"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.
For an average movie, the box office is 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 the weekly box office decline is very slow, with only about 5% falling steadily. But suddenly, like taking steroids, it bursts with life again.
This is really unexpected.
The last time "Top Gun" topped the box office rankings was at the end of June. Stallone's "Cobra" overtook "Top Gun" three weeks later, and was overtaken by "Top Gun" again.
After that, his own "Long Wei 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 movies, a movie that no one expected came out.
This is an electric chair adapted from Stephen King's novel, telling a story about children. It's called "Stand By Me". The theme song is the song of the same name sung by the black singer Ben E. King.
The movie features four child actors as the protagonists and tells the story of an adventure in a small town during summer vacation.
The film was produced with a small budget, without much marketing investment. The distributor, Columbia, used word-of-mouth marketing and was only shown in fifteen theaters in New York and Los Angeles in the first two weeks. It accumulated word-of-mouth in newspapers and TV.
When it officially opened, there were only 800 theaters showing it.
However, the audience loved these four very cute and pitiable child actors, and it climbed to the first place in the box office in the second week, creating a "Fly Man" that lacked stamina.
Many mothers looked at the cuteness of these four little actors and called their friends to watch them. Jerry O'Connell, the little fat boy, and Kiefer Sutherland, who comes from an acting family. Of course, the most favorite among mothers is the male protagonist.
River Phoenix, with short hair, big eyes, and a childish face, 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.
In the first week of September, they still maintained their top spot. New releases in the off-season were all small productions, which did not pose much of a threat to them.
But in the second week after Labor Day, no one knew what happened, "Top Gun's box office suddenly increased by 10% and 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, with very few losses every week, and it can remain 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. Paramount didn't add theaters and he couldn't figure it out."
"But when it was nearly 20 weeks after its release, the box office suddenly soared by 10%, and there were four new No. 1 movies in between?" Ronald began to wonder if September had entered the off-season, and the new movies were too poor, so the audience went back to watch them.
"Top Gun"?
"This is 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 to accompany me. 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 suitable to watch with my family. I also 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 personally went to Lebanon to negotiate, hoping that the... armed forces there could release the last remaining hostages. What is the difference between this and the previous commander-in-chief's handling of the Persian hostages? They are all negotiations, I don't know.
How much did you give those..."
The conductor was a white male and he cursed, "You might as well watch Top Gun. I think America just needs a Lone Ranger and a Rambo."
It turns out that as early as 1983, ten Americans were kidnapped by Lebanese armed forces. Last year a lawyer was released for unknown reasons, and this year another hostage was released, so the National Security Advisor of the General Assembly went there in person.
Negotiations, hoping to release more hostages.
Unlike the Persian embassy back then, these hostages were captured on television cameras, and they were not kidnapped during the election. Therefore, they caused much less reaction in the country.
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 went to negotiate with terrorists. All of a sudden, the people's emotions that had been suppressed for a long time were released.
The economy has gotten better, the unemployment rate has dropped, and taxes have been reduced. Every day, the people hear the commander-in-chief’s tough talk about the alliance, as well as the sci-fi-like missile defense system nicknamed "Star Wars". They see how to deal with some
It is a bit disappointing that the local armed forces only have AK47s and cannot use advanced weapons to rescue the hostages.
This kind of disappointment was vented into the movie theater, and more viewers walked into the movie theater, wanting to have more fun on the screen and watch the Lone Ranger driving the F-14 and shooting down the Alliance's MiG-28. That would be fine.
A little less dissatisfied with reality.
Ronald wanted to understand the reason. After watching "Stand By Me", he immediately called the producers and distributors of "Top Gun" and asked them if it was possible to continue to invest some additional marketing expenses to give "Top Gun"
"Ling Yun"'s box office received another boost.
"Ronald, Tang and I have discussed and are 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 this weak, I think audiences will continue to go to movie theaters to experience fantasy fighter pilots fighting bad guys."
"Ronald, don't you have some connection with the White House? Would it be convenient for you to inquire? If there is really a rescue plan, that would be better. If those bad guys are blown up, the audience will be more enthusiastic." Don Simpson grabbed the phone.
, loudly pitching his idea to Ronald.
"I actually have some connection with them. I'll see if I can find out through some roundabout channel."
Ronald put down the phone and dialed George Jr. in Texas.
"It's just such a matter. Let's see if it's convenient for us to know further actions. Let's 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 your 'Adventures in Babysitting' will be placed in the third phase of the Screen Fund?" Little George is still very proud of the Screen Fund. This is one of the few business projects that he has not lost money on.
"Sure, Mr. Eisner will consider everything."
Half an hour later, Ronald was at the phone and finally received a call from George Little.
"Ronald, let me confirm with you, who asked you to make this call?"
"It's the two producers from Top Gun...Don and Jerry."
"Okay, it's two producers." There seemed to be a connected phone on George's side, and he was relaying Ronald's answer.
"Tell your kid not to worry about this and let him make a good movie."
On the other end of the phone was George's father, the current deputy commander.
"Don't scare little Ronald." Barbara, the wife of the deputy commander, was a little dissatisfied with her husband's tone, so she picked up the phone and gave little George advice.
"This matter is top secret. Tell Ronald Jr. not to inquire too much about this kind of thing. It would be bad for him."
"Oh...I understand. Thank you Barbara and the Vice President for me." After hearing what little George told him, Ronald roughly understood the Vice President's attitude. It seems that the White House does not want this matter to be in the news.
What's happening in the media?
The "Top Gun" team, which just had some ideas, immediately stopped working.
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 at the box office.
"Crocodile Dundee" opened in 879 theaters in its first weekend and grossed US$8 million at the box office. It exceeded the box office of the next two movies by three times, showing its brand new fangs.