No, but I also know that their superheroes have better status than us... Especially when we sell the adaptation rights of our superheroes." Stan gave Kazir a side eye and Kazir kept his smile...
Grey Pictures acquired a lot of superheroes from Marvel almost a decade ago.
20th Century Fox had X-Men and Fantastic Four.
New Line Cinema had Blade.
Sony-Colombia had Spider-Man.
As for Grey Pictures, this studio basically ransacked Marvel's library. Leaving Marvel Comics with a few characters.
"It's a good thing that we are working under the same company, or else the negotiation will take a long time." Stan Lee added and Kazir agreed.
The two sides decided to make another studio, which would be called Marvel Studio. Kazir would be the director while Avi Arad would be the producer. Grey Pictures transferred the adaptation rights to this studio in exchange for profit shares.
He knew that making a superhero movie needed a lot of investment and Grey Pictures was in a tight position right now. It would be better to have a share of profit instead of shouldering millions of budget.
Grey Pictures couldn't afford to invest in Marvel movies anyway. Each one of Marvel movies would cost over $100 million to produce.
'Besides, I need to work with Stan Lee and the other people in Marvel Comics to make sure that the plot of the MCU will be perfect. After all, I don't know all of their superheroes.'
"By the way, Stan. Are you interested in having cameos in MCU?"
"Like what you did in CCU?"
"Yeah. Just think of it as a tradition."
"Of course, I'm happy to do so. I'm going to spend a lot of time in the set anyway, might as well show myself to the camera. I'm sure my grandchildren will love it."
Avi Arad showed up a few minutes later. Unlike Stan Lee, Avi Arad's main point of conversation was about business and how they could make sure that their upcoming projects would be successful.
Next year, Kazir would work for Sony-Colombia to produce Spider-Man 2. Sony-Colombia already prepared everything they needed such as props and filming locations, all they needed to do was to film the movie.
Spider-Man was currently the highest-grossing superhero movie.
The premiere started and people watched the movie.
The main plot of X-Men 2 was about Professor X being kidnapped. The enemy wanted Professor X to use his power to manipulate the mutants to kill each other. The squad had to save Professor X before that happened.
The CGI of X-Men 2 was better compared to last time. The team had a higher budget and they probably spent most of it on special effects.
X-Men had a budget of $75 million while X-Men 2's budget was $125 million. The difference between the two is shown in the movie.
Based on the audience's reaction, the movie did great.
The first day of X-Men 2 grossed $31.24 million. Marvel Studio and 20th Century Fox were satisfied. This was a good sign.
The second day arrived, Saturday. The box office of X-Men 2 went up to $63.21 million.
Then on Sunday, the box office further increased to $85.55 million.
The first weekend of X-Men was a success and it became the box office champion that week.
X-Men 2 didn't have an opponent to face them when the first week of May arrived. The movie dominated the first week of May, making $107.01 million at the North American box office.
Their trajectory slightly went down when May 9 arrived and a promising Comedy movie was released.
Daddy Day Care, starring Eddie Murphy, was produced by Sony-Colombia with a budget of $60 million.
The first three days of Daddy Day Care grossed $27.62 million.
Within that same three days, X-Men 2 grossed $39 million, increasing its overall box office to $147 million.
So yeah, X-Men 2 still won the first place that week.
Superhero movies were getting popular and more people wanted to watch them. The hype that Spider-Man created affected X-Men 2 positively.
With that, X-Men 2 also dominated the second week of May.
Its reigning only ended when Warner Bros released Matrix Reloaded, one of the most anticipated movies this year. Despite being an R-rated movie, The Matrix Reloaded sold a lot of tickets.
The Matrix which was released in 1999 was highly regarded as one of the best R-Rated movies of all time.
People were excited to see Neo again.
Unfortunately, the Wachowskis received full authority in the production. The Wachowskis decided to focus more on philosophical scenes instead of giving the audience what they wanted.
The audience was left confused when the movie ended.
This was one of the reasons why directors rarely had full authority in the projects. Because most directors wanted to focus on artistic and philosophical scenes, forgetting the fact that the main reason for producing movies was to make money.
Thankfully, Kazir knew that the box office was the most important aspect of this industry. As long as you make money, people will respect you no matter what kind of genre you make.
Horror movie directors, Comedy movie directors, Action movie directors. As long as their movies make money, they will stay relevant.
The first weekend of The Matrix Reloaded grossed $73.38 million, kicking X-Men 2 out of its throne.
While the summer season was getting busy for Hollywood, Kazir also spent his time editing his project. All of the special effects of Pirates Of The Caribbean were finished and all he had to do was to combine every scene to make a movie.
With the help of Rector and the editing team, Pirates Of The Caribbean slowly formed its story. Kazir was determined to break the curse of pirate-themed movies.
While in the middle of editing, Kazir received a message from someone. It was from his girlfriend, Angelina Jolie.
The woman wanted to meet him in a bar to talk. Of course Kazir agreed. He also wanted to talk to Angelina about what happened last time.
"Guys, let's end the work today," Kazir announced.
"At last, an early exit." Rector was the first to leave the room, his wife would be grumpy again if he returned to the house late