My Hollywood System

Chapter 77:

After the promotion plan for [Sherlock Holmes] was decided, it was implemented straightaway.

Even without it, many people were talking about it in online forums and almost every reader of Sherlock Holmes novels was curious to see the movie.

But after the promotions started, the discussions increased and the curiosity towards the movie reached the top.

It was not like everyone was looking forward to it. Some critics thought the movie was bound to fail because of the inexperience of the director and lead actor. Though, even those people wanted to see the movie.

If the movie was going to fail, they wanted to know how badly it would fail.

And that was enough for Will.

He knew that after people watched the movie, it would spread by word of mouth. And recently, another one of his movies was spreading by word of mouth.

It was [17 again].

In two weeks, it had earned around 70 million and had already recovered the initial cost. By estimate, it will earn around 140-150 million and that was more than enough for MCA who invested in it.

Benjamin had even called him and said that the movie had worked wonders for the agency and they were now thinking of promoting Drake as the lead figure of the agency.

Even June was in the limelight in MCA.

In just a year, she had been part of two movies which had crossed 100 million in the box office. It was not a small feat and now, higher ups in MCA were finally thinking of her.

Benjamin had told him that they would try to get her in some more movies in supporting roles while thinking of a good movie for her to be the lead of.

This was the best news for Will.

Although he had plans to get her into his agency at first, he could only give up on it for now. She wanted to stand on her own so MCA would be the best place for her.

At least unlike a certain agency, he had a good relationship with it.

[17 again] also had an effect on him and after seeing his role in the movie, he had even got offers to act as the lead in some movies.

Will was very well aware that it wasn’t because of his acting. After all, his role wasn’t the most complex one or something. It was that of a bully. Nothing more, nothing less.

Those studios and directors just wanted to use his popularity for the benefit of their movies. After all, he was the man who was taking the biggest gamble in Hollywood.

That line had become a tag with his movie and to promote it, Foxstar had even released another poster with the same tagline under the title.

They were promoting the movie as such, completely confident of the quality.

Like this, many days went by. After finishing the editing with Emilia, the trailer of [Sherlock Holmes] was uploaded and it got 12 million views in just a week.

The people who were sceptical about Robert were hugely impressed and the movie’s tone and Holmes’ quirky nature were discussed a lot.

They have included the fight scene and Holmes getting knocked up in the scene and it was one of the most highlighted scenes.

A lot of British fans were overjoyed that the Holmes in the trailer matched one in the books. They didn’t care about the actor’s popularity and just wanted a good Holmes movie.

The movie got a lot of support from them.

The move with police also worked out. They agreed to get him to shoot a promo but they didn’t let Foxstar use their logo or anything about the movie. But it was enough.

The government was getting Sherlock Holmes and Robert was getting exposure.

The promo was basically a 30 second clip of Robert saying to be safe in Holmes style. To promote it, he and Levi Richards even spent a day solving Really small crimes with the police for a day.

Of course, they were in their Holmes and Watson character and were even wearing their costumes.

A video of Robert trying to rescue a cat from a tree even went viral.

With this, he was also appearing on talk shows and was becoming more and more popular. Dream Vision had gotten him a ‘blue tick’ on Sparrow and they were promoting the talk shows clips on his profile.

Especially the clip of him describing how he got knocked up during the shooting. It was truly hilarious, “Well, I tried hard to be the lead. You know cocky and all that, so I thought let’s do the fight myself. Next second, I was on the ground. Best punch I ever got.”

Will was happy hearing him like that. After getting his confidence, he was acting like the RDJ he knew of.

It was a great thing for him considering he wanted Robert to play the iconic role of Tony Stark in the upcoming years.

In the screening that had happened for just the Foxstar shareholders and executives, there were nothing but praises for the movie.

Even the ones who didn’t like Robert as the lead or Will as the director.

Spencer had even said that he wants to invest in the sequel and they can straightaway sign the sequel contract. Will of course won’t allow it.

He knew the potential the best. Unlike Spencer who thought the movie will earn over 300 million dollars, Will knew that it will earn at least 500 million.

The figure was something that only a few Hollywood movies had reached.

After the box office numbers were out, he could ask for way more benefits. And in Hollywood, it was all about benefits.

***

On the day of the premier that happened just for the journalists and celebrities, many people gathered.

It was just two days before the real premier but a lot of critics were called and literally everyone appeared. After all, they all wanted to know how the movie would be.

Some of them went expecting it to be bad and others found it promising, at least from the trailer.

Lucas Hunt was such the former. He was a movie critic that literally destroyed movies in his reviews, no matter the director or actor.

70 percent of his reviews were bad and he had even given bad reviews to Oscar winning directors which got him too much hate but in his views, he was only being a critic.

‘I can’t say it’s good if I don’t like it.’

That was his mentality.

He never felt that someone like Will was a good director. For [The Blair Witch Project], he praised the innovation and the acting, but completely roasted the storyline and felt it was another bad horror movie only saved by the innovative technique.

He felt like [Sherlock Holmes] would be the same.

And as soon as he saw Will on the premier greeting everyone, he went up to him and directly said.

“Don’t expect a good review from me. I have already thought of one and my words won’t be light.”

The newbie director, only two movies old in Hollywood, just smiled and asked in return.

“What if the movie is good?”

“That won’t happen. I don’t expect it to be at least.”

“You should keep an open eye. Maybe you might even like the movie.”

After that, they didn’t talk during the event. Will was aware of Lucas Hunt as he was one of the most infamous critics. He had even seen his review of his first movie and even agreed with it a little.

But [Sherlock Holmes] was different. And the next day, in his review of it, Lucas definitely kept an open eye.

[⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: A movie which could be the start of a franchise and maybe, one of the best ones this year.

-Lucas Hunt]

That review was enough for many of his regular followers to wonder if he was paid. But knowing his past, they all assumed that it was really the movie which was good.

Like him, there were more critics too.

[⭐⭐⭐: Watch it, by all means, for a dazzling visual feast, but be warned, this Sherlock is more show than tell.]

[⭐⭐⭐⭐: I was pleasantly surprised. It’s what the world wants and deserves. Robert did a great job, although it didn’t have the exact novel-image Sherlock.]

[⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Sherlock Holmes sets the bar for the detective subgenre in a bold, refreshingly auteur-driven manner.]

[⭐⭐⭐⭐: Will Evan’s self-possessed direction digs into the character with gravitas and precision, making for a reinvigorating return to basics]

[⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: The century’s biggest gamble – Will Evan’s may have truly defied the odds with this one and cemented his name in the Hollywood]

[⭐⭐⭐: A newbie director, a newbie male lead, and a thrilling two hours of mystery and intrigue.]

…

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