The biggest success of the year, Top Gun: Maverick refuses to slow down at the box office. The legacy sequel added $7 million domestically in its 11th weekend of release, bringing its domestic total to $662 million. The film grossed $690 million overseas, for a worldwide box office of over $1.35 billion.
maverick is (by far) the biggest movie star Tom Cruise, the biggest movie of 2022 and the biggest domestic hit in Paramount Pictures history. The film grossed over $100 million at IMAX theaters and recently topped Titanic to become the seventh-highest-grossing domestic box office of all time. He’s dragging now Avengers: Infinity War ($678 million), Black Panther ($700 million), Avatar ($760 million), Spider-Man: No Coming Home ($804 million), Avengers: Endgame ($853 million) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936 million). Currently, in 13th place on the world’s most profitable list, maverick beaten down Black Panther ($1.347 billion), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 ($1.342 billion) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($1.332 billion). He’s dragging now Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1.402 billion) and Frozen II ($1.45 billion). TitanicThe worldwide gross of is $2.2 billion.
maverick is largely responsible for turning Paramount’s situation around. The studio, which was struggling to compete just a few years ago, with major franchise flops such as Transformers: The Last Knight and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: From the Shadowsdelivered five box office hits in 2022 alone: Scream, Fooled forever, the lost city, and sonic the hedgehog 2in addition to maverick.
The film broke the Memorial Day weekend record with a $160 million debut in May, and stayed in the top five for 10 full weeks before slipping to sixth this weekend. Released 36 years after the original Superior gunled by the late Tony Scott, the sequel brings back Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell to reflect on his own legacy and train a group of young pilots for a dangerous mission. The first film grossed $357 million worldwide against a reported budget of $15 million in 1986. maverickCruise’s success is a testament to Cruise’s stardom, which has spanned four decades.
The actor has two back to back Impossible mission films slated for release within the next couple of years, as it aims to bring back the big-screen experience after developments that have altered the industry in the pandemic era. Paramount wisely chose to listen to Cruise and refrained from selling maverick to interested streamers, even though the competition has offloaded major titles to make up for the losses. Paramount also avoided jumping the gun (like Warner Bros. with Principle) and releasing maverick in more uncertain times.
Besides Cruise, the film also stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullmann, Danny Ramirez, Monica Barbarian, Manny Hyacinthand Val Kilmer. You can watch our interview with the director Joseph Kosinsky here, and read the film’s official synopsis below.
Test pilot Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) deliberately dodged a promotion after thirty years of service. One day, Maverick is called upon to be tasked with training a group of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission under fellow naval aviator friend and former rival Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Kilmer), who is the commander of the Fleet. American Pacific. Among them is Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Teller), the son of Maverick’s best friend Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Edwards).