Paramount and Skydance’s all-American blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick” is still flying high at the box office, crossing the coveted $1 billion milestone over the weekend.
It’s the first movie of the year and only the second in COVID times (following Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” with $1.9 billion) to reach that benchmark. It’s even more impressive that “Maverick” hit the $1 billion mark without playing in China or Russia, two major markets.
After only 31 days on the big screen, “Top Gun: Maverick” has become Tom Cruise’s first movie to surpass $1 billion at the worldwide box office. Previously, 2018’s “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” ranked as the actor’s most successful film with $791.1 million worldwide.
Prior to this weekend, the sequel to the 1986 action flick “Top Gun” was already the highest-grossing movie of the year at the domestic box office with revenues currently at $521 million. Thanks to stellar word-of-mouth, “Maverick” has managed to withstand minuscule week-to-week drops. Now in its fifth weekend of release, “Maverick” added $30.5 million and stands in a close race with newcomer “Elvis” for the No. 1 spot on domestic box office charts.
With another $484.7 million at the international box office, “Maverick” has grossed $1.006 billion worldwide. Those ticket sales were enough to overtake Disney’s Marvel adventure “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” ($943 million) as the highest-grossing movie of the year at the global box office.
“Top Gun: Maverick” has been crushing box office records since opening in theaters over Memorial Day weekend. Over the extended holiday, the film earned $160.5 million in its first four days of release, marking the first movie in Cruise’s 40-year career to surpass $100 million in a single weekend.
According to Paramount, repeat customers and Imax screens have been fueling momentum in the weeks since its debut. By its fourth weekend in North American movie theaters, 16% of the audience has returned more than once and 4% has returned three times or more.
Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the $170 million-budgeted “Top Gun: Maverick” picks up decades after the original and follows Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell as he trains a new group of cocky aviators for a crucial assignment. The cast includes Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Connelly and Val Kilmer, who played Iceman in the first “Top Gun.”
For Paramount, the movie extends a stellar 2022 box office streak. After barely releasing any films during the pandemic, the studio has struck gold at the box office with “Sonic the Hedgehog” ($190 million in North America), “The Lost City” ($105 million in North America), “Scream” ($81 million in North America) and “Jackass Forever” ($57 million in North America). Notably, there’s not a Spandex superhero in the bunch.
