Thaindian News

Aug 4 (IBNS) More than 1,000 service members and their families at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland got to see the premiere of “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” the last big-budget action movie of the summer.

Paramount Pictures decided to have the premiere of the movie at the base for Air Force One and flew, out its stars Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller and Marlon Wayans for a helicopter tour. The stars had a meeting with the base commander and airmen, and a red carpet replete with paparazzi and billowing American flags, reports the LA Times.

The plan of launching the film in a military base was just a part of a highly atypical marketing and publicity campaign for the movie that will open nationwide and in most foreign markets this Friday.

Paramount didn’t take the way of Hollywood showcase and courting of the national print media in favor of taking the picture directly to America’s heartland.

“Our starting point for this movie is not Hollywood and Manhattan but rather mid-America. There are a group of people we think are going to respond to the movie who are normally not the first priority. But we’re making them a priority,” Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore was quoted as saying by the daily.

G.I. Joe originated in 1964 as a military action figure that could be equipped with various uniforms and weapons. In the 1980s it was reborn in comic books, a TV cartoon and toys.