Paramount and Skydance's Top Gun: Maverick has had a hugely successful run thus far in theaters, but it was recently beaten in a race for the top spot at the box office by none other than Baz Luhrmann's biographical musical, Elvis.
As reported by Deadline, Elvis earned its place as No. 1 over the weekend with an opening box office take of $31.1 million, beating Top Gun: Maverick's fifth weekend, which saw the Paramount and Skydance film earn $29.6 million. Still, Maverick has performed better than many films across its run. Its fifth weekend is reportedly the fourth-best ever, beaten only by American Sniper with $64.6 million, Avatar with $42.7 million and Titanic with $30 million.
Top Gun: Maverick soared past several records. Not only did it beat Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to become the domestically highest-earning film this year, it recently became only the second film in the post-pandemic era to pass $1 billion at the worldwide box office, after Spider-Man: No Way Home. It is the first film starring Tom Cruise to do so.
There is some question as to when Top Gun: Maverick will end its theatrical run. Paramount President and CEO of Streaming Tom Ryan recently expressed uncertainty regarding when the film will hit streaming. He stated, "We were one of the first, if not the first, to come out with the 45-day post-theatrical, which gives a lot of value to the marketing of content and allows you to give it a great theatrical exclusive window, but then bring it quickly to streaming." He then acknowledged that, while this has proven to be a successful model, Maverick may not adhere to it. "We haven’t decided on that [the theatrical window for ‘Top Gun: Maverick’] yet."
What makes the performance of Top Gun: Maverick more impressive, is that the film crossed the billion-dollar mark without ever being released in China-- a major box office territory. This was due to the film's U.S-centric themes and the inclusion of the Taiwanese and Japanese flags in a previously censored scene. Maverick is one more of a long list of films that have been effectively banned from China over the past two years.
Top Gun: Maverick is playing in theaters now.
Source: Deadline