Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 738 The Magical Top Gun

"Why is it back to the top of the box office chart?"

Ronald quickly called his agent, Richard, and had a conference call with Nisita, who was far away in Philadelphia.

For ordinary movies, the box office is stable in the first week or two after its release. If the box office of a newly released movie decays quickly, it is possible to return to the number one position.

But "Top Gun" has been in theaters in America for nineteen weeks, though the depletion has been slow each week, with a steady decline of only about 5 percent.But suddenly, like a week on steroids, life burst out again, which is really unexpected.

The last time "Top Gun" topped the box office charts was at the end of June.Stallone's "Cobra" was overtaken by "Top Gun" three weeks after it overtook "Top Gun".

After that, his own "Longwei Boy 2" will be No. [-] on the succession list.

"Longwei Boy 2" dominated the box office list for 5 weeks, and was succeeded by good friend Jim Cameron's "Alien 2" and won the first place in the box office list.

The entire summer file was completely dominated by two outstanding graduates of Roger Corman Film University, Ronald and Cameron.

"Alien 2" also sat on the throne for four weeks, being knocked out by "The Fly," a sci-fi horror film starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis.

Just when everyone thought that the summer movies in [-] were dominated by action movies and sci-fi horror movies, a movie that no one expected was born.

This is a film based on Stephen King's novel, telling the story of children.It's called "Stand By Me."The theme song is the song of the same name sung by black singer Ben E. King.

The film takes four children as the protagonists and tells the story of an adventure in a small town during the summer vacation.

The movie was made on a small budget, without much marketing input.Distributor Columbia used word-of-mouth marketing, and it only opened in fifteen theaters in New York and Los Angeles in the first two weeks.Accumulate word of mouth in newspapers and television.

When the painting officially started, there were only [-] theaters showing it.

But the audience liked these four very cute and sympathetic child actors very much, and the box office climbed to the first place in the second week, defeating the lack of stamina "The Fly".

Many mothers saw the cuteness of these four little actors, and called their friends to watch them one after another.Fatty Jerry O'Connell, and Kiefer Sutherland from an acting family.Of course, the favorite of mothers is the actor River Phoenix, with short hair, big eyes, and a childish face, which makes every mother want to have such a cute son.

"Walk with Me" stayed at the top of the list for three weeks, until the official end of the summer holiday, Labor Day in America, and it still has a lot of stamina.

In the first week of September, they also retained their top spot.The new releases in the off-season are all small productions, which are not enough to pose a threat to them.

But in the second week after Labor Day, who knows what happened, "Top Gun" suddenly jumped 10% at the box office and regained the top spot.

"Did Paramount add more theaters?"

Ronald decided to make sense of this anomalous change.

The box office trend of this "Top Gun" is particularly abnormal, with little weekly decline, and long-term screenings can remain in the top three at the box office for a long time. New films come and go, leaving only Tom Cruise and F- 14 Tomcats on screen.

"No, I called Jerry Bruckheimer, Paramount didn't add theaters, and he couldn't figure it out."

"However, when the release approached 20 weeks, the box office suddenly soared by 10%, and there were four new top movies in the middle?" Ronald began to wonder, could it be that September entered the off-season, and the new movies were so bad that the audience went back to watch them. "Top Gun"?
"That's impossible. Dragon Might 2, Alien 2, and this movie, Walk With Me, don't have a trend of rising box office." On the phone, Nisita denied Ronald's guess.

"Okay, that's it. I'll go to the cinema to see if I can find anything."

Ronald stopped the clueless meeting, called Little Bud, and the two went to an ordinary movie theater together to see what happened.

"Shall we buy tickets?" Little Bud asked.

"Buy two of the ones that accompany me, let's go and see why this movie is so good. Pick the one later."

Ronald continued to hang around the box office box office, listening to the chatter of the audience.

"What are you looking at? I heard that walking with me is very beautiful."

"I've already seen it, it's good to watch with the family, and I want to watch Top Gun again."

"Haven't you watched it many times? Do you still want to watch it?"

"Aggrieved, if the American naval pilots were really like Lone Rangers, would we still suffer from such uselessness?"

"I heard that Persia still has a lot of F-14 Tomcats. I don't know if we can beat them."

"It's definitely possible. It's best to let the Lone Ranger kill their fighter jets, and then airdrop a Rambo to Beirut, so that the hostages can be rescued."

