Top Gun Maverick is Tom Cruise’s biggest box office debut ever
Paramount PicturesGoodness gracious, great balls of fire! Top Gun: Maverick has proven to have mighty wings at the box office, becoming the biggest debut of Tom Cruise’s career.
Box office figures are a world apart from decades past; today, the milestone of a successful tentpole is often the billion-dollar mark, despite that being an astronomically high feat. For example, The Batman’s total haul of $765.8 million was an easy target for its critics.
Then there’s Tom Cruise: one of the finest movie stars Hollywood has ever produced. His exploits are legendary, whether it’s climbing the Burj Khalifa, hunting down Jamie Foxx across late-night LA, demanding the truth from Jack Nicholson, or most recently, once again riding the highway to the danger zone.
Yet, inexplicably, his undying allure hasn’t often been reflected by his box office returns. This has been rectified with Top Gun: Maverick; the world has yet to lose that lovin’ feeling for Cruise.
Paramount PicturesTop Gun: Maverick soars with record-breaking box office debut for Tom Cruise
Top Gun: Maverick has flown at the box office with a debut of $124 million across the three-day weekend in the US, on its way to a projected $151 million across the Memorial Day holiday. This will leave it just shy of the all-time Memorial Day record held by Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, which grossed $153 million back in 2017.
With markets around the world, it’s amounted to a $248 million global haul, impressive considering the film is yet to premiere in Russia or China.
For reference, Cruise’s previous biggest domestic box office opening dates back to 2005 with Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, which nabbed $65 million.
Chris Aronson, Paramount’s president of domestic distribution, said as per Sky News: “These results are ridiculous, over-the-top fantastic. I’m happy for everyone. I’m happy for the company, for Tom, for the filmmakers.”
Top Gun: Maverick is another box office win for 2022
After Spider-Man: No Way Home set the stage for a mass return to cinemas, Top Gun: Maverick is a great testament to the power of the big screen: the movies are back.
For Paramount, the Top Gun sequel is the latest in a line of successes this year after Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s $331 million, The Lost City’s $175 million, Scream’s $140 million, and Jackass Forever’s $80 million.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was always going to be a success for Marvel, landing a $450 million worldwide debut earlier this month, now nearing $900 million. Meanwhile, its A24 multiversal sibling Everything Everywhere All At Once has topped $55 million in the US.
