The milestones follow one another.Top Gun: Maverickcollected $679 million in North America, enough to overtake Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” ($678 million) as the sixth-highest-grossing film in domestic box office history.
It’s a particularly impressive reference, as 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War” adventure, all heroes but the kitchen sink, got a little help building anticipation. It served as the first part (“2019’s Endgame” was part two) of Marvel’s epic culmination of more than 20 films – most of which were box office juggernauts in their own right – over 10 years. Talk about hype.
Of course, “Maverick” had Tom Cruise, a box office hero in his own right. But moviegoers hadn’t felt the need for speed in over 30 years; the sequel to 1986’s “Top Gun” was far from a guaranteed success.
Still, thanks to stellar word-of-mouth and loyal customers, “Maverick” continues to defy the odds. And there’s a chance the film will continue to fly higher on the box office charts. Can the ‘Top Gun’ sequel knock out 2018’s blockbuster ‘Black Panther’ and its $700.4 million total to rank among the top five national grossers of all time?
It would take a bit of stamina at this point, but it’s certainly not out of the question. “Top Gun 2” is likely to continue selling tickets as the movie doesn’t have a ton of competition on the horizon. It’ll be pretty desolate at the box office until November, when ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ opens in theaters. Disney is likely to re-release the original superhero sensation in anticipation of the follow-up, which could propel “Black Panther” earnings even higher. But “Maverick” is no stranger to overcoming the impossible.
Internationally, “Top Gun: Maverick” has grossed over $700 million – and that’s without playing in China or Russia, two big overseas markets. Outside of North America, the highest earning territories are the United Kingdom ($95 million), Japan ($82 million), Korea ($62 million), Australia ($60 million million) and France ($52.8 million). Globally, it is the 13th highest-grossing film of all time with $1.379 billion to date.
“Top Gun: Maverick” made its big screen debut in May, setting a new Memorial Day weekend opening record with $160.5 million. The film remained in the top five of the weekend charts for 10 weeks, dropping to sixth place in its 11th weekend before miraculously back to #2 spot on his 12th outing. “This. Done. Not. Happen,” Jeff Bock, media analyst at Exhibitor Relations, wrote on Twitter.
Among the film’s many records, “Maverick” is Cruise’s first film to top $100 million in a single weekend and his first to hit $1 billion at the worldwide box office. The movie star is being generously rewarded for rejuvenating the country’s cinemas. By the time “Maverick” hit theaters and landed on Primordial+, the cruise should pockets at least $100 million from ticket sales, his salary, and his possible reduction in home entertainment rentals and streaming revenue.
Joseph Kosinski directed the long-delayed “Top Gun: Maverick,” which picks up decades after the original and follows Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell as he trains a young band of airmen for a dangerous mission. The cast includes Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Connelly and Val Kilmer, who played Iceman in the first “Top Gun.”