Just two weeks after the release of [Disconnected], the screens allocated to it were dropped to 300 from 1500. Theatre chains didn't want to show a flop movie that won't attract an audience.
Other movies were also released at the same time. There were no big franchise movies, but there were still movies like [The Lost Bird] which was an adventure movie that was inspired by 90s classics. It was an original movie with a good cast, so it attracted a good number of people.
There was also [Evangeline], which was a movie on the life of a robot in a fictional world and her story of bonding with a young man who had no one else in his life.
It was a very niche melodrama, but it was still way better than [Disconnected].
It was predicted that in just another week, [Disconnected] was going to be out of most theatres in America and even other parts of the world.
It was a very sad state for the producers.
That's why they were trying their best to recover the losses elsewhere. One of those was selling the streaming rights, and as both Black Line Cinema and SGA had good connections with Zetflix, they obviously went for it.
Rishi Suman, the executive producer, working on [Disconnected] and the person who had let SGA run rampant to curry favour with them, was the person tasked to get the best deal from Zetflix.
The studio needed to get as much money as possible.
"Our platform has decided that if we are going to reach a mutual agreement, then it should be established that Zetflix is going to buy out the movie for an amount. It would be less complicated for both of us like that."
A bald man said, looking at Rishi. He was currently in a meeting with one of the senior managers from the content creation department. Alongside him, there were some other people, including a lawyer.
Licensing the movie to a streaming platform had a lot of complications, and the platform and a studio would negotiate and renegotiate a lot of times.
One also needs to be careful of clauses like the expiry date of the license agreement. Some movies just moved platforms after a few years because of clauses like this, and there were a few more that decided the total price of a movie.
But for a movie like [Disconnected], Zetflix was sure that it was going to be an easy deal.
"We are fine with it."
Rishi said, smiling. That was what he wanted in the first place. He was clearly desperate.
The bald guy smiled seeing that. Rather than a pay-per-play agreement which was more complicated, straight-out buying made everything very easy.
"Let me be honest then. We are willing to pay 2 million dollars for the movie."
"That's a bit low."
Rishi's face scrunched up hearing that, but the bald man continued.
"You yourself know that the movie was a flop at the box office. There's not really a whole lot of excitement among people to watch it on a streaming platform either. No hype, so it wasn't going to get a lot of watch hours."
He was basically implying that they were buying the movie, not for the quality, nor did they have any confidence that the movie was going to do well on their platform.
Only reason they were buying it was because of their relationship with Black Line Cinema and to get a few more movies in their library.
For a streaming platform, having a good quantity of movies was necessary.
"You will get hype if you try to create it." Rishi countered back, but the bald man shook his head.
"People already know the movie is not good. The ratings are around 4-5 stars out of 10, and most critics didn't like it. How will we hype it? It's not like it's a straight-out fun, silly and entertaining movie either that you could watch when you are bored."
Both of them argued like that for a while, giving different arguments and trying to negotiate a deal that both parties could agree with.
But Rishi was having it hard, trying to increase the price of the movie.
'It's way easier to sell a successful movie as I could talk a lot about the points, but it's already a good thing that Zetflix is interested in buying out a flop movie. Just 2 million is too low of a price.'
That was the thought in his mind.
No matter what he said, his arguments were something that he himself didn't believe in. There were not a lot of good points to highlight about [Disconnected].
At the end, when Rishi was on the verge of just agreeing with the bald man, a woman from the Zetflix side whispered something in the ears of the bald man.
He nodded his head with a smile and looked at Rishi.
"Actually, we have an offer. We heard something very interesting, and we are very curious to know if it's true. There's a director's cut for [Disconnected], right?"
"Ah, yeah."
Rishi said, tilting his head. He was curious to know why they were asking about that.
"So, we are actually willing to give 5 million dollars if the deal includes the director's cut. We do want a screening of the cut before, but if everything goes well, we could pay up to 5 million dollars for it."
Hearing that, Rishi wondered if it was true.
'5 million dollars.'
That was an amount that he instantly agreed for.
***
As [Disconnected] flopped at the box office, the people who were the most disappointed were Aiden's fans. A lot of them had gotten very high expectations after [30 days of Happiness], and they were massively disappointed.
A lot of them had gone to watch the movie but realised that Aiden didn't even have much of a role.
A lot of them even bashed Black Line Cinema for the movie.
It was then that Aiden's next project [Sherlock of the Shadows] was announced on the official handle of Zetflix. There was no poster and not a lot of information was revealed.
But the post clearly mentioned Aiden.
<Aiden Silvereye is Finn Wheeler in the supernatural detective series [Sherlock of the Shadows].>
That was the title of the post, and they had also attached a photo of Aiden alongside the director Phineas Flinch.
Soon after the announcement, other notable websites and magazines also released articles on it with further information on the project.
One of these websites revealed in their article, "Apparently, [Sherlock of the Shadows] would follow the journey of a character who could see ghosts and juggle between the supernatural as well as being a detective."
That was enough information for people to be interested in the show. Aiden's fan group was also excited as this was some good news when they were feeling down with disappointment.
[Skyneves: [Sherlock of the Shadows] is such a cool title. I'm also glad that people are thinking of using superpowers in different ways. I'm tired of always being a superhero when one has superpowers. There could be a lot more that could be done with them. A mystery, conspiracy theory show or even a show along the lines of trying to be normal while having superpowers.]
[The Frog Queen: I feel like anime is much better in that regard. Anyway, I feel like this would hit the home run if the trailers look good. They are apparently shooting it with a lot of VFX.]
[Doing your mom: Finally! Aiden in a high-concept series. I'm pretty sure it would be better than the garbage that [Disconnected] was. At least we know that the focus would be on Aiden since he's the lead of the show.]
[Rich countries create problems because they are bored: Man, I don't know about it. My expectations are zero after [Disconnected]. I would only watch it if the reviews are good.]
[Twerking green monster: Time to get a Zetflix subscription. Although I really wish they stop making stupid shows and testing the IQ of the audience. Even erotica like [The Pleasure of Pain] is better than those.]
As they talked, suddenly, Hollywood Insider sent a message filled with very interesting info.
[Hollywood Insider: I just heard that Zetflix brought up the streaming rights for [Disconnected] for more than 5 million dollars. Something interesting is going to happen for sure. #Smirk]
[Why are feminist characters masculine: 5 million dollars for that? They overpaid a lot. Their business management surely doesn't understand the value of things.]
[Hollywood Insider: No, they are very smart. From what I heard, they are soon going to start a marketing strategy for [Disconnected]. I'm telling you something very special is going to happen in the next few days. #Know it all.]
No one in the fan group understood what Hollywood Insider was talking about.
Newer members ignored him as a guy speaking nonsense, but the older ones knew that his username was absolutely true.
He was someone who knew everything about Hollywood and had never given any false information. It was like he had information about every news in Hollywood, even if it wasn't released.
So, they took his words very seriously.
At the same time, people were curious.
Why was Zetflix going to do a marketing strategy for a flop movie? Did they have too much time and money? How were they going to make people interested in a flop?
Two days later, all these questions were answered as Aiden's plan started to be revealed.
...
