Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick is showing no signs of slowing down.
The Paramount and Skydance tentpole, starring Tom Cruise, is doing massive business in its second weekend. If estimates hold, the sequel will earn a total of $85 million or more in its sophomore outing to boast the smallest decline ever — 33 percent — for a movie opening to $100 million more and finish Sunday with $290 million in domestic ticket sales.
On Friday, it earned $25 million to finish the day with a jet-fueled domestic total of $230 million.
On Saturday, Top Gun: Maverick became Cruise’s top-grossing film domestically when passing up 2005’s The War of the Worlds ($243.3 million), not adjusted for inflation. That’s after zooming past the first Top Gun ($180.3 million) and Cruise’s Mission: Impossible films, including the last installment, Mission: Impossible — Fallout ($220.2 million).
Overseas, Top Gun: Maverick is also doing well with a gross through Friday of $185 million, ahead of the $176 million earned by the first Top Gun, unadjusted.
The movie’s performance is a huge win for the summer box office and shows that people are eager to return to theaters after two years of sparse Hollywood product due to the pandemic.
In North America, Top Gun: Maverick has the playing field largely to itself until next weekend when Jurassic World: Dominion lands across the U.S.
Overseas, Jurassic World 3 began opening last week in 15 markets and has grossed $16.7 million through Thursday. It’s done strong business in territories including Italy, Mexico and South Korea.
Opening at the U.S. specialty box office this weekend is Cannes Film Festival entry Crimes of the Future, from David Cronenberg. Neon is launching the film in more than 750 cinemas, a wide footprint for a specialty title. Estimates show the movie opening in the $1 million range.
Source: Hollywood
