Hollywood What If

Chapter 346

Chapter 346

"No, but I also know that their superheroes have a better status than ours... We have to sell the movie rights of our superheroes just to stay afloat." Stan gave Kazir a side-eye and Kazir kept his smile...

Grey Pictures acquired a lot of superheroes from Marvel almost a decade ago.

20th Century Fox had X-Men and Fantastic Four.

New Line Cinema had Blade.

Sony-Columbia had Spider-Man.

As for Grey Pictures, the studio basically raided Marvel's library. Marvel Comics was left with a few characters.

"It's a good thing we're under the same company, otherwise the negotiations would take a long time." Stan Lee added, and Kazir agreed.

The two sides decided to create another studio to be called Marvel Studio. Kazir would be the director/executive and Avi Arad the producer. Grey Pictures transferred the film rights to this studio in exchange for a share of the profits.

He knew that making a superhero movie required a lot of investment, and Grey Pictures was in a tight spot right now. It would be better to have a share of the profits than to shoulder a multi-million dollar budget.

Grey Pictures couldn't afford to invest in Marvel movies anyway. Each Marvel movie would cost over $100 million to produce.

'Besides, I have to work with Stan Lee and the other people at Marvel Comics to make sure the plot of the MCU is perfect. After all, I don't know all their superheroes.'

"By the way, Stan. Are you interested in doing cameos in the MCU?"

"Like you did in CCU?"

"Yeah. Just think of it as a tradition."

"Of course I'm happy to do it. I'm going to spend a lot of time on the set anyway, so I might as well put myself in front of the camera. I'm sure my grandkids will love it."

Avi Arad appeared a few minutes later. Unlike Stan Lee, Avi Arad's main topic of conversation was business and how they could make sure their upcoming projects would be successful.

Next year, Kazir would be working for Sony-Colombia to produce Spider-Man 2. Sony-Colombia had already prepared everything they needed such as props and locations, all they had to do was shoot the movie.

Spider-Man was the highest grossing superhero movie at the time.

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The premiere of X-Men 2 started and people watched the movie.

The main plot of X-Men 2 was that Professor X was kidnapped. The enemy wanted Professor X to use his power to manipulate the mutants to kill each other. The team had to rescue Professor X before that could happen.

The CGI of X-Men 2 was better compared to the last one. The team had a higher budget and probably spent most of it on special effects.

X-Men had a budget of $75 million while X-Men 2 had a budget of $125 million. The difference between the two can be seen in the movie.

Based on the audience reaction, the movie did great.

The first day of X-Men 2 grossed $31.24 million. Marvel Studio and 20th Century Fox were happy. This was a good sign.

The second day came, Saturday. The box office of X-Men 2 went up to $63.21 million.

Then on Sunday, the box office went up to $85.55 million.

The first weekend of X-Men was a success and it became the box office champion of the week.

X-Men 2 had no competition when the first week of May arrived. The movie dominated the first week of May and made $107.01 million at the North American box office.

Their trajectory slowed slightly when May 9 arrived and a promising comedy was released.

Daddy Day Care, starring Eddie Murphy, was produced by Sony-Colombia with a budget of $60 million.

The first three days of Daddy Day Care grossed $27.62 million.

In the same three days, X-Men 2 grossed $39 million, bringing its total to $147 million.

So yes, X-Men 2 still won first place that week.

Superhero movies were becoming more popular and more people wanted to see them. The hype that Spider-Man created had a positive effect on X-Men 2.

As a result, X-Men 2 also dominated the second week of May.

Its reign only ended when Warner Brothers released Matrix Reloaded, one of the most anticipated movies of the year. Despite being an R-rated movie, The Matrix Reloaded sold a lot of tickets.

The Matrix, released in 1999, was highly regarded as one of the best R-rated movies of all time.

People were excited to see Neo again.

Unfortunately, the Wachowskis were given full authority over the production. The Wachowskis decided to focus more on philosophical scenes instead of giving the audience what they wanted.

The audience was left confused at the end of the movie.

This was one of the reasons why directors rarely had full authority over projects. Because most directors wanted to focus on artistic and philosophical scenes, forgetting the fact that the main reason for producing movies is to make money.

Fortunately, Kazir knew that the box office is the most important aspect of this industry. As long as you make money, people will respect you no matter what genre you make.

Horror directors, comedy directors, action directors. As long as their movies make money, they stay relevant.

The first weekend of The Matrix Reloaded grossed $73.38 million, knocking X-Men 2 off its throne.

While the summer season was busy for Hollywood, Kazir also spent time editing his project. All of the special effects for Pirates of the Caribbean were complete, and all he had to do was assemble each scene into a movie.

With the help of Rector and the editing team, Pirates of the Caribbean was slowly taking shape as a story. Kazir was determined to break the curse of pirate-themed movies.

In the middle of editing, Kazir received a message from someone. It was from his girlfriend, Angelina Jolie.

The woman wanted to meet him at a bar to talk. Of course, Kazir agreed. He also wanted to talk to Angelina about what happened last time.

"Guys, the work today is done," Kazir announced.

"Finally, an early exit." Rector was the first to leave the room, his wife would be grumpy again if he returned to the house late.