chapter 355

    "i don''t know if we''re lucky or not."

    ronald meyer of universal pictures sighed as he looked at the data they had collected.

    universal was happy that the equalizer had been moved to august, giving johnny english time to breathe... however, their expectations were met with disappointment.

    johnny english, starring rowan atkinson, was released on july 18.

    "july 18th..." he muttered weakly.

    the equalizer changed its release date, but johnny english still met a strong opponent that week. it was bad boys ii, starring will smith and martin lawrence. this movie was also directed by michael bay.

    the toughest opponents were usually sequels to successful movies and bad boys ii fit the criteria very well.

    johnny english only made $9 million in its first weekend, while bad boys ii made a whopping $46 million at the box office.

    obviously, bad boys ii dominated the theaters and stole the most tickets from johnny english. between the two, moviegoers would definitely choose bad boys ii because it had a better premise and a successful franchise.

    so even though johnny english dodged the equalizer, they still lost to bad boys ii. their hard work was in vain.

    "maybe it''s a good thing that johnny english only made $40 million. we should lower the promotion budget for this week."

    suddenly, there was a knock at the door informing ronald that someone wanted to see him.

    "sir, peter jackson is here." the secretary announced.

    "tell him to come in."

    ronald returned to his serious expression, casually hiding the disappointing documents regarding johnny english.

    peter jackson, his success in the last few years was obvious. he resurrected the glory of lord of the rings by bringing that piece of literature to theaters, creating another culture for americans to follow.

    star wars became a culture.

    lord of the rings also became a culture.

    and yes, even harry potter became a culture.

    ......

    ...

    ...

    july 28.

    it had been three days since the premiere of lara croft: tomb raider - the cradle of life.

    as usual, the cast of the movie had to promote the movie by going to different states, appearing on some local tv shows or guesting on famous shows like the tonight show with jay leno or the oprah winfrey show.

    in those three days, the movie grossed $21.78 million. it may be smaller than pirates of the caribbean and bad boys ii, but it was clearly a win for paramount pictures. they understood that bad boys ii and pirates of the caribbean were directed by superstar directors and it would be hard to copy their performance.

    in fact, paramount pictures hoped to have the opportunity to work with kazir grey, michael bay and peter jackson. knowing that these directors were the kings of the box office at this time.

    steven spielberg rarely makes films outside of dreamworks. the director focused his attention on his own company.

    james cameron never accepted any projects after solaris, which was a huge failure. there was news that james cameron was working on something about cgi and motion capture technologies.

    robert zemeckis is currently concentrating on the polar express.

    quentin tarantino was never a mainstream director and his films were not family friendly.

    and even when these directors worked with paramount pictures, the chances of making a profit were not certain.

    they were not kazir grey, a director who never made a bad movie... except for his three horror films.

    even before the new century, the industry knew the importance of talented directors. they were the brains of the movies, and hiring someone to direct a major movie was something to be taken seriously.

    if paramount had a chance, they would pay director grey $20 million plus box office shares just to work with him. because the director was the sure definition of making a profit.

    +++++

    [this first chapter of today.]