Top Gun: Maverick is the movie that keeps on giving.
The blockbuster will hit Paramount Global’s streamer Paramount+ on Dec. 22, the service unveiled on Tuesday.
“Paramount+ today announced the #1 film of 2022, Top Gun: Maverick, will be available to stream globally on the service beginning Thursday, Dec. 22 in the U.S., as well as in Canada, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and previously announced markets – the U.K. and Latin America,” the streaming service said. “It will be available in South Korea and France in 2023.”
Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish earlier this year addressed the question of the streaming plans for the action blockbuster, but only said that it would land on Paramount+ before the end of the year, also suggesting that it could bolster its fourth-quarter subscriber numbers.
On the entertainment conglomerate’s second-quarter earnings conference call, Bakish also said he felt bullish about the company’s ability to make hit content after a string of successes at the box office and on Paramount+. And he lauded the decision to delay the release of tentpole movies during the COVID pandemic. “In the early stages of the pandemic, we were very selective with our releases, holding certain films until market conditions improved,” he said. “While we couldn’t release Top Gun: Maverick and The Lost City earlier, we held off because we knew these phenomenal stories would bring audiences back to theaters. That proved to be the right call. Paramount continues to shine at the box office with numbers that outperformed even our own expectations.”
Top Gun: Maverick has been a juggernaut for the Hollywood conglomerate. The Paramount Pictures and Skydance movie, first hitting theaters in late May 2022, has so far earned north of $1.48 billion to become one of the top-grossing films of all time, not adjusted for inflation. It’s the first Tom Cruise film to join the billion-dollar club, and the 50th Hollywood movie to achieve the milestone. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the long-awaited sequel to the 1986 film Top Gun has exceeded all expectations.
When the movie crossed $1 billion globally in late June, Tom Cruise tweeted, “to all the films in release, to all the studios, and to all the exhibitors: congratulations. To the audience: thank you for venturing out and allowing us to entertain you. See you at the movies.”
Top Gun: Maverick is only the second Hollywood title of the pandemic era to cross $1 billion behind Sony and Disney’s Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.89 billion).
In late August, the movie hit premium VOD at a price tag of $19.99 and zoomed to the top of home viewing charts. When the price was reduced to $5.99 in September, it once again rose to the top spot.
“After more than 30 years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete ‘Maverick’”’ Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him,” the film’s plot description reads. “When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign ‘Rooster,’ the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka ‘Goose.’ Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.”
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