73 HWI 73

[Shout out to Benjamin, Magnus B, and John!]

Hollywood What If Chapter 73

The promotion for The Hangover went on for over a month before the last stop, Japan. 

Despite her hopes, Reese Witherspoon didn't meet Princess Diana. They only stayed three days in the United Kingdom before leaving. Besides, The Hangover might be inappropriate for the princess to attend. 

After all, the Princess was still married to Prince Charles when The Hangover premiered in the UK. They divorced on August 28, 1996... Six days after the film's release. 

Apparently, the cast had already flown to another country by the time it was officially announced. 

Anyway, Reese was surprised that when they returned to the U.S., the news of Princess Diana and Prince Charles' divorce was all over the news. 

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"Phew... Let me rest."

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

The two months of endless publicity had taken their toll on Kazir. They went to different places, traveled around the world just to promote the movie. 

The month of August came to an end and the summer schedule was over. There were still movies to be released in September, but they didn't get much attention. 

Film companies usually released movies that they were not sure about in that month. Like Se7en, it was released in September last year. 

Speaking of Se7en, the movie officially ended its run. It earned more than 400 million dollars. The movie was now on the videotape market and people could buy it for about $30. There was no deluxe version of the movie. 

'A blank videotape is cheap. A few years ago I bought ten blank videotapes for $7. But prerecorded videotapes were the expensive ones. Almost 45 times as much as a single blank videotape.'

This was the reason why the film companies made more money from the distribution of videotapes. The revenues were much higher than the expenses. Cinema Alliance had a huge cut of the box office. The movie 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 (made up of AMC, Regal Cinemas, Cinemark and many smaller theaters) would get $59.60 million. 

This would leave Fox Searchlight Pictures with only $89.4 million. Note that Fox Searchlight Pictures bought the movie for $2.3 million and their advertising cost was about $5 million. So they had $82.1 million... To be honest, that was a lot of money for a start-up company like Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Unfortunately, the company made a deal with Kazir Grey that he would get 5% of the box office. Not the profit, but the share of the box office. 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 also had to pay taxes, so...

It was no understatement to say that the videotape market saved Hollywood. Because it really did. Without the invention of the VCR player, movie studios would be facing bankruptcy. 

'If I'm not mistaken, Fox Searchlight Pictures sold the videotape of Napoleon Dynamite for $27. And they sold 3 million copies in the last two months. That's about $81 million...'

Those numbers would continue to grow throughout the year. So the company had a steady income. On top of that was the video rental business. Fox Searchlight Pictures had a cut of that too. 

Kazir opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. He could not believe he would reach this status in just two years. He went back in time to November 1994. That was when he pitched his script to New Line Cinema and worked for them for almost five months. He then asked his brother for an investment and began filming Napoleon Dynamite. He sold the copyrights to Fox Searchlight Pictures and made millions. 

'Maybe people will be disappointed that half the profits from Napoleon Dynamite went to Aaron... They can go fuck themselves. I will never reach that status without his help. Besides, I'm not giving it to anybody, it's my brother. Maybe you didn't have a good relationship with your family. If you ask me, I'm willing to die for my family... Excluding mom, of course. I hadn't seen her for almost a decade. I had no idea what she was doing.'

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

But The Hangover was different. Kazir laughed out loud. All 10% of the North American box office was for him alone. 

Kazir had already received his $5 million salary. He was even thinking about buying a house. 

Warner Bros had signed a contract that if The Hangover grossed more than $100 million, Kazir Grey would automatically get 10% of the box office. 

Since the month of August was already over. The Hangover played for more than 60 days. The movie made 261 million dollars. Yes, he would get more than 26 million dollars! 

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

He laughed as he lay on the bed. 

Money. People said money was bad. They said it was the root of all evil. They said that money could never make you happy. 

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

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

"Now, about my next plan..."

Kazir knew he was taking a risk with his new project. In fact, many film companies were trying to contact him about his project. 

'Terry Semel has already expressed his dissatisfaction with my next film not being a comedy. He said it would be better if I directed the sequel of The Hangover instead. He has a point. It's better to direct a comedy than an action movie, especially when I don't have any experience in directing an action movie. But it's my dream to make an action movie... Hell, I even have a cinematic universe in my head.'

Kazir yawned and slowly let his mind drift off to sleep. He had plenty of time to think about it. Now that his last two movies were successful, someone would be interested in working with him.