Hollywood What If Chapter 288
No one could do what Kazir did. Two years ago, his movie "Wanted" made history, becoming the third movie to surpass $1 billion at the box office.
Everyone thought it would be the greatest achievement Kazir would ever achieve. After all, surpassing $1 billion at the box office was already a difficult thing to do. So far, only three directors have done it.
But who would have thought that the next year, Kazir would make another film that would surpass $1 billion at the box office?
Now, Spider-Man has become the fourth film to achieve this feat. People's opinions of Kazir deepened. Nobody took him for granted anymore. He became the most profitable director in the industry, not even Steven Spielberg or James Cameron could compare to him in terms of box office.
Spielberg and Cameron were indeed amazing and their movies were mostly profitable, but no one could consistently perform at the box office except Kazir.
All his films after 1995 were all amazing. All of his movies were low to mid budget and yet all of them were profitable. In fact, all of the films produced by Grey Pictures never exceeded a production budget of $100 million. Yet they all performed well and made money.
Only Spider-Man had a budget of over $100 million and it was produced by Sony-Colombia.
It was clear that no project Kazir touched ever lost money. They all made money in one way or another.
People were suddenly thinking about the future of this production studio, would it soar higher or would it fall to the ground and crash? Only time would tell.
One thing was for sure, Kazir Grey could be recognized as the most profitable director of this era. It was obvious why so many people wanted to work with him. This was also the reason why the Big Six wanted to acquire Kazir.
Sony-Columbia and Warner Brothers were not stupid. They know that the real money maker of Grey Pictures was Kazir Grey. If they acquired the company outright, the company would lose its value. Grey Pictures was only relevant as long as Kazir was there.
Since they are serious about this acquisition, they are only asking for 40% of the company at best. They would never go beyond that. Because if Kazir felt he was being bullied, he might leave the company altogether and work with another studio. That would be awkward.
You see, Kazir has already made two movies that did very well at the box office, $1 billion each.
Sony-Columbia and Warner Brothers knew this would not be the last time. They could sense that Kazir was still at the top of his game, or maybe he was climbing even higher, and his chances of failure were slim.
How could they not be tempted? Have you ever seen someone like Kazir who could make a billion dollars with one movie? Yes, two other people have done it, Spielberg and Cameron. But Spielberg worked mostly with Paramount and Universal.
As for Cameron, he worked with 20th Century Fox and Paramount, but he only makes movies every few years. In fact, James Cameron's next movie would be in 2009, 7 years from now. His art took a long time to create, unlike Kazir who consistently made one movie a year. That was the most salacious fact about this acquisition.
Even if they could only acquire 20-30% of Grey Pictures, it would still be a profit. And from the looks of it, Kazir was not interested in money. It was just a way for him to preserve his career.
... Because Kazir was not interested in money, the negotiations became a bit difficult. Kazir wanted a stock swap instead.
That is, Kazir would receive stock in Sony-Colombia or Warner Brothers in exchange for stock in Grey Pictures.
The current net worth of Warner Brothers was $27 billion while Sony-Colombia was around $21 billion.
As for Grey Pictures, the company's net worth has ballooned, or should I say increased, after the recent success of their many movies. Sitting around $7 billion.
After all, Grey Pictures grossed over $1 billion at the box office last year, and John Wick's Chapter 2 and Fast and The Furious together grossed over $1 billion. In addition, the profit from merchandise/DVDs sold by Grey Pictures last year was over $150 million. The estimated value of the company was not wrong at all.
To acquire 40% of the company, Sony-Columbia or Warner Brothers would have to bleed $3.4 billion. That could affect their business, but it was a risk they were willing to take. After all, both companies were backed by giant corporations. Sony and Time Warner were powerful companies in their respective industries.
So far, Sony-Colombia was interested in a 35% stake for $2.1 billion. It was a huge amount, but Kazir was not interested in that kind of money. He was not the type to spend money. He could invest in some companies, but he preferred to focus on Hollywood. Besides, Kazir could wait.
Kazir had a feeling that Sony-Columbia and Warner Brothers wouldn't be the only ones competing. One or two studios might also ask for a stake in Grey Pictures.
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Chairman Michael Eisner gritted his teeth as he read the paper. Almost all the publishers praised Kazir Grey for his talent. Well, he was the only one to make a billion dollars at the box office in a row. Of course people would praise him.
'If I knew about it... Sigh.'
Michael sighed, understanding that it was too late for regrets. All he could do was move on. He had many chances to work with Kazir, but he did not.
His position at Walt Disney was quite rocky, and even his friend Michael Ovits resigned because of it. It seemed that everyone at Walt Disney was turning their backs on him. He was losing influence.
One of the executives that really pissed him off was Robert Iger.
'That bastard...'
Robert Iger suggested that Michael Eisner should retire because he was getting too old. Of course, Michael didn't want to retire because he loves being in power.
Right now he has two options to keep his position. The first was to acquire Grey Pictures, a very promising studio. The second was the upcoming release of John Carter. Walt Disney put so much money into this project, hoping that they could follow the performance of CCU.