HWI 568
Hollywood What If Chapter 568
In February, some movies surpassed $100 million, such as:
Coraline. The movie grossed $237 million. It was a stop-motion animation.
He's Just Not That Into You. A romantic comedy that grossed $209 million.
Confessions of a Shopaholic. A romantic comedy that grossed $127 million.
Friday the 13th (2009). An origin story of a classic horror movie. The movie grossed $103 million.
Madea Goes to Jail. A comedy that grossed $120 million.
These five movies were the only ones that grossed over $100 million in the month of February.
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A monthly meeting was held in the conference room at Grey Pictures. Kazir and other important people in the company, such as Stella Willow, Harold Witsend, and others, were talking about their next plan for March.
But first, they tackled something important. Kazir was given a copy of a document. Information about three people was in the documents.
Two men and one woman. These were the three corporate spies that their management found after thoroughly filtering their employees. It was proven that these people shared important and secret information with other studios. The evidence was also in the document.
Kazir read the ten-page document, and his expression turned cold... No one wanted a corporate spy in the company. These spies could sabotage or share information that was crucial to Grey Pictures.
Corporate espionage was a serious offense, especially in an industry as competitive as Hollywood. Once it was proven that these employees had leaked confidential scripts, production schedules, and financial projections to rival studios, the consequences were swift and unforgiving.
All three individuals were immediately terminated from Grey Pictures, their company access revoked, and legal action initiated.
Kazir instructed the legal team to pursue charges for breach of contract and theft of intellectual property.
Additionally, Grey Pictures blacklisted their names within the industry, informing major studios and networks. In Hollywood, reputation was everything. Being labeled a corporate spy was a career death sentence.
If these people tried to apply for jobs, Grey Pictures would do its best to warn the employers.
No one wanted a snitch in their organization.
"I'll see to it, don't worry. I'm also mad about what they did," Stella added.
These three people shared information regarding Modern Family with Walt Disney and Universal Pictures.
If Walt Disney and Universal Pictures tried to hire these spies, then Grey Pictures would proceed with legal action.
They would make sure the three spies would suffer some jail time and pay a huge amount of fines before they could even ask for help from Walt Disney and Universal Pictures.
As for how the Modern Family information came to Warner Brothers, Paramount, and Sony-Colombia, Grey Pictures was still trying to figure it out. Perhaps Walt Disney and Universal Pictures shared the information with them.
Or perhaps there were still some unnoticed spies in the company that they failed to locate...
Well, Kazir believed that there were more spies. It was just that they couldn't find them because they were too discreet.
Anyway, teaching these three people a painful lesson would be a reminder to every employee in the company to never mess around.
The three spies went to jail for 8 years. Stella Willow used every means possible to make them suffer.
Anyway, the situation regarding corporate spies disappeared after that.
Unfortunately, the problems they caused never disappeared.
Since it was known that Grey Pictures had another TV show in production, TV networks started causing trouble, hoping that the broadcasting rights to Modern Family would be acquired by them.
Fox TV, or perhaps FOX, didn't like that, and they also started pestering Grey Pictures. They eagerly asked them to sign a contract to broadcast Modern Family. However, Grey Pictures was slowing down the negotiation since the company was also fighting for a better business deal.
In a way, this corporate espionage gave Grey Pictures some leeway to strike a better deal with FOX.
The whole of North America, Canada and Mexico included, was going crazy over Game of Thrones. Even European countries loved the show. It was not surprising that many TV networks wanted to acquire the broadcasting rights to Modern Family. They knew that Kazir was the writer, and he would create another masterpiece. Imagine how much money they could make from a comedy TV show.
For reference, Warner Brothers and the studio behind the TV series Friends earned approximately $4.8 billion!
Even The Office (U.S. version) earned over $3 billion after 9 seasons!
If Modern Family could earn at least one-third of that amount, it was already amazing. It was a business deal worthy of being taken seriously.
'Hm, let me guess... If I remember it right, Modern Family earned over $3 billion through ad sales, streaming, DVD, and merchandise. As for ABC, the TV network that broadcast Modern Family in the original timeline, ABC earned $2 billion... Unless my memories are not right. So yeah, I can understand why TV networks want our show.'
Kazir thought to himself.
As Kazir recalled the huge numbers, he couldn't help but smirk. The value of Modern Family was undeniable, and the bidding war between TV networks had only intensified in recent weeks, even though the show was still in production.
He knew that Grey Pictures had a unique advantage because of his creative reputation. Every network wanted a piece of that potential goldmine.
However, Kazir wasn't about to settle for just any deal. He had learned the power of taking advantage of the situation, especially after the corporate espionage scandal.
Now, he was in a position to play hard. Grey Pictures wasn't desperate. Modern Family would be broadcast by the TV network worthy of it.