Photo: Military
Top Gun: Maverick is flying high.
The 1986 hit film’s sequel, in which Tom Cruise returns the popular character of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, has garnered over $1 billion at the global box office, said Paramount.
Maverick marks the first Cruise film to pass the billion-dollar achievement – to note, Cruise has been in the industry for over 40 years. It also marks the second highest-grossing movie by Paramount, following 1997’s Titanic.
On top of that, Maverick reached the box office figures in an old-fashioned way – it broke records at its opening on Memorial Day weekend and has not stopped climbing since.
“It’s rare to get the special kind of alchemy that creates a true event film, and we have been absolutely blown away by the global response,” said the President and CEO of Paramount Pictures, Brian Robbins, in a statement.
Maverick has gathered massive word of mouth, and viewers – particularly those over 35 – have majorly contributed to the traction of the film.
Read Also: Christian Bale Divulges He had Not Known What the MCU Was Until Cast in Thor: Love and Thunder
It’s also the second film after the pandemic to raise $1 billion at the worldwide box office, sitting alongside Spider-Man: No Way Home.
“For any film to join the $1 billion club is a monumental achievement,” Comscor’s senior media analyst, Paul Dergarabedian, in an interview with CNN Business. “But Top Gun: Maverick hitting $1 billion during the pandemic is a bit different.”
He continued, “It was the perfect movie at the perfect time because it starred one of Hollywood’s last movie stars, in a movie that delivered on all fronts to all audiences around the world.”
Critics have given outpouring compliments for the film. The film, in which Maverick comes back to teach a new generation of pilots how to execute a nearly impossible mission, has an almost perfect score – at 97% – on Rotten Tomatoes, a review site.
Maverick earned over $520 million domestically and over $468 million worldwide. It is the 50th movie in history to garner over $1 billion at the worldwide box office – not including the inflation.
During the weekend, Maverick sat at the No. 2 rank at the domestic box office in its fifth weekend, earning $29.6 million.
Read Also: Ryan Gosling Plays Ken in Character Image for Upcoming Barbie Movie
