Paramount Pictures' Top Gun: Maverick is set to surpass the box office of yet another Marvel Studios film.
According to Erik Davis, the Tom Cruise-led sequel to the original 1986 Top Gun is currently expected to come out on top of the domestic box office for Labor Day weekend with an additional $7 million. This would push Maverick over $700 million, overtaking earnings for 2018's Black Panther and making it the fifth highest-grossing domestic release of all time. At the moment, the top five domestic releases ever include Black Panther with $700 million, Avatar with $760 million, Spider-Man: No Way Home with $804 million, Avengers: Endgame which pulled in $853 million, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens which sits at the number one spot with $936 million.
Since its debut in theaters, Maverick has consistently broken box office records and accrued a worldwide gross of $1.4 billion. After the sequel officially surpassed the domestic earnings for Marvel Studios' Avengers: Infinity War, it was solidified as the sixth highest-earning film of all time at the domestic box office. Maverick also out-earned James Cameron's Titanic in August, as the 1997 disaster film grossed just over $600 million domestically. Moreover, Maverick also surpassed Titanic as Paramount's biggest film overall.
Top Gun: Maverick Flies High at the Box Office
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 pulled in $398 million domestically.
Set nearly 30 years after the original 1986 film, Top Gun: Maverick follows Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Cruise) after he is enlisted to train a new generation of pilots. Cruise and Val Kilmer reprised their roles from the original Top Gun, and the new film also stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly and Jon Hamm.
In a recent interview, Top Gun producer Jerry Bruckheimer explained why he believes the sequel has consistently outperformed Marvel and DC at the box office. "I think audiences have been seeing so much CGI, which is wonderful, I go see the same movies, but it's also nice to see the real deal, and to be part of a camaraderie of characters that get up in the sky and have to be as good as they can be," he said. "The audiences love the Marvel, they love the DC stuff. They're beautifully made by really talented people. Sometimes you want to see something that's real, and that's what Top Gun gave us…"
As Top Gun: Maverick continued to succeed at the box office, it was finally announced that the sequel will be available for home release in November, though it remains unclear exactly when the film will make its way to Paramount+. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, from a screenplay by Peter Craig, Justin Marks and Eric Warren Singer, Top Gun: Maverick is now available on Digital platforms, while the 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD versions arrive on Nov. 1.
Source: Twitter