Hollywood What If

Chapter 345

Actually, X-Men was the second successful movie franchise for Marvel Comics.

Blade was released in 1998 and was a box office hit. Perhaps the box office success of Blade started the hype surrounding the vampire genre.

The film starred Wesley Snipes as Blade.

'... Speaking of Wesley Snipes, the actor tried to audition for the role of Robert McCall, the protagonist of The Equalizer.'

Kazir remembered this fact because The Equalizer has been hyped and promoted quite a bit lately. Also, Wesley Snipes was a famous black actor.

Unfortunately, Kazir Grey wanted to hire Denzel Washington... Kazir also knew that Wesley Snipes had a temper. Working with someone like that could jeopardize the franchise.

'I remembered that Blade 3 had a lot of problems. Wesley Snipes was always high on drugs when he was on the set. Wesley and the director confronted each other and promised never to work together again... This just rumors though.'

Blade was produced by New Line Cinema, who of course bought the rights from Marvel Comics. This franchise was the reason why Marvel Comics recently focused their business on movies. They saw hope, they saw how they could survive and possibly become the most famous superhero franchise in the industry, beating DC Comics.

The first installment of Blade (1998) grossed $131 million. The budget was $45 million.

The second film, Blade 2 (2002), grossed $155 million. The budget was $54 million.

It may be nothing compared to the box office of CCU movies, but it was true that the Blade franchise was profitable.

Marvel Comics realized they could use this method to stay relevant. Blade (1998) gave them a chance.

And then in 2000, X-Men was released and it slowly changed the trajectory of the company.

The movie rights to X-Men were acquired by 20th Century Fox. 20th Century Fox purchased the movie rights to X-Men and other related characters in 1994 for $2,600,000.

Honestly, 20th Century Fox was lucky to acquire X-Men because X-Men had a lot of characters they could use... One of those characters was Deadpool. A crazy mutant who can break the fourth wall.

20th Century Fox took advantage of Marvel Comics' moment of weakness and now they were having a time of their lives making money by making X-Men movies.

The first X-Men movie grossed $296 million on a budget of $75 million. This surge in box office gave Marvel Comics a better idea about their business and how to stay relevant.

Marvel Comics was doing well after X-Men, but everything changed when Spider-Man was released in 2001!

This movie was the fourth film to gross $1 billion at the box office! Sony-Colombia recognized the importance of this project by hiring someone as talented as Kazir Grey. Maybe that was the factor that made Spider-Man super successful.

No matter how you look at it, $1.09 billion was a success. By the way, Spider-Man made more than that. Merchandise related to the friendly neighborhood web-slinging hero was selling like hotcakes.

Spider-Man affected Marvel Comics in a very good way. Their comics, especially those related to Spider-Man, sold a lot. Toys, DVDs, t-shirts, and other stuff were sold out fast.

Those three movies were the beginning of the redemption arc for Marvel Comics.

......

...

...

At the premiere of X-Men 2, Kazir attended since he had to talk to the management of Marvel.

Kazir found Stan Lee talking to Hugh Jackman. Although Wolverine was only one of the characters in X-Men, his character was the most famous.

In fact, Kazir knew that Wolverine would have three standalone films starring Hugh Jackman.

There is only one Wolverine, and that is Hugh Jackman.

'Well, Tom Hardy and Jensen Ackles can play the role. But that's my opinion. People are allowed to have their own opinions.' Kazir thought to himself.

Hugh Jackman saw Kazir and said hello to the director. Nothing wrong with greeting someone as famous as Kazir.

"Good evening, director."

"Good evening, Hugh."

The two were not that close and Hugh excused himself.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Stan Lee and Kazir had their conversation as the theater slowly filled with people.

"Have you heard the news?"

Stan Lee asked the director.

"Are you talking about Chairman Eisner's resignation?"

"No, not that... I don't even know who you're talking about. I'm talking about Warner Brothers and DC Comics. I heard that they are also trying to start a Cinematic Universe. What do you think about that?"

Kazir nodded.

He had heard about it, too, and he knew that Warner Brothers was serious. However, Kazir knew the outcome of their plan.

Superman Returns and Batman Begins are their launch movies. Too bad, because Superman Returns was a lost cause.

Superman Returns only made $391 million at the box office. For something like Superman, that was too little. Especially when the production cost of the movie was over $200 million.

Warner Brothers suffered a lot from Superman Returns.

Fortunately, Batman Begins did well. It grossed $373 million against a budget of $150 million. It clearly did better than Superman Returns.

Because of this failure, Warner Brothers decided to make Batman a trilogy instead and called it The Dark Knight.

As for their plan for the Cinematic Universe, they had to adjust and wait a few years for people to forget about the failure of Superman Returns.

Man Of Steel was released in 2013, the starting film of the DCEU. This time, Warner Brothers decided to go for a darker theme. To show how destructive Superman's race really was. And this plan worked, the movie made $668 million with a budget of $225 million.

'Unless Warner Brothers and DC decided to go with a darker storyline, their plan to start a Cinematic Universe will fail this time. Although I have to admit that The Dark Knight trilogy is a masterpiece. I can't wait to see it in theaters.'

"Kazir, DC Comics is the most famous comic book publisher in North America. I hate to say it, but they beat Marvel a long time ago." Stan Lee admitted, gritting his teeth.

The two companies had the same products and a decade ago they were on equal footing. But things started to go downhill for Marvel Comics when Superman and Batman hit the big screen. More people preferred DC Comics.

"Stan, are you afraid of DC Comics?"

He teased the old man, and Stan Lee shook his head.

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[There will be two more chapters later.]