Tom Cruise Hits Major Career First With ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

Tom Cruise positioned himself as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after stars. The much-anticipated sequel to Top Gun, starring the renowned actor, recently opened in theatres, and it appears to be a box office success.

Cruise has just passed a significant career milestone. With “Top Gun: Maverick,” Cruise just earned his first $100 million opening weekend. The long-awaited sequel grossed an estimated $124 million in its first three days in North American theatres, according to Paramount Pictures. It has grossed $248 million globally, including overseas showings.

It’s a fantastic start for a film that still has the wide-open skies of Memorial Day to bring in more money. “Top Gun: Maverick” is expected to gross more than $150 million by Monday’s closure, according to estimations and predictions.

Chris Aronson, Paramount’s president of domestic distribution, said:

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“These results are ridiculously, over-the-top fantastic. I’m happy for everyone. I’m happy for the company, for Tom, for the filmmakers.”

Cruise is not famous for large blockbuster debuts, despite being unquestionably one of the world’s top stars. Prior to “Maverick,” his largest domestic debut came in 2005 with Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds,” which grossed $64 million in its opening weekend. Then came “Mission: Impossible — Fallout,” which grossed $61 million in 2018. It’s not that his pictures aren’t profitable in the long run, it’s just that they aren’t as heavily frontloaded.

The road to the theatres for “Top Gun: Maverick” was extremely long. The sequel to Tony Scott’s 1986 film “Top Gun” was initially scheduled to hit theatres in the summer of 2020. However, the pandemic hampered their efforts, causing them to be postponed multiple times. The sequel reportedly cost $152 million to film and was directed by Joseph Kosinski, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and co-produced and co-financed by Skydance.

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