chapter 358

    american wedding and the equalizer premiered on the same day.

    they were both mid-budget movies, and both movies had a budget of $55 million.

    the production budget for movies kept going up, and $55 million was now considered mid-budget for movies. a decade ago, $55 million was a huge amount of money to make a movie.

    after one week in theaters, american wedding grossed $49.75 million, which was an amazing feat since american wedding was an r-rated comedy. perhaps many adults could relate to the humor of the movie.

    the big six were surprised that this franchise actually had the power to do well at the box office... unfortunately for universal pictures, this sex comedy couldn''t maximize its profit because its rival was much stronger.

    if american wedding grossed $49 million, then the equalizer showed the importance of world-building. the continental cinematic universe was a universe where hitmen, assassins, agents and ninjas lived with their almost superhuman physiques. ccu was molded over the years and created a perfect universe. the audience loved it.

    everyone in the industry understood that the success of the equalizer was due to the continental cinematic universe. if this action movie was not part of that huge universe, then it might be nothing to moviegoers.

    with that, the first seven days of the equalizer was $92.97 million.

    obviously, the equalizer took the top spot in the weekly box office.

    universal pictures couldn''t help but shake their heads and accept the result. it would be detrimental if they rescheduled american wedding, they would lose their money since they had already promoted the movie for months.

    august was the last month of summer and they had no choice but to put it in the first week to make it relevant... and it seems that 20th century fox and grey pictures had the same idea and put the equalizer in the same week.

    for the most part, the big six were careful not to release their movies in the same week. but there were also cases where two mid-budget movies were released on the same week. both sides would be affected because they couldn''t maximize the potential of their movies. one of the two would surely lose its ground and fall off the scene, american wedding suffered that fate while the equalizer continued to thrive.

    toy story, a bug''s life, toy story 2, monsters, inc. and finding nemo were the recent projects released by pixar. finding nemo, which was released this year, gained a lot of reputation and positive reviews. finding nemo has been in theaters for almost three months and has currently grossed more than $322 million. for obvious reasons, animated films tend to have a longer life in theaters, unlike horror and r-rated films.

    below pixar was dreamworks animation. this company also had amazing movies, but they couldn''t compete with pixar, at least in the 90s and 00s... things would change around 2020s when people started to lose interest in disney movies.

    so far, dreamworks has made antz, the prince of egypt, the road to el dorado, chicken run, joseph: king of dreams, shrek, spirit: stallion of cimarron, and sinbad: legend of the seven seas. dreamworks currently only made two 3d animated films, antz and shrek, with shrek becoming one of their most profitable franchises of all time.

    next in line were blue sky studio and illumination.

    so far, blue sky has only made one movie and that was ice age. the movie was released last year and grossed $383 million at the worldwide box office. honestly, the movie was not bad since it only cost $59 million to make.

    the main problem with 3d animated movies was time. it took a lot of time to make a 3d animated movie, especially when the technology was just starting to blossom. pixar could only make one every two years, that''s how difficult it was. and that was considered fast.

    as for illumination, that studio was owned by universal pictures... and it did not exist currently.

    illumination would release their first movie in 2010, their first movie was despicable me.

    so yeah, there are only three computer animation studios in hollywood right now. with blue sky studio being the weakest.

    ''blue sky, huh... their first movie is not that bad. yes, the animation is not that great, but they can polish it with experience.''

    bob iger was thinking of blue sky studio, which made its debut last year. suddenly he had an epiphany.