Hollywood Filmmakers Help the Gun Industry Stay Rich
Hollywood's elite might be gun-hating liberals, but the gun companies don't care. Thanks to the film industry, they're too busy shooting shit and exercising the best amendment of them all: getting rich as fuck.
According to Hollie McKay at Fox News, gun companies are paying big money for product placement in feature films. Brand-in Entertainment boasts on its website that they've successfully integrated Beretta into last summer's Lone Survivor and the Fox report confirms that "Beretta paid $250,000 for the prominent placement" in the film.
While no gun manufacturers would speak on the record about the role Hollywood plays in their sales, Brian Graves, owner of a firearms store in Colorado, confirmed movies influence gun trends:
"Movies sell guns. When a TV show is aired or a movie comes out, everyone wants to say, 'Well, punk, do you feel lucky?' Remember that Clint Eastwood did Westerns, and those firearms sell big time today. Each and every time a new movie comes out and the 'hero' uses his trusty firearm, it gets looked at and talked about."
One of the most famous guns impacted by Hollywood is the Glock handgun, whose sales spiked after being featured in the 1990 film Die Hard 2. Wesley Morris, a "schoolteacher by day and owner of the California-based gun store Ten Percent Firearms by night," explains that Glocks weren't even popular before Die Hard 2. Not anymore! Now all the cool tv shows and movies want Glocks:
According to reports, this branding was pure luck for Glock, as its inclusion was due to the movie's prop master. Now the Glock is one of the most featured in the industry. It was recently used in season nine of "Criminal Minds," as B.A.U. Chief SSA Aaron Hotchner draws his Glock 17. It was front and center again in last year's summer blockbuster "White House Down" and in hit films like "Kick Ass" and "The Bourne Ultimatum," as well as being a mainstay in the likes of "24" and "Prison Break."
While some filmmakers insist on using firearms experts as opposed to "contractual marketing protocol" in their work, it probably doesn't make much of a difference because the report ends by stating that, for gun manufacturers, "any publicity is good publicity."
[Image via AP]