Paramount's Top Gun: Maverick and Warner Bros.'s Elvis are locked in a box office battle and are currently tied for the top spot.
As reported by Variety, the Baz Luhrman-directed Elvis biopic starring Austin Butler and Tom Cruise's Top Gun sequel are currently tied at the domestic box office, with each bringing in $30.5 million over the past weekend. The final numbers will be revealed on Monday. Elvis opened in theaters on June 24, and while the biopic landed first place at the box office on its opening night, it descended to second place on Saturday, before tying up with Maverick on Sunday.
Top Gun: Maverick has already surpassed $1 billion at the global box office with no signs of slowing down. This number makes Paramount Pictures' sequel to the original 1986 Top Gun the highest-grossing movie of 2022 worldwide, surpassing the $943 million earned by Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Industry analysts projected that Cruise's legacy sequel would cross the $1 billion mark before the end of its theatrical run.
Maverick Vs. Multiverse
Top Gun: Maverick earned $160.5 million within its first four days of release after opening on Memorial Day weekend, setting new holiday weekend records and becoming Cruise's highest-earning opening in North America. Maverick became the highest-grossing movie of 2022 in the United States when it crossed the $400 million mark, surpassing Marvel Studios' Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which earned $398 million domestically. At the time, Maverick had not yet crossed the worldwide total for Multiverse of Madness.
Paramount Pictures' Top Gun: Maverick is set nearly 30 years after the original 1986 film and follows Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Cruise) as he is enlisted to train a new generation of pilots. Cruise and Val Kilmer reprised their roles from Top Gun and also stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly and Jon Hamm. According to Cruise, it was crucial for Kilmer to return for the sequel for an extremely emotional scene in particular. "I really rallied hard for him to make the movie," Cruise said. "The kind of talent that he has, and you see that scene, it's very special, it's just very special."
As Top Gun: Maverick continues to succeed at the box office, it remains unclear when the film will make its way to Paramount+. As suggested by Paramount President and CEO of Streaming Tom Ryan, even the studio is unsure when Maverick will be available to stream. While the previously established 45-day theatrical release window established since the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has been a "great success" for certain films, this model doesn't apply to Maverick. "We haven’t decided on that [the theatrical window for Top Gun: Maverick] yet," Ryan said.
Directed by Joseph Kosinski, from a screenplay by Peter Craig, Justin Marks and Eric Warren Singer, Top Gun: Maverick is now in theaters.
Source: Variety