February 14th, 1:00 AM.
After all the ads and waiting, My Big Fat Greek Wedding was finally released!
It opened in 2,150 theaters across North America. That was a huge number! It had 18.9% of all the movie screens in the country, which made it the number two movie of the day.
The only movie with more screens was Warner Bros.'s Message in a Bottle.
This shocked everyone in Hollywood.
"That's not right," said Jordan from Paramount, scratching his head. "Warner Bros. was trying to crush this movie. And all the news about it has been bad. How did Zane get so many theaters?"
Harvey Weinstein, the boss of Miramax, was also confused... and jealous!
"Something is wrong!" Harvey grumbled. "Wald Pictures is doing well, sure, but they aren't as powerful as Warner Bros.! How did they get more screens than us?"
Harvey was mad because his movie, She's All That, lost a lot of screens to make room for Zane's movie. He went from 900 theaters down to 720. That meant less money for him!
"Damn Zane Blackwood! Damn Warner Bros.!" Harvey yelled.
But he couldn't do anything. If even the giant Time Warner couldn't stop Zane, what could he do?
...
Meanwhile...
A boss from Warner Bros. named Robyn called Schmidt, a boss at Regal Cinemas (one of the biggest theater chains).
"Schmidt!" Robyn complained. "Why did you give Wald Pictures so many screens? You promised me you wouldn't give them more than 300. But now they have over 500! What happened?"
"I don't know," Schmidt said.
"You don't know?!" Robyn was getting angry. "Schmidt, we had a deal! AMC and Cinemark are doing the same thing. I thought we were friends!"
Schmidt got annoyed. "Robyn, watch your tone! I am not your employee! I can help you out sometimes, but I don't work for you."
He sighed. "Look, since we've been friends for a long time, I'll tell you. The decision didn't come from me. It came from the very top. The board of directors ordered us to give Zane more screens."
"The board of directors?" Robyn was stunned.
Warner Bros. was powerful, but they didn't own the theaters. If the owners of Regal, AMC, and Cinemark all decided to help Zane, Warner Bros. couldn't do anything about it. They couldn't fight all three theater chains at once! Damn it!" Robyn yelled, furious.
...
At Wald Pictures...
"Phew," Kevin Feige sighed, looking at the report. "Thank goodness the theaters are on our side. Without them, we would have been crushed by Warner Bros."
"Oh, by the way, Old Bill," Kevin asked, "do you know how the boss convinced them? We usually don't have that kind of power."
Old Bill smiled a wise smile. "I do know," he said.
"Just two days ago," Bill explained, "the boss met with the chairmen of all three big theater chains. He made them a bet."
"A bet?"
"Yes," Bill said. "He proposed a 'box office gamble.' He told them, 'If my movie makes less than $150 million in North America... I will give up all my profits. I will personally pay you the difference.'"
Kevin was shocked. $150 million?!
That was a huge, crazy bet! Most movies didn't make that much.
Gambling like this was an old-school trick, but almost no one did it anymore because it was so risky.
But... Zane's bet was too good to refuse. The theaters knew they couldn't lose. If the movie flopped, Zane would pay them. If it was a hit, they would make money anyway. It was a guaranteed win for them.
Why did Zane do it? Because he was a time traveler! He knew the movie was going to be a giant hit. He knew he would win the bet.
"So," Kevin said, "we fixed the theater problem. Now we just have to worry about the media."
Warner Bros. owned magazines, TV stations, and newspapers. They could say whatever they wanted. Zane's company was much smaller. If Warner kept saying bad things about the movie, people might not go see it.
"Haha!" Old Bill laughed. "Kevin, don't worry. Our boss has an amazing talent for handling the media. Just wait and see. There's going to be a good show."
"Huh?" Kevin was confused. What was Zane planning now?
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