"What happened in Beirut?" Ronald was busy preparing for a new movie and hadn't watched the news for a long time. He asked the conductor.

"Don't you know? Our National Security Adviser personally went to Lebanon to negotiate, hoping that the ... armed forces there could release the last other hostages detained. What is the difference between this and the previous commander's handling of Persian hostages? It's all negotiations, I don't know How much was paid to those..."

The conductor was a white male, and he said cursingly, "You might as well watch Top Gun. I think America needs a Lone Ranger and a Rambo."

It turned out that as early as [-], ten Americans were kidnapped by Lebanese armed forces.A lawyer was released for unknown reasons last year, and another hostage was released this year, so the National Security Advisor of the Grand Commander went to negotiate in person, hoping to release more hostages.

These hostages, unlike the Persian embassy in those days, were captured under TV cameras, nor were they kidnapped during the general election.So domestic reactions are also much smaller.

But people have been hearing intermittently in the media that the hostages have not been released.

Looking at the situation now, it seems that this time the National Security Advisor is going to negotiate with terrorists.All of a sudden, the emotions of the people that had been suppressed for a long time were released.

The economy got better, unemployment was low, and taxes were cut.The public hears the commander-in-chief’s tough talk about the alliance every day, and the sci-fi-like missile defense system nicknamed "Star Wars". They see that they can’t use advanced weapons to rescue the hostages when they see that they are dealing with some local armed forces that only have AK47. Was a bit disappointed.

This disappointment was vented to the movie theater, and more audiences walked into the movie theater, wanting to have fun on the screen again, watching the footage of the Lone Ranger driving the F-14 and shooting down the MiG-28 of the Alliance.It's also good to reduce some dissatisfaction with reality.

Ronald, who wanted to understand the reason, immediately called the producer and distributor of "Top Gun" after watching "Walk with Me" and asked them if it was possible to continue to invest some additional marketing expenses to give "Top Gun" "Ling Yun" boosted the box office again.

"Ronald, I discussed with Tang, and I am willing to spend a sum of money to subsidize new marketing activities. But we have to make sure first, Mr. National Security Advisor, how likely is it to rescue the hostages next?
If they continue to be weak like this, I think audiences will continue to go to the theater to experience the fantasy fighter pilot vs. bad guy. "

"Ronald, don't you have something to do with the White House? Is it convenient to inquire about it? If there is a rescue plan, it would be even better. If those villains are blown up, the audience will be more enthusiastic." Don Simpson grabbed the phone , pitching his idea loudly to Ronald.

"In fact, I have nothing to do with them. I'll see if I can find out through some channels."

Ronald put down the phone and called Little George in Texas.

"It's just such a thing. Let's see if it's convenient for Fang to learn about further actions. We want to see if it's worth arranging a small marketing promotion for 'Top Gun'."

"It's easy. Let me see what I can do. Are you sure that your 'Adventures of the Nanny' will be put into the third screen fund?" Little George is still very proud of the screen fund, which is one of his few commercial projects that does not lose money.

"Okay, Mr. Eisner will take everything into consideration."

After half an hour, Ronald was by the phone and finally got a call from Little George.

"Ronald, let me confirm with you, who asked you to make this call?"

"Two producers from Top Gun...Don and Jerry."

"Okay, there are two producers." George Jr. seemed to have a connected phone, and he was relaying Ronald's answer.

"Tell your little friend, don't worry about this matter, let him make a movie."

On the other end of the phone is Little George's father, the current deputy commander.

"Don't be like this, scare little Ronald." Barbara, the wife of the deputy commander, was a little dissatisfied with her husband's tone, and picked up the phone to give little George some advice.

"This matter is top secret. It's not good for Ronald Jr. not to ask too much about this kind of matter."

"Oh... I see. Thank you, Barbara, and Mr. Vice Commander for me." Hearing George Jr.'s message, Ronald roughly understood the Vice Commander's attitude.It seems that the White House does not want to let this matter make waves in the news media.

The "Top Gun" team that had some ideas just now died down again.

By the end of the week, Paramount's "Top Gun" and Columbia's "Walk With Me" both fell sharply, continuing to rank No. 3 and No. [-].

A new king appeared in September when the box office was off season.

"Crocodile Dundee", with an opening scale of 879 theaters in the first weekend, suddenly raked in a box office of 800 million US dollars, surpassing the next two films and triple the box office, showing its brand new fangs.

(End of this chapter)