“Top Gun: Maverick” Soars to Highest-Grossing Domestic Film This Year
This will likely not come as a big surprise at this point, but Top Gun: Maverick has officially become the highest-grossing movie of the year in North America.
The blockbuster return of Tom Cruise as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in director Joseph Kosinski’s film has now soared to $401.8 million in North American ticket sales. Maverick has flown past Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($398 million) to take the top spot and is only the second film in the pandemic era to cross the $400 million mark in the U.S. (the other was Spider-Man: No Way Home.) Audiences have had a massive appetite for Maverick, which utilized real Navy jets in a story that saw Cruise’s Mav teaching a new crop of Top Gun talent for a highly dangerous mission. Connecting to the 1986 original in ways big and small, Maverick managed to avoid coasting on mere nostalgia to become an epic blockbuster in its own right, with an epic cameo (Val Kilmer’s Iceman returns), a thrilling third act, and throughout it all, the astonishment of knowing what you’re watching was real planes doing real maneuvers at G-force inducing speeds.
This news follows Maverick‘s historic opening weekend (the highest-grossing Memorial Day Weekend release of all time), the smallest second-week drop ever recorded for a film that opened at $100 million or more (a mere 32%) , and, Tom Cruise’s best opening in his career.
Whether Maverick can keep the year’s top spot is another matter. There are some very big titles coming out, including two Marvel mega-movies; Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder (July 8) and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (November 11.) Regardless of how long Top Gun: Maverick can retain its perch, the film has been a juggernaut success. It has a decent shot of crossing the $1 billion mark, which would make it the biggest film in Cruise’s career, surpassing his current best showing, 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout ($791 million).
Cruise and the Top Gun: Maverick cast and crew had a need for speed, and that need has been matched, week after week, by eager audiences.
For more on Top Gun: Maverick check out these stories:
“Top Gun: Maverick” Makes History — Again
Tom Cruise’s Historic “Top Gun: Maverick” Opening Weekend
Going to Flight School With “Top Gun: Maverick” Stars Glen Powell & Greg Tarzan Davis
“Top Gun: Maverick” Gets Five-Minute Standing Ovation at Cannes
“Top Gun: Maverick” Soars as Critics Hail Riveting Sequel
Featured image: Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. Credit: Scott Garfield. © 2019 Paramount Pictures Corporation.
