hollywood. Because it really did. If not for the invention of VCR players, film companies would face bankruptcy. 

'If I'm not wrong, Fox Searchlight Pictures sold the videotape of Napoleon Dynamite for 27 dollars. And they sold 3 million copies these past two months. That's around $81 million.'

These numbers would keep increasing as the year passed. So the company had a steady income. On top of that were the rentals of videotape. Fox Searchlight Pictures had a share of that too. 

Kazir opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. He could not believe that he would reach this status in just two years. He time travel back to November 1994. Then he pitched his script to New Line Cinema and worked for them for almost five months. Then he asked his brother for investment and started filming Napoleon Dynamite. He sold the copyrights to Fox Searchlight Pictures and earned millions. 

'Maybe people will be disappointed because half of the profit of Napoleon Dynamite went to Aaron... They can fuck themselves. I will never reach this status without his help. Besides, I'm not giving it to someone, it's my brother. Maybe they didn't have a good relationship with their family. If you're going to ask me, I am ready to die for my family... Excluded Mom, of course. I didn't see her for almost a decade now. I didn't have any idea what she doing.'

People will hate, but who cares? They can live their lives and suck cocks. 

However, The Hangover was different. Kazir chuckled. The whole 10% North American box office was for him alone. 

Kazir already got his $5 million salary. He was actually thinking of buying a house. 

Warner Bros sighed a contract that once The Hangover grossed more than $100 million, Kazir Grey would automatically have a 10% box office share. 

Since the month of August already ended. The Hangover was screened for more than 60 days. The movie earned 261 million dollars... Yup, he would receive more than 26 million dollars! 

"Not bad... Who am I even joking, it's the best! Haha!"

He laughed laying on the bed. 

Money. People said that money was bad. They said that it was the root of evil. They said that money could never bring you happiness. 

"Well, I'm not sure about that."

One thing was sure. He was happy now that he had a lot of money. 

"Now, about my next plan..."

Kazir knew that he was taking a gamble with his new project. In fact, a lot of film companies were trying to contact him about his project. 

'Terry Semel already expressed his dissatisfaction with my next movie not being a comedy. He said that it's better if I direct the sequel of The Hangover instead. His opinion is already justified. It's better to direct a comedy movie than an action movie, especially when I didn't have experience filming one. However, it's my dream to film an action movie... Heck, I even have a Cinematic Universe in my mind.'

Kazir yawned and slowly drifted his mind to sleep. He had a lot of time to think about it. Now that his last two movies were successful, someone would be interested in cooperating with him.