Top Gun: Maverick has officially broken Black Panther’s US box office record to become the fifth-highest grossing film of all time at the North American box office.
The Joseph Kosinski directorial is a sequel to the 1986 hit film, Top Gun, and the second installment in the Top Gun franchise. Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer reprised their roles from the original film in the sequel. The film was released in May and continued a successful theatrical run even after September rolled in.
Even after the release of several other big-budget films, including Jurassic World Dominion and Minions: The Rise of Gru, the Tom Cruise-starrer emerged as the highest-grossing film of 2022 by a margin.
Top Gun: Maverick shattered multiple box office records during its theatrical run, including the highest-grossing Memorial Weekend release and the highest-grossing opening weekend for a Tom Cruise film. It also became the second film to reach $1 billion worldwide at the box office since 2019.
During the last holiday weekend, Maverick was expected to achieve yet another box office milestone. It lived up to its expectations and became the top movie at the Labor Day box office, surpassing Spider-Man: No Way Home The More Fun Stuff Version.
The four-day total was expected to be $7 million, which would bring the film’s total domestic box office up to $700 million. After achieving this, Top Gun: Maverick emerged as the fifth-highest-grossing film at the North American box office, surpassing Black Panther.
The film shares its box office record of crossing the $700 million mark with films such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Avatar. Black Panther, too, is included in the list of films that crossed the $700 million mark, although it now occupies sixth place on the list.
It is startling to see Top Gun: Maverick’s fantastic run at the box office. The Labor Day weekend marked Maverick’s 15th weekend in theaters. On average, films get only 4-6 weeks in theaters, with some bigger blockbusters staying a little longer than that.
Even for films that have a longer theatrical run than usual, the bulk of their earnings from the box office comes within the first few weeks of the box office run. Maverick has defied all such odds. It also had the smallest second-weekend box office drop for any movie to open at above $100 million.
Originally, Maverick surpassing Black Panther’s box office records was considered unlikely by box office analysts. However, now that it has successfully achieved the same, it might break Avatar’s record next, taking over its place as the fourth-highest-grossing film in the US.
About Top Gun: Maverick
Top Gun: Maverick is a Paramount film (and sequel) starring Tom Cruise who reprises his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell from the 1986 Top Gun. It is directed by Joseph Kosinski, with a screenplay by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie and a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks.
Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris, and Val Kilmer are part of the cast.
The film sees Maverick’s return to the US Navy pilots as he trains a new squad of aviators, preparing them for a dangerous mission. Upon release, the movie was a massive success and became the highest grossing film of Tom Cruise so far.
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