My husband and I were just two of the thousands of people who flocked to theaters over Memorial Day weekend to see ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’
The sequel to the epic 1986 original, starring Tom Cruise and most of the original cast, shattered box office records, grossing an estimated $156 million in its four-day opening weekend in the United States.
It was also Cruise’s first $100-million-plus opening in his entire filmography.
Ben and I hired a babysitter, ordered tickets in advance, and purchased a collectible metal popcorn pail.
It was the first time since before Covid hit that I was looking forward to going out to see a movie– and I’m sure that thousands of other Americans felt the same way.
The question is: why? Why did so many people go out to see this film and not any other Hollywood offering?
The first part of the answer is obvious – ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ is the sequel to a universally beloved film that garnered incredible reviews and is considered by many to be as good, if not better, than the original.
The second part of the answer is more complicated.
Maybe the more apt question is why has it taken modern Hollywood so long to realize how to make a successful movie?
Top Gun is a straightforward action movie that celebrates all that is good about our country and our military.
Don’t they realize that most Americans have pride in their country, and they don’t want to be made to feel bad about that when spend their hard-earned money.
To a generation of Americans, Top Gun represents a celebration of the American military and America in general.
The original and the sequel open with the same iconic scripts — describing how ‘the United States Navy established an elite school for the top one percent of its pilots… The Navy calls it Fighting Weapons School. The flyers call it: Top Gun.’
If that gives you chills – you’re not alone.
Top Gun is a straightforward action movie that celebrates all that is good about our country and our military.
Add to that the handsome leading men, a romantic drama with Cruise’s love interest Jennifer Connelly, and a new generation of actors and ‘pilots,’ like Miles Teller, and you have darn sequel.
There is also a really moving scene between Maverick and Iceman (Cruise and Val Kilmer) and I am woman enough to admit I cried through it.
But above all else — the movie isn’t overly political, it isn’t depressing, it isn’t focusing on the flaws of the United States of America and why we suck and why our flag and national anthem aren’t worth honoring.
The filmmakers also took a stand against the sickening Hollywood trend of pandering to the demands of the totalitarian Chinese government.
In the 1986 original movie, there is a patch depicting the Taiwanese flag on Maverick’s flight jacket. But during 2019 previews, the patch had been removed to alleged appease Chinese censors.
Movie-goers were happy to see the flag had been restored in the film — a signal that neither the filmmakers nor Cruise are content with being lapdogs to the Chinese regime.
I absolutely loved the movie and I felt good leaving the theatre that evening.
Hollywood must wake up to the reality that ‘go woke, go broke’ is real.
It was announced last month that streaming giant Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of the year – marking the first such decline.
Maybe that’s because many viewers can’t relate to their content.
Netflix recently produced and distributed series like Colin Kaepernick’s ‘In Black and White’ which among other things likened the NFL draft to slavery.
It was also purported last month that Disney is set to rank among the worst performing stocks in 2022 after its high-profile dispute with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over his ‘Parental Rights in Education’ bill.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s decision to take a political side in the fight was questioned, since it is in his company’s best interest is to remain neutral given that families of all political persuasions visit Disney theme parks and watch their productions.
Movie-goers were happy to see the flag had been restored in the film — a signal that neither the filmmakers nor Cruise are content with being lapdogs to the Chinese regime.
I absolutely loved the movie and I felt good leaving the theatre that evening.
Hollywood must wake up to the reality that ‘go woke, go broke’ is real.
It was announced last month that streaming giant Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of the year – marking the first such decline.
Maybe that’s because many viewers can’t relate to their content.
Netflix recently produced and distributed series like Colin Kaepernick’s ‘In Black and White’ which among other things likened the NFL draft to slavery.
It was also purported last month that Disney is set to rank among the worst performing stocks in 2022 after its high-profile dispute with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over his ‘Parental Rights in Education’ bill.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s decision to take a political side in the fight was questioned, since it is in his company’s best interest is to remain neutral given that families of all political persuasions visit Disney theme parks and watch their productions.
Movie-goers were happy to see the flag had been restored in the film — a signal that neither the filmmakers nor Cruise are content with being lapdogs to the Chinese regime.
I absolutely loved the movie and I felt good leaving the theatre that evening.
Hollywood must wake up to the reality that ‘go woke, go broke’ is real.
It was announced last month that streaming giant Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of the year – marking the first such decline.
Maybe that’s because many viewers can’t relate to their content.
Netflix recently produced and distributed series like Colin Kaepernick’s ‘In Black and White’ which among other things likened the NFL draft to slavery.
It was also purported last month that Disney is set to rank among the worst performing stocks in 2022 after its high-profile dispute with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over his ‘Parental Rights in Education’ bill.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s decision to take a political side in the fight was questioned, since it is in his company’s best interest is to remain neutral given that families of all political persuasions visit Disney theme parks and watch their productions.
Throughout the media, there are examples of companies, newsmakers and television personalities deciding to take explicitly political, and yes, anti-Republican, anti-conservative stances.
CNN’s ratings are so pathetic, it has become the talk of industry. They lost 70% of viewers in the key demographic of 25 to 54-year-old between January 2021 and May 2021.
They also spent $300 million dollars on a digital streaming service called CNN+ that was such a failure it was cancelled less than a month after it launched.
Award show ratings are down across the board, and anyone subjected to hosting a Hollywood gala has a 50/50 chance of being cancelled over an old tweet or routine dug up by the thought-police.
I, for one, am sick of having politics infiltrate my entertainment.
This doesn’t mean entertainers cannot use their voices and their platforms. But if you’re an entertainer who says you are repulsed by people like me, who were born in red states, who vote Republican and go to church every Sunday, I more than likely won’t watch you.
I don’t want to support people who hate me and seem to be shameless about it.
So, what is the lesson here?
Art is political, it always has been. But for every 5,000 woke movies and television shows, making one that is unabashedly pro-America and pro-military is clearly the answer to Hollywood’s woes.
The question is if anyone besides Tom Cruise has the backbone to create it or would they rather continue to make commercial failures for an ever-decreasing audience?
Only time will tell…but hey, I am just happy that in 2022 I sat through a movie and was simply entertained.