HWI 531

Hollywood What If Chapter 531

After the question and answer portion, the host smiled and announced the next segment.

"And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. The exclusive first trailer of The Dark Knight!"

The fans cheered but they quickly turned quiet as the lights turned off. The projector screen lit up and the trailer for the movie rolled.

Kazir turned around and looked up... The angle he was looking at was not the best so he just laughed. Well, he was the one who created this trailer so he knew what the trailer was all about.

The low, dark, haunting sound. Then Batman appeared at the top of a building; he fell and glided into the dark night.

The logo of Warner Brothers and DC Comics also showed up. Then the next scene was Joker's monologue while the scenes were about the chaos he created.

Explosions and cars rolling around like toys, while background sound was Joker laughing maniacally.

The Batmobile's cool appearance.

Bruce Banner talking to Harvey Dent.

Then the climax of the trailer started as The Joker showed up and hijacked a party, holding a shotgun.

The music intensified.

More explosions.

The monologue between the Joker and Batman.

In the last second of the trailer was the release date of the movie which was July 8, 2008.

And yeah, the trailer was only 2 minutes and 30 seconds so it didn't last that long. Still, this was enough to satisfy the fans as they screamed and clapped their hands once the lights returned.

The cast bid their farewell after promoting the movie.

"Let's see each other on July 18. You will witness Batman's glory."

That was what Kazir said before leaving the place.

As expected, the Marvel section also ended their programs around the same time, and Kazir couldn't attend. Marvel Studio also hoped that the fans would watch Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk in theaters.

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March just passed by and Kazir spent most of his time filming Ninja Assassin. This was just a norm for him and he liked what he was doing.

The production crew had already adapted to Kazir's work ethic and knew that the director was the liveliest when he was sitting on his director's chair... This was confusing because almost everyone agreed that sitting on a director's chair was uncomfortable.

Anyway, only three movies performed well at the box office in March.

They were:

10,000 B.C. A movie distributed by Warner Brothers and had a budget of over $100 million. The movie grossed over $269 million when it ended its screening. They received mixed reviews regarding history inaccuracies. Overall, it's performance was created and the audience liked it.

The second was Horton Hears a Who, a movie based on Doctor Seuss. It was a 3D animated movie, produced by Blue Sky Studio and distributed by 20th Century Fox. This studio was getting stronger after three of its movies received great attention from the moviegoers. The movie grossed over $383 million while having $83 million as a production cost.

The third and last movie was 21. Yes, the title of the movie was 21. It was a drama heist about making money in Las Vegas using card-counting strategies. The movie only had $36 million as its budget but it grossed over $187 million.

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In April, Kazir continued the filming of Ninja Assassin. Whenever he had free time, he would spend it with his girlfriend.

The promotion of summer movies intensified, and people could see posters and billboards promoting movies everywhere. Many comic-related stuff spread around this time. Perhaps this was a form of signal since three comic superheroes would be released in the summer.

As for movies that were released this month. They were basically weak, and none surpassed $200 million, so it didn't matter if they were listed or not.

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Just like that, May 2 arrived and Iron Man had its premiere. Marvel Studio and 20th Century Fox did their best to promote the movie. They knew that Iron Man was not a popular superhero, so they had to spread Iron Man comics in the United States; they basically gave these comics to people to catch their attention.

The budget of Iron Man was around $140 million and they hoped that the movie would make at least double that amount to make it worthwhile.

In the original timeline, the distributor of Iron Man was Paramount Pictures but 20th Century Fox took that job this time. Perhaps this change could affect the performance of Iron Man.

Since Kazir couldn't attend the promotion at Comic-Con, he had to make it up by attending the premiere. He had a stake in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so he couldn't disregard the premiere.

In fact, Grey Pictures had a 3% box office share and a 6% peripheral profit share with Iron Man since they technically owned the copyrights of Iron Man.

Even though Grey Pictures didn't invest a single cent in the movie, they were qualified to get a share of the profit. Sometimes people were amazed at Kazir's prediction. The director probably saw the potential of Marvel characters and bought them.

As for Ninja Assassin, Kazir already filmed most of the scenes. The movie was not heavily reliant on CGI so Kazir could probably end the production in three months. That was fast, as expected.

As for his next film, Kazir had no idea. Perhaps he would take a year's rest since he had been working too much for two decades now. He never had a chance for a long rest.