Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 690 Toho's Invitation to Ronald Sang

   "Are you from the TopGun Flight Academy? I see the word TopGun on the badge you wear."

   "Top Gun" crew advisor Pete Pettigrew was stopped at the airport by a group of teenagers. After getting a positive answer, he was surrounded by the middle and asked him to tell whether the aerial combat scenes in the movie were real.

"That's really, really true, that's how we do dogfights, it's rare to have a movie like this that perfectly takes the fighting skills we teach in flight school to perfection. I tell you, almost all The footage was actually shot in the cockpit of the F-14A Tomcat."

Next to Pettigrew, a pilot from Miramar Air Force Base took the lead in answering the question. When "Top Gun" was just released, he also complained that Ronald's aerial combat was too rolling and not real enough. But after a few weeks, he's now on Ronald's side, and fans are going to compliment him when he sees it.

   The benefits of the movie "Top Gun" for fighter pilots are simply too many.

  In the past, everyone just knew there was a group of people who served in the Navy, Air Force, and National Guard who flew fighter jets.

   But as soon as this movie came out, fighter pilots are now seen as a group of people with high intelligence and bravery. They are doing the most dangerous jobs in the world, and they are on the front lines of the confrontation with the Souvelles, keeping people safe.

  The most important thing is that they have a good figure and are very attractive to beautiful women. As long as they wear uniforms, the chance of being approached in a bar increases tenfold.

   Now every night in the bar at Miramar Naval Base, hundreds of beauties drive there by themselves, trying to find real-world lone rangers. He even brought officers from other branches of the military, as well as himself, to a clothing store that rented a masquerade, rented a naval officer's uniform, and came to the base to try his luck.

   "Oh...it's really cool. Is everything you said true? Are you a pilot? We were all very excited after watching the movie, and we all wanted to sign up for the Air Force and wanted to be like you."

  Those teenage audiences came up to show their admiration when they saw this guy wearing Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses and talking very professionally.

   "No, Top Gun is a navy. They take off and land on an aircraft carrier."

   "Isn't it? Don't lie to me, it's obviously fighter jets, not the air force? The navy drives ships."

   Seeing the elongated face of the naval pilot, Ronald, who ran into Pettigrew at the airport, went up to relieve him.

"When you go to the recruiting office, ask if you can fly the F-14A Tomcat with variable wings, the one the Lone Ranger drives. That's the plane the Warriors fly." Ronald told them said.

   "Yeah, bro, you're right. We need to ask when we go to the recruiting office, don't let the Tomcats go, and leave those MiGs to those idiots in the public school across the street."

  The teenagers walked away giggling. Pettigrew patted the pilot's colleague on the shoulder, "Don't be angry, those little brats are so stupid that they can only do local work when they go to the recruiting office, and they work with engine oil every day."

   "Hahaha", the three of them laughed.

   "Top Gun" has a growing influence in America, and Pettigrew in uniform is often recognized and praised by strangers on the street.

   He has now been recalled back to the Navy and has begun to form a Pentagon office with Matthew, the representative of the Department of the Navy. It is specially for Hollywood and major TV stations. If they want to shoot military-related movies, if the image of the soldiers is positive, they will provide all kinds of support.

   This time, he happened to go to the Pentagon with Matthew and the TopGun pilot at Miramar to report to the big guys.

   This time, I happened to meet Ronald at the airport. They chatted for a while and wished each other more money in their future careers.

   Ronald was pulled away by Nisita and went directly to the VIP lounge.

   Several protagonists of "Top Gun", Tom Cruise is already famous all over the world, and McGillis is now at a level where he will be watched casually.

  Only Ronald, wearing sunglasses, and a certain freedom of movement. After all, he is a director. Most of the fans who know what he looks like only know his face and are not familiar with his figure. A pair of big sunglasses can pass the test.

   "Hey, hey...I'm looking for Snow White...yes, me? I'm Howard Duck."

  In the VIP lounge, Tom Cruise is calling his girlfriend Cher. Both of them are stars, and they must use their code names to make calls to the hotel they are staying at. Otherwise, it will be heard by the lower-level staff of the hotel, which will lead to leaks and containment of fans.

  As the male protagonist in "Top Gun", Cruise's contract includes a lot of content to cooperate with the announcement. Whether it's a fan meeting in China or a premiere around the world, Tom Cruise is an indispensable member.

   McGillis is also, her life has been very difficult recently, her sudden reputation, coupled with her unpreparedness, now she is far more disgusted than joy for these high-profile jobs.

   "Honey, are you okay?" Ronald asked, looking at McGillis, who was wearing a pair of sunglasses that covered two-thirds of his face.

