168 HWI 168

Hollywood What If Chapter 168

Kazir entered the theater after walking down the red carpet. He took a deep breath and recalled what happened. He noticed that people started screaming when they saw him. Especially women, they were screaming his name with fever. Like they met their first love.

In addition, the female reporter who was interviewing him was giving him a flirtatious look, a clean signal. The reporter this time was not Abella Boham who had interviewed him last time. Maybe that was the reason.

"I'm kind of glad you shaved your beard."

"Hm?"

Kazir looked to his side and saw Cameron Diaz pouting.

"I just feel like shaving it."

"I know... But it makes other bitches go crazy for you. I didn't like the way that reporter looked at you." She whispered the last sentence. She felt indignant.

"Cam, did you say something?"

"Nothing." She rolled her eyes and gripped his arm.

Since they were in a relationship, they had to show people that they were close.

Of course, Kazir wanted to see the movie because it was based on his script. He was interested in the outcome. Especially when there was a massive change in the cast.

Despite their original plan, Paramount decided to cast Brianna Evans as the female lead of the movie. Salvatore was so pleased that he even invited Kazir out for an expensive bottle of wine.

With Kazir as the screenwriter, Salvatore Barlowe was confident that the movie would be a success. This meant that Brianna's salary would increase after the release of Meet The Parents! Definitely good news for Salvatore.

Kazir was greeted by important people from Paramount.

"I can't believe you look really young!"

Brad Grey laughed and shook Kazir's hand. He was surprised to see that Kazir had shaved his beard. Besides, he looks good! With his looks, he could be a model or an actor.

"Brad, I'm 29 years old. Of course I'm young."

"Haha, I thought you were in your 40s. I'm sorry, you look more mature with a beard."

He nodded and left the couple. He had more people to greet at this premiere. Even the higher ups from Viacom were there and Brad Grey had to suck up to them.

Maybe the reason the Viacom executives were here was because they believed the profitability of this movie would be impressive. Well, no one could tell.

Anyway, Kazir saw Brianna Evans and talked to her for a few minutes. The woman was different from the first time he met her. The woman was alive and vibrant. It was like she was a different person.

Kazir admitted that Brianna was a talented actress, but he felt that the way she did things was dangerous.

'... Should I talk to Salvatore about hiring a psychiatrist?'

He joked. He didn't feel anything bad about the woman anyway.

After the critics and the rest of the audience sat down, the movie started.

Meet The Parents is a comedy in which a man named Gaylord "Greg" Focker (Ben Stiller) plans to propose to his girlfriend Pam Byrnes (Brianna Evans). However, things go hilariously wrong when he meets her overprotective and intimidating father, Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro).

Greg attempts to impress Jack and gain his approval leading to a series of hilarious and embarrassing situations, misunderstandings and mishaps that put their relationship to the test.

Paramount did the right thing by hiring Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro. They were the original cast of the movie, which made it authentic in Kazir's eyes.

As for how much they paid to cast them, Kazir Grey has no idea.

'The budget for Meet The Parents is $55 million. So I don't think they went overboard. Still, $55 million is a mid-range movie budget.'

Still, their investment was nothing compared to James Cameron's Titanic, which cost more than $200 million! By comparison, Meet The Parents was very mild.

After laughing and seeing a happy ending, the audience was satisfied with the movie and clapped their hands when the credits rolled.

The cast and director of the movie have to stay to be interviewed later for publicity.

This was standard procedure for movies, and the contract the cast signed included this. Paramount cared about this movie, so they would do their best to promote it.

Kazir didn't bother to stay and left the theater afterwards. He spent the night with Cameron, naked.

...

...

...

Three days after the premiere of Meet The Parents, the box office of the movie was already $28.62 million.

Based on that, they concluded that Meet The Parents wouldn't do badly. No, it would be a great run.

Unfortunately, the movie didn't win this week's box office champion because of The Sixth Sense.

Even though it was released last week, the movie made more than $38 million this week. Still, the result was within expectations and everyone believed that Meet The Parents would generate a good amount of money for Paramount in the long run.

To make things even better, the second week of Meet The Parents also had a good result. The total box office was $58.82 million. This means that Meet The Parents has already exceeded its budget of $55 million.

If it were not for The Sixth Sense, which earned more than $107 million, the presence of Meet The Parents would be greater.

Perhaps Meet The Parents was overshadowed by The Sixth Sense.

Kazir expected this outcome because The Sixth Sense was the second highest grossing film of 1999, second only to Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace.

But the result of Meet The Parents was enough for the movie studios to believe that Kazir Grey had outstanding creativity and that his scripts could make hundreds of millions!