Hollywood What If Chapter 441
[Author's Note: After looking at it again, I found that the distributor of La La Land was actually Lionsgate. I made a mistake last time, but I'm too lazy to edit.]
La La Land was first released on November 25 at the American Film Institute Festival in Los Angeles as a small premiere.
The movie didn't win any awards, so the film crew had to settle for seven days of small screenings in Los Angeles, only having 5 theaters to release the movie on December 9.
This was one of the requirements to get a nomination for the Academy Awards. The movie should have a theatrical release that must last at least seven consecutive days, with at least three screenings per day.
So seven days passed by, and the movie grossed $1 million. For a movie that only had 5 theaters screening it for seven days, that result was not that bad.
Lionsgate fought for more theaters. The Cinema Alliance was trying to assess the profitability of La La Land. They knew that the director of this movie was Fremont Smith. Fremont was known for making action movies, and this musical was definitely not his forte. Still, they decided to give the movie 200 theaters at the start of December 16.
When the 200 theaters were announced, Lionsgate officially planned a red carpet.
The cast of La La Land obviously attended the event despite the not-so-good publicity. After all, Lionsgate was just a second-tier studio. The company didn't have much power to move the media.
Thankfully, Lionsgate was gaining confidence in its business decisions, especially after the success of Saw at the box office.
They spent money on La La Land, that was for sure.
Kazir attended the red carpet but didn't stay long. It was not his movie, and he was not part of the cast. He didn't want the audience to focus their attention on him. Once the movie was done, Kazir congratulated Fremont, Brianna, and even Ryan Gosling. After that, he left the theater.
Sixteen days after the screening of La La Land, the movie grossed $9 million at the box office with 200 theaters.
The Cinema Alliance saw the profitability, so they decided to give it more theaters. They felt that the movie would do better compared to the other movies released in the same month.
In December, the only movies that could compete with La La Land were Blade: Trinity, Ocean's Twelve, Million Dollar Baby, and The Aviator.
The matchups for December 2004 were kind of weak. There was no Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings to dominate the month. Most of the time, those two would be released in December.
Well, the Lord of the Rings trilogy was completed, while Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was already released in May.
Since the Cinema Alliance couldn't find promising gems in the releases this month, they decided to assign more theaters to La La Land.
When Christmas arrived, the number of theaters screening La La Land went up to over 700.
That was the start of La La Land's smooth sailing. Lionsgate was so happy when they saw the numbers going up. They were the investor and distributor of La La Land, so they would have suffered the most if the movie had failed.
Thankfully, that didn't happen. Even Fremont and the cast sighed in relief when they saw that their movie was doing well.
Nobody wanted to see their hard work and art piece fail.
While La La Land was having its screening, Fremont and the cast also promoted the movie. Not only that, but Fremont and Brianna also attended many parties in Los Angeles. Even Ryan Gosling joined the campaign in the hope that he would also get a nomination.
God knows how hard it was to get a nomination. Most of the time, it was about how much money you were willing to spend.
The Academy Awards were not about performing arts anymore. It was about who was going to spoil them.
Kazir experienced it once and had no intention of trying again. Sure, the award was prestigious, but the Academy Awards were never fair. It was the money and politics behind the votes.
......
...
...
January arrived, obviously.
Kazir didn't have much time to spend on vacation. His vacation was making movies, that was the happiest moment of his life. But of course, he visited his family in New York.
The filming of Batman restarted, and their schedule was moving forward at a fast but expected pace.
While in that process, Enrico Pusi actually asked him about the possibility of adding Constantine to their DC Cinematic Universe.
"What?"
Kazir was confused at first. Yes, he knew about their so-called Cinematic Universe, but he didn't take it seriously because he knew that Warner Brothers would have a hard time making one. The official start of the DCEU was in 2013, using Man of Steel.
He chuckled.
"Enrico, before thinking about a Cinematic Universe, you should make sure that the movies are profitable first. If the initial movies don't make money, then the Cinematic Universe you guys are planning might not happen at all."
"..."
Enrico was speechless.
Constantine.
Superman Returns.
Green Lantern.
Catwoman.
They all had similarities.
One, they were all from DC Comics. Second, they flopped.
They had huge production costs, but the box office they generated couldn't return the investment. This is also the reason why they didn't get sequels…
Although there were rumors that Keanu Reeves was interested in Constantine 2, well, that movie might happen around two decades later.
[Third chapter of the day.]