Hollywood What If

Chapter 343

"So what's on our agenda this year?"

Ronald Meyer began the first quarterly meeting of the year. Ronald Meyer was the CEO of Universal Pictures and his management was amazing.

He was the one who pushed the plan to make The Mummy. Now The Mummy has become one of their most profitable franchises.

He was also the one who convinced Spielberg to direct Jurassic Park. The movie was based on a novel, but Universal found the potential of this novel and bought the rights to adapt it.

"Sir, Maid In Manhattan has already grossed $150 million at the worldwide box office. We already rented a hotel to celebrate the success of Maid In Manhattan." The presenter announced.

The executives nodded at the good news. Profits were always good. Universal Pictures' major shareholders were GE (General Electric) and Vivendi.

"That's great to hear, what else?"

"Johnny English is coming out in July." The presenter added.

"Yes, we already talked about that a month ago. Is there a reason why you say it again?"

"... We heard the news that The Equalizer, the new Grey Pictures movie, will be released in July."

The meeting room fell silent.

Ronald's expression turned slightly sour. Grey Pictures and Kazir Grey, these two names are famous in the industry right now... Universal Pictures was bitter because they had never worked with Kazir Grey! None at all!

Even scripts they couldn't buy at all!

It was all because of that stupid pig! Harvey Weinstein!

Back then, Harvey Weinstein and Universal Pictures joined forces to destroy Kazir's reputation. But they failed miserably. The Nutty Professor was nothing compared to The Hangover!

Because of this incident, Universal Pictures lost the chance to work with Kazir Grey.

How much did they regret that? Working with somebody like Kazir means easy profit these days. For a company that lives on profits, they would have hugged Kazir's leg.

Actually, they wanted to join the fight to take over Grey Pictures, but they were ashamed to do so. They knew they were wasting their time. Grey Pictures wouldn't agree to work with Universal Pictures.

Walt Disney kicked out their chairman because of the losses they had suffered last year, and Ronald was afraid of experiencing the same thing.

"Have they announced the exact date?"

"No, sir."

Johnny English was to be released on July 18. If Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox decided to release The Equalizer on the same day, it would be a disaster for Universal Pictures.

Johnny English was an action comedy while The Equalizer was pure action. Johnny English might attract young audiences, but it was probably not enough to compete with The Equalizer.

The Continental Cinematic Universe had already gained a foothold and it would be hard to topple it.

According to their calculations, The Equalizer could gross at least $300 million worldwide.

"Find their schedule as soon as possible, I don't want any mishaps. We are not looking for a fight or a confrontation, we are here to make money. I want Johnny English two weeks before or after The Equalizer opens."

"Yes, sir." The rest of the management agreed. This was not one person's problem. The whole company would suffer if they made a mistake.

"What's next on the agenda?"

"It's Dawn Of The Dead. We are still looking for a director to oversee the project."

"Who's on our list?"

"Zack Snyder, Danny Boyle and Peter Jackson."

"Peter Jackson... Isn't he the director of Dead Alive?"

"Um, sir... Peter Jackson is also the director of The Lord of the Rings". One of the people reminded Ronald.

"Thanks for reminding me... Let's cross Peter Jackson off the list. We can afford him to direct a mid-budget horror."

That left Zack Snyder and Danny Boyle.

Danny Boyle was the director of 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours and Steve Jobs.

Although it was still 2003, so Danny had just made 28 Days Later. It was about zombies, starring Cillian Murphy.

As for Zack Snyder, he was still a music film director and this could be his first time directing a movie... If Universal Pictures gives him the project, of course.

Funny that these directors started their careers with horror movies. Well, horror movies were the cheapest genre to make, and the profit they could bring was huge.

And yes, Kazir also started his career as a horror director.

"Let's go with Zack Snyder."

The CEO of Universal Pictures, Ronald Meyer, announced.

What they didn't know was that a certain production studio had already contacted Zack Snyder.

...

...

...

"So our budget is in the red right now?" Kazir asked Stella and the finance team about their budget.

"That's right."

Kazir looked at the data. They had four projects this year and they were all expensive.

The budget for The Equalizer was set at $50 million, but that amount would probably increase once they started promoting the movie. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The Wanted 2 had a budget of $80 million. The budget may increase as well.

Pirates of the Caribbean had a budget of $120 million. Even if Kazir knew how to control the budget, the promotion would also increase the budget.

As for Game of Thrones, the first season had 10 episodes. That was the best they could do because Game of Thrones was expensive. They set a budget at least of $5 million per episode.

Combining the four projects, Grey Pictures had to spend $300 million! That was certainly expensive. Their revenue last year was about $600 million, but their profit was only 30% of that. They also have to pay taxes, salaries, building maintenance, and film equipment. They were really not in a good situation.