Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to the modern classic 1986 film Top Gun, has been raking in box office milestones. Earlier in July, the film rocked the boat against Titanic’s box office. Now, it has taken in enough ticket sales to surpass the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s big guns. How does Top Gun: Maverick stack with its contemporaries in the domestic and global box office standings? Read on for more.
Box office dogfight
As of the time of this writing, Top Gun: Maverick is sitting on a domestic gross of $683,375,000, according to Box Office Mojo. With the international box office gross of over $720 million, the high-flying sequel has reached over $1.4 billion after 12 weeks of its theatrical run.
— Box Office Mojo (@boxofficemojo) August 21, 2022 This places Top Gun: Maverick at the sixth highest grossing domestic box office movie to date, just behind Black Panther’s $700,426,566 in 2018. While the Top Gun sequel might be in a bit of a challenge to surpass that with its remaining theatrical run, it has already passed that as well as Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) with its global box office gross, and sitting less than $50 million under Frozen II (2019). In the current era of Hollywood blockbusters, any project that is not part of a large franchise is at a disadvantage. Cinematic universes such as superheroes (MCU and DCEU), science fiction (Star Wars, Avatar), and fantasy (Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings), and stylized action (The Fast and the Furious) have been dominating. While the original Top Gun was a big success in its original run, it was not intended to be a franchise. And even with the star power of Tom Cruise behind it, the success of Top Gun: Maverick was still surprising. This is particularly in light of the COVID pandemic still affecting theatrical attendance. To date, Top Gun: Maverick has become Tom Cruise’s biggest hit, surpassing even the Mission: Impossible franchise and the only film of the Hollywood superstar that has reached the billion-dollar club.
Digital release
While Top Gun: Maverick might have peaked as it winds down its theatrical release, fans of the movie will be able to soon purchase it digitally. Paramount Home Entertainment will be releasing the digital version on August 23. According to early reports, there will be around 110 minutes of bonus content for the digital release. This will likely include featurettes on the returning and new characters, as well as behind-the-scenes footage. It should be noted that Paramount skipped the usual 45-day window for a theatrical release leading to streaming, as what has become standard during the pandemic period. With that said, it is expected the film will be available to stream on the Paramount+ platform. For those who prefer a physical copy, Top Gun: Maverick will also be available on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD starting November 1, 2022. Top Gun: Maverick stars Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Val Kilmer, Miles Teller, Jay Ellis, Jon Hamm, Bashir Salahuddin, Lewis Pullman, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, Charles Parnell, and Ed Harris.
