Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Why is it back at the top of the box office charts?"

Ronald quickly called his agent Richard and held a conference call with Niceta in Philadelphia.

Generally speaking, the box office of a movie will be stable within a week or two after its release. If a newly released movie's box office declines quickly, it is possible to return to the number one spot.

But "Top Gun" has been in American theaters for nineteen weeks, although its weekly box office decline has been slow, with a steady decline of only about 5%. But suddenly one week, like taking steroids, I burst into life again, which is really unexpected.

The last time "Top Gun" topped the box office charts was in late June. Stallone's "Bra", after overtaking "Top Gun" for three weeks, was overtaken by "Top Gun" again.

After that, his own "Longwei Boy 2" took the first place in the ranking list.

"The Kid 2" dominated the box office charts for 5 weeks, and was succeeded by good friend Jim Cameron's "Alien 2", which took the number one spot on the box office charts.

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

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

Just when everyone thought that the summer movies of 1986 would be dominated by action movies and science fiction horror films, a movie that no one expected came out.

This is an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Electric Chair, a children’s story. It's called "standby." The theme song is the song of the same name sung by the black singer bene.kg.

The movie features four child actors as the protagonists and tells the story of an adventure in a small town during the summer vacation.

The film was made on a small budget, without much investment in marketing. Distributor Columbia used word-of-mouth marketing and released the film in only fifteen theaters in New York and Los Angeles for the first two weeks. Build word of mouth in newspapers and on television.

When it officially opened, there were only 800 theaters showing it.

But the audience loved these four very cute and lovable child actors, and it climbed to No. 1 at the box office in the second week, setting the stage for "The Fly," which lacked stamina.

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

"Stand By Me" stayed at the top of the list for three weeks, and until the official end of the summer season, America's Labor Day, it still had great stamina.

They also retained their top spot in the first week of September. New releases in the off-season are all small productions, which do not pose much of a threat to them.

But in the second week after Labor Day, no one knows what happened, "Top Gun's box office suddenly increased by 10%, and it regained the top spot.

"Did Paramount add more theaters for the show?"

Ronald decided to understand this abnormal change.

The box office trend of this "Top Gun" is particularly abnormal. It has very few losses every week and can stay in the top three at the box office for a long time during its long run. New movies have come and gone, leaving only Tom Cruise and f- 14 Tomcats on the silver screen.

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

"But when it was nearly 20 weeks after its release, the box office suddenly surged by 10%, and there were four new No. 1 movies in between?" Ronald began to wonder, could it be that September has entered the off-season, and the new movies are too bad, so the audience went back to watch them again? "Top Gun"?

"It's impossible. The Kid 2, Alien 2, and Come With Me have no box office growth trends." During the phone call, Niceta denied Ronald's speculation.

"Okay, that's it. I'll go to the cinema and see if I can find out what's written."

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

"Should we buy tickets?" Little Bud asked.

"Buy two Come With Me and let's go see why this movie is so great. Pick the later one."

Ronald continued to linger near the box office, listening to the chatter of the audience.

"What are you looking at? I heard it looks good if you go with me."

“I’ve already watched it, it’s great to watch with my family, and I want to watch Top Gun again.”

"Haven't you watched it many times? Are you still going to watch it?"

"It's frustrating. If only America's naval pilots were really like the Lone Ranger, would we still be so arrogant?"

"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 asked the conductor as he was busy preparing for a new movie and hadn't watched the news for a long time.

"Don't you know? Our national security adviser went to Lebanon to negotiate in person, hoping that the armed forces there would release the last hostages. What's the difference between this and the previous president's handling of the Persian hostages? They were all negotiations, but I don't know how much money they gave to them."

The ticket seller was a white male, and he cursed, "You might as well watch Top Gun. I think America is just missing a Lone Ranger and a Rambo."

It turned out that as early as 1983, ten Americans were kidnapped by armed forces in Lebanon. Last year, a lawyer was released for some reason, and this year another hostage was released, so the president's national security adviser went to negotiate in person, hoping to release more hostages.

These hostages were not captured under the TV camera like the Persian embassy that year, nor were they kidnapped during the election. So the reaction in the country was much smaller.

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

Now it seems that the national security adviser went to negotiate with the terrorists this time. The public emotions that have been suppressed for a long time were released all of a sudden.

The economy has improved, unemployment is low, and taxes have been reduced. Every day, the public hears the president's tough talk against the alliance, as well as the sci-fi-like missile defense system nicknamed "Star Wars". They are a little disappointed that they cannot use advanced weapons to rescue hostages when facing some local armed forces with only AK47s.

This disappointment was vented in the cinema, and more audiences went to the cinema, wanting to enjoy the screen again and watch the Lone Ranger driving the F-14 and shooting down the Alliance's MiG-28. It also helps to reduce some of their dissatisfaction with reality.

Ronald, who understood the reason, called the producer and distributor of "Top Gun" immediately after watching "Stand by Me" and asked them if it was possible to continue to invest some additional marketing expenses to boost the box office of "Top Gun".

"Ronald, Don and I have discussed that we are willing to spend some money to subsidize new marketing activities. But we have to make sure of one thing first, Mr. National Security Advisor, how likely is it to rescue the hostages next?

If they continue to be so weak, I think the audience will continue to go to the cinema to experience the imaginary fighter pilots fighting the bad guys."

"Ronald, don't you have some connections with the White House? Is it convenient to ask about it? If there is really a rescue plan, it will be even better. Blow up those bad guys and the audience will be more enthusiastic." Don Simpson grabbed the phone and loudly promoted his ideas to Ronald.

"I actually have no connection with them. Let me see if I can find out through some channels."

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

"That's it. Let's see if it's convenient to learn about further actions. Let's see if it's worth arranging a small marketing promotion for Top Gun."

"Easy, let me see what I can do. Is your "Adventures of a Nanny" confirmed to be put in the third round of the Screen Fund?" George was still very proud of the Screen Fund. This was one of his few commercial projects that didn't lose money.

"It's confirmed. Mr. Eisner will consider it all."

Half an hour later, Ronald finally got a call from George by the phone.

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

"It's the two producers of Top Gun... Don and Jerry."

"Okay, it's the two producers." George seemed to have another phone connected, and he was relaying Ronald's answer.

"Tell your little friend not to worry about this matter, let him make a good movie."

The person on the other end of the phone was George's father, the current deputy commander.

"Don't do this, you're scaring Ronald." Barbara, the deputy commander's wife, was a little dissatisfied with her husband's tone, and picked up the phone to give George a warning.

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

"Oh... I understand. Thank Barbara and Mr. Vice President for me." After hearing what George Jr. said, Ronald roughly understood the Vice President's attitude. It seems that the White House does not want this matter to cause any waves in the news media.

The "Top Gun" team, which had just had some ideas, immediately stopped.

By the weekend, Paramount's "Top Gun" and Columbia's "Stand by Me" both fell sharply and continued to rank second and third.

A new king appeared in September, the off-season for the box office.

"Crocodile Dundee", with a scale of opening in 879 theaters in the first weekend, suddenly raked in 8 million US dollars in box office, surpassing the box office of the next two movies by three times, showing its new fangs.