Chapter 291

Chapter 291

[I know people are getting tired of me, but I just want to say that this novel is fiction and has nothing to do with reality. Don't take it seriously].

Cinematic Universe. A huge franchise that made billions at the box office and its influence around the world was astronomical. Even outside the box office, the money it generated was in the billions.

Back in Kazir's past life, there were only a few cinematic universes that could be considered successful. The MCU, the DCEU and the Monsterverse.

Star Trek and Star Wars could also be considered Cinematic Universe, but they were just one franchise with many sequels, in Kazir's opinion. There was a difference.

However, after Kazir introduced the CCU, he basically messed with the timeline and changed a lot of things.

Now, the CCU was the first official Cinematic Universe in this timeline, and Kazir was the founder of it.

There was no Continental Cinematic Universe in the original timeline. Kazir basically put action movies into one universe and created a unique version.

Kazir deserved a credit for that.

The money they made on that project was huge and Grey Pictures had a lot of money to invest in their own film promotion.

"If Kazir and Grey Pictures can do it, why not us? We are one of the Big Six, the biggest studio in the world, and we can produce more quality films than a second-tier studio like Grey Pictures."

That was Michael Eisner's view. He firmly believed that Walt Disney was capable of producing its own Cinematic Universe.

However, he also admitted that creating one was dangerous and they were unsure of the consequences. To begin with, this "genre" was new and Grey Pictures was pioneering it.

Michael Eisner felt that such an ambitious goal was impossible because of the cost and the situation. Nobody knew the future and they didn't know if this venture would be successful. It would be difficult to bring many of the protagonists of each franchise into one universe. But Grey Pictures did it and made a lot of money doing it.

This was the reason why Michael Eisner wanted Disney to start its own Cinematic Universe.

Michael Eisner didn't hesitate to acquire the Barsoom series as his playground. The novel was popular and the author was famous. Even though decades had passed, it could still attract the attention of many people.

They even invested another $100 million in promoting the film, bringing their total expenditure to $350 million.

$250 million production cost + $100 million for marketing.

The executives at Walt Disney knew that the investment was huge, but they agreed because of the promising future that the Cinematic Universe could bring.

The initial net worth of Grey Pictures was only $1-2 billion at best, but the success of Continental Cinematic Universe changed everything. The company's net worth skyrocketed last year, especially when John Wick Chapter 2 and The Fast and The Furious grossed more than $1 billion at the box office combined, giving Grey Pictures a higher status.

John Carter's first day box office was a paltry $9 million.

Sounds promising, right? After all, many films could hardly do that on their first day, right?

But John Carter was different... Or rather, the amount of money they invested in this shit was fucking huge.

350 million dollars! For a single film, they invest $350 million!

The executives were not stupid. They had been in the business a long time and knew that $9 million on the first day was not enough to recoup their investment.

The management did some calculations and predicted that the first weekend of John Carter would only be around $30 million at best.

Yeah... the shit hit the fan.

"N- No! Listen to me! This is just the beginning. The box office will be better in the next few days, I believe. We're still doing our best promotion, right?"

Michael Eisner faced the shareholders and executives. He tried his best to calm things down.

With his friend Michael Ovitz gone, Eisner was beginning to lose his authority.

He prayed that John Carter would never betray him...

"Box office my ass! Have you forgotten that Star Wars will be released two weeks from now? We are losing money because of your stubborn decisions!"

On 16th May 2002, Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones was going to be released.

This film certainly affected the performance of John Carter after its release. Star Wars had so many fans in the United States alone.

"No, this can't be happening..."

Michael Eisner felt he would be fired after this. He was sweating profusely.

Suddenly he remembered the time he had first negotiated with Kazir. If he agreed to kick Harvey Weinstein out of Disney and Miramax, perhaps his relationship with Kazir would change for the better. The director could have worked with Walt Disney. But alas, regret was of no use in the current situation.

He could only hope that John Carter wouldn't be his downfall.