Hollywood What If Chapter 493
On the other hand, a few people stayed in the screening to talk to Kazir and his representative, Salvatore Barlowe, regarding the copyrights of the movie.
Salvatore rarely experienced this kind of job when it came to Kazir. Kazir had his own production studio, and he rarely needed to negotiate with other studios.
But this was different. This was a negotiation that Salvatore loved to participate in because he had a commission to earn.
Sure, a 3% commission looked small… But what if the negotiation went up to $100 million? Does 3% look small anymore?
The agent smiled and joined the conversation.
The people who remained were from Lionsgate, Universal Pictures, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
The first to offer a price was the representative of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. MGM was a dying company and needed another source of income. They desperately needed a new franchise.
Aside from 007, MGM also owned Carrie, Poltergeist, and Species. The company also distributed some cult classics such as Silence of the Lambs.
In a way, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was good at handling horror movies.
The one who stepped up was the representative of MGM. The CEOs of each studio had already left after giving instructions to their people. CEOs didn't have to do the negotiations, at least not in an informal setting like this.
After all, everyone understood that this was just the beginning of the negotiations. Kazir was tough to crack, and this cunning director would probably wait until he got the deal he was looking for.
"$35 million."
The MGM representative said.
This was just the opening, yet someone had already offered to double their production cost.
No matter how you looked at it, that was a positive sign. Kazir's horror movie had its appeal.
Salvatore grinned and glanced at Kazir before looking at the representative.
"We can talk about that in a better place. For now, let the workers clean this room."
Salvatore excused himself, and Kazir nodded.
This kind of stuff should be left to the professionals. As for the contract, at this point, Kazir was too rich to even care. He would still choose the best deal, though.
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In November, some strong movies were released, such as Borat, Flushed Away, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Casino Royale, Happy Feet, and Déjà Vu.
Out of these movies, Kingsman: The Secret Service dominated the month. In just 15 days, the movie had already grossed $328 million.
When December arrived, many production studios joined in on buying the copyrights of Shadows Beneath, as this was one of the few movies that Kazir personally filmed but planned to sell.
In his career, Kazir had a few movies that he directed but were not owned by Grey Pictures.
Napoleon Dynamite.
The Hangover.
Spider-Man.
Spider-Man 2.
Batman Begins.
These were the movies Kazir directed but didn't hold the copyrights to. Yet all of these movies were profitable.
Obviously, just because of that simple fact, many studios believed that Kazir's new horror movie would also be profitable. The problem was how much money they could earn.
Three days after the small screening, the highest bidder was $62 million from Sony-Columbia.
Three days was enough for people to study the potential of Shadows Beneath. In their opinion, if promoted right, this horror movie could make about $300 to $600 million, depending on the schedule.
Because of that, $62 million was the base payment Sony-Columbia concluded to pay to get the copyrights.
Some believed it was too small, considering that this movie was directed by Kazir Grey.
However, looking at it seriously, Shadows Beneath had no chance to become a franchise. The story was completed in just a single movie. Kazir also expressed that he had no intention of writing a sequel… To be precise, he had no idea what to write, as this was different from his usual ways.
He realized that writing a script was not easy at all.
While this was happening, big news shocked Hollywood. Some people already expected this, but they were still shocked.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest successfully surpassed $1 billion at the worldwide box office after six months of screening.
For those who had no idea, they just thought this was normal because Grey Pictures was known to make amazing movies.
But for those who had been in Hollywood for a long time, it was shocking to see a B-tier studio that didn't have distribution lines achieve two movies that surpassed $1 billion at the box office in a year. It was not easy at all.
As of now, only Warner Brothers could replicate that kind of success, since Warner Brothers had Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings to rely on. However, even Warner Brothers could only make two movies reach $900 million each in a year.
Furthermore, as they studied Grey Pictures' three movies this year, they realized that Kingsman: The Secret Service had a strong chance to surpass $1 billion.
Can you imagine that? Three movies owned by a single studio, each surpassing $1 billion. That was hard to imagine, and everyone thought it was impossible.
But this year, Grey Pictures was trying to break the impossible… They kept breaking the impossible.
Because of this, Hollywood further understood how important this chance Kazir gave them was. This ignited their will to compete and acquire the copyrights of Shadows Beneath.
That single piece of news made them look at the horror movie from another angle. Perhaps they could use this chance to ask Kazir to work with them. Kazir had already given Sony-Columbia its first billion-dollar movie. aybe he could work with another studio to help them achieve that milestone too.
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[Thank you guys for all of your support.]