   "Ah...I don't sign." McGillis conditioned reflexively to stretch out his hands to resist. When she was watching the big screen of the flight outside, she accidentally took off her sunglasses, and was immediately chased by fans who recognized her to sign her autograph.

   "Sorry, Ronald. I talked to my agent, I'm going to Tokyo this time and I'll go to the premiere and I'll never do marketing again. I'd rather lose money."

  Kelly McGillis went from being a confident actress to suddenly becoming the idol of the posters posted in the locker boxes of thousands of young men. She didn't adapt very well to this kind of change, except that the crazy movie fans puzzled her, and unconsciously, her temper became much bigger.

   "Hi Ronald. This announcement schedule is enough for me. Cher and I haven't seen each other for two weeks. It's either me going to the meetup or her singing career, which sucks."

  Tom Cruise finished the phone call, Cher only had a few love words with him, and it was time to board the plane.

   "Maybe it will be better after this time is over."

  Ronald also had to comfort one or two, and the group boarded the plane. After more than ten hours of flight, I landed at Tokyo's Narita International Airport.

   "It's a very clean place." Ronald was full of praise for the environment. The one who came to pick up the plane was a staff member from Paramount in Asia, a native of Dongying. He held the "トップガン (Top Gun pick-up card and received the crew.

   The next day, the Tokyo premiere was much smaller than the London one. Although Dongying was a defeated country in World War II, it was garrisoned by America. But their culture is relatively closed.

   The number of people who can really appreciate American movies is much smaller than that of Britain without language barriers. Not many people have developed the habit of watching Hollywood movies over the years.

   So Paramount chose a theater near western Tokyo for the premiere here.

  It is adjacent to the Yokota Air Force Base of the American Air Force and the Yokosuka Naval Base of the Navy, not far from the industrial area of ​​Yokohama. It is a small island in the Tokyo metropolitan area that is deeply influenced by American culture.

  In addition to having branches in Canada, India, Britain and other English-speaking countries that are directly responsible for the distribution business, Paramount mainly adopts two methods for overseas distribution.

   One is an international distributor that was sold as a whole to Paramount and Universal, United International Pictures (UIP). The two companies’ business in European countries is mainly responsible for this joint venture.

   Another model is to jointly issue with local publishers in Asia, or sell them off, or share accounts. The culture here is different, many marketing needs local talents, and the market is relatively closed, and the power of Hollywood is unlikely to come in directly.

   The regional distributor this time is Dongbao Pictures. Just like the last time he came to Dongying, Ronald was also entertained by Dongbao's executives after the premiere, and went to eat the best Japanese food.

  Like other commercial fields attacked by the commander-in-chief, the film and television entertainment industry is also a relatively closed environment in the East. In general, the products of Dongying enterprises are selling well in America, while the products of America are hindered by many obstacles in Dongying.

   And Dongying is very calculating. On the surface, they open up the market, but they do not always arrange any good sales channels. When the American company asks, it is because of cultural incompatibility and other reasons.

  After being fooled a few times, Lao Mei finally came to her senses. In addition to forcing the appreciation of the yen, she also strongly forced the prime minister of Dongying to open the market.

  As a defeated country whose territory was occupied and garrisoned, Dongying could not be hard. On the surface, it opened up the Japanese market that had been hindered by many, but in fact, it still used various reasons to block the entry of goods from America in the circle of merchants. Such as favoring domestic manufacturers in lending, and discriminating against wholesalers of foreign goods.

  When Ronald was in New York, he read a lot of in-depth reports analyzing the frictions between Japan and the United States, and he knew more about these things than when he first came here.

   But he is not a businessman after all, and he only has a general understanding. After drinking and eating enough, Dongbao began to chat about deepening cooperation.

  There are always two sides to things. With the continuous persecution of America, the enterprises in Dongying have also been divided.

   There are some companies that have gradually embraced the American market and have begun to transform themselves with American culture.

  Different from big companies such as Mitsubishi and Sumitomo, which were chaebols before the war, Sony and other companies, which achieved great development after the war, rely more on America and Europe for their markets, so their vision is more international. There is no burden when it comes to rape.

   Changed to the film industry. Among the traditional three major producers, Toho, Shochiku, and Toei, Toho was the first to open a branch in Los Angeles. He was the first to introduce Kurosawa Akira's film "Seven Samurai" to North American audiences.

   And their company has the most people who can speak English fluently.

   Soon, the sake was almost finished, and the manager who came to pick him up at the airport quietly sat beside Ronald.

   "Ronald Sang, there are many industry presidents and presidents in Tokyo who would like to invite you to talk about cooperation. I wonder if you will be able to appreciate it tomorrow."

   (end of this chapter)