Chapter 341: Blazing Through Turbulence
And took off it did!
However, its take to the cinematic screens was met with quite the turbulence.
It wasn't just the San Diego Union-Tribune and its critic that judge the film for what it is, after all.
It was a dynamite movie for Bill Hagen but his peers had their own say in it.
In any case, around the same time of its release, Top Gun was met with mixed reviews from other critics.
Despite its groundbreaking aerial footage, many critics found that the film fell flat in the narrative... and that seemed something that these film "experts" want to chew apart.
Critical consensus states: "Though it features some of the most memorable and electrifying aerial footage shot with an expert eye for action, Top Gun offers too little for non-adolescent viewers to chew on when its characters aren't in the air."
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, saying that "Movies like Top Gun are hard to review because the good parts are so good and the bad parts are so relentless. The dogfights are absolutely the best since Clint Eastwood's electrifying aerial scenes in Firefox. But look out for the scenes where the people talk to one another."
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, praising the action sequences but criticizing the romantic subplot, writing that "it belongs in a teenage sex-fantasy film and not in a movie that deserves the genuine romantic value of An Officer and a Gentleman".
American film critic Pauline Kael commented, "The movie is a shiny homoerotic commercial: the pilots strut around the locker room, towels hanging precariously from their waists. It's as if masculinity had been redefined as how a young man looks with his clothes half off, and as if narcissism is what being a warrior is all about."
Both points are better summarized by New York Times with a simple summation. "Once Top Gun... gets back to earth, the master of the skies is as clunky as a big land-bound bird."
As polarizing as it can get, for them, Top Gun was very difficult to review as its good moments were award-winning, but its bad moments were exceedingly difficult to watch.
Of course, aside from that, a lot of them really pointed out how much said film promotes their abhorred commercialism and unwanted US jingoism.
It was not just critics, even director-filmmaker Oliver Stone told Playboy that "The film sold the idea that war is clean, war can be won … nobody in the movie ever mentions that he just started World War Three!"
For him, Top Gun provides a misleading optimistic view of war altogether.
Then again, he also had a war film in theaters, namely Platoon, which may point out that his unnatural vocalness is dubious at best.
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Creed Pictures had not much refute to all of these. There's even not much to refute on the jingoism part.
The premise of overt patriotism is one of the main points that help the film to be made, after all.
As such, they were just in a wait-and-see attitude.
Though they can't help but notice how the reception is quite the disconnect from the great critical positivity that their good old Back to the Future received.
Was this how it is without a support of a major like Columbia?
Had their claim for theatrical distribution dependence doomed them?
Was this because they had a premiere in San Diego? Critics couldn't bother coming and they didn't get their shady paychecks.
It could be. It could be.
Then again, Old Sullivan was not too worried.
They still had a chance.
The relatively new but trusty CinemaScore's audiences surveys gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
This meant that they could still count on a theoretical trend that's gotten some increasingly apparent evidence as the years pass by.
It had to be noted that Star Wars wasn't fazed much by the voice of the snobby few because it depended on the judgment of the many.
While many film buffs take critical responses into account, average viewers prefer to judge a film for themselves rather than simply listening to the input of critics.
Creed Pictures could still count on a hopefully more positive and critic-differing response from normal, everyday viewers.
It's their paid tickets that count on the bigger picture. Not those privileged eloquent reviewers that don't pay no ticket at all.
Even Alexander, who was mostly the tenser one in these scenarios, was more at ease.
Plundering experience gave him more assurance.
Even more so when he remembered that James Cameron was the new director.
1984's Terminator wasn't too well-received.
Titanic was more so.
Avatar was much more so.
Although James Cameron wasn't exactly the main target for Top Gun... it was now his directorial work.
As they say, never bet against James Cameron.
Alexander was counting on that.
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Sure enough!
Despite its critical status, Top Gun's box office performance was astounding!
Top Gun quickly rose to the top of the box office, earning the title of the highest-grossing film during its premiere week. Grossing a total of $8.2 million!
Undisputedly beating, Alan Alda's Sweet Liberty, another war-themed and newly released peer.
Even eeking out already earlier and established releases like the Wall-E-esque Short Circuit, Jo Jo Dancer, Virginia Madsen's Fire with Fire, Tom Hank's Money Pit, Police Academy 3, extreme-Gremlin-ed Critters, and so on and so forth.
Considering Top Gun's low budget of just about $15 million, not only was this first-week performance good news for Creed Pictures...
It also countered the mixed reviews that critics initially gave the film, showing that critics and audiences don't always agree!
Of course, the good news didn't stop there.
What came next was the film being able to dynamite-ly takeoff to even more theaters in America!
After its box office champion status, Top Gun's screenings increased by 45%, proving the great public interest and the overall love of the film received from the beginning.
Under Creed Pictures' newfound lobbying, the film was already available to 1,000 theaters which were mighty impressive for a new distribution company...
With this increased theatrical leeway, the film along with Creed's distribution sway has undoubtedly improved in such a short amount of time!
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Of course, come the second week, it encountered turbulence once again!
Existing and established powers weren't so welcoming of a bold newcomer, after all.
If Top Gun got 1,000 plus, then MGM showed that it can get more than that for its sequel to Poltergeist!
Warner Bros. even went as far as going double the amount of theaters with Stallone's Cobra opening up 2,131 theaters.
If Creed Pictures got Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, then they got Lieutenant Marion "Cobra" Cobretti!
Pal Sylvestre was really pitted against pal Cameron and his little pal Alex in this one.
With that said, Warner and MGM really managed to oust a military film from the top spot. Keep in mind that this was supposed to be the military-emphasis-ed Memorial Day weekend!
Majors were truly not to be underestimated!
With $9.5 million, Poor Top Gun could only be in the top three as Cobra became champion with $15 million and Poltergeist 2 came in second with $12 million.
Then again, did their reactions really matter?
Creed Pictures did the math. $8.2 million plus $9.5 million was already a box office accumulation that superseded their freaking production budget!
By the end of May, they even managed to accrue more than $22 million...
Why should they care for Cobra or Poltergeist's pressuring when they already won?!
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As such, Top Gun was really proving itself...
With the incoming summer and the months to come, it would only prove itself even more!
It might even get more turbulent than how it already is... but none of that should matter!
It would just jet through all of it and show its might to the rest of the world!
As covered, Top Gun and its jets would simply blaze through the grand theatrical and cinematic world! Even with all the annoying turbulence!