Top Gun was such an effective advertisement for the Navy, they had recruitment booths right next to theaters!
Top Gun featured Tom Cruise as a Naval aviator on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and garnered nearly $400 million in theaters, making it one of the most successful movies of the 1980’s and the highest earner of 1986. Besides accumulating a huge fan base, the movie actually turned out to be an effective recruitment tool!
After the film was released, bomber jackets and Ray-Ban sunglasses both nearly doubled in sales and enlistment for the Navy and Air Force both also saw a jump. The military saw this success and decided to take advantage of it. They set up recruitment booths inside the theaters of many cities because of the attention and saw a major jump from fans wishing to live out the movie!