Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick is locked in as the highest-ever Memorial Day weekend opening by taking in a massive $156 million at the domestic box office. The Top Gun sequel did it without using powers and capes. For those looking a little fatigued from superhero movies, this is the film for you.
Comscore, a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics, released the updated estimates on Monday morning pushing Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick past the previous record-setting Memorial Day film by Disney’s 2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End starring Johnny Depp. The third film in the Pirates franchise earned $153 million over the 3-day weekend.
Top Gun: Maverick is directed by Joseph Kosinski and has Tom Cruise reprising his iconic Navy pilot role, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Cruise first introduced audiences with his push-it-to-limit Maverick 36 years ago with the original Top Gun. The sequel sends Cruise’s maverick back to the Top Gun program to train the Navy’s younger elite fighter pilots for a dangerous combat mission.
“As a rare big-budget Hollywood movie about men and women who fly without capes, it has a lot riding on it,” said Times film critic Justin Chang about Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick. “Once set for a summer 2020 release but delayed almost two years by the pandemic, it arrives bearing the hopes and dreams of a tentatively resurgent industry that could use a non-Marvel theatrical hit.”
Variety reported that approximately 55% of the Top Gun sequel’s audiences were 35 years or older, indicating appeal to demographics that have been hesitant to watch inside movie theaters. This might be the due to this movie’s nostalgic factor for this age group. They’re old enough to have been fans of the original.
Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick has a lock on early box-office expectations, which predicted the sequel would earn $130 million over Memorial Day Weekend. Top Gun: Maverick also marks Tom Cruise’s biggest domestic launch ever. The film as already estimated $252.7 million for its opening weekend, globally. It stands at 96% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and continues to soar high among critics. The film also received a standing ovation at this year’s Cannes.
Top Gun: Maverick is now playing in theaters only.
