Over this past weekend, Top Gun: Maverick cleared yet another milestone as the film jumped past Marvel Studios' Black Panther to become the fifth highest-grossing film ever in the United States.
More recently, Top Gun: Maverick had skipped past other Marvel Studios blockbusters such as The Avengers and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as timeless classics like Titanic, bringing the movie’s total revenue in the U.S. and Canada to just over $701 million domestically and $1.44 billion worldwide, as reported by Variety. In fact, despite releasing over three months ago, thanks to a somewhat sparse movie schedule, Top Gun led the weekend box office in America alongside Spider-Man: No Way Home's “More Fun Stuff” screenings.
Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins commented on the achievement by calling the Top Gun sequel a “true cultural touchstone embodying the power of the cinematic experience.” Those are words that do not seem that grandiose, considering how Top: Gun Maverick has turned around some of Hollywood's standards when it comes to film releases. Unlike most big-budget movies nowadays, such as the Marvel kind, which tend to make the bulk of their profits on opening weekend, Top Gun: Maverick has been able to sustain a steady amount of revenue coming in for the studio thanks to longer exposure in cinemas.
For extra bragging rights, Top Gun: Maverick's latest achievement comes after the film became available for digital purchase, which boosts the claims of Cruise and so many others that this is a work of art that deserves to be seen in a movie theater. While there’s no indication of when Top Gun: Maverick will leave theaters, it’s unlikely to pass its next target in domestic revenue, Avatar, as it is currently over $48 million away. Nevertheless, on a worldwide scale, Top: Gun Maverick should keep its steady pace to pass Frozen 2 and become the 11th highest-grossing film ever.
Suffice to say, Top Gun: Maverick's numbers do not account for rising inflation, a metric that actually does make movies released in the past decade seem more impressive, as only Avatar, Endgame, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens stand that test of time. Still, for a contemporary film, Cruise's latest blockbuster is about as amazing as it gets for shareholders and moviegoers, especially considering it did all this without gaining a single penny from China, which chose to ban Top Gun: Maverick.
Top Gun: Maverick's Blu-ray edition won’t be coming out until November, possibly around the time when the film could drop on Paramount Plus, so for now, those who haven’t seen it can still add to Captain Pete Mitchell's cause before Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Top Gun: Maverick is currently available in theaters and on digital platforms.
Source: Variety