HWI 38

Hollywood What If Chapter 38

[I wrote another chapter because I feel active writing Hollywood What If.]

The month of November had very strong movies. 'Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls' was released on November 10. The movie starred the great actor Jim Carrey. In the 90s, Jim Carrey has a very strong box office appeal and most of his movies had over $100 million at the North American box office.

Another movie released on November 17 was 007 Goldeneye. James Bond had been in theaters for decades. It has a strong influence not only in North America but internationally as well. The current actor who had the banner of James Bond was Pierce Brosnan.

Then, the very first computer-animated movie was released on November 22. Toy Story changed the animation industry and caused a rapid evolution. Because of this success, Pixar became one of the most wanted animation companies in Hollywood.

These three movies had strong reception this month.

Yet no one expected that a dark horse with a production cost of $500 thousand would win the box office as well.

"$106 million!"

Robert Shaye slammed the newspaper against the table.

"Napoleon Dynamite was only released for 80+ days yet it has $106 million at the box office!"

Robert Shaye had an ugly face as he read the information regarding Napoleon Dynamite. For a movie with a small cost, this amount so was so fucking big!

He adjusted his necktie to get some air. He felt bad for some reason.

In his opinion, this movie should have been under New Line Cinema. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

"..."

He push the button on his telephone and asked Manager Clent to go to his office.

Three months already passed since the release of Se7en. It was December 8, 1995.

Se7en had made $129.60 million at the North American box office. It already surpassed $100 million. Furthermore, the movie was released overseas and it had strong reception.

Its first month overseas had $81.22 million!

This meant that the current global box office of Se7en was $210.82 million! It was a large amount of money for a movie with a $35 million budget.

Robert was actually grinning while seeing the numbers go up. However, he felt bitter when he realized that Napoleon Dynamite had steadily rising numbers as well.

If he knew that this movie had a strong reception, he should have fought for its distribution. Unfortunately, he thought Kazir's directing ability was mediocre compared to his writing talent.

He was damn wrong. Napoleon Dynamite was still digging for more gold!

"Sir..."

Clent entered the office with a nervous expression. He already had an idea why Robert Shaye was looking for him. It is related to Napoleon Dynamite.

Clent was the manager who watched Napoleon Dynamite. He offered Kazir $2.3 million for a complete copyright buyout of the movie.

Unfortunately, Kazir decided to cooperate with Fox Searchlight Pictures for better conditions.

"Clent, looks like you know the reason why you're here."

Clearly, Robert Shaye was angry. He was staring daggers at the poor manager. In his opinion, Clent was an incompetent manager and failed to buy Napoleon Dynamite.

"I'm sorry sir," Left with no choice, Clent bowed his head.

He didn't have a choice but accept the maltreatment.

"Useless! Do you know how much damage it induces to the company?!"

Robert Shaye roared. Perhaps he only called Clent to blame him. He kept cursing and screaming at the manager.

When Clent left the office, he was bitter and pale. These were the usual scenes in corporate jobs.

The smaller people would be blamed while the ones in the position could freely live their lives.

"Did I make a mistake?"

Just like Robert Shaye, CEO Terry Semel frowned as he looked at the statistics.

Napoleon Dynamite was only released for two months and it still had strong reception. Especially now that the Christmas holiday was getting close, families would usually choose comedies.

Napoleon Dynamite was rated PG-13 and teens could watch it without a problem.

Terry Semel massaged his forehead.

Warner Bros.'s biggest investment this year was Batman Forever. It has a production cost of $100 million. It was released in June.

Warner Bros. thought that this movie would be successful. However, its global box office as of December was $336 million.

It might look big but the $100 million production cost was big as well. The result of Batman Forever was mediocre in their opinion.

At least Napoleon Dynamite has had much better results than Batman Forever in its first 80+ days.

Suddenly, his secretary notified him that Producer Enrico Pusi had arrived.

"Let him in."

Enrico entered the office. Just like Terry Semel, Enrico Pusi was bitter as well. They received the script of Napoleon Dynamite just like Se7en yet they disregarded these two scripts. Now, both movies had more than $100 million each at the North American box office.

"Sir, I'm here regarding Napoleon Dynamite."

"Go on."

But unlike Robert Shaye who was grumbling, Terry and Enrico were much better.

At least they have the chance of getting the Overseas and videotape distributions of Napoleon Dynamite.

"I heard that Kazir Grey is currently writing two scripts. The first was an original screenplay, it's comedy as well but I didn't have enough information. The second was the sequel to Napoleon Dynamite. Kazir Grey hired writers to help him write the sequel of Napoleon Dynamite."

Sequel!

Terry Semel's eyes lit up when he heard it. Clearly, Napoleon Dynamite had a chance to earn more money!

"You did a good job, Enrico."

"Thank you, sir."

Enrico contacted Salvatore Barlowe, Kazir's agent, and found that Kazir was currently writing two scripts.

Letting Napoleon Dynamite escape from their grasp was already humiliating.

"If his script is promising, I want you to contact him. As for the overseas distribution, videotape distributions, and the sequel, I want all of them."

His face was serious. Fox Searchlight Pictures got the first cut of the cake, Warner Bros. would fight for the bigger portion then.

Everyone knew that the main income of Film companies came from selling videotapes.