Hollywood What If

HWI 274



Hollywood What If Chapter 274

Warner Bros. could not help but compare Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to Spider-Man. After all, their first choice for director was Kazir Grey. Just like Sony-Columbia, Warner Bros was confident they could fulfill Kazir's contract, but the man ultimately chose Spider-Man. 

It was sad, but Warner Bros. had to move on. The plan was already in motion. First of all, they are promoting J.K. Rowling and her books just for the upcoming movie. 

Warner Bros. was looking for movie franchises to milk and they felt that Harry Potter was profitable. Lord of the Rings was different because it was acquired by New Line Cinema. The profits of the two companies never merged. Also, New Line Cinema had its own distribution. There was nothing Warner Bros could do about it. 

In the last few years, Warner Bros. had two movies that they focused on, The Matrix and Harry Potter. They spent hundreds of millions on each movie. 

The Matrix sequels were already in production and seemed promising.

If Harry Potter didn't do well, they would lose money. So the management at the time invited Kazir Grey, who had come out of CCU, to be the director. 

Well, the result was obvious. Kazir turned it down and they went with Chris Columbus, the director of Home Alone. 

Now, comparing the two movies hurt the management of Warner Bros. for many reasons.

To be fair, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was an amazing movie. And it was an amazing success. It made $90 million in just three days. That was amazing, very few movies could do that.

But it was still bitter to think that Kazir Grey, who turned it down, did better with his Spider-Man movie. 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was an adaptation of the novel, and many scenes in the novel were obviously never shown in theaters, which caused some disappointment to fans of the novel. Perhaps if Kazir had been the director, he would have done a great job in this regard. 

Unfortunately, they could never bring back the past. Regretting their decision was useless, especially when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was doing well. 

After the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, no movie had a promising performance in November. 

By the end of the month, only Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone had earned $202 million at the box office. The movie was only in theaters for 15 days and it already made that amount of money. 

Hehe, too bad, but Spider-Man made over $252 million in 15 days.

Someone from Warner Bros. curiously did a comparison and was disappointed with the results. 

It seems that some people at Warner Bros. were bitter about it. They couldn't help but compare the two. 

December 7th and another batch of movies were released. Warner Bros. had another movie to promote and it was Ocean's Eleven. 

For this movie, Warner Bros. invited so many big personalities. They invited George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt. Yes, it was like a dream team. To accomplish this task, Warner Bros. invested $85 million in this project. 

Ocean's Eleven was a heist movie about a group of people who stole money from a casino to get revenge. 

Actually, Kazir was very interested in this movie, but he could not get the rights. 

Ocean's Eleven was a remake of Ocean's Eleven (1960). Some things did not go according to his plan. Ocean's Eleven was not meant for him and Grey Pictures. 

The one who bought the movie copyright was Warner Bros. Well, Grey Pictures would have to invest a lot of money to make this movie. Also, Ocean's Eleven was supposed to be a trilogy and Grey Pictures might have trouble casting famous actors. After all, they were not one of the Big Six. 

Grey Pictures was at least a B-tier studio. For them to be an A-tier studio, they should have distribution. But from the looks of it, Kazir Grey, the owner of the company, has a different future for the company. 

The first weekend of Ocean's Eleven was good, but not the best. It managed to make $38 million... Not at all comparable to Harry Potter or even Spider-Man. 

But again, this performance was already amazing. Very few movies could do that in three days. People just couldn't help but compare it to the best. Just like basketball fans always compared players to Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James... These three were the common topics of who was the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT). 

12 days after its release, Ocean's Eleven grossed $76 million. Again, an amazing feat... But nothing compared to Spider-Man and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. 

But that was about to change because on December 19, another movie was released that could rival Spider-Man and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. 

2001 was a terrible year for the United States, but it was true that these three movies had huge performances that year. 

The third movie was none other than The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings. 

The Lord Of The Rings had so many cast members but it was acknowledged that the protagonist was Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen). 

Viggo already had a status in Hollywood with his role as John Wick. But after that, Viggo Mortensen would have another role to be proud of being written in his filmography. 

Now the trio of 2001 was released and it would determine which would be the highest grossing movie of this year (2001). 

Last year, the highest grossing movie was Wanted with $1.21 billion... Would Kazir Grey make a miracle and have a back-to-back championship? 

+++++

[I was interested in Ocean Eleven at first, but I can't find the right time to include it in the CCU. In the end, I decided against it because Ocean's Eleven is never an action movie, but more of a heist movie. It can fit in well with CCU, but the timing just didn't feel right.]

[I have no idea what I'm doing writing this chapter.] 

[Anyway, thank you for all of your support.] 


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