From a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks, Top Gun: Maverick is a 2022 American action drama film directed by Joseph Kosinski and written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie. The sequel to Top Gun (1986) stars Tom Cruise as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, with Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris, and Val Kilmer reprising their roles from the first film. It chronicles Maverick’s return to the United States Navy’s Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor programme, where he must confront his past while training a group of younger aviators, one of whom is the father/son of Maverick’s deceased closest buddy.
The main story in carryover news was once again Skydance and Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick’s incredible legs. It made $50 million in its third domestic weekend, bringing the total to $393 million after 17 days. That puts it in a tie with Rain Man ($172 million in 1988/$395 million adjusted) as Tom Cruise’s highest-grossing domestic film. Top Gun ($176 million in 1986/$440 million adjusted) isn’t far behind in terms of box office receipts. The $50 million gross ranks tenth among all weekend three grosses, with eight of the other nine going to films that made more than $200 million in their first weekend. The tenth film is Avatar, which made a still-record $68 million in weekend three after a $77 million opening weekend and a $75 million second-weekend haul.
Still, I imagine James Cameron is sweating or looking forward to a new task. So far, the $170 million sequel has grossed $393 million in the United States.
It’s now just a few days away from topping $400 million domestically, passing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($398 million following a $5 million domestic weekend) as the year’s top earner. After Spider-Man: No Way Home ($804 million from a $260 million opening in late 2021), it will be the second-highest domestic grosser of the Covid era. The Marvel/Sony film benefited from a dearth of tentpole competition, among other apparent advantages (holiday legs, white-hot excitement, generational nostalgia, etc). (and no awards season breakouts in early 2022). It’s now just a few days away from topping $400 million domestically, passing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($398 million following a $5 million domestic weekend) as the year’s top earner. After Spider-Man: No Way Home ($804 million from a $260 million opening in late 2021), it will be the second-highest domestic grosser of the Covid era. The Marvel/Sony film benefited from a dearth of tentpole competition, among other apparent advantages (holiday legs, white-hot excitement, generational nostalgia, etc). (and no awards season breakouts in early 2022).
That’s 1.4 times the film’s $285.5 million 17-day total, giving Top Gun: Maverick a $555 million total. That may be exaggeration, but A) the raw grosses and tiny drops have been exaggerated, and B) there are basically no huge live-action tentpoles left for the remainder of the summer (Thor: Love and Thunder, Nope and kinda/sorta Elvis, and Bullet Train). The film, directed by Joseph Kosinski, has grossed $747 million worldwide, putting it ahead of every Tom Cruise picture except (for the time being) Mission: Impossible – Fallout ($792 million). It brought in another $52.7 million from overseas this weekend, bringing the total to $102.7 million for the weekend.In other weekend carryover news, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has grossed $398 million in the United States and $930 million globally. It’s still the year’s top global grosser, and it’s likely to stay that way no matter how well Top Gun: Maverick performs in North America. Notably, the fact that Gladiator eclipsed Mission: Impossible II in terms of pop culture zeitgeist in the summer of 2000 didn’t make the Tom Cruise sequel any less of a hit ($215 million domestic, $545 million global).
In fact, Spider-Man topped the domestic box office in 2002, but finished behind Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on a global scale. In any case, a Doctor Strange sequel grossing $930 million, or 37% higher than its predecessor without the additional $100-$150 million from China, is a tremendous achievement and a reaffirmation of Marvel’s global appeal.
