[Note: I never watched any of The Equalizer so I didn't add the summary. And I also have 6 chapters of HWI to go.]
Sean William Scott stood in front of the audience of SNL(Saturday Night Live).
He was telling jokes and his delivery was on point, the audience liked it very much.
He was a guest this time, trying to promote the movie he was in. Sean knew that their movie might lose this time but there was nothing wrong with trying.
Besides, even Universal Pictures was hoping that this sequel would be worth it. Or else Sean won't be in SNL to promote the movie.
"By the way, don't forget to watch our movie, American Wedding! Sounds familiar? That's right, it's the sequel to American Pie!"
He announced and the audience cheered him.
Their movie, American Wedding, was set to be released on August 1, 2003. The movie was promising and Sean already watched it, it was good.
However, Sean and the cast were nervous regarding the success of their movie. Universal Pictures might suffer this year since only a few of their movies did well. And it seemed that American Wedding might also flop.
Because on the same day, The Equalizer would have its premiere.
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Unlike the budget for Pirates Of The Caribbean and Wanted 2, The Equalizer only had a budget of $55 million. The highest paying person in the crew was Denzel Washington, with $10 million. Even the director had a smaller salary compared to the actor.
Of course, almost all of the cast had small salaries except for some cameos from Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker).
Grey Pictures and 20th Century Fox were not looking for huge results such as over $500 million. They would be satisfied as long as the movie surpassed $200 million because the production cost and promotion budget were not big.
The two companies decided to focus more of their resources on Pirates Of The Caribbean and Wanted 2 since these two had better chances at the box office.
Of course, they didn't abandon The Equalizer, they just put more promotion on Pirates Of The Caribbean and Wanted 2. Grey Pictures was having trouble regarding their funds so the company couldn't invest more in The Equalizer.
Kazir thought that he should start looking for investors for his movie projects outside of CCU. That's the only way to keep the company breathing.
Three movies and one TV Show were enough to choke the company.
Just like that, August 1 arrived, and both Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox became busy.
One was doing a red carpet in TCL Chinese Theater while the other one was in Universal Cinema AMC.
The others had Denzel Washington, Kazir Grey, and the cast of The Equalizer.
As for American Wedding... Well, most of its cast was not that famous except for Allison Hannigan and Sean William Scott. Although Universal Pictures invited Leonardo DiCaprio as a guest, to attract more attention.
Before 12 midnight, both shows started the premiere of their movies.
The strongest advantage that The Equalizer had was that the movie was part of a huge Cinematic Universe, making it more interesting. In fact, most of the audience who watched the movie were fans of CCU. They had no idea what The Equalizer really meant.
As for American Wedding, the movie was a comedy and it was a sequel to a successful movie. It already had a fan base that would buy tickets.
However, American Wedding was an R-rated movie because it was a sex comedy film. This could limit the profit of American Wedding.
As for The Equalizer... Well, it was also R-rated. 20th Century Fox and even Stella Willow were against it but Kazir wanted the movie to maintain its bloody and dark theme, just like John Wick. So yes, the kids couldn't watch this movie, unfortunately.
The two were both R-rated but had different genres. Both sides wanted to defeat the other to make more money.
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"Hello, babe? How's your day? Oh my bad, how's your night? It's already morning here in New York."
Angelina and Kazir had a phone conversation. The actress was promoting the movie in New York and she might be back in a week or two.
As of August 1, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life grossed $31.25 million at the North American box office.
As for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, it already made $196.33 million in North America. The international release will happen next week, starting from English-speaking countries.
"It's fine, we just finished the premiere and the reactions of the audience are not that bad. I'm in Fox's headquarters right now, waiting for the midnight result of The Equalizer."
Kazir slightly yawned.
If it was 7 A.M. in New York, then if was still 4 A.M. in Los Angeles and the sun was still missing to light the surrounding, Kazir was sleepy.
"Promise me that you will take a rest once you hear the result."
"I promise." Kazir nodded and ended the call.
He returned to the office and found people sitting in front of their computers, computing the midnight box office.
Even Tom Rothman was in the office, waiting for the news.
After tabulating the box office, the person passed the documents to Tom Rothman and Kazir Grey.
"This result has 97% accuracy."
"... Looks like there's no reason to be afraid of American Wedding," Kazir muttered and Tom agreed.
The result of the midnight box office was $5 